jD, Pete, and Tim are back and this week they're listening to the 2002 release In Violet Light.
Transcript
Track 1:
[0:00] As I sit at my computer to write this introduction, I've really had to rack.
[0:05] My brain for anything specific about In Violet Light.
It has nothing to do with the brilliance of the record, but I had pretty much left the missionary zeal phase of my hip fandom and was now, sadly, just a casual.
Even something as cool as The Hip Club, which was included with the CD release on the June 11th, 2002 CD didn't suck me in, and it's a damn shame too.
When I see you out there with cards still in your wallet, I'm jealous and forlorn.
[0:40] Something that was so essential in my life was now being left behind because I was focused on the lo-fi experience of bands like Pavement, Silver Jews, Guided by Voices, andSebadell.
I did, however, make it out for the In Violet Light summer tour at the then Molson Amphitheater and was blown away by the new songs I heard live.
Lake Fever, Silver Jet, The Dark Knuck, they all rocked live.
But there was one song that captured my attention and bled through all the noise I was experiencing at the time.
It's a song that I still hold close to my heart today, and it's remained a beacon, like a lighthouse leading a lost vessel homeward in more recent years.
It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken is a masterpiece in the hip-souvra.
Everything just works, and it straight fucking cooks as an ominous-sounding live jam.
[1:40] I was working at Starbucks downtown when a barista, now my wife, asked me what I thought of the new album and particularly that song.
I don't have the words for it, I told her. She agreed. This was supercharged hip at its best.
Now it's time for Pete and Tim to experience A Heron Outside in Violet Light.
They both were floored with music at work, so IVL has to be a slam dunk, right?
Have to wait and see on this episode of Getting Hip to the Hip.
Track 4:
[2:37] All right, so welcome back to Getting Hip to the Hip, I'm your host JD and every week we talk about a Tragically Hip record with two budding fans of the Tragically Hip butformerly completely ignorant of the existence of the band and I don't mean I mean ignorant in the dictionary definition you guys are both classy gentlemen but you just it had never it hadnever made it to your ears before.
So, we've got Tim and we've got Pete, and we're doing In Violet Light this week.
Tim, Pete, how you doing? Hey, guys. How's it going?
It's going. It's good. We are back for another week.
I'm just, you know, I'm just so pleased that somebody's listening to this.
I'm just sure of it, right? Yeah. Well, we're selling tickets for the finale event.
We can announce that Tragically cover band 50 Mission are going to be playing, we're gonna have local comedian Pete Van Dyke there, there's gonna be some silent auction items, one ofwhich was donated to us by the Tragically Hip themselves, which is fucking spectacular we also have some items coming to us from David Bustito, so I'm real excited about that becausehe was their official tour photographer for a long time I'd be Curious to see what he what he might what he might donate excellent.
[4:07] So yeah, that's pretty I was thinking this week if we make it to the end of this podcast like get through all the records Without a like a seriously like hardcore diehard to actually hitfam you're killing Tim or I And I think we've it's been a success But yeah, it won't happen.
Hopefully it won't happen after today's recording.
There may be like an Oswald Jack Ruby incident at the finale.
[4:38] But you guys don't have guns in Canada, so that's good. I had already plotted...
It's really hard though. Oh God.
I had already plotted, you know, a disguise for the event, so it's not really me that's there. No, I'm not Pete.
If you see somebody with a goatee and a mustache and another mustache on top of that mustache, that's probably Tim Lydon Maybe two mullets The glasses with the nose and themustache Yeah, so let's start off like we always do and get a sense of how you guys took in this record Where you did your listening?
Did it heighten or expand that experience? All that good shit.
[5:26] I went into it right away. I mean, after our last pod recording, I kind of jumped right into it.
In Violet Light because I was excited and wanted to keep the momentum going and the work going and I listened to it all over the place.
I was, well, the first listen was cleaning out the garage and I was driving and I was at physical therapy for a portion on the train headed to Seattle.
It was, I was kind of all over the place listening to this and I gotta say it was a more fragmented listen than past albums in that I had a hard time.
I know about you, Pete, you might be the opposite of a feeling, but I had a hard time going from first song to last song and just listening to it straight through. It was because of a myriadof reasons, but sometimes because of the music.
Yeah, sometimes because of the music. Huh. You know, I mean, I hear what you're saying, Tim.
For me, I too jumped right into this one immediately after we finished, like, maybe even that night, finished the recording or the very next day.
As is with everything with this band, I started to listen and was just wildly unimpressed.
[6:48] And then just, it like, as the time went on, I just was like, so wrong and like, I, I mean, literally, I'm glad I've, I've been saving my notes now in my like notes section of my computerbecause I didn't save the notes from the first one, because they just now have gotten longer and longer and longer.
And like, by the time we get to the final record, it's going to be a Dostoyevsky novel, dude.
[7:18] It's just super, yeah, it's ridiculous, man. I enjoyed the shit out of this record.
I would say my listening places, mistake, I started at the computer, which is maybe why I was unimpressed, but I'm just going to say this, there's nothing better than driving in my car,listening to this record.
I did a lot of driving this last week, a lot of driving, and this record just, especially on the sound system I have in my car, I think that I'm a...
Premium premium audio system in my car. Yeah.
[8:00] You know laugh while you want to Just I love it And I think it's my laugh is like 96% joy because you know for all of us Out there and in the interwebs land listening to this It's somedude named Pete He's got, you know blonde hair and blue eyes and he's from California and he lives in fucking Spain driving around in some cool car Which I don't know what it is.
So don't tell me No, you don't some cool car with some cool sound system this dude from LA gets a drive around fucking Spain And I'm you know at time of recording While we'repromoting our event coming up.
It's you know, just fucking snowed 11 inches in Portland in 24 hours and it was the most snow in 24 hours since 1943.
And here's Pete just driving around, do, do, do, do, do. It's not snowing.
It's snowed. It snowed this weekend, too, and where I was at.
Oh, wow. Envy and joy. Envy and joy.
OK, I'll take it. Yeah. I'll take it. Yeah. So. J.D., what do you think?
Yeah, J.D. This was a record. This was the last record that I saw a tour for until the last record.
[9:15] So I was starting to like wind down my extreme, like this is my number one band fandom.
And if you'll note the year, you guys will recognize that's when, you know, like I found pavement and I just was getting caught up.
Like, you know, the 2000s for me were getting caught up in everything that I'd missed in the 90s for singularly listening to the Tragically Hip.
And of course, a bunch of other stuff.
So I resented that a little bit, but when Greg and I were doing the podcast and I came back to this record, it was like, what were you thinking?
What blows my mind is that this is 2002.
[10:04] This means they've released six records in less than 10 years and they keep getting better, like they keep getting stronger or different at the very least.
And I, I just don't understand how they were able to do that.
You know, I just don't. Aye, aye.
I second that emotion, Smokey, certainly. I have a feeling, I don't know what your all music rating you saw was.
I didn't look that up. But I feel that at this point, the past few albums and this one have been highly influenced by who's helping on the production side.
You know, this one we had Hugh Pagum.
[10:53] Yeah. who did police albums and XTC and split ends and, you know, albums with beautiful sound.
He invented gated drumming. The sound of drums in the 80s. Think of In the Air Tonight, the drum sound.
