Cougar or regular?

The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown

Ever find yourself reminiscing about the good old days when tunes from The Tragically Hip filled the airwaves? My pals, Tim and Pete, and I sure did, as we took a deep dive into their 6th studio album, Phantom Power. We discovered that our own past experiences and relationships managed to shape our views on this collection of radio hits, which seemed like a pivotal moment for the band.

We weren't just content with superficially jamming out to the music. We dissected the unique sound and lyrical themes, compared them to previous Hip releases, and found ourselves swapping stories from past concerts. One standout memory was Tim being recognized by lead vocalist Gord Downie backstage. We also discussed the historical context of the album, like how its recording coincided with a major ice storm and a surprise tour that benefited a children's cancer camp.

Stick around as we analyze some standout tunes like 'Poets' and its references to Gwen Jacobs' fight for women's equality. We also shared our thoughts on 'Fireworks' and how it reminded us of Canada's victory in the hockey series against Russia in 1972. So, whether you're a die-hard Hip fan or just love a good music chat, this episode is for you!

Transcript

Speaker 1 It's June of 1998 and I'm done with York University. To celebrate, my friends and I embarked on a camping trip to the Pinary Provincial Park just down the road from Grand Bend. It was just outside the liquor store in town that I heard a finished version of Pullets for the first time. Gord had long been one of my favorite Pullets, so to me this song resonated in a way that I can't quite describe. It was a feeling of euphoria and relief. This new record was going to be just fine, i thought to myself. Little did I know that several tracks on this record would stand the test of time and join the pantheon of great hip songs I still enjoy to this day, from the meandering escape is at hand to the traveling man, to the exquisite Bob Cajun and the downright delicious Emperor Penguin. Phantom power was right in the pocket, coming off of the exceptional trouble at the henhouse. As I got inside the truck to head back to the campsite I turned the volume up and just let Pullets sink into my brain. This was living. Today. We're going to hear from our friends Pete and Tim to check out what they think of Phantom power. Will it stack up? Find out today. On Getting Hip to the Hip. 0:01:41 - Speaker 2 Long sliced brewery presents Getting Hip to the Hip Hey it's JD here. 0:01:58 - Speaker 1 Welcome back to Getting Hip to the Hip. This week we are talking about Phantom Power, the sixth studio record by Seminole Canadian rock band, the Tragically Hip. I'm joined this week, as always, by my pals Tim and Pete Fellas. how are you doing? 0:02:19 - Speaker 3 Hey guys, hey guys, hey guys, glad to be here. Good to see you, i'm ecstatic to be here. 0:02:26 - Speaker 4 I'm ecstatic to be here right now. 0:02:27 - Speaker 1 Oh, I love it. 0:02:28 - Speaker 4 I love the energy This is happier than a pig and shit. 0:02:31 - Speaker 1 Oh boy, oh boy, that's pretty happy. I've seen some, some porcine creatures rolling in fecal matter and they sure love it. Okay, so if you are wanting to experience The Tragically Hip's music for the first time, tim and Pete are your avatars this week because they got to experience the record Phantom Power, which again is the sixth record produced by Steve Berlin, first record on Universal. But I guess I should tell you guys both. I guess I should say this to you both as honorary Canadians. Now, happy Canada Day. It's almost the 4th of July. It's July 3rd today, but it's July 4th tomorrow for you, but July 1st for us is Canada Day. So happy Canada Day, folks. 0:03:20 - Speaker 4 Wow, Yeah, Very close to the other 4th of July, which is America's Independence Day. In the UK they call that Thanksgiving. No, No, I had a. I took a flight one time on some shitty airline and the pilot was British and it was on the 4th of July and he was like so I just want to say you know, that's my shitty British accent Happy 4th of July was we call it. We're on from Thanksgiving. Enjoy Whatever. 0:03:57 - Speaker 1 That's great. Oh, anytime you can burn an American a little bit, it's. you know there's some fun. There's some fun there because you guys are so goddamn good at this shit, you know Anyway let's get into the record as a whole. Before we go into the song by song segment, let's just talk about this record, produced, like I said, by Steve Berlin. Five singles come from this record. All music rates at a three out of five Three. So there's that. What did you guys think? I want to know where you listen to it, how you listen to it and what your initial thoughts were, and you know, maybe, what they percolated up to. What do you say there, tim? 0:04:45 - Speaker 3 Well, there's a pause. I thought it was a three star album, kind of like all music I felt wasn't really sure. it felt a little bit deluded in a