The Tragically Hip: Classic or Dud? Search and Destroy

Search: "Grace, Too", "Ahead by a Century", "Flamenco", "Bobcaygeon", their willingness to give exposure to deserving bands like the Rheostatics and Eric's Trip
Destroy: "Little Bones", most of their fans

Damm now I feel like reviving that Sloan thread. mmmmm Sloan.

Ain't that the truth. But more than the content rule it really is the border deal. Thus, the Hip aren't worth spit here near LA, but as you might imagine tons of bands from Mexico and all over Central and South America can sell out arenas without even trying.

Though I wont bite on the Sloan troll sorry.

forgot one more destory: How much they are played on the radio. There is a saturation point and the hip are well past it. Retro, AOR, alt.rawk, life crisis "Mix" stations and lowIQ Network all have 3 or 4 songs in rotation at once it seems.

I thought that was a pretty darned good album. The lyrics to "Fireworks" are priceless and "Something On"--the ode to Ice Storm '98--is wick.

Music@Work's all right - I liked "Stay" something much. Day For Night's probably their best: "Grace, Too" is terrific, and the lyrics to "Nautical Disaster" are unmatched... "Fireworks", off Phantom Power, is happenin'...

Gordon Downie's solo album, Coke Machine Glow is terrific. Spans genres, with touches of Hayden-like acoustic folk, Clive Holden-evoking spoken-word, and even a brush of bluegrass. The track "Chancellor" is fan-fuckin-tastic, and "Vancouver Divorce" ain't half-bad either.

Whaddya know.

i only heard part of gord downie's solo album but i found it really, really good. it's a very modest, unassuming record production-wise. but the way he plays that cheap sounding acoustic guitar is fantastic. it's not encumbered by the pointlessness of the four other members of the hip.

definitely the most psychedelic and 'head' of the hip albums.
No argument there, my friend.

you are all crazy: my favourite album is "music @ work". wonderfully dark moodiness. the second half of the album is very spooky and intimidating, capped off by the absolutely goregous 'as i wind down the pines.'

After hearing "Fifty Mission Cap" a couple of times on a long road trip, I've decided that I've held out too long. I need to finally start giving this band's full albums a chance. How loaded with hits is Fully Completely? Also, how crazy is it that it's 17 years old?

Did they ever record the "Limelight" cover BTW?

Hm, Music @ Work is really good.

Had a live album years ago, didn't do much for me aside from "Courage" which was outstanding, though I prefer the cover version from the "The Sweet Hereafter".

I have also been thinking that it's about time that I finally buy some Tragically Hip albums (decision unrelated to road tripping). I think there's some kind of unwritten rule where every Canadian living abroad must own "Fully Completely" (I have never owned it!)

"Music At Work", the song, is surely their most underrated single? And Sundar, how can you hate on "Wheat Kings"?

I like it a lot more than I did 7 years ago!

Every single time I hear the line "It's not the band I hate, it's their fans" from Sloan's "Coax Me", I think of these guys.

Fully Completely has the hits but I think Music @ Work is much more creative and interesting musically. I downloaded Day for Night as well but I'm not sure what I think. "Nautical Disaster" is classic though. I should probably check out Phantom Power next.

phantom power is their best imo

Every single time I hear the line "It's not the band I hate, it's their fans" from Sloan's "Coax Me", I think of these guys.

really? in my experience theyre a group almost everyone can agree on to at least some extent but no one ever gets obsessive about because it feels like theyve always just existed as a fact of life if you grew up in canada over the last 30 yrs or so.

"Fifty Mission Cap" really annoys me lyrically, because there aren't any lyrics, just words. It's as if Downie wrote the song for the sole purpose of retelling the Bill Barilko legend, and didn't bother to put anything personal or poetic or vivid into what amounts to a mere anecdote. Unless I'm missing the big picture and it's a metaphor for something-or-other (quite possible.)

Ha, I just learned what a "fifty mission cap" is from the Wikipedia page. I think this might actually weaken the song a little for me. I'd assumed it was just a term for a cheap hat from the Salvation Army or something that a kid who was obsessed about hockey might wear. I thought it was a song about a kid learning a piece of history from a hockey card. So it's actually about a WWII vet who learned the story from a hockey card even though he was probably in his 30s-40s during the time period in question?

I mean, I think the lyrics work OK with the music.

Just heard the new Gord Downie single on Radio 2. It's nice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETUZ9Dhe_UI

Hm, streamed the whole album on his website. I like it. Surprising extended instrumental passage on "Broadcast".

