The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: Country Day

One random shuffle lands on the last song on "We Are the Same," and the panel ends up arguing about Bob Rock, Canada Day, and whether Gord wrote a love letter to his producer.

Episode Summary 

On this week's The Tragically Hip On Shuffle live stream, jD and the panel pull 'Country Day', the closing track from 2009's "We Are the Same," and dig into one of the most debated records in the catalogue. The conversation circles the Bob Rock production question first: the smooth backing vocals, the strings, the sense that the band got pushed to the edges of their own album. From there it opens up into three competing readings of the song itself. One hears a straight-up love story. One builds a detailed Indigenous and Canada Day interpretation, rooted in life beside the Alderville First Nation. One reads the whole thing as a coded note from Gord Downie to Bob Rock, threaded through to 'Something More' on "Lustre Parfait." Along the way the group gets into Gord's live vocal in the aired Artpark performance, the band's later run through "Now for Plan A" and "Man Machine Poem," and why a record some fans skip rewards the people who stay. It is a fan-first look at Tragically Hip song meanings, the kind of close listening this community does best. The episode closes with poll results, a spin for next week, and the full version of 'Last of the Unplugged Gems' on the way out.

Guests

• Mike from Haslett, Michigan. A restaurant owner who found The Tragically Hip through a 1996 newspaper clipping his dad mailed him, started at "Day for Night," and has been to 20-plus shows. He hears 'Country Day' as a love song tied to meeting his wife.
• Jeff from Belleville, Ontario. Lives right beside the Alderville First Nation, which anchors his reading of the song's Indigenous and Canada Day threads. This is his second pass at a track from "We Are the Same" on the show.
• Greg from Tacoma, Washington. The panel's resident music guy and the one who sourced the live version aired on the episode. Calls "We Are the Same" his least favourite Hip record, then makes the case for why this song still kicks.

Resources, Links, and References

• 'Country Day' live, sourced by Greg from Tacoma: Artpark, Lewiston, New York, June 4, 2009. [add archive or source link]
• "Battle of the Nudes," Gord Downie solo record referenced on its anniversary. [add link]
• "Lustre Parfait," the Bob Rock and Gord Downie record, and the track 'Something More'. [add link]
• The band documentary referenced during the production discussion. [confirm title, add link]
• The MuchMusic and Strombo interview era discussed by Mike. [add link if available]
• The Tragically Hip Handbook, jD's lyric word-search tool. [confirm product name, add link]
• Source credit standards: Hipbase, HipMuseum, setlist.fm, The Tragically Hip Archive, This Is Our Life. [add the specific links used for this episode's facts]

Calls to Action

• Want a seat at the table? Sign up to be a panelist at panel.tthpods.com.

Closing Thanks to Mike from Haslett, Jeff from Belleville, and Greg from Tacoma for peeling this one all the way back. The takeaway lands where the best of these conversations always do: a record some fans wrote off turns out to be full of beauty for anyone willing to sit with it. Next week the shuffle points at 'Yawning or Snarling' from "Day for Night," so there is plenty more to get after.

Promos and Crosslinks

• Related: the panel's earlier On Shuffle take on 'Honey, Please' from "We Are the Same."
• The Hip Compendium, the free fan archive of the full discography, lyrics, and mapped live shows, at compendium.tthpods.com.
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The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: Wheat Kings

A campfire singalong that's secretly about a wrongful conviction, a cassette thrown out a car window, and a tiny Eiffel Tower in Saskatchewan.

EPISODE SUMMARY This week on The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream, the wheel landed on 'Wheat Kings', and I had a couple of Andrews riding shotgun to break it down. This is the song the whole country sings around a campfire without ever clocking that it's about David Milgaard, wrongfully convicted of the murder of Gail Miller and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit.

Andrew from Winnipeg brought the timeline receipts (Kim Campbell, the CBC, the wild detail that Milgaard walked free in April 1992, months before "Fully Completely" even dropped) plus a story about his mom chucking the cassette out the car window somewhere in the Alberta mountains. Andrew from Tampa brought the live recording from The Fillmore, October 24, 2000, and the case for 'Wheat Kings' as a pure summertime staple. We get into the loon that cost the band a donation to Ducks Unlimited, the Zippo lighter, Paris of the Prairies (and the 28-foot Eiffel Tower in Montmartre, Saskatchewan). If you love The Tragically Hip, Gord Downie, and a Canadian rock podcast that treats a deep cut like it earns the attention, this one runs deep.

