Sloan

To many, 1991's Sloan is one of today's quintessential Canadian bands, as cliche as it might sound. Since their debut EP Peppermint in1992, the fab four - Halifax natives, now relocated to Toronto - have forged a distinct niche for themselves in the Canadian scene. The outfit includes Jay Ferguson and Patrick Pentland on guitar, Chris Murphy on bass, and Andrew Scott on drums; each have their own unique songwriting voice and style, each contribute equally. Sloan's humble beginnings with the aforementioned EP led them to a signing with David Geffen, where they released Smeared that same year. Following that album and hailed as "Canada's Nirvana," they took a sharp turn with Twice Removed (1994) and never looked back. Twice Removed has consistently been voted one of Canada's favorite albums beating out the like's of Joni Mitchell's Blue and Neil Young's Harvest Moon. With an impressive catalogue of records now under their belts, the latest being Parallel Play (released in June 2008), Sloan shows no sign of slowing down; their energetic power-pop numbers will continue to draw in fans the world over as long as the Murphy can still manage a scissor kick.