[11:13] He invented that sound. And that sound is so prevalent in like, Like, you know, especially like, well, like highly glossed 80s, you know, artists, right?
They were, they were all playing with that stuff. And there's...
Sorry, go ahead. No, no, no.
I was just gonna, it's crazy you mentioned the drums just because, and I didn't hear the gated sound in this, but in a lot of my notes, I mentioned the drums, the sound of the drums in thisparticular record are they really, really, really stand out, really stand up.
Yeah. For a drummer that's not flashy, you know what I mean?
Right. Not flashy at all. He's so, and this is going to sound like I'm damning with faint praise, but I'm not, when I say he's so competent, I just mean workman like, you know, Johnny Fayeis just workman.
Like it's, it's just, he knows what the song needs and he goes in there and gets it done and that's what you get, you know, but he, he really, In my opinion, he rises above on this.
He's a bit of the cream that comes to the top on this record, man, for a lot of reasons, but we'll get into it in the songs.
I might agree with that, but just to circle back, I think that the production side of this one. It's more. It feels less.
[12:32] Band driven and more like who produced this album.
That's how it felt to me and Sometimes that that feels awesome with sometimes that is awesome.
And sometimes it's like whoa. Yeah, okay That's the that's the album that you tag him if I'm saying his name, right pageant pipe edge I'm happy on the hue pageant produced and in thatYou know, I felt this on this one.
It's just to continue my food analogies It's like showing up at a restaurant and there's like there's you still got everybody in the kitchen But somebody else, you know kind of wrote themenu like it's like where'd that where'd our where'd our house cheeseburger go?
You know, it's just missing and we have some something else.
So this one felt a little different to me and I mentioned this the Pete a few days ago But even on the sound side, from my car to my headphones, everything, this album is fucking bright.
It's as if somebody came into my equalizer and pumped up most the levels, especially mid to highs, because it's fucking bright.
[13:39] So much that I was turning down my shit to make it more tolerable.
It was over-the-top produced in on the sound finish side.
It was different than the others different than yeah Well one last anecdote about Hugh Padgham That's sort of funny is Johnny Faye was of course a big Stewart Copeland fan.
[14:07] So He ended up skipping his grade 13 exam one of his exams to go and buy a police record the day it came out. And I forget which record it is.
[14:25] Oh man, you, God damn. Yeah, I'm not 100% certain what record it is.
That's amazing. Yeah, so he was absolutely stoked to be working with this producer.
And this was their first sort of, Like he says their first sort of get, you know, in terms of producers. So I wonder if they were performing and they just, they were performing for him.
And they also were sort of like in reverence, just lifted their hands off the wheel and just said, you know, take us home.
I don't know. That's crazy. You know, I swear this is going to be the last quick anecdote, but just cause you brought up the police.
Do you guys both know that the record Synchronicity, which is easily my favorite police record, I had 32 different covers.
[15:18] No, no, look, that's a fact.
No, no, but some are more valuable than the others. So they did last time.
So they actually produced all of them. No, they just the covers themselves.
Yeah, different. Yeah, that's amazing. That is amazing. Yeah, they just they were like different pictures that they had taken.
And they just made multiple different covers and put it out.
And so some people have like, a blue and yellow stripes.
Some people have the red, the yellow and the blue. Some people have more red.
It's just really unique. I love that. Yeah. Random people. Just because we're talking about the blue. Cool factoid. Yeah, this album, just if I could keep going a little bit, it felt...
[16:01] One of the words that came to mind was, and it's not, but it was like sophomoric or homecoming. Like, it felt like the band had gone on, you know, this... how many years are wetalking now?
It's 2002, right? How many years are they in the game? 84. Yeah, so 618.
That's a lot of years. And I feel like if you're a band and you're at it for that long, to me, you're going to have this kind of album that's going to come out.
You're going to find a producer that's amazing or someone you've looked up to forever, and you're going to just go hit the go button with them.
And that's kind of what this album turned out to be, to me, in my opinion.
It feels like professional accomplished.
[16:54] I'm really trying not to go to the word generic or standard TH, but some of it does feel that way.
And then there's these little glimpses in there of Gord still doing his thing.
The last album, if I could circle back to that like, There's no Tiger the Lion on this album for me.
That's kind of my statement. Like the music at work, when I hit Tiger the Lion, it was like, oh shit, what is this song?
And I was really searching for that on In Violet Light, and it was hard to come up with that. It was hard to get there. Oh, wow.
I've got two Tiger the Lions on this record, and they're fucking back to back.
Ha, ha, ha. Ooh, man, I'm interested to hear what these are, too. Let's go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, well let's go song by song then.
Are you ready? Fuck yeah. I'm ready, man. What's the first song? Are you ready?
[17:52] See, I was waiting for that though, I was waiting for that all week.
That's in your notes, isn't it? It is in my notes. Say, ask JD, tell JD, no.
[18:01] Dude, I'll take this one, Tim, just because I want to kick it off, man. I mean, what a fucking song to open up a record with.
It's just, it's the band taking the fucking golf ball, putting the tee between their pointer and their middle fingers, sticking the fucking ground, and then looking back at you handing you theclub and going, so, are you ready?
It's just fucking, the chorus is amazing.
Johnny Faye's drums on this, I'll say this just off the top, but this is like many songs I heard his snare is so bright.
Mm-hmm. His snare is so bright. It's a fucking bright out this It's yeah, it's just it's you could it's standout for sure The the cool way it starts with the guitars I think Paul Langlois, am Ipronouncing his name right finally? You nailed it.
So Paul Langlois guitar He's playing like a like a dissonant note in there because when Rob Baker comes in with his little guitar licks he's not playing anything dissonant he's playing likea like a happy sort of major lick and it works great with what what Paul's playing but it's just it's just fucking Cool.
[19:27] I have a halftone guitar lick, the solo. I love this. I just, I love this song.
It just got me ready for the next shit to come.
This is a plane taking off. And you know, we get Silverjet down the line, but it is a Silverjet just fucking going a thousand miles an hour up into the air right now.
I fucking love it. What about, let's say you, Tim.
You know, I thought it was a super starter also.
[20:04] It reminded me, just the whole, are you ready? Reminded me right away of the English beat, are you ready to dance?
Or are you ready to ska? There's like this old, that got covered a few times too. It's just Similar lyric that it just brought me back to which is always fun.
I thought gourd sounded Like cleaner and brighter, of course, I'm gonna stop using that word in a minute Higher in tone like he sounds a little cleaner like almost He's really mastering histool Yeah Like also as if perhaps he you know Quit smoking for two weeks up until recording or something like there was just he was he was cleaner or less growly.
At the same time, the song compositionally was like, pretty basic, let's get going and see, kind of see what's next.
You know, it's not an embracer, it's a, let's put it in first gear and get this car moving down the road, you know.
I have a question for you. What do you guys think of the first four lyrics, the first four lines of lyrics?
Here the old whistle blowing, they're pulling the plug, Doug, we got to get going, they got our whole Doug.
[21:24] I think this record's riddled with Gord Downie Canadianisms, all just chock full of it. It's a reference of something, shit I don't know, being an American who doesn't even live there.No, no, this isn't a Canadian one. This is just interesting.
Lyrics to me that I just wondering like when I heard it I felt it was like self-referential like it was like you know like oh like they're we're done guys they were could be it they were startedfalling out of favor a little bit at this point just the diehards really started to cling on you know for the next two or three records.
