The Juxe: Discography - Sloan

Sloan is one of my all-time favorite bands. I think they’re exactly what a rock band should be. They’ve been around for almost 30 years with the same line-up. They all write songs. They all sing lead at times. They all play multiple instruments.

They’re from Canada, and I always assumed they were like Canada’s Rolling Stones or something. Like a band that everyone in Canada knew. But then I looked at their youtube page and they have only 5000 followers. So I have no clue how big they really are in Canada. In the US, they’re not very well known at all. They’ve never had a big US hit, so anyone who knows them is someone who actively seeks out music.

In this post I’m going to give a favorite song from each of their releases to date. I’m not going to go into any deep cuts, I’m going to stick mostly with the hits, since a lot of you are probably new to them.

Underwhelmed from Smeared (1992)

This was probably their biggest “hit” in the US, reaching the #25 spot on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart. This album has a bit of a grunge/shoegaze sound that they wouldn’t really return to again. But this is a favorite song of many.

She said, "You is funny"
I said, "You ARE funny"
She said, "Thank you"
and I said, "Never mind"
She rolled her eyes
Her beautiful eyes

People Of the Sky from Twice Removed (1994)

Okay, according to some research I’ve done, Twice Removed was named one of the best Canadian albums of all time. So perhaps they are as big in Canada as I imagined, and I can’t really make a judgment based on how many people subscribe to their youtube channel.

I chose this song because I like almost any song with bah-bah-bahs in the lyrics. (And it’s probably the only one I’ll list that features the primary drummer, Andrew Scott, singing lead.)

The Lines You Amend from One Chord To Another (1996)

When I had my old blog, The Magic Circle Jerk, back in the mid-2000s (it doesn’t exist anymore), I had a sister site called The Lines You Amend, where I would dump some stuff that might be interesting, but I didn’t want to clutter up the main site with it. The name of that site was taken from this song.

It’s a little time-warpy to watch this video in 2020, of a song from the mid-90s, with a video that’s sort of mimicking a style from the mid-60s.

Money City Maniacs from Navy Blues (1998)

Navy Blues is where I first heard of the band, and it’s one of my favorite albums of all time. I have 1000s of albums in my collection, but this is one of only a handful where every song has been added to my “permanent rotation” playlist.

The first time I ever heard of Sloan was when a girl I knew put “Keep on Thinkin’” on a mix-CD for me. Out of context I thought that song sounded kind of southern-rock-ish, and I figured that’s what the band was. I ended up buying the album and realizing how wrong I was.

Below is the arena rock song Money City Maniacs which features the line, “And the joke is, when he awoke his, body was covered in Coke fizz.” Which has been apparently misheard frequently as, “And the joke is, when he awoke his, body was covered in goat piss.”

Losing California from Between the Bridges (1999)

If It Feels Good, Do It from Pretty Together (2001)

Rest of My Life from Action Pact (2003)

HFXNSHC from Never Hear The End Of It (2006)

A short punk number from their longest album (30 songs and 78 minutes). The title stands for Halifax, Nova Scotia Hardcore.

Witch’s Wand from Parallel Play (2008)

I think I’ve told this story here before. I was tangentially involved with the production for this video which lead to me meeting and dating one of the actresses in it for a couple years. So along with the fact that I think it’s a great song and video, my personal connection to the song will make this always a favorite of mine.

Midnight Mass from the Hit & Run EP (2009)

This song, and the previous one, are Jay Ferguson numbers. Band member Chris Murphy describes this one:

Midnight Mass” from the Hit & Run EP is quintessentially Jay: slap back everywhere, clicky bass sound, doubled acoustics, quirky (musical) piano figure, elaborate backing vocals (that get mid song applause when we play it live, Grand Ole Opry style) and the whole thing barely cracks 2 minutes.

Shadow of Love from XX (aka The Double Cross) (2011)

This is right up there with my favorite Sloan albums. This song gets a cool reprise six songs later on the album in the song Beverly Terrace.

Cleopatra from Commonwealth (2014)

Commonwealth was a double album with each band member taking one of the sides of an album. I didn’t love the conceit because I sort of like the way the previous albums wove together the material of the different members. But with that said, there were still a bunch of songs off the album that I dug.

Spin Our Wheels from 12 (2018)

A great power-pop gem from their most recent album.