way. to me It felt a little bit, a little bit more generic from what I've heard in the past. But it also felt kind of expected for the whole catalog of albums this band has produced and the timeline going into the late 90s. You know this album felt like full of radio hits but at the same time I was missing a little bit of that raw kind of hip feeling. You know, i was wondering like, should I be okay with this album just being kind of fine? This was the turning point for me. I was really not sure. When I read kind of some reviews about it, i think there was some sentiment, some shared sentiment, and also some people were like it's my favorite album and some hip fans said it's their least favorite album. So this one's kind of a gray area for me. 0:06:00 - Speaker 1 It's funny. Well, I'll get into my, you know, sort of backgrounder on this for you guys after we hear from Pete. Pete, what did you think? 0:06:09 - Speaker 4 I hear you on the gray area, because I could totally see that. I could totally see how some hip fans are like this is the best album they did. Or this is not my favorite album. For me I listen to it everywhere. I listen to it in my office, so for my computer, with some some decent cans, i took it out running a lot. Probably. I think maybe the first time I listened to it was that took it in the car. It sounded great. The thing I found like I would say 3.5 for me, tim, instead of a 3. But you know I feel you on that My initial thoughts were that a lot of rawness of the hip was gone from this. In the first couple of listens it sounded very watered down. It was like somebody pulled Gord Downey aside and said Hey man, can we just like, kind of like the dude, can you, can, you fucking can you take it easy, man, you know, just like. Told him to just like chill out a little bit, and I don't know. The more I listen to it though, the more I dug into it and see how much work maybe not production, but just from the band themselves went into this record maybe changed my tune a lot Like I dig it. And Phantom Power, that was the coolest thing in the 90s, man Like because sometimes you didn't know what it was. If you never heard of Phantom Power before, it has a fucking cool name. If you had a guy that had like a condenser mic or something with Phantom Power, you're like dude, yeah, he's got a mic, that's got a Phantom Power. It was just like fucking. You were 17 and you heard that it was fucking cool. 0:08:00 - Speaker 3 Yeah, you know, i went and looked at a number of albums sold by a bunch of different bands, including the hip, and I was trying to kind of have this try to find this correlation of how many albums sold from the band start to like 10 years later, or 10 albums later, something like that. And I compared the hip with a bunch of bands And it's, it's. It's really all apples, oranges, of course, but when you look at how many albums they've sold and how they, you know, started off selling a ton and then just kind of went down to this million album mark. And then when I heard this album and I like UP, i listened to it all over the place. I listened to it on the plane I traveled, listened to it in the car, listened to it at home with the cans on. I mean I listened to it in more places than past listens because I was really trying to give it a go. I mean, it was the first time, upon first listened, that there were a couple songs where I was like okay, get it, i'm going to go to the next one, like I had not fast forwarded songs, you had her skipped ahead. So this, yeah, but but one of those songs that I skipped ahead on, sorry hip fans. You know I came back to and it's might be one of my most favorite on the album, so this this one like yeah, this one, this one to me like didn't grab me right away. Maybe it will more over time, maybe it's one of those types of albums, but well, i'll tell you what this record has. 0:09:36 - Speaker 1 An interesting, an interesting story, i think, and it it's my own headcanon This is. This is not like actual fact by any stretch, but in my opinion, trouble at the Henhouse, which is one of my absolute favorite records by the Tragically Hip or or or any other band, is, was maligned Like it, it, it, it, it both it and day for night didn't perform as well as fully, completely, and fully completely was very, if you recall, it was very polished, it was very produced. You know they went to London to record it. It was like a big deal. And then, following that, the next two records, they were sort of self-produced, with Mark Vreakin and Mark Howard on day for night and just Vreakin on fully, on Trouble at the Henhouse, and those records are sparse and they are. The core energy is, is there, it's, it's. It's like boiling hot magma, you know, and they're and they're forming these songs that are just age old now and and just wonderful, and then phantom power comes out and phantom power goes back to the like. To me it's sort of back to the back, to the basics. It's like back to really structured songs, really produced, and, like I always said, that