Fully & Completely: Redux

"In Between Evolution"

Hosts: jD & Greg LeGros | Guest: Toronto Mike | Fully & Completely: Redux

The Episode

There are records you fall into immediately - and then there are the ones that sneak up on you. "In Between Evolution" is absolutely the second kind. The Tragically Hip's 2004 record is one of their most slept-on, most politically charged, and - depending on who you ask - one of their very best. jD and Greg LeGros dig in track by track, joined by Toronto's favourite podcast man, Toronto Mike.

It's feisty. It's got punk energy. And for a record that got passed over in 2004, it holds up like an absolute bruiser. So there's that.

Guest Spotlight

Toronto Mike from Toronto, Ontario

Toronto Mike is the podcaster and blogger behind torontomic.com and Toronto Miked - a fiercely independent Toronto-centric podcast that's been going longer than most people can remember. He's a passionate Hip fan who - full disclosure - once had serious plans to launch his own Tragically Hip album-by-album podcast series. He abandoned those plans specifically because jD and Greg were doing it too well. That's not spin. That's what he said on mic.

"I went into the podcast kind of tiny bit hoping it would suck."

- Toronto Mike, on hearing Fully & Completely for the first time

What's In This One

A full track-by-track of "In Between Evolution" plus the cultural context of June 2004 - which, as it turns out, is a lot. Here's some of what you're getting into:

• Why this is probably The Tragically Hip's most overtly political record - and why it had no choice but to be (they recorded it in Seattle, surrounded by American media, one year after the U.S. went into Iraq)
• 'Heaven Is a Better Place Today' - a tribute to Dan Snyder built on funeral clichés and sports colloquialisms that somehow makes you cry. Every time.
• 'Summer's Killing Us' - the song Greg would play for anyone who's never heard of this band. Not even officially released as a single. Absolutely should have been.
• 'Gus the Polar Bear from Central Park' - a slow burn. Toronto Mike did not like it at first. He's come around. We dig into why.
• 'Vaccination Scar' - the actual lead single, and a song that gets a bit more complicated the more you think about it
• 'It Can't Be Nashville Every Night' - the one with the la-la-oos in the chorus that should not work, and absolutely does. Possibly a Toby Keith thing. Possibly a Dixie Chicks thing. Definitely a great song.
• 'One Night in Copenhagen' - band turmoil, Gord's solo career pulling on the seams, and that one line about a payphone in the snow that Greg still talks about
• 'Goodnight Josephine' - the closer that sounds like late-period Springsteen and contains some of the most beautiful lyrics Gord ever put down on tape
• The Stanley Cup Final, the Grey Cup halftime show (yes, The Hip played it), a commemorative Tragically Hip CD, and how the 2004 Leafs playoff run ended a sketch troupe's road trip to LA

The Cultural Climate: June 2004

Greg always brings the goods on context, and June 2004 is a rich one. "In Between Evolution" landed in the middle of a musical year that included American Idiot, College Dropout, Funeral, Hot Fuss, and Songs for the Deaf. Commercially, the charts were a very different story - Usher, Evanescence, Josh Groban, and a lot of stuff these three would rather forget. It's a great time to be a music fan if you knew where to look. This was a record that knew exactly where it was looking.

Pocket Songs

At the end of every record, we each pull one track to carry forward to the playlist.

• jD: 'Goodnight Josephine'
• Greg: 'It Can't Be Nashville Every Night'
• Toronto Mike: 'Are We Family'

Why This Record Matters

Because it got slept on. Even in the band's own documentary, this one gets two seconds. And that's bananas - because it is a deep, huge favourite, and it is one of their very best. It's a hard rocker. It's a protest record. It's a record about loss, and change, and what happens when the things you love don't get to stay the same. It's the most guitar-forward record they ever made, and it has the audacity to rhyme its chorus with la-la-oos.

Spend time with this album. This album is waiting for you.

About Fully & Completely: Redux

Fully & Completely: Redux is the reunion of the original Fully & Completely podcast - the show that started it all in 2018. jD and Greg LeGros go back through The Tragically Hip's full catalogue, album by album, track by track. Same DNA. Same chemistry. Not a sequel - a reunion.

Part of The Tragically Hip Podcast Series, a network raising funds for the Downie Wenjack Fund, The Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research, and CAMH. Over $35,000 raised and counting.

Find Us

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• Email: [email protected]

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#TheTragicallyHip #InBetweenEvolution #GordDownie #FullyCompletely #TragicallyHip #CanadianRockPodcast

Meta Description (for podcast platforms)

jD, Greg LeGros & Toronto Mike go track by track on The Tragically Hip's "In Between Evolution." Hipstories, fandom, and Canadian rock - TTH Podcast Series.

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