After this it's still like a giant cohort like a giant cohort.
Yeah, like I mean they were still doing stadiums and things like that, but But it was so those lyrics really stuck out at me, you know, like and then it's like are you ready?
You know, it's like fuck it all like are you ready? You know what the balls of the balls of gourd down in a fucking call at the fan base like that.
That's fucking I I Mean, I don't know. Yeah, just like it's like hey, I guess I guess we're not the fucking We're not the the sweetest maple syrup in town anymore fellas. So let's they got ourfucking holes Doug.
Let's just play our shit Yeah, let's do it Yeah, I think I had some image of like getting out of your factory job The end of the day Friday, maybe got paid It's like we got to get the fuck outof here because these guys are gonna kill us eventually but not tonight I don't know it felt very working-class to tie back to what you said Pete.
You know this this album is riddled with Gordisms and and sorry and There was so much to look at and rabbit hole, and it was it was like fuck these guys Maybe you know part of it isthey were Pulling out lots of stops for Mr.
Hugh on the production side. Yeah, fun there.
So we move next to track two use it up.
[28:01] So I thought we went from like, okay, this is a fast-paced, let's get moving song, to kind of a slowdown quickly. I mean, I found this happening.
I know, JD, you comment sometimes on my, you know, look at albums as if they're books or chapters or what have you, but this one, you know, it was a little bit slow and darker andthere's a message or a lesson, there's like a teaching happening, the chorus of this super sing-along chorus with a way going, you know.
I was like, okay, is this a radio hit or, I don't know.
[28:48] This is the one with the Bruce Springsteen reference, is that right? Yeah.
You know, I had quickly wondered if this one felt a little too like scripted to reach USA audience.
I don't know. I was a little bit confused, a little bit like started off strong and then went into the slow dark kind of let's pull on the heartstrings quickly here.
Interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, well, we'll go to Pete. What do you think, Pete?
It's again, like the plane has taken off with Are You Ready?
And now it's just it's ascending into the fucking cosmos, dude, this song.
Fucking just it cooked. I got chills.
And And the hairs on my arms stood up, thinking and dreaming about hearing this song live.".
[29:52] Like literally, the way the drums are, Paul Lanois' guitar in this song is the drums, the way he holds the rhythm to it.
Rob Baker must have, I don't know what, I mean, here's the thing, I think I said this maybe the last podcast, but his talent as a guitar player has become exponentially better as each recordgoes on.
Not just like all the cool effects that are in this, it just is fucking awesome.
I mean, just hearing the licks, Gord commands this song like a fucking admiral commands an aircraft carrier. I mean...
[30:39] When he goes, I love the chorus, music that can take you away, and it just, there's like an echo effect or there's some sort of effect that just lets his voice ring out, but there's a partwhere he goes back into the second verse, I think, or maybe the third verse, and he goes an octave higher and he goes, instead of, use it up, use it up, and he gets really high.
And it just, it's like watching the kettle on the fucking stove about ready to fucking explode. That's what I think of this song too. I think of it as like, just a builder.
And like, I don't think of it as a slow song at all.
[31:23] You know, like, like, like, there's some, some, some real hot water bubbling away here, getting ready to boil over.
You know, you guys are almost making me want to listen to this album, but not in order.
Not in order. I feel like I should go back to it and put it on random and see what happens.
See what happens, yeah. Because I just, I wish I had the same sentiment.
I went from, like, the car is moving to, oh, who are we trying to grab here?
I mean, these lyrics are heavy, fairly simple, compared to some other hip songs, you know, lots of repeated chorus but like I just wasn't exactly yeah just didn't just didn't grasp me so thethe the way the guitar starts once the drums kick in it's got that kind of like bluesy bar rock sound to it just like I just imagine the fucking crowd just just just thumping at that live showwhen this song is played live. I mean.
[32:31] And Gordon singing out, somebody pushing the fucking sustain button on who's ever working the board and just away!
And it just, everybody losing their fucking mind and Rod Baker doo doo, doo Just, sorry man, I fucking I sound like a douchebag fanboy on this podcast You know I'm cool with it Theother day I was like I'm gonna come in maybe not sounding the most positive about this And I was like, I bet Pete's going to hold it up for us. But that's kind of a tough part.
Part of this assignment is really difficult in that we're listening to albums and albums and albums by a band, hours and hours. And we should add up the hours by now.
[33:20] And we've watched some videos, and we've never attended a show.
I mean, I've never seen The Rolling Stones. I've listened to every one of their albums.
There's tons of examples like that. But I haven't sat down and gone through song by song by The Stones, nor do I want to.
So nobody invite me to go do that. But anyways, it's like we've not seen the hit play.
And I know that many of their songs are probably just amazing live.
Yeah. They're built for live, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's just a facet of my hip career that I'm missing.
But this next one, the darkest one, which I'm mostly going to let Pete talk about because it has to do with it, you know, a little bit with his favorite TV show.
But this one, this is my JD karaoke request, this one.
Oh wow. I want to hear JD belt this one out. That's what I heard when I heard this song. I was like, oh, this is good.
Oh, this would be cool to hear JD sing karaoke.
[34:31] Have you ever done karaoke to this song, JD?
I never found it at a karaoke place. Usually they have the bigger hits, but they don't have the deeper cuts.
Well, maybe you could just send me your own video recorded version.
I'll do it. I mean, just to share with me.
[34:52] Yeah, this song contains one of my favorite sets of lyrics ever, like ever, by anybody.
You know, the wild are strong, and the strong are the darkest ones, and you're the darkest one. Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah.
Like, that build to describing somebody in that manner, oh, it just makes me grin. just makes me grin.
Oh, God, dude, the song.
First of all, I love that it was the the track of the trailer.
That's how I recognized it initially. You know, you know, I mean, we have to talk that kind of guy.
It really cooks the opening. But I mean, just Gord Sinclair's bass is like holding this song up and help pushing it up and get it off the ground.
I agree that the chorus, we're the strong or the darkest ones and you're the darkest one.
I mean, it's just how he repeats it, how Gord repeats it, you're the darkest one and I can't sing like him. The melody just goes up and down.
It's just fucking amazing.
[36:15] There's the line, it's funny because like initially all I thought it was like that horrible show they used to have on.
God, I can't even remember the name of it, where the guy would like, God, what was the name of that show? It was the Chris, not Chris Matthews, he was on NBC.
Remember the guy would, the police would be checking those people, the people that were trying to hook up with young kids or something.
And he said, why don't you come in and have a seat, right? Remember that?
Oh, yeah. He's like, he busts people like, Yeah, he busts people.
Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about.
Oh, God, I can't remember the name of the show. Yeah, whatever it's called either.
If you if you remember it, send us an email. JD at gettinghiptothehip.com What that horrible show is.
I think Pete at gettinghiptothehip.com.
That's for Pete. Yeah, I know. All right. Anyway, he would always say, like, why don't you come in and have a seat? But like, that's like a really demonic, horrible version. This was like,so like, Gord was like inviting everybody, come in, come in.
It's warm and it's safe in here. Like, it was just like, like, we're already, we've walked through the door with these first two songs on this record. Now he's saying, like, hey, come in, makeyourself at home, have a seat on the couch.
You know, it's so personal.