GUESTS

Andrew from Tampa joined by audio through a Florida thunderstorm and came armed with the Fillmore recording that scored tonight's listen. A devoted Hip fan stateside, he makes the case for the band as a summertime constant and named 'Emperor Penguin' as his favourite album-closer, a song he rations for the days he really needs it.

Andrew from Winnipeg is a setlist.fm obsessive, a Crooked Ice bandmate (their album release show is June 4), and host of the weekly Radiohead deep-dive podcast Head Full of Radio. He also runs a weekly show on UMFM. His favourite Hip closer is 'Put It Off', and 'Wheat Kings' carries a complicated, personal weight he opened up about on air.

Andrew from Tampa: "Is it about what it's talking about, or is it the way it's made millions of people feel?"

RESOURCES, LINKS & REFERENCES

• The Hip Handbook, used live to pull the tracking numbers (around 1,350 shows logged, 332 'Wheat Kings'performances). thehiphandbook.tthpods.com
• Setlist history via Hipbase (primary) and setlist.fm (secondary): first played in Saskatoon, July 27, 1991. 
• The Fillmore, October 24, 2000 performance, shared by Andrew from Tampa from a YouTube upload. Hat tip to the tapers and seeders who preserve this stuff, and to The Tragically Hip Archive for the broader live-recording work.
• David Milgaard case timeline referenced on air via CBC and Wikipedia.
• The 'Heksenketel' tour video, which shipped with one of the box sets.
• The loon and the Ducks Unlimited donation: traced on air to the documentary and a Robby Baker radio interview (see verification note below).
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YOUTUBE CHAPTERS 00:00 - Welcome, and tonight's imaginary sponsors 02:15 - Weird Winnipeg bylaws 03:13 - The tale of the tape: 'Wheat Kings' by the numbers 05:26 - This week's poll: the 5% who tolerate it 07:31 - The Fillmore, October 24, 2000 09:01 - 'Wheat Kings' 12:56 - Your favourite last-song-on-an-album 17:56 - Hearing it the first time, and the cassette out the car window 19:45 - The ultimate campfire song 22:42 - The loon, and a cheque to Ducks Unlimited 24:06 - Museums, prime ministers, and vivid visuals 25:30 - The Pretty Things and a Copperpenny cover 26:51 - David Milgaard, Gail Miller, and the timeline 32:48 - First played in Saskatoon, 1991 37:11 - Paris of the Prairies (and a tiny Eiffel Tower) 40:55 - Don't forget Gail Miller 43:19 - The killer's face in the Zippo 45:23 - The 'Heksenketel' video and the box sets 46:37 - A complicated, personal love for the song 50:28 - Thanking the Andrews, and next week's shuffle: 'Country Day' 54:05 - Plugs: Crooked Ice and Head Full of Radio 56:37 - Outro and credits

Hey There!

• Want a seat at the table on a Wednesday night? Sign up to be a panelist. 
• Explore 1,358 mapped shows and search every lyric in the Hip Handbook.
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CLOSING Huge thanks to Andrew from Tampa for digging up that Fillmore recording, and to Andrew from Winnipeg for the timeline work and for trusting us with something personal. Next Wednesday the wheel spins again and lands on 'Country Day', the closer from "We Are the Same", keeping our accidental run of great last-songs alive. The takeaway from this one: a song can outgrow the tragedy that made it, but it should never outrun the people inside it.

PROMOS & CROSSLINKS

• TTHTop40 Countdown #17 - 'Wheat Kings' (with Jillian), the countdown episode that ranked this one. 
• Fully & Completely: Redux - "Fully Completely", the track-by-track on the whole record. 
• Get Yer Letter in your inbox.  → subscribe.tthpods.com
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This week on The Tragically Hip On Shuffle, we cracked open 'Coffee Girl' - the fourth track and second single off "We Are the Same" (2009), produced by Bob Rock. On the TTHTop40 Countdown, it clocks in at number 53. It's been played live 78 times, last appearing on the final tour on July 30, 2016.

