It has been a decade since I launched this solo project. To celebrate this milestone, I have dropped the price of the first album to $1 on bandcamp. My hope is that you will send it as a gift to someone who might appreciate it.
Thank you for listening all these years. I’m excited to share some new music with you this year, both from Slug Comparison and from my collaboration, Fen.
–Doug
That is the news. Slug Comparison exists. So don’t go thinking otherwise. Here is some elevator music while you wait for new music to emerge. More on that later.
It’s a first that I held back a song from inclusion on an album. But with “When You Were Living Here” I already had enough slow songs and I worried this last one would turn the album to listening drudgery. Also, it’s a weird song, which will likely be no one’s favourite. Still, it deserves to exist. So here it is for free download: “Beautiful Home.” It takes me back to my landscaping days when I got to rake leaves and weed the gardens in the shady, almost monastic backyards of Vancouver’s rich.
The song includes Rod Senft on drums and Scott Young on bass. It was recorded with Scott Young at Alchemy Sound Studios in New Westminster, and mastered by Jamie Sitar at Outta Town Sound.
If you haven’t bought the album yet…
CD
In Europe: https://rockcompany.nl/shop/slug-comparison-when-you-were-living-here/
In North America: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/slugcomparison1
Digital
bandcamp https://slugcomparison.bandcamp.com/album/when-you-were-living-here
iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/ca/artist/slug-comparison/921847084
And did you know there’s a previous album? Slug Comparison’s debut.
Thanks to everyone who’s supported the music to date! The response has been overwhelmingly good. Here are some of the highlights:
“Album of the week” –The Georgia Straight
“a masterpiece of an album- heart-wrenching, taut, lyrically superior” –Progressive Rock Fanatics
“one of the world’s most magnetic and rousing songwriters” –The Ringmaster Reviews
“5 Stars out of 5” –Prog Critique
Now that I’ve spilled the last of my secret song treasures, I’ll be quiet for a while as I get to work on the next album.
–Doug
Hello everyone,
Today is release day for Slug Comparison – When You Were Living Here. I can’t believe I finally get to write that!
Starting in May 2017, I was recording and releasing the songs a few at a time, as EPs. Then a record label from The Netherlands, Rock Company, came along and wanted to put the songs out as an album. So it has been done: all four EPs (IIa, IIb, IIc, and IId), plus two brand new songs are available on CD and as a download.
Already the album has earned a five star review from Progressive Rock Fanatics, describing it as “a masterpiece of an album- heart-wrenching, taut, lyrically superior,” and The Georgia Straight has named it Album of the Week.
CD
In Europe, order from here: https://rockcompany.nl/shop/slug-comparison-when-you-were-living-here/
In North America, order from here: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/slugcomparison1
Digital
bandcamp https://slugcomparison.bandcamp.com/album/when-you-were-living-here
iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/ca/artist/slug-comparison/921847084
Slug Comparison is my solo project, but I’m indebted to a lot of people who helped with the album. Here’s a list. You might know a few of them:
Mike Young (Devin Townsend, Mother Mother)
Dave Young (Devin Townsend)
Sam Levin (Fen)
Randall Stoll (KD Lang, Tom Cochrane)
Jeff Caron (Fen)
Nando Polesel (Fen)
Doug Fury (Bif Naked)
Matt McCallum
The LRZ
Jamie Sitar
Scott Young
Eric Rose
Rod Senft
Jeremy Tardif (The Engine Jeremy)
Tatyana Dobrowolski (Tatters and Ravens)
Scott Archibald (Id)
Jason Froese
C.A. Beckston
Rob Clark
Bonnie and Shauna
Peter Cox (Rock Company)
Peter Wiholm
(I hope I haven’t missed anyone)
If you bought or were given any of the previously released EPs, feel free to only download the songs you need to complete the album. There are two new tracks: “Fine With It” and “One More Step.” That said, the CD artwork is fantastic, and the booklet includes the full lyrics plus artwork by Sweden’s C.A. Beckston of Blekkmark Design Studio (Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul McCartney), so I believe it’s well worth buying a physical copy.
The songs “When You Were Living Here” and “Beings Far Away” are dedicated to the memory of Eric Rose—roommate, friend, and creative accomplice. The time I spent with him was a gift. I thank his family for permission to include his artwork on IIb and on the final album cover.
Thank you, everyone, for your ongoing support and enthusiasm. It definitely helps.
–Doug
Once in a while a review comes along where the writer seems to have heard the music in the way I hoped it would be heard. It’s an amazing feeling. Thank you to Stephen Conrad for posting his impressions on Progressive Rock Fanatics and Prog Archives.
Official album release is on January 16th.
It’s been a wait, but Slug Comparison’s second album, When You Where Living Here, will be available on January 16, 2019.
The album is available in digital formats through all major outlets. A CD version is available through the band’s label Rock Company and various retailers worldwide.
Distribution in EU by Rock Inc./Bertus.
CD pre-order starts January 1, 2019 on Rock Company and bandcamp.
In the meantime, enjoy this promo video for the album’s first single, Exactly What to Do.
What a great feeling to share this news which has been brewing over the past few weeks. The gist is that my four EPs, Slug Comparison IIa, b, c, and d will be compiled and released on CD later this year with some new material added in. I thought I was going to take a break for the rest of the year–Not so!–I’ve now got studio time booked in August and preparations have begun for the new recordings.
To stay abreast of the yet-to-be-determined release date, among other things, do your duty and Like our fbook page and Rock Company’s page and join their newsletter. Whatever you’re comfortable with.
The Ringmaster is a rare kind of reviewer who puts everything he’s got into the language of his writing. Read his thoughts on Slug Comparison’s latest recording IIa. You can still download it for FREE from Bandcamp. Help yourself, and please share the link with whomever.
It’s time I explained my lack of updates about new music. Back in April, tendinitis started bugging my arms again, so I put the guitar aside. Unfortunately, without it I can’t work on the material I’d intended for the next Slug Comparison album. My plan is to wait as long as it takes for my tendinitis to become manageable again. That could be a while–I can say for sure there won’t be an album in 2016, despite what I’d promised earlier. Right now, all I can say is that I’ll get it done as soon as my body allows. In the meantime, thanks for checking in.
–Doug
In January I started writing lyrics for 19 new songs. On April 18 I fbooked that I was done the first drafts. For me, first drafts are not very far along in the process of finding the right words, but by then I have an idea of what each song is about. Since then I’ve been revising over and over (cycling alphabetically by title from song to song) until I’m either satisfied or feeling so helpless at fixing the problems that I move on. Today I’m relieved to announce that apart from a few lines that I’ll eventually go back to fix, I’m done the lyrics for what could be the next two (?) Slug Comparison albums.
As evidence of my process, which unfortunately is not a magic beam of inspirational light that enters the top of my head and refracts onto the page in the form of well-crafted song lyrics that happen to match the vocal melodies I’ve long ago committed to, I’m providing a jpg of a song in progress. Each song requires 5-20 of these marked up pages to reach a state of almost-doneness. That’s my process.
I’d be a jerk if I didn’t include an excerpt of a done-ish song. So here’s one:
in the boiling ocean people float up and die
you can hear the blisters going pop in the night
when the planet’s nothing but a morsel of char
see the moon drift in the darkness
kind of lonely, but alright with it
armageddon fantasies help me unwind
a little stress won’t matter at the end of time
let the secret service fear I’m hatching plans
yes I dwell on our extinction
but I’m harmless as a kitten most of the time
I get along with those around me
at my job they like me well
in the realm of normal conversation
certain thoughts I know not to tell
Slug Comparison 