The Tragically Hip: Classic or Dud? Search and Destroy

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