Joining me for this one were two members of west coast tribute act Gift Shop - Craig from Langley and Ian from Maple Ridge - plus returning guest Tim from Columbus, host of the Dig Me Out Podcast. Two-fifths of Gift Shop, for the record. You can't reduce that fraction without going to decimal points, and you just can't do that.

What we got into:

The pre-release Bathhouse recording - recorded April 6, 2009, the day before the album dropped - was our jumping-off point, and it unlocked a lot. Organ instead of trumpet. A looser, jammier feel. Multiple gaffes and weirdness. And somehow, the bones of the song were all already there.

From there the conversation ranged wide. Tim came in with a clear-eyed critique - the drum loop feels mechanical, the melody doesn't shift from verse to chorus, and he wishes Robbie Robertson had gone slide guitar instead of brass. It's a good song for most bands, he said. For The Hip, it's below average. Gauntlet dropped.

Craig pushed back from a different angle - the musicality. He broke down why 'Coffee Girl' is so easy to listen to: it's in C major, four chords (F, C, Am, G), and it never deviates once. The chorus just drops the C. The fade-out isn't laziness - it's because there's no satisfying harmonic resolution to this story, and Craig walked through why Gift Shop ends it on a G (a half cadence) while The Hip's Abbotsford version lands on an A minor (a deceptive cadence). Genuinely great music nerd territory.

Ian brought the emotional case for the album as a whole - the deliberate smoothness of the production, the loss of grit that divided fans, and why he thinks people owe "We Are the Same" a deeper listen than most gave it. He also flagged Derry Byrne - the trumpet player on the track - as a Kitsilano local who plays with the Jill Townsend Jazz Orchestra. And he introduced a darker reading of the lyrics: is the coffee girl cautious for a reason? Is there something more unsettling running beneath the surface of an otherwise easy, sunny song?

That lyric conversation went deep. We talked about Gord's love of people-watching - including jD's two separate sightings of Gord at a Timothy's on the Danforth with his MacBook, pecking away at the window. We talked about Craig's memory of seeing the album's theatre release the night before it came out, seven months after his first kid was born, and how that version of 'Coffee Girl' was the first time he ever heard the song. And we talked about whether the mixtape-with-classic-Beck line ages anyone else as hard as it aged us.

The poll results this week showed about 25% of Hip fans in the Facebook group feeling negative or indifferent about 'Coffee Girl.' Not surprising - but Ian made the case for patience, and he made it well.

Next week: 'Wheat Kings.' Top 10 on the countdown. If there was ever a song that screams Canadiana - and there never is a time to wave a flag at a Hip show, but if there were - it's that one.

Guests this week:

Gift Shop - West coast Tragically Hip tribute act featuring Craig and Ian. Catch them live on August 20, 2026 at the Hollywood Theatre in Kitsilano, BC - the ten-year anniversary of the final show. Deep cuts guaranteed. At least one song off "We Are the Same." Possibly with Derry Byrne sitting in on trumpet. Tickets on Eventbrite (search "Gift Shop") or at giftshiphipband.ca

Dig Me Out Podcast (Tim) - Weekly album reviews of obscure and overlooked records from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s. Guest episodes, round tables, and a genuinely deep love of the format. Find them at digmeoutpodcast.com

The Tragically Hip On Shuffle streams live every Wednesday at 8PM.

home.tthpods.com · [email protected] · @tthpods

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The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: 'Let's Stay Engaged'

The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: 'Let's Stay Engaged'

jD, Alan from Federal Way, and Justin from Bridport unpack 'Let's Stay Engaged' from "Trouble at the Hen House" - and the band's new live album announcement.

Episode Summary

The shuffle lands on 'Let's Stay Engaged', track 10 from The Tragically Hip's 1996 record "Trouble at the Hen House" - a non-single that lived almost exclusively as an encore (19 of 25 live plays). jD welcomes Alan from Federal Way and Justin from Bridport for a wide-ranging live stream that travels well past the song itself.

The panel opens on favourite last tracks across the discography, with Alan championing 'Country Day' and Justin making the case for 'Machine' as the band's final gift. The conversation moves through the Hip Handbook - the newly-launched free fan resource at thehiphandbook.tthpods.com - and into a wider question about why American audiences took so long to catch on. Alan, a self-described one-of-the-few who got it from his first SNL viewing, offers a heartfelt thesis on the band's pull.