I don't know, I got a really personal vibe from this record.
[37:44] Lyrically, the way that the band played together so beautifully.
[37:49] I feel like, yeah, you already mentioned the chorus, JD. You can really feel the band come together on this there. Everybody's now at the same level. Like, it's not the...
No offense to Gord Downie, because he's, you know, he's just what it is he's amazing but like I feel like it's not just the gore downy show I like feel like if you took any member of thisband out of the band it would be equally as devastating.
Equally as devastating. 100%. The last thing I will say is I don't know how I'd ever confirm this, but I feel like Rob Baker has maybe switched out the pickups on his Fender Strat duringthis one.
He's maybe using some of those Fender Tex-Mex ones instead of the delay sensors.
And I was just... because that solo at the end sounds really twangy, it's hard to use Tim's term, bright.
[38:42] And it pissed me off so much that the song faded out.
But the more I thought about it, the more I was like, dude, you can't end this song with a raging solo, such an amazing song, you just have to let it fade out.
You can't compete with the rest of this song. So Rob Baker or the producer, they were in the right to just let the song fade out because You can't one-up yourselves in the same song.
It's just so good. I didn't have an issue with the fade-out on this one.
I think, in part, it's just the total tone of the song and the lyric.
You're the darkest one. I mean, you're right. How would you end that?
I didn't question it. It didn't cross my mind. But we got to talk about how fun the video is. I didn't see it.
We don't. Oh, I got to see it.
[39:35] Yeah, that part, you know, we had just to add to that we have not talked about their videos much and at some point it'd be You know side note here it'd be fun to uh Maybe I don'tknow what riff on this later Watch their videos and have an episode where we each talk about our favorite video they produced or something Yeah, because this video This one jd knows.
Yeah, it's a hoot like I watched it like six videos Come on, you've seen the video with bubbles and everybody.
Oh, this is the one. Oh To me.
[40:24] Like Actor that like you forget that like, oh, that's core Johnny from the tragedy.
He just looks like he belongs, right?
Right, the video is so good, it feels really true. He could be Trevor Roy's cousin or something.
I have a teenager at home that watched that whole series enough times so it was on in our basement regularly.
I never saw that episode until through research found that, but the video is so fun.
I seriously watched it six times, it's just so good. and made me love the song more, and it made me come back.
You know, of course, in order of going through, in Violet Light, it just made me come back to this song as like, this song's a stopper, you know?
It could just be its own single, you know? It's just, it's just one of those songs. Yeah, I mean, just give it to me on a seven inch and I'll just play that on my turntable.
It's just a good, good song.
God rest Jim Lange.
[41:31] Yeah, poor lady So that takes us to The next track on the record, which is it's a good life if you don't weaken Yeah, no, I'll go so this from what I found this was the most played forthe album on Spotify by far The song has been played a ton for this album was like four million listens or something which I.
[41:55] Think is huge There was one question Yeah, this song for the single.
Okay, so that to me, that was kind of a surprise. Like why this one?
Why do people glom on because it's awesome.
But I might add a question of it around. I didn't do a deep dive.
But Gord said it was this phrase, Molly Lorimer use life on the road when discussing life on the road. And I couldn't find much on this Molly Lorimer.
I I don't know if you guys did. That was gonna be a question to you.
Yeah, I don't know. It's just attributed to her. Yeah.
It's a good life if you don't weaken. Yeah. It's a graphic novel by singularly named artist simply known as Seth.
I don't know, that's all I've got. Yeah, but that line came from Molly.
So, yeah. The piece itself was brought to the attention of the band by one of the staffers, Molly Lorimer. Okay. As Gord wanna explain, was fond of using the expression when discussinglife on the road.
[43:01] Yeah, I mean, I love that part about it and that reference as far as literary references go on many of the songs, you know, was a little bit more mysterious, especially even differentsince it's based a bit on a graphic novel, which I don't think Gord has done yet.
It seemed kind of like a love song or a, I don't know, a separation song or figuring out life, coming back together.
You know, it was, it was, it was, there were lots of question marks on this one for me. It was kind of like, why is it so popular? What am I?
I don't think I'm missing something here. I think I get it.
I think it's just, I don't know, another, another heartstrings puller.
That's kind of where I was left. What about you, Mr. Pete?
[43:52] I did not like this song when I first started listening to it.
The first run or two of it, the first thing I wrote was, this song is the cover of this record.
So you listen to the guitar and you look at the cover, you're just like, oh, this is like the title track of the record.
And then it just, I don't want to say it's my favorite song on the record, but it's pretty close man. I mean it's so good.
The way this song builds, the keyboards come in and it just layers so nicely.
I feel like when the chorus comes in and the harmonies hit, It's just, oh God, it's just beautiful, man. It's so good.
The bridge is like butter.
Sometimes bands, because they feel the need to put a bridge into songs, because in Newsflash, not every song needs a bridge.
And sometimes bands just put it in and they sound like shit.
And this is just not one of those cases. It's like such a beautiful extension of the song. I don't know why I wrote in here.
[45:22] Rob Baker's Fender accompaniment is wretched. And I don't think I meant that as an insult, because I loved it. I thought it was really good.
But the build before the chorus of the song is just because it starts out so soft. so yeah that finger-picking guitar and then it just builds to this climactic.
[45:46] Saga Wonderful. I don't know man. I can't say that enough fucking good things about the song. I loved it. Well, you answered my question I think that's that's great.
I'm gonna go back and listen to it I was you know, I wasn't it wasn't so Wasn't so feeling that I I I am invasive how it grew on you.
I think that's Make that's wonderful. I would say it's a lot of people's favorite song. Yeah record.
As far as the singles go.
[46:16] Because this record's full of deeper cuts, too, that that fans are really big on.
One in particular I'll get to when we get there.
But these are the these last two songs. The Darkest One and It's A Good Life If You Don't Weekend are my two favorite songs on this record. I love those songs.
Pete, with Silver Jet, did you long for a bridge in that one or some sort of change up or how'd you feel about the long ending fade out of this one i love i mean i liked it i the song and theway i to be honest with you the the song first when i first first heard the song a couple times i didn't like the um that lick in there it just sounded i didn't like it it was pissing me off did itsound like a little it sounded almost like a little bit hairband to me.
Like there was some kind of, I don't know. It totally did. Yeah.
Reminds me of like Van Halen or something, you know? Yeah. It made me wonder if this was a a music-first song.
[47:25] I just think that you can only get away from your roots so much, you know?
At the end of the day, we all return to, you know, just as we're born, begging and screaming and crying for your mama, you die the same way.
And so we all have that in us throughout our lives and like, they have that history.
It's like it or hate it. That's part of their history as a band.
But I chose to embrace it and I really liked it.
I thought one of the coolest things was this song and one other one I think we'll get to.
There's a lot of like harmonic plays with the guitar. That.
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I'm pretty sure it's it's it's Rob Baker, but it could be Paul and Juan just playing those those those repeated harmonics on the guitar with that heavy distortion andit's just fucking cool.
And I don't know that this is one but it feels like a like a a Gord Downie Canadianism song.
[48:34] It may be about something in history. I just seem too random to be talking about a silver jet. This is one record I didn't look at any of the lyrics.
I just listened I listened intently.
