Heath and Chaz settle into a natural groove as they continue their deep dive into The Tragically Hip’s 1987 debut EP. The show opens with their now-familiar intro before jumping into a fast-moving music chat—Sloan, 54-40, The Northern Pikes, Halifax vs. Seattle, and how regional college-rock scenes shaped the late ’80s across North America. They dig into why The Hip ultimately pulled ahead of their peers: Gord Downie’s unpredictable spark, the band’s tight chemistry, and especially the interplay between Rob Baker’s fluid, textural guitar work and Paul Langlois’s grounded rhythmic punch.

Discussion slides into a major moment in Hip News: superstar producer Boi-1da being granted full access to The Hip’s catalog for a FIFA World Cup–themed project. The guys explore why it matters—legacy building, cross-genre discovery, and the surprising ways new listeners stumble onto classic bands through global events and cultural remixing.

They highlight hipmuseum.com, a massive fan-built archive they’ll be relying on heavily, and extend an open invitation to curator Stephen Dame. The sense of community around the show keeps growing.

Then comes the heart of the episode: a track-by-track breakdown of the EP’s final songs, Cemetery Sideroad on through All Canadian Surf Club.

Chaz and Heath close with their first scoring tally and talk through production notes, listener interaction, and the road ahead. It’s a freakin lively, witty, music-nerd-friendly episode that deepens their journey into the earliest days of The Tragically Hip. And the evolving format, it's best described as smoove...

Reach out to us on our School of Hip Facebook Group, School of Hip Discord and watch for our posts in the awesome Reddit Tragically Hip community.  

Also:  

The Never-Ending Present: The Story of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip by Michael Barclay. 

https://www.hipmuseum.com/ 

https://hipbase.com/ 

https://thehip.com/ 

Chaz Charles is the founder of the Boneless Podcasting Network, currently hosting five fantastic shows (and appearing in many more!)  

Heath McCoy is the author of Pain and Passion: The History of Stampede Wrestling, available on Amazon.ca and at ECW Press. He appears in the award winning documentary Singhs in the Ring on Crave TV.  

And once again, to all you rock n’ roll podcast lovers .... GO BONELESS!  

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