By Leslie J. Furlong
Has there been something you wanted to know about Sloan, jale, or any other independent or alternative band from the Merry-Times, but didn’t know where to ask? If you do e-mail, then Sloannet is the place to go, and James Covey is the guy to talk to.
When Halifax was on the verge of becoming Next Big thing of the indie/alternative rock world last year, James Covey was preparing his Masters thesis in English, managing an e-mail list for readers of Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology, and listening to Smeared, Sloan’s first major label release. As his interest in the local music scene grew and his ‘net knowledge increased, he stumbled across an e-mail list for indie rockers Phish (called, coincidentally enough, “Phishnet”). A virtual light bulb went on when he saw it, and in May of 1993 SloanNet was born.
The honeymoon between Halifax and the music industry has since faded, but the ‘net remains a strong and growing fixture of the scene. It boasts a membership of around 160 people, mostly from Halifax and across Canada, but approximately a third of the list from the U.S. and abroad, some as far away as New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Via electronic conversation, Covey says that SloanNet provides “a virtual community for discussing gigs, while non-Haligonians get a sense of involvement in the scene.”
Mike (“I’m not as big an asshole as everyone thinks”) Catano, drummer with the band State Champs, agrees. “It’s nice ot hear how local bands are doing on the road,” he says. He’s also relieved that the list doesn’t focus entirely on Sloan. Healthy debates and the occasional drive-by flamings make the list more than a fan club. “There aren’t tonnes of ‘I love Jay [Ferguson]! He’s sooo cute!’ messages,” Catano says. “That stuff annoys me.”
Michael Graham, manager of the Halifax Music Homeapge (a Worldwide Web site) says the sense of community is strong among the active members, but he isn’t too crazy about the name” since [Sloan] is not the focus.”
Since starting SloanNet, the Internet has been kind to Covey. His involvement in the local scene has spun off into “Cod is my Co-pilot,” a radio show on Dalhousie’s CKDU-FM, and a gig as the Halifax correspondent for CBC Stereo’s bedtime show Brave New Waves, giving him the opportunity to plug bands that wouldn’t get national exposure otherwise. He also collaborated with Graham for a short article on Halifax that appeared in February’s issue of Alternative Press.
He’s also made many friends, among them Terri Watson, a student of architecture at Tulane University who he met in cyberspace in November of 1993. They met in person a few months later in Chicago, and, to understate it, they hit it off: they’re getting married in June.
As time passes, Covey’s involvement in independent music keeps growing. He hopes to improve the list by finding space on a computer for a permanent archive, as well as converting the list to a listserver format, letting a computer take care of new subscribers rather than doing it himself. He is also planning to start a record lable, Zedd Recordz, and put out honest-to-goodness seven-inch vinyl records within a few weeks. “[SloanNet] has much more potential for helping indie bands than for helping Sloan,” Covey says.
“As long as the scene exists,” Catano says, “there will be interest in it.”
If you are interested in the list, send a note to James Covey at jrcovey@ac.dal.ca. You can also check out the Halifax Music Homepage on your Worldwide Web browser (lynx on the Ryerson matrix) by going to http://ug.cs.dal.ca:3400/-graham/hfx.html
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