On your first listen or what do you mean? On any listen, which I think it served me well because I paid much more attention to the music and the band and like Gord doesn't need toimpress me with his lyrics, I don't need to fucking read his lyrics to to be impressed by them so, I think the fact that I didn't look at any lyrics for this record made me appreciate it a littlebit more, and I'm glad I did that.
[49:16] Process-wise, definitely the first six listens or something, I'm not looking up really looking up lyrics much at all.
It's just at the end is where I love to do the deep dive where I've really taken in the album and what makes me, I don't know, just completes my wonderment of where this album is goingor where these songs are going.
And this one, you know, I love the roars overhead You know, it's it really I talked about this before but that one felt super REM Michael Stipe to me I just totally couldn't completely hearMichael Stipe in that one and it's And it's also, you know, this is 2002 and that reference to me is more like 88 You know late 80s, maybe early 90s.
Sorry. Um, so Yeah, dude, I didn't think Tim you're you're spot-on with that Michael Stipe reference Oh big time big time, and you know, I I don't say that in a negative way.
I just circle back to Wishing I could be a fly on the wall and the tour bus to hear what these guys are listening to or sharing, you know because it's it's There's definitely some some threadsthroughout all of it the the ending was the ending and I thought this one was um, I I don't know just long They're starting to now have like one song where there's an ending of like aminute or more of just music just instrumental.
[50:42] You know, which which I I dig sometimes I wish there's like for this song in.
[50:48] Particular there was Maybe there was room for a Stronger bridge or some sort of change up in it.
I think I think this this song. I don't know I.
[50:58] Maybe this is one of the songs I need to hear live but this one like it was really close to being one of my favorites on the album there just was something wow something in therethat was just a little bit missing like I first few times I listened to this one I was like oh what is it about this song there's there just wasn't enough salt on it or something there wassomething in there so I want to go back and hear it again and maybe find some live version to see what's different about it.
Yeah, it's definitely a banger live.
[51:36] I think some great lyrics. I think one of the coolest vocal deliveries on the record. Like he's barely opening his mouth.
He's like grinning these lyrics out almost.
[51:51] A rock star using the word archipelago. Oh yeah, that's a great point.
Like throwing words like that in there from a phrasing perspective is just a nightmare.
And yet He does it and he does it with ease It's so crazy My father-in-law mentioned we're telling on because my wife's gonna Ibiza Ibiza Ibiza He beat that um next week and And or twoweeks and I was like asking where it was and like thinking about it Is it over here?
Where's that? He's like and he said He said archipelago on, but he said it in Spanish, but I knew what he was saying, because it's a very similar word.
And it made me think of this song, and I was like, oh yeah, Silver Jet, like, just to hear, I mean, how often do you hear the word archipelago?
Never. On a given week? Yeah. On a month? No. And I heard it, like, the same day I was listening to this song, he said archipelago, and I was like, that's fucking weird.
There's a glitch in the matrix somewhere, man. Yeah, totally.
There's lots of great one-liners in this song. It's, it's, it's, it's chocked full. It's, it's a really, I don't know.
Again, this was one I kept coming back to and kind of couldn't get enough of, you know, that I'm thinking it through.
Your father-in-law's going to Ibiza? Is he going to a rave there?
What's he, what's going to, does everyone know he's going there?
[53:20] No, he's just going, she's going to a, just with her friend to visit.
Oh, she's going this way.
But I was going to say a minute ago, all the cheeseburger references by you, Tim, we're going to start calling you Randy. You start having to do this podcast to get your shirt off.
[53:39] I don't know, Mr. Leahy. We haven't had a cuddle in a long time.
I gotta say, I gotta say one thing, dude.
I don't know, God, if she listens to this podcast, she's never gonna ever want to talk to me again, but my sweet, great and wonderful colleague, Barb, who lives on, um, I can never say hername.
Canada is such a huge, huge country.
It's more on the West Coast. But every time I just see her name, she sends me an email.
I don't see Barb or Barbara. I just see burp.
It's actually, I just see it spelled B-E-R-B. I just hear Randy saying, burp.
[54:29] Like, it's just, and I know she would find it funny because she loves that show.
She's a huge, ridiculously huge head fan. I think that's the booze talking, Pete. I think he might need to lay off of the booze.
That's my best advice. Probably. So, uh, looking gla- throwing off glass.
[58:21] Like, right when this one, maybe it had to do with me microdosing throughout the week, but wow, it was like, turn down the levels.
There are some serious drums and cymbals and big, big loud king of pain, kind of.
There's some serious production happening with this one. You know, it's overall, my comments on this one are super basic.
It's a beautiful song In general, you know, I got the the dad vibes from it the teenage kids It's kind of like The daughter song.
I don't know JD. I was like, oh this seems like to me this might be You know JD's song for his his girls, you know, it's just a beautiful beautiful song There's just wasn't a whole lot more toit than that for me. It's just like whoo.
Okay Okay, that's a mouthful. I love this track. It was a great, like, in-between.
[59:26] It was a great palate cleanser. I know that's like a negative connotation to say, in-between this song and the next, but it just was so needed and it was so well placed in the order of it.
I love the way it's just, it was a super spacey track.
Vocals were just echoed all over the place and yeah I don't have a ton to say about it other than I really really enjoyed it.
I thought again this is the other one where Rob Baker's harmonics really really shined on it like they just drive the song and I'm like it's just Just awesome.
[1:00:06] Loved it. Just loved it. Really, really good chill out song to kind of go, take a break, lower the blood pressure a little bit. You've been rocking out.
We're only on song six.
Yeah, it was kind of serene. It was its own movie, this one, I think.
You know, it's definitely stands on its own. Yeah, the next song All tore up.
Yeah, I'll tore up. Okay. So here's another really Gonna this is the last time I'm gonna talk about about holy shit the drums and the cymbals the high hats on this one It's just like whoa Turnit down guys.
Like this is a this is my final call out on the production side of this one. It's just, Kaplow in my ear holes. So there you have that. But the there's Tim is Tim is Huey Lewis in that firstscene of Back Feature one. Sorry, guys.
Just too loud. Next, please. Sorry, Tim, I didn't mean to cut you off.
Love it loud. I just you know, I have.
[1:01:23] Yeah, anyways, that there The bridge in this one, you might make it, right?
You know, that really smacked me. This is just an amazing change in this one.
I felt like this one stepped out a little bit more than previous songs and kind of was leaning a little bit more in a direction that I had been looking for, just musically, just tragic, hip-esque,you know?
This one kind of brought me back to, I don't know, just what I want in a hip album.
[1:02:00] I liked the finding, the reference towards Dottie Cormier, famous Canadian bluegrass singer.
So kind of went down a rabbit hole and checked out her stuff and gave her a bunch of listens.
Yeah, I mean, she's mentioned in there and she's one of the more famous bluegrass people of Canada, which is awesome. I'm not a huge bluegrass fan, but I definitely appreciate it when Icome across it, and it's great.
But I thought it was a song about going for it, living life, just appreciating things, looking for moments of biggest impacts or things that matter.
You know, I typed in, you just need to be you and keep moving.
It's inspirational. This is a good, to me this is.
This is a good hip song on this album. If somebody's going to say, what should I listen to? This would definitely be one of the songs.
Oh, yeah, I liked it. Aside from the bright, fucking bloody.
All right. Happening.