The hour also covers the band's just-announced 10-year anniversary live album (July 22 - August 20), the missing 'Grace, Too' from that tracklist, the Seattle studio where "In Between Evolution" was recorded, and the upcoming 'Gift Shop' concert event in Vancouver on August 20. Next week's shuffle lands on 'Coffee Girl' from "We Are The Same."

Guest Information

Alan from Federal Way is a longtime Tragically Hip fan in the Seattle area who works at a cable company in West Seattle. A self-professed American superfan since the band's SNL appearance, Alan brings 63 years of music listening and a 24,000-song iPhone to the conversation. Find him on Twitter @AlanKCarver.

Justin from Bridport is the host of his own corner of the TTH community and a sprint car racer with the Sprint Cars of New England. His season opener runs May 24 at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park in Fultonville, NY. Find the series at nesprintcars.com.

Resources and Links

• The Hip Handbook - thehiphandbook.tthpods.com
• TTHTop40 Countdown - the full 169-song ranking
• Hipbase - hipbase.com
• HipMuseum - hipmuseum.com
• This Is Our Life - the TTH Archive
• setlist.fm - tour and setlist history
• Sprint Cars of New England - nesprintcars.com

Join the panel - submit at panel.tthtop40.com to take a seat at a future On Shuffle live stream.

Close

A fan-first conversation, a song that lived in the encore slot, and a panel that proved Tragically Hip community knows no border. Tune in next week for 'Coffee Girl'.

Crosslinks

• Getting Hip to The Hip - the entry point for new fans
• TTHTop40 Countdown - the SiriusXM Tragically Hip Radio show
• A Forest Of Whispering Speakers - the new documentary series on the musical "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken"
• The Tragically Hip Podcast Series - home.tthpods.com

Socials and Hashtags

Find The Tragically Hip Podcast Series on Facebook, Instagram, X, and Bluesky. Tag posts with: #TheTragicallyHip #TTHPods #OnShuffle #TroubleAtTheHenHouse #LetsStayEngaged #HipHandbook

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podList 7: The Classics - Shownotes

podList 7: The Classics - 18 Hip Covers from 1987 Through "Day for Night"

podList 7 is here. 18 tribute artists tackle The Tragically Hip's earliest era - from the 1987 EP through "Day for Night."

Summary:

The seventh installment of podList drops with a focus on the foundational years of The Tragically Hip's catalogue - the 1987 self-titled EP through 1994's "Day for Night." 18 tribute acts and solo artists from across the Hip cover community contributed tracks, spanning deep cuts and signature songs alike.

The lineup includes Jay Hubbard on 'Little Bones,' Duxoop Douglas on 'Courage,' The Gracefully Hip on 'Grace, Too,' Forever Hip on '38 Years Old,' and Tragically Al closing things out with 'Opiated.' Two tracks each appear for 'Nautical Disaster' and 'Fiddler's Green' - a happy accident of the open submission format that lets listeners hear how different artists approach the same source material.

podList exists because tribute bands and solo Hip interpreters keep the catalogue alive in rooms across Canada and beyond. This volume zeroes in on the classics - the era that built the foundation everything else stands on.

Track Listing:

• Jay Hubbard - 'Little Bones'
• Duxoop Douglas - 'Courage'
• The Gracefully Hip - 'Grace, Too'
• Forever Hip - '38 Years Old'
• Urban Hip - 'Fiddler's Green'
• Little Bones - 'Scared'
• Shaun Robertson - 'Nautical Disaster'
• Trickle Down - 'Twist My Arm'
• Thomas De Bock - 'Cordelia'
• Gift Shop - 'Pigeon Camera'
• 50 Mission - 'Fully, Completely'
• Evil Tom Bosely - 'Long Time Running'
• Nautical Disaster - 'Blow At High Dough'
• Hip Check - 'On The Verge'
• The Fabulously Rich - 'Looking For A Place To Happen'
• Tim Clark & Ben Wallace - 'Nautical Disaster'
• Christian White - 'Fiddler's Green'
• Tragically Al - 'Opiated'

Guest Info:

18 contributing artists: Jay Hubbard, Duxoop Douglas, The Gracefully Hip, Forever Hip, Urban Hip, Little Bones, Shaun Robertson, Trickle Down, Thomas De Bock, Gift Shop, 50 Mission, Evil Tom Bosely, Nautical Disaster, Hip Check, The Fabulously Rich, Tim Clark & Ben Wallace, Christian White, and Tragically Al.