Does anyone who's not Canadian give half a cardboard shit for these guys?

(Full disclosure: I'm canadian and I have ambiguous feelings 'bout them; the above is a serious question)

i'm canadian as well, and aside from the singles, i really cant' say i care much about them.

They're popular in Buffalo.

holds up hand

I'm British and I like them. Mind you, when I saw them play in London a few years ago I felt like I was the only British person in the audience.

Probably a bunch of beefy thirtysomething dudes with sports shirts on screaming "WOOOOOOOOOO! FUCKIN A!" making up the Canuck contingent, yes?

I find this interesting. Anagram, if you don't mind playing 6 questions:

How did you first hear them, what was the first album (&/or singles) you heard from them, and can you articulate their appeal to you?

Well I'm hardly an expert on their back catalogue, there are just a few songs I've heard of theirs that I really like. And of course I didn't discover them for myself, there was a Canadian involved – a girlfriend who made me a mix CD which included "Bobcaygeon". I treasure that song, it has this beautifully loose, loping quality which I love and the lyric kind of moves me in a strange way as well. So then I got the album it came from, Phantom Power, and the other standout track on that was "Fireworks" which I think is a blazingly powerful song. The only other album of theirs I have is Fully Completely and off of that one I adore "Wheat Kings" for its forlorn acoustic guitar and the note of bruised longing in the guy's voice.

Am I the only person who hears a resemblance to REM, especially Document-era? The first time I heard Downie's voice I thought I was listening to Stipe, they sound so similar. The lyrics may not be as enigmatic but (especially on a song like "Fireworks") they share this tumbling wordiness that I like. And there's a crunchiness, a kind of swagger to a lot of Hip songs that puts me in mind of REM sometimes.

Probably a bunch of beefy thirtysomething dudes with sports shirts on screaming "WOOOOOOOOOO! FUCKIN A!" making up the Canuck contingent, yes?
from what i've seen, yes. but it's always fun to yell "play some fuckin' hip" at a show.

They do sound a lot like REM.

Does anyone who's not Canadian give half a cardboard shit for these guys?

(Full disclosure: I'm canadian and I have ambiguous feelings 'bout them; the above is a serious question)

My husband is a really big fan.

new hip record coming out october 2nd, now for plan a

http://www.thehip.com/images/TTH-NFPA-CVR_500.jpg

01. At Transformation
02. Man Machine Poem
03. The Lookahead
04. We Want To Be It
05. Streets Ahead
06. Now For Plan A
07. The Modern Spirit
08. About This Map
09. Take Forever
10. Done And Done
11. Goodnight Attawapiskat

first two singles are bangin':

http://soundcloud.com/the-tragically-hip/streets-ahead

http://soundcloud.com/the-tragically-hip/at-transformation

also i love that last downie solo record. hope abandoning bob rock to his toys has done them good

Listening to Road Apples for the first time in a while. They really perfected that Athens-not-Athens sound for a while, yet I feel like a tourist when I'm listening to them. They definitely have US fans, but they should've had many more.

downie is my favorite lyricist

I've never paid close attention, but phrases definitely jump out at me from time to time.

well for instance in "at the hundredth meridian"

a raven strains along the line of the road
carrying muddy old skull
the wires whistle their approval
off down the distance.

Downie makes me proud to be a canadian tbh

Canadians who were really affected by Downie's music seem to feel like they knew him.

Just like that killer whale.

Also I don't think there is a british equivalent.

50 Mission Cap. pic.twitter.com/fdMDy0ZGyY

— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) October 18, 2017

For Gord. pic.twitter.com/5OJLWyyrV6

— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) October 18, 2017

The coverage up here has included one hockey player after another being interviewed; Downie was the lead story on TSN (Canada's ESPN). He and Bobby Orr were supposed to be in close contact the past couple of years.

the documentary long time running (which i think will be available on netflix later this month) is one of the most beautiful and well-composed rock documentaries i've ever seen. i cried multiple times ofc

also the new gord album is v hard to listen to but is full of wonderful songs that feel almost improvised sometimes in their austerity and specificity. drew's production glows

it’s on netflix, i really highly recommend it https://www.netflix.com/title/80205085

Not on Canadian Netflix doh.

i believe it's streaming on crave tv (?) in canada

oh i have that, cool!

i watched it again last night and cried again

Yeah, I blubbed like a big girl, the bit when they're about to go on stage and he's whispering in his colleague's ears, broke me.