[1:03:13] Well, to back that up, I will say one of the things I've written in my notes here is Johnny face snare is boosted. It is. And I love I do.
Yeah, I love it, like for me, it fits with the album, like, I could see how you could look at it as a, as maybe a, like, I would do this differently, but like, I just feel like they did that onpurpose, and it fits with the record and I think it's done well. It's noticeable.
That's the problem, though. But you know what, like, maybe, like, here's the thing, maybe it should be noticeable for a lot of reasons because the drums in a lot of these songs really, reallydrive the momentum of the tunes.
The opening lick that I think is, I want to say it's Rob Baker playing, that opening lick with the double stop, just how he just, I'm like, wait, how do you play that again?
Because it just, it doesn't stop, it doesn't stop and start where you think it's going to stop and start.
It's really, and the drums come in at a different tempo, and it's just cool as fuck.
Question JD, I have this written out, what are the school buses in Canada?
Do you guys have like yellow school buses like we have in the States?
[1:04:36] Because I mean, I don't know, are they big school buses like the big long ones?
Yeah, Bluebird, which is like one of the big school bus manufacturers, used to have a plant in the town, like 20 minutes from where I grew up.
And I worked there every summer building school buses. Yeah.
Okay. Well, maybe you would have seen any bass player in the whole of Canada that was worth their salt getting on that school bus because literally Gordon Sinclair takes anybodylistening to this record who plays bass to fucking school on a bus.
I mean, it's a master, it's a master's degree, it's not a master class, it's a fucking master's degree.
I mean, the way he fucking goes up high with the bass in this, I'm just like, I listen, this is one of the very few songs where I like stopped and and clicked back and was like listening to itand going, what the fuck is he doing, dude?
Like, I don't know anybody that can play that shit.
I've met a few bass players in my day, but just so smooth and so cool, I mean, I loved it.
[1:05:51] The only other thing I will say about this song is that the lyrics and the vocal phrasing by Gord, and I say this and I feel like people hate me for saying this, but if they hate methen they're not true Canadians, because it's very much a lot of Alanis phrasing the way Gord sings the lyrics on this.
I listened to Jagged Little Pill last night, as a matter of fact, on vinyl. It's a fucking record that still stands up so great.
But yeah, anyway, very much got some Atlantis vibes with the phrasing on it.
It was a great song. So wild that you hear Atlantis all the time.
Oh, I love that. It's Atlantis and Michael Stipe. I think those are the most referenced singers.
[1:06:45] Yeah Yeah, that's far out let's keep moving so with leave JD did you ever hear this one live? Do you recall? I don't recall.
No, I just this is this was definitely one right away I was like, oh, this is probably great life you know, I just I go there so often just because I've been to so many shows and I know theSerotonin boosts that you have when you leave a concert or hear a song you love, you know it's just this this one was me reaching for that um it felt uh oh just introspective anddeliberative and it it i the only thing about it is kind of towards the end i felt like it could go another minute you know i felt like we could have and have had another verse in there if it's ifthere's a live version of it being longer or if they mix it up because this song just compositionally felt like there was opportunity to play around and change it a little bit so it's I thought itwas a pretty cool song.
How about you Pete? I thought it was really cool.
I mean the way it started was very like spacey and mm-hmm like almost like Wait, what?
[1:08:10] Did my Spotify malfunction or whatever? Like it couldn't have happened before with CDs, but really, the way it's like a shuffle, it kind of feels like a shuffle, you know, the waythe beat is.
And the phrasing again, this is another one where Gord's phrasing is super, super diverse.
[1:08:36] The chords are really... I got some heavy Stone Temple Pilots vibes.
Oh, totally. Completely. Yeah. Really? Like, those guys from...
I think I was almost going like Alice in Chains or something.
There was something in there from the 90s. 100%. 100%.
There's a part where Paul Langlois' guitar comes in, and the song, it starts to form, And there's a line that says, a routine flight for this bird tonight, more worms for earth in the afterlife.
[1:09:15] Like, what the fuck, dude? Look at that. After that line, the song just like explodes open.
[1:09:26] I love the chorus. It's just, yeah, I'm not displeased with this song at all.
There's nothing. I'm trying not to wrap up the whole album, but you know, if you guys haven't figured out already, I really liked this album.
There's not much negative shit I can say about it. So if you're looking for negative shit, just turn off the podcast and wait.
Or just call me, you know, I have throat pain.
Because this next one, if we can get into it. Yeah. Yeah. A beautiful thing.
You know, it's kind of this cute start sing-along-y feeling.
Definitely XTC. Definitely R.E.M.
You know, like it's the bridge, the guitar solo kind of bridge that happens in there. When I heard that, I was like, oh, what happened?
This song, it was the first time I heard it, I couldn't finish it.
This was one of the few songs that this has happened to me. And I was like, God damn it.
Here's the song that I need to talk about that it took me a handful of times to get through because it just, it wasn't a beautiful thing for me.
It was, uh, I just, I just, I know I was totally questioning it.
It was like, are they, were they trying to make a wedding song or like, what is, what is this song? I was like, what the fuck? This didn't need to be on the album. It just kind of...
[1:10:52] Sorry, sorry hip fans. Yeah, I mean I hope you guys don't kick me off the pod, but this one I was like FF fast-forward with next week.
We'll be joined by just We found Tom from Seattle who's gonna join us next week we sent him a supply of happy pills and Definitely told him he's not allowed to have any indica beforehe gets on the pod Tim, I felt you with this, man.
I mean, here's the thing, though.
At first I felt you with this and I was like, I started listening to some more and I was fucking love this.
First thing I like, I thought this was the father daughter song when I heard it first.
[1:11:42] But the three, four, this is a dance song. You can, there's definitely people, There's the guy, you know, with his arms behind.
Somebody or the girl on his shoulders or whatever it is, swaying back and forth with this song at the concert. 100,000 percent.
The chorus is super strong.
The way they go, Beautiful thing. Toot toot toot.
Exactly. This is the second song I've noted that I think Rob Baker switched out as his pick-up song.
God, I, I, I, I, I, I, I hesitate to scour the internet for, for those, um, you know, when the musicians do those pedal reviews or they're like, it's like the Amoeba what's in your bag thing.
Often like interview guitar players and be like, what's on your pedal board?
Or like, what's the kind of guitar you're using? And like, I know if I find one of Rob Baker, my life's over. Cause I'm going to be like, Hmm, spending more money on shit.
[1:12:49] I thought this song was a beautiful song, just fucking awesome to be cheesy and tie it up that way.
It's basically one of three of the fewest listens on the album.
I know Spotify isn't everything, but I take it as, you know, a guiding point.
The last three songs are the three least listened to on this album.
So and I felt like the album did take a little bit of a turn for me with that.
All right. Well, let's move on to Dire Wolf then.
Um, dude, drums, opening lick, a guitar solo, fucking clean as hell.
It, it, it, it, this is going to sound weird, I got to phrase this properly.
Because the opening, these last two songs are really unique because they change so much.
The first part of the song made me feel like I'm going to phrase it properly.
[1:14:00] Like I was in a wheat field during a cold, a cool summer day.
The opening was so cool. I think Pauline Waas is opening up with the guitar.
And this seems certainly like a Gord Downie Canadianism song, lyrically is it? Yeah, big time. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And what I want to know, Gord talking about what he loves themost, his country.