Resources:

• The Hip Compendium: compendium.tthpods.com
• podList submissions: podlist.tthpods.com
• The Tragically Hip Podcast Series: tthpods.com

Links - Tribute Bands:

• Forever Hip (Toronto, ON): foreverhip.ca
• The Gracefully Hip (Quebec City, QC): sites.google.com/view/thegracefullyhip | facebook.com/thegracefullyhip
• Urban Hip (Thunder Bay, ON): urbanhip.ca | facebook.com/p/Urban-Hip-100063907241104
• Little Bones (Ottawa, ON): sites.google.com/view/littlebones-ca/home | facebook.com/littlebonesottawa
• Trickle Down (Calgary, AB): trickledownband.com
• Gift Shop (Vancouver, BC): giftshophipband.ca | facebook.com/giftshophipband
• 50 Mission (Southern Ontario): 50missionband.com | facebook.com/50mission | instagram.com/50missionhip
• Nautical Disaster (Victoria, BC): nauticaldisaster.com | facebook.com/NauticalDisasterband
• Hip Check (Ontario): hipcheck.band
• The Fabulously Rich (Charlottetown, PE): thefabulouslyrich.com | instagram.com/thefabrich

Close:

podList 7 is a celebration of the artists who keep "The Tragically Hip," "Up to Here," "Road Apples," "Fully Completely," and "Day for Night" alive through their own interpretations. Eighteen takes on the classics. One catalogue. The fans always show up.

Crosslinks:

• Fully & Completely: track-by-track album walkthroughs of the same era covered here
• The Tragically Hip On Shuffle: weekly live stream covering the full catalogue
• A Forest Of Whispering Speakers: now airing weekly through June 8

Socials: Follow The Tragically Hip Podcast Series across all platforms.

#TheTragicallyHip #TTHPods #podList #HipTribute #CanadianMusic #FullyCompletely

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A Forest Of Whispering Speakers - The Book

Two writers. Ten years of trust. One Tragically Hip catalogue. Episode two is the story of how the book got written without flattening the band.

Episode Summary

A Forest Of Whispering Speakers is the oral history of the Theatre Aquarius world premiere of It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken, the new musical built on the music of The Tragically Hip. Act II: The Book is the writers' room episode — how an exile's journey gets shaped into a story, and how Hip songs become the emotional grammar of that story without ever turning it into a band biography or a jukebox musical.

Host jD sits down with co-writers Ahmed Moneka and Jesse LaVercombe, with producer Michael Rubinoff and Tragically Hip manager Jake Gold stepping in to frame the bigger picture. The episode opens at a campfire in Prince Edward County in 2015, traces the ten-year partnership that built King Gilgamesh and the Man of the Wild at Soulpepper, and lands on the two different doors each writer walked through to find The Hip — one across a bridge in Bobcaygeon, the other watching Gord say goodbye from south of the border.

Inside the episode: the load-bearing wall of a decade-long friendship, the yin-yang of Ahmed's exile and Jesse's grief, a Thornton Wilder quote about platitudes, and a working theory that 700 people in a theatre cannot lie to you at once.

Guest Info

• Ahmed Moneka (Toronto, via Baghdad) — Co-writer of It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken. Iraqi-Canadian actor, singer, and writer. Co-creator of King Gilgamesh and the Man of the Wild.
• Jesse LaVercombe (Toronto, via the United States) — Co-writer of It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken. Writer and performer. Co-creator of King Gilgamesh and the Man of the Wild.
• Michael Rubinoff — Producer, It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken. Originating producer of Come From Away.
• Jake Gold — Manager, The Tragically Hip.

Resources & Links

• Theatre Aquarius — It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken
• King Gilgamesh and the Man of the Wild — Soulpepper Theatre
• Driftwood Theatre — Shakespeare in the Park, Southern Ontario
• The Hip Compendium - compendium.tthpods.com
• Hipbase
• HipMuseum
• This Is Our Life
• The Tragically Hip Archive

Calls to Action

• See the show. It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken runs at Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton through May 16, 2026. Tickets at tickets.tthpods.com.
• Explore The Hip Compendium — 1,358 mapped live shows, full discography, On This Day, and more at compendium.tthpods.com.

