Search - Holiday :: Ready Steady Go

While modern-rock radio is dominated by so-called "alternative" one-hit-wonders and novelty acts, genuinely inventive and idiosyncratic pop bands continue to make endearing and infectious music in the margins. Sloan is a quartet from Halifax, Nova Scotia, that released several discs of hypnotic, lulling, and unabashedly romantic guitar rock on Geffen. One Chord to Another is a major leap forward, adding uplifting horn parts and George Martin-style studio trickery to the mix on tunes such as "Everything You've Done Wrong." Alas, the band and Geffen parted ways, and it's available only as an import. Holiday is a like-minded group of four New Yorkers who record for Chicago's tiny independent March Records. Ready, Steady, Go collects 14 of the band's heartfelt love songs-including offbeat ditties like "Prostitutes In Town"-that succeed in part because of lush arrangements featuring trumpet, trombone, flugelhorn, organ, and Moog synthesizer. I'll take music like this over Bush and Marilyn Manson any day. Jim Derogatis