And I wrote this down because I was thinking about it driving home yesterday.
And it almost brought me to tears listening to this song. So I was like, dude, what a gift.
[1:14:43] Sorry to get all serious for a second, like what a fucking gift this guy was to his country.
Absolutely. I never got it before. Like my friend Barb, who I talked about earlier, I was making a joke about.
Barb? Barb, yeah. And then you, JD, and then other people in my life who've mentioned The Hip to me have been super passionate. I'm just like, it's almost kind of like, God, okay.
Hey, I just didn't get it.
And this is a song where it just really hits home.
And the more research I do about the band, the more I get into them, the more I look at interviews with Gord, I'm just like, like, I don't think Americans have anything as an equivalentbecause I know there was that hockey, the guy on like SportsCenter Canadian Hockey who said like, you know, If you took Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, all those things, you know, thatquote, JD? Yeah. Yeah.
Like you'd like sort of get like what? Because like, yeah, we don't have that.
Like this guy had plenty of criticisms for his government. But at the end of the day, it was like a really unifying force for Canada.
[1:15:57] I don't know, man. This song just got me all fucking weebly eyed and loved it.
That's awesome. I mean, I agree with all that.
I feel like this song you could easily write a 15-page dissertation about there's so maybe 150 like there's so much in here this to me was another song that could be a movie or a book Idon't know.
This song is so loaded and, you know, it's...
[1:16:31] I don't know. It's just quite poetic. I could go on about the lyrics or things I looked up and all the literature references.
I mean, it's just it's too much to even get into but I feel like there's also this yin-yang sort of to the song with the music versus the lyrics like it's the music to me at times feels like I don'twant to say pretty or cute, but the music has kind of this positive feel while the lyrics are kind of out here on their own.
It's wild. It's just a huge song.
And I agree with you, Pete, on Gord versus all of our USA stars.
[1:17:20] You know, just this last weekend, the Boss played in Portland, and I saw lots of footage of the Boss playing live at our arena and, you know, sold out show, of course.
And we have one close friend who is a major Bruce Bringsing fan, like flies all over the place to see him and all that.
[1:17:43] And just in watching, I mean, I get them musically and everything, and I've read up on Bruce and his whole upbringing and his struggle to success and watch his interview withObama and all those things, but at the same time, I'm like, this is nothing comparative with Gord in his lyrics and what he goes after.
He's not talking about the struggle of just working at the factory.
Talking about like that all the way back to hundreds of years before and you know just it's, it's so much more and i commented on this a little bit ago but there are a couple pods ago butwhen i met with a couple fairly important indie rock dudes in portland and mentioned i was doing this they didn't know either like they both had not still i mean guys our age not listenedto the tragically hip and when I mentioned that they're, you know, this beloved facet to the country of Canada and how just how important they are, you know, they didn't really even getthat because who do we talk about in that regard? Elvis? I don't know.
All these all these different things that that just don't measure up to me.
[1:19:06] But even so too, you're right, Tim, because like you can sit there and say that about any other country on the planet. Yeah.
You could probably say that about Spain.
You could say that about Japan. You could say that about South Korea or China or all these places.
Oh, they're really big there. But literally, it's right next door to the roof of the United States.
And the fact that those indie rock gods, who I know you're talking about, had no idea who the hip were. I was just fucking... I mean, they do, but they absolutely don't. Right, yeah,exactly.
[1:19:38] You know, like if I could have played a song right then and there, in the moment, before even mentioning them, and said, who do you guys think this is?
They would have gone like, oh, this is maybe something from the 90s I glossed over, because, you know, just, I'm not sure.
Maybe I was too into, you know, rare indie rock during that decade, I don't know.
It feels like something I skipped over and that's exactly I think what has happened with the hip in the US but to circle back up also on this album and the production of it and you HughPadgham, I don't know why I'm tripping on my Little knowledge of Italian when I see his name, which is not Italian Hugh Padgham when I look at you know of his signature statement onthis album, I think, this is O2, and this is another grasp at getting a global audience, like really trying to get people outside of Canada to embrace these guys who have this super specialthing going.
I think by this time, the band is, I don't think it's the band, the machine might've been that way, but I think the band at this point where they're making records.
[1:20:57] And they hope as many people hear them as possible, but like, you know.
But from a producer standpoint, a producer can definitely be going for that.
I mean, if someone's gonna sign their name as I produce this album, especially in this era of still going for album sales, I feel like there's a bit of that on this one.
And I thought when I heard the whole album, I thought, okay, we're probably getting a little bit more raw on the next album.
We're probably getting a little bit more Tiger the Lion.
I hope, you know, there's gonna be another turn and that's kind of in the wave of listening to the hip so far as we started off like all over the place and then we found some roots where wewere just like flowing through and then there's some highway changes, you know, so much of this has been about life on the road and we're hearing all the different examples in thedifferent decades of time, so.
[1:22:06] It's a fucking cool experience. I love you guys! And to sew it up, the guitar solo just really puts you in an emotional tailspin at the end of this tune.
And by the way, I looked it up while we were earlier when we were chatting, Hugh Pagin did in fact produce Synchronicity.
[1:22:29] I think it's that record. I think it's that one. Yeah, he did.
And he skipped the exam and he had to go to summer school as a result.
So it was like such a good record just for that record.
All right, let's wrap up this record with the Dark Canuck.
[1:26:42] Okay, I loved this song because it's two different songs, if you haven't noticed.
It's not the same song.
I mean, I don't know what to say about this song. I focus mostly on like, how the song starts off with like just a simple four-four beat and then it goes, like I spent most of the timelistening to the song trying to figure out what the time signatures were because they were just so random.
And I think I boiled it down to it goes 6-4 and then for every phrase it goes 6-4 and then 2-4 and it just repeats.
[1:27:35] Goes, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
[1:27:40] 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1 playing like this really cool licks, like, I don't know, harmonic minor shit.
And just, it's just, they just, I don't know, maybe they didn't know they had like, okay, well, we got one more song we're gonna throw on the record.
What do you guys wanna do? Let's just fucking...
It's just taking a bunch of paint, throw it against the fucking wall and see what happens.
Yes, yes. And they got a fucking awesome song, dude.
It is a trip of a song. I can listen to this song a thousand times.
It's a fucking cool tune. Honestly, it was the kind of the one I was waiting for in that same regard, you know.
Right away, this was another one where I was like, oof, right away, oof, this is a banger life.
Lucky people got to hear this one live. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, there's, and then this huge transition halfway through, yeah.
Two songs feel, it felt like we just moved into a new song.
It was just shoved into us. We went from, I have this note, we went from, um, the idea of a soldier returning home to feeling like we're on a bad holiday, like it just, it's just full of like facesmacking.
[1:29:08] I don't know. It's just the build-ups and this felt like, okay, Hugh's gone, guys, let's finally report on Canucco.
Well said, well said.
You know, they finally got what they wanted to do. And I really adored that 30-second drum machine ending, whatever that was, like, I just thought it was cool.
I was like, okay, I'm gonna keep going with the podcast because a couple songs ago, I was like, what do I send JD an email what do I do oh no just kidding no this one was fun it was itwas i, i longed for gourd to sing more angrily which is why i thought about you know the live version of this but um yet i should say it was just still just worked right and uh, it was kindof like a Whew, okay, there's Envy.