Closing Paragraph

Thanks to Ahmed Moneka and Jesse LaVercombe for the time, the candour, and the campfire story. Thanks to Michael Rubinoff and Jake Gold for the framing. Act II is the writers' room. Act III: The Craft drops Monday, May 18 — the design team, the orchestrator, the choreographer, and the people who turn the page into a stage. So there's that.

Promos & Crosslinks

• podList 7 - "the classics" drops Friday, May 15. Eighteen tracks of 1987–1995 era covers, including intentional duplicate covers of 'Nautical Disaster' and 'Fiddler's Green'.
• Previous episode: A Forest Of Whispering Speakers - Act I: The Idea
• Companion listening: The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream, Wednesdays 8 PM ET

Socials & Community

• Facebook group: community.tthpods.com
• Instagram: @tthpods
• YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods
• Email: [email protected]

 #TheTragicallyHip #TheHip #ItsAGoodLifeIfYouDontWeaken #TheatreAquarius #AhmedMoneka #JesseLaVercombe

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podList SIX – A Fan-Made Hip Mixtape From the Deep Cuts Up

Welcome to podList SIX, the sixth annual fan-powered Tragically Hip mixtape — lovingly curated, courageously sequenced, and now spun into podcast gold. Each year, listeners submit tracks based on a theme. This year’s twist? No Top 40 allowed. That’s right: every single pick comes from songs ranked #169 to #41 in The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown.

This isn’t just a playlist — it’s a podList. One part mixtape, one part podcast. A celebration of the underdog tracks, the deep cuts, the personal anthems that never quite cracked the upper charts but still crack your heart wide open.

TRACK LISTING:

• ‘Gift Shop’ (feat. Justin St. Louis) – In View
• Thomas de Bock – Save the Planet
• “Tragically” Al Lunt – The Luxury
• ‘Fight in the Dog’ – Don’t Wake Daddy
• ‘Evil Tom Hanks’ – Are We Family
• Jeff Tucker – The Rules
• Kirk Lane – A Beautiful Thing
• Shaun Robertson – Pretend
• ‘Little Bones’ – Twist My Arm
• ‘Blue Jean Skier’ – Putting Down
• ‘Gift Shop’ (Solo track redux) – On the Verge

From Save the Planet’s apocalyptic swing to the tender ache of A Beautiful Thing, from the riff-heavy Twist My Arm to the existential daydream of On the Verge, this year’s podList proves that the bottom 129 has never sounded so good.

Plug in. Press play. And remember — it’s not where it landed on the countdown. It’s where it lives in your gut.

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The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: Looking For A Place To Happen

A Halifax 2015 live cut, a 40-person Off Ramp show in 1991, and a panel that pulls the deep American Hipstory out of "Fully Completely."

Episode Overview

This week on The Tragically Hip On Shuffle, host jD spins 'Looking For A Place To Happen' - track two from the 1992 Chris Tsangarides-produced "Fully Completely." It is the sequencer's burden to live between 'Courage' and 'At The Hundredth Meridian,' and the panel is here to figure out what it's hauling.

The roundtable is a North American one this time. Dave from Montreal joins jD alongside two lifelong friends and bandmates, Greg from Tacoma and Chris from Seattle, who have been playing music together since 1981 and watching The Tragically Hip every chance they got. Greg's first Hip show was a 40-person night at The Off Ramp in 1991, opening for The Sundays, where Gord opened 'Looking For A Place To Happen' with a frogman-for-the-cops story instead of a killer-whale-tank one. Chris saw The Hip up close at the Under The Rail and watched Gord catch a flying beer mid-line without missing a beat.

The conversation runs deep. The panel reads the song as a great Canadian travelogue working on multiple levels at once - the Jacques Cartier exterior, the interior landscape of a songwriter and a touring band looking for places to happen, and the foreshadowing of what would later become Gord's most public work around indigenous rights. There is talk of bootleg pre-shows, the legendary monologues that never made the record, the 'plaintive plaintive whale' outro that lives only in old recordings, and the beautiful curse of being the eleventh-best song on a record this good.

