Sloan looks back at 20 years

Alt rock band Sloan kicks off a North American tour in Cleveland on Wednesday, on the eve of its 20th anniversary.

The quartet is hitting the road with The Double Cross,a 10th studio album that is already getting rave reviews.

The guys who started off as grunge rockers from Halifax have had ups and downs over the last two decades, but somehow stayed together, they said in an interview with CBC News.

The four band members guitarists Patrick Pentland and Jay Ferguson, bassist Chris Murphy and drummer Andrew Scott each have a distinctive approach to songwriting.

"It's like a weird marriage and you either want to continue and fight through those difficult times or you just throw in the towel," Scott said, reflecting on the band's longevity.

"I think we all value it as a body of work that we've created and we still have more energy to create more ...why throw that away?"

The closest Sloan came to breaking up was in 1995, when the band split fromits first label, Geffen, and members thought of going their separate ways. They decided toput out one more album on their own label, Murderrecords.

The release, One Chord to Another, marked a resurgence for the band.

Now based in Toronto, Sloan continueswith ado-it-yourself ethic: the grouprecords in a tiny home studio packed with unsold live albums.

The tour begins in the U.S., where Sloan has a small fan base, but loops back into Canada on Saturday with a date in Winnipeg.

Other Canadian appearances include:

• May 29, Saskatoon.
• May 31, Edmonton.
• June 1, Calgary.
• June 2, Penticton, B.C.
• June 3, Vancouver.
• June 10, Montreal.
• June 11, Milton, Ont.
• June 21-22, Toronto.

This summer, they'll also play the Canada Day festivities in Kanata, Ont.,Rock the Park in London, Ont., Kempenfest in Barrie, Ont., and Rockstock in Chatham, Ont.