I didn't know what a Canuck was. I didn't know what a Canuck was until I looked it up with this song. I just thought they were a fucking hockey team. Wow.
What is a Canuck? I don't know that I know. It's like a lumberjack, right?
No, it's just a term for a Canadian person, I think. Yeah, it's a derogatory term. I don't know that it's derogatory.
I think it's just a slang. It's like Yankee for a, you know?
[1:30:34] Yeah, that's the way I've always heard it. People call us Yankees here a lot.
That's the way I've always heard Canuck. Yeah.
Yeah, that's what I thought too, you made me think it was, you made me doubt myself.
That's a good trick. I don't think it's derogatory or anything, it's just... No, I don't think so. This is a more fun way of saying Canadian.
Where did you land on the record, like overall? Like Pete, I think it's pretty clear, you really enjoyed it, but you started out not enjoying it, but now it's a grower.
I mean, I definitely had some speed bumps through it.
And yeah, a little more than usual, I would say. But also like, you know, still, still really liking this exercise and hearing a band's evolution. It's so interesting.
And overall, just for me personally, it's like this album and the way it's different than others.
[1:31:38] It just makes me commend just general artistic decision-making and direction and the way people do things. I mean, it's interesting.
All of my kind of feedback and sentiment over this album was like, it's still just valid to be out in the music space of life for people to see and hear, you know.
[1:32:07] It's yeah yeah well what is your MVP track what song are you putting on your playlist Pete did I steal your thunder did you have kind of a album wrap-up statement oh no no nono no no you didn't so much okay, I I loved it man I I just.
I don't know. Sorry, I was talking earlier, but the band's really become important to me.
Like, I really like this band a lot, man. Oh, that's amazing. It's fucking...
It's just, it's become...
[1:32:47] And this record, I think, made me realize it. Especially because when I first started listening, I didn't like it.
Right. Yeah. I took it into different parts.
I think part of that is also we're doing the week over week and it's a crash course, so it's really hard.
It's not a natural way to learn to like a band. Yeah. It's almost like, I don't want to say this in negative way, J.D., but it's almost like torture.
It's like programming. No, think about it.
Imagine it's like you're in.
[1:33:18] A German prison in 1939 and you're being told to agree to all this stuff.
And you're like, OK, all right, yeah, OK, I agree to it. Eventually, you start believing it.
I know that's a really poor example. My apologies if anybody's offended.
That's not what my intention was. My intention is to be like, it's very forceful.
And so that being said, it's not natural the way I'm liking this band.
But at the same time, the evolution, When I start listening to the record, then how much love I have for this band is just, it's a cool thing in and of itself.
Very, very cool. It's just so cool to step back. I don't know, sorry, I'm rambling, but.
No, not at all. No, I dig it. It's cool to step back and look at how much, how cool this band is. I concur, I concur.
So what are your MVP tracks for this record? What song will you take away?
[1:34:27] Drumroll... Hmm, I'm not quite sure. I'm gonna go, you know, I'm gonna go with the ender, the Dark Canuck.
I'm gonna go with that one.
It was a bit of a release for me to get to that song and hear it and hear it through.
And it also made me want to listen to the album again to run through it.
So this was a little bit of a saver for me. And, you know, the transition was wacky and there's been a couple songs I forget. I think the second or third album there was kind of a wackylittle bit of a different song that I chose.
I should go back and remember which one that was. But yeah, I love less produced, more hip is kind of just what I keep seeking.
I want that raw kind of flavor of the hip and I want, I just want to hear more of that.
I, overall, I mean, I really liked, there's a couple on here that were really strong, like Silver Jet totally has its place, but I'll go with the end one, the Dark Canuck.
All right, your mix is going to be pretty wild. Yeah, I think that's okay.
[1:35:41] Of course, I'll let you guys. Oh, go ahead. No, go ahead, man.
I was just going to say, can I just copy and paste the record?
Just drop this shit. I don't know, man.
I don't want to make a decision. Pete's playlist from every album of the entire catalog, folks.
You can find that on the album in Violet Byte.
Dude, it's a hard thing. All I will say is, and it would probably change, But just because I just pictured so much like seeing it live, like, use it up to use it up.
If that fucking song was played live, especially when again, when Gordon hits that octave.
Yes. Oh, my God, dude.
I just feel the injection of nitrous oxide for energy that must have gone into a crowd when he hit that second verse or whatever, whatever the party sings it.
[1:36:41] Fucking Christ Almighty, dude.
Sorry, just. I so hate myself for never getting to see this band live.
I got it. It's a huge I live my life. Not a lot of regrets, but that's one of them.
Hey, which is in part, very exciting to go to the JD.
Here's your plug. Oh, yeah.
Well, you'll get to see a facsimile of them. Yeah, simile.
Obviously, you know, tribute bands are, you know, your mileage may vary with tribute bands, but the tragically have a distinct place in this country.
And there is, you know, there are a lot of really great hip tribute bands out there. There are a lot. I think we've got, you know, one of the best though for our event.
And again, that's going to be Friday, September 1st, and tickets are $40.
And you get to watch the finale of this podcast go live. And then you get a hip concert, a 50 Mission concert, I should say.
We have a comedian. There's not alcohol there, is there?
There will be booze, yeah. Oh, I'm going to stay away from the beer, because if they play, if by chance this band plays Use It Up, and I'm three beers deep, I'm going to get the fucking 86,dude.
We need a sidebar conversation about that. I've had ideas too. I've had ideas too.
[1:38:07] Well, we're going to have a comedian that night also.
And I think maybe this part of the silent auction, I think maybe we need some sort of, this is so cheesy, but maybe we need some sort of, you know, gift basket from Portland and giftbasket from Malaga.
So maybe, you know, let's bring something, Let's bring something from the homelands.
Yeah, let's bring something from the homelands. I can't bring my own because it's gonna...
You could also fake it, you know. Yeah, I'll just fly it at the airport.
But man, that's gonna be such a fun event.
And as we're climbing out of winter, I know this isn't being broadcasted, pushed to the world in winter, but as we're climbing out of winter here in Portland, I'm really excited about theend of August happening.
What date's the event again, JD? September 1st, Friday, September 1st. September 1st, people.
I can't wait dude. Use it up. It's gonna be fucking great. Use it all up.
Can I just say that if anybody wants to talk gear, look for the guy with the glasses and the fake nose and the fake mustache.
[1:39:25] If anybody needs to come over and slug me in the arm, just warn me.
You know, if I dissed one of your songs, I'll take a hug instead.
Yeah, these guys have done a yeoman's duty here, you know, taking on this task, although for most of us, we're like, task?
I listen to, you know, a hip-hop record a week anyway.
But you know, the way you guys are doing this is really great, and I'm really, I'm just fucking amped that you're getting into it. So that's real cool.
Thanks, JD. It's a gift. It truly is a gift. It truly is a gift.
I've told you this before in private messages, but it's a gift.
So thanks, man. Thanks, Canada. Pleasure. Thanks, Tragically Hip.
Well, on that note, we'll bid you all adieu.
Anything you want to wrap up on, folks? I'm just looking for the next one.
We're going to jump into a whole nother album, Pete. You ready?
Can't wait. Are you ready?
[1:40:33] Alright guys, thanks so much. Talk to you next week. Thanks JD.
See you guys. Pick up your shit.
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