The opener question this week was favourite last song on a Hip album. Dave goes with 'Emperor Penguin' from "Phantom Power" - heard on Saint Laurent at midnight after grabbing a tape from Sam The Record Man, and only ever heard live once, in Quebec City on the We Are The Same tour. Chris picks 'The Wherewithal' from "Live Between Us," recorded at Cobo Arena in Detroit, where he could throw a rock and hit Windsor as a kid. Greg represents the Northwest with 'Goodnight Josephine' from "In Between Evolution," recorded in his rainy hometown.

Songs come up for a reason.

Quick Facts: Looking For A Place To Happen

• Album: "Fully Completely" (1992)
• Track: 2 of 12
• Producer: Chris Tsangarides
• First live performance: February 4, 1991
• Last live performance: October 15, 2015
• TTHTop40 Countdown ranking: #35 (of 169 tracks)
• Live version featured on the stream: Halifax, 2015 (Fully And Completely tour)

Panelists

Dave from Montreal A Tragically Hip fan since the band came calling on much music. Quebec City regular, lifelong Stones fan, and the writer of a viral 2016 National Post piece on The Hip's final tour. Find him on Instagram and Bluesky as dave.kaufman (spelled like Andy), and read his work at therover.ca, including a feature on Buffalo's Strictly Hip and Quebec City's francophone tribute band, Gracefully Hip.

Greg from Tacoma Lifelong Pacific Northwest musician and one half of Hades Market alongside his wife Liz. The band is named after his grandparents' grocery store in Mud Bay, Olympia. Find Hades Market on all the streaming services.

Chris from Seattle Singer, songwriter, and guitarist with Seattle band Loud Flowers, who released two new EPs in April plus a 2024 full-length. Previously fronted Shadow Band The Civilians, which featured Steve Nieve from Elvis Costello's band. Visit loudflowers.band.

Resources & References

• Hipbase: hipbase.com
• The Hip Museum: thehipmuseum.com
• This Is Our Life: thisisourlife.ca
• Setlist.fm: setlist.fm
• The Tragically Hip Archive: archive.thehip.com
• The Hip Compendium: compendium.tthpods.com

Timestamps

• 00:00 - Welcome to The Tragically Hip On Shuffle live stream
• 02:24 - Meet the panel: Dave from Montreal, Greg from Tacoma, Chris from Seattle
• 06:18 - Tale of the tape: 'Looking For A Place To Happen,' "Fully Completely," Chris Tsangarides
• 07:47 - Listening session: Halifax 2015 live version
• 13:39 - The plaintive whale outro and the dual lead vocal with Gord Sinclair
• 14:41 - Greg's compliment for jD and the eight-show podcast network
• 16:14 - Favourite last song on an album: Dave picks 'Emperor Penguin'
• 18:50 - Chris picks 'The Wherewithal' from "Live Between Us" at Cobo Arena
• 24:35 - Greg picks 'Goodnight Josephine' from "World Container"
• 25:39 - First impressions of 'Looking For A Place To Happen'
• 29:46 - Dave on the burden of living between 'Courage' and 'Hundredth Meridian'
• 33:43 - Greg's 1991 Off Ramp show and the frogman-for-the-cops monologue
• 36:32 - Bootleg memories and the porter-on-a-steamship monologue
• 37:50 - The double suicide cassette and Gord as improviser
• 40:40 - The eye contact, the ebb and flow, and being in the show
• 45:43 - The exploration reading: a band becoming a great touring band
• 47:38 - Putting Down, indigenous Canada, and reading Gord in retrospect
• 49:38 - The notebook, the four coloured pens, and the Rosetta Stone
• 51:08 - Dave's Quebec City night with Gord at the bar
• 55:00 - Songs that grow with you, eight years of podcasts, and the headroom in The Hip's catalogue
• 1:02:38 - Next week's shuffle: 'Game Day' from "Trouble At The Henhouse"
• 1:03:33 - Plugs: Dave Kaufman, Hades Market, Loud Flowers

Coming Up

Next week, the shuffle machine spins 'Let's Stay Engaged' from "Trouble At The Henhouse." Cast a vote in the community group, and come hang in the chat live next Wednesday.

Stay Connected

• Facebook Community: community.tthpods.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/tthpods
• YouTube: youtube.com/@tthpods
• Tickets & Events: tickets.tthpods.com
• The Hip Compendium: compendium.tthpods.com

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The Tragically Hip On Shuffle is part of The Tragically Hip Podcast Series - Est. 2018. New episodes every Wednesday at 8 PM ET, live on YouTube.