seeing the fans crying at the shows just kills me

Damn much music did a retro lunch special today and played only tragically hip

the new (only) hip book, never-ending present, is p good so far. some filler (there's an early chapter about hip cover bands which is just barely interesting) prob bc the band apparently didn't participate in it much (which sounds like them) but still fascinating and full of amazing downie quotes

i knew their origin story pretty well but not at this level of detail, and the bill barilko chapter is just extremely heartening

"opiated" gets a few sentences in the book, and between that and its appearance the documentary, i'm belatedly realizing it's one of my favorite hip songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzxoGcBsk-8

book has gotten me so deep into this band again that i'm watching old live sets on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn83UvFzbjg

i ponder the endlessness of the stars
ignoring said same of my father

either it'll move me
or it'll move right through me
fully
completely

i love the chapters in that book that swerve away in weird directions - barclay's curiosity isn't bounded by his fandom, he lights up by the unexpected digressions etc, and i do too.

i'm deeper into it and i'm starting to agree! the openers chapter was nice if only as a snapshot of the impact they had on the careers of other canadian bands

however i'll never forgive barclay for being kinda needlessly dismissive of music@work

you're beau-
tiful
terrific

your eyes
empty
pacifics

man
machine
poem

^^ what a song and lyric

oh i finished the barclay book last year and it’s fine. it makes a lot of choices i wouldn’t have. the manager interviews/stories are both numerous and tedious

but it did make me realize that man machine poem is an even better record than i thought at the time. kind of a masterpiece, up there with day for night and music @ work

Thanks for alerting ilx/us, well *moi*, to the book. Might give Thom as a valentine present. He's a massive fan.

Gord's birthday today.

i was wondering why i felt so bad

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-covid-19-kills-nine-infects-34-staff-at-bobcaygeon-nursing-home/

there's a dream he dreams where the high school's dead and stark
it's a museum and we're all locked up in it after dark
the walls are lined all yellow, grey and sinister
hung with pictures of our parents' prime ministers

new gord solo album is awesome, i prefer it to the more sketch-oriented introduce yerself. a lot of the lyrics share lines with man machine poem songs so it feels like the gord solo version of that record. the production's kind of obnoxious with vocal effects and instrumental shifts but i am here for it bc it reminds me of battle of the nudes

the "new" tragically hip "album" (aka EP-length collection of lost songs) is good, if you love road apples it'll hit the spot

Well, the medicine man started seeing red
You think the snake just dreams up the poison in his head

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXPTu_lqgXU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTsm1fM59Lc

This is kinda amazing -

https://www.straight.com/movies/weird-connection-made-between-folk-horror-and-hip

I honestly had been wondering about the name of that album a few weeks ago!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6bRuOyJTVo

man machine poem is just about the greatest swan song any band/artist has ever managed

amazing to read upthread and see posts by my dear friend dan, i love you and i miss you so much dan

"phantom power" was an unbelievably meaningful record to anyone who lived through the great 1998 ice storm like me (albeit on the other side of the border), as one of the only real pieces of media that ever directly referenced an event that absolutely devastated a very small part of the us and canada and intensely affected that region long after everyone had more or less forgotten about it.

of course they were a kingston band, so they wouldn't not write about something like that, but it always struck me as a good microcosm of downie's ability to find these little squirreled-away events in canadian history and turn them into great songs. years from now that storm is going to be as distant a memory as all the other obscure historical references in hip songs, and i really hope there's another gord downie someday to keep writing about them.

― the portentous pepper (govern yourself accordingly), Wednesday, October 18, 2017 8:31 PM (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink

just a great post. i've lost too many people who were this good. it's a heartbreaking world but being friends with dan was its own little miracle, i'll cherish it for the rest of my life

as long as the road lacks perspective
as long as we swim, swim, swim
as long as we hold hands in the swiftness
of all three dimensions
as long as we're talking in driftnets
and there's a rotation afoot
all the things we can come up with
will still be surprisingly put

what happened to Dan?

man machine poem is just about the greatest swan song any band/artist has ever managed

iirc they had no idea at the time? but Gord's diagnosis was in by the time they started the release campaign. It is fantastic, i have to listen again sometime. And maybe to the preceding couple for the first time.

anyone spend time with the more intentional swan songs - Gord's last stuff?

they had no idea! and yet it is their best album

dan (govern yourself accordingly) died last october

shoot i'm sorry

as for downie's final solo stuff, secret path is gorgeous; everything after that was really hard for me to spend time with for obvious reasons but i should return to it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XPr6uliHXs