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Get ready for a blast from the fucking past! We’re revisiting the first five years of podList episodes and bringing them back to the feed—your chance to re-live the magic of TTH fan covers, back-to-back. We’re talking incredible fucking renditions of classic tracks by The Tragically Hip tracks brought to life by listeners just like you. So there’s that.

Each year, devoted Hip fans from all walks of life have picked up their guitars, banjos, pianos, and yes, even synthasysers to reimagine The Hip’s legendary catalog. It’s a celebration of artistry, community, and the music that unites us. So there’s that.

And don’t forget, podList SIX is just around the corner on May 26th. But first, let’s take a trip down memory lane. Listen, enjoy, and maybe even start practicing—your song could be featured next!

Track Listing:

The Stranger - Maria King

Lofty Pines - Tragically Al

Trick Rider - Darrin Cappe

Vancouver Divorce - Craig/ jD

Yer Ashore - Kirk Lane

Crater - Craig/Justin

Canada Geese - Lifte

Gone - Gerald McGrath

SF Song - Aye Karou

The Stranger - The Strictly Hip

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The panel digs into a quiet, jammy deep cut from "In Violet Light" - and finds a father-daughter scene, a Bahamas-recorded slow burn, and one of the most conversational lyrics in the catalogue.

Episode Overview

This week on The Tragically Hip On Shuffle, host jD pulls 'Throwing Off Glass' - track six from the 2002 Hugh Padgham-produced "In Violet Light." Joining the virtual campfire are returning panelists Adam from Tampa, Andrew from Winnipeg, and Tyler from Etobicoke, who bring opening picks for favourite last song on a Hip album: 'Opiated,' 'The New Maybe,' and a tie between 'Impossibility' and 'Machine.'

The conversation lands on a song that rewards a closer listen. The panel reads it as Gord in the car with his daughter, watching stoop-shouldered teens on a corner, trading new vocabulary back and forth - exquisite, iridescent, barbarous threats. Andrew points out the song feels jammed into existence rather than written, with the title phrase landing like a riff Gord caught on the fly. Adam zeroes in on the heartbreak underneath the scene: a dad clocking that his kid is on her way to a world he can't shield her from.

Key Discussion Points

• Sequencing on vinyl versus streaming, and why the song lands differently as the closer of side A
• The "Coke Machine Glow" connection: 'Trick Rider' as a possible companion piece, and the broader fatherhood thread running through Gord's writing in this era
• Hugh Padgham's production approach and the band's decision to record the album in The Bahamas after the workshopped sessions of "Music @ Work"
• The song's life on the "Men with Brooms" soundtrack alongside Sarah Harmer, Kathleen Edwards, Our Lady Peace, and Big Sugar
• Live history: first played at the "In Violet Light" release party at the Hard Rock Cafe on Yonge Street, retired August 12, 2016 in Toronto on the Man Machine Poem tour
• Paul's understated electric work on the final tour performance, and Gord's whispered "true story" tag at the end

Song of the Week Results

Of 500 votes cast on 'Throwing Off Glass':

• 56% loved it
• 28% liked it
• 9% tolerated it
• 5% skipped it
• 2% had never heard it

Coming Up Next Week

The shuffle landed on 'Looking For a Place to Happen' for the next episode.

A new podcast in The Tragically Hip Podcast Series, A Forest Of Whispering Speakers, premieres April 30th. The 6-episode series goes inside the Theatre Aquarius world premiere of The Tragically Hip musical "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken." Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

podList 7: The Classics

Submissions are open for podList 7 - "The Classics," a fan cover compilation of TTH songs from 1987-1995 spanning the EP through "Day for Night." The submission deadline is April 30, with the compilation dropping May 15. Send tracks to [email protected] or submit via podlist.tthpods.com.

Connect

• Website: tthpods.com
• Newsletter: Yer Letter at tthpods.com
• Forum: forum.tthpods.com
• Hip Compendium: compendium.tthpods.com
• Email: [email protected]

Credits

Hosted by jD. Panelists: Adam from Tampa, Andrew from Winnipeg, Tyler from Etobicoke. Part of The Tragically Hip Podcast Series.

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