this record was the baby of day for night and fully and completely, fully, completely, rather not fully and completely fully. It's sort of the baby of those two records. It's got the, it's got the production values, but it's still got songs. So I'll challenge you guys on that, because I think this record has songs and I think it has songs for days. You know what? 0:11:40 - Speaker 4 you are JD, let me tell you who you are. So when I was like 19 or 18, working with the movie theater, i dated this girl that that worked at the calendar place across the way And I just kind of went out with her because I was like really stoked. She gave me your number But I really wasn't that into her and all my friends were like, dude, she's really hot man, she's really amazing, and I just didn't see it. And so then like I stopped going out with her. We only went out a couple of times and that was that. And then I saw her again. I was like, damn, i really screwed that one up And that's kind of felt with this record, but I didn't want to like make that same mistake again. So like I, i'm sticking with it. I'm sticking with this being a solid album. Yeah, you know, yeah Masked it for, you know, a third and fourth date. 0:12:26 - Speaker 1 Yeah, i think, and I think three out of five stars is fair Like it's not it's not one of my. it's not my favorite record, but it's a lot of hit pants favorite record It's a lot Yeah, yeah. 0:12:39 - Speaker 3 That's that's what I found in my research. The covers are awesome. The covers are great. 0:12:43 - Speaker 1 They have that They actually have that panel in in their studio and bath, which is really cool. Yeah, so that's, you know this is. I want to say this is the second record they recorded at their studio. So they didn't go anywhere, you know, adventurous or anything like that, but they were at home. And what happened in 1998, i don't know if it made news anywhere else but Quebec and Ontario there was a major ice storm, yeah, major ice storm, and in Ontario it, like it absolutely shut down the city of Toronto. It shut down, you know, major thoroughfares. It was like devastating this ice storm. And we'll get into that a little bit more as we talk about the songs. But you know, they bring Berlin in and they're sort of trapped in the studio. You know like during during this, so really fascinating I think. 0:13:43 - Speaker 3 But yeah, it's a go ahead. Did you see this tour? Did you see them play on this tour? You want to hear a story Now? 0:13:52 - Speaker 1 people who listen to the movie and completely heard this. But the hip announced five secret shows that they were going to do, and all proceeds from these shows were going to go to a charity I forget which charity now at the oh, it was Camp Trillium. Camp Trillium, which is a camp for children with cancer, children that have cancer, and there's a location of that is near where I grew up And I'll show you when we, when you're in town for the finale. My friend's parents were on the committee for the cancer camp in our community, and so my friend Heather had intel and she she knew that they were going to go on sale at this time in this place in Hamilton, which is about an hour outside of Toronto, when traffic's good, and so we ended up getting third row center seats Wow, in this small theater in Hamilton, like 2000 people, and they blew the roof off the place. And a band called oh my goodness. They sang, come for a ride. Open for them, and they were tremendous as well. I forget the bands right now who open for them, but if you know it, send me an email. Jd at getting hip to the hipcom. So we're third row center. We watched the show, But the kicker here is is that Heather has got gifts to give the band And it's been arranged with the stage manager that we're going to go backstage afterwards to give. She's going to go backstage afterwards to give these gifts And she ended up inviting me along And so we got to go backstage and I introduced her to the tragic lab. So this was like this was like full circle for the two of us And it was just a wonderful experience. We went backstage after the show and they were all there and Gord had a. Gord Downey had a soccer ball And he was doing that thing where you flip it out, catch it and roll it back in your arms. Flip it out, catch it, roll it back in your arms And he just kept doing that And I remember at one point I must have looked silly or something, because somebody said and maybe it was Gord Downey said is everything all right? And I said, oh, everything is fucking perfect. I could go outside and get hit by a bus right now And it just wouldn't matter. And Gord Downey looked at me and he goes Oh, don't do that, jane. He called me Jane, only my mom calls me Jane. Like it was so cool It was cool. 0:16:37 - Speaker 4 How did I not know the story? How did I not know that you had interactions with Jesus? 0:16:44 - Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, how was this? 0:16:45 - Speaker 4 coming up in episode. What fucking episode are we on. 0:16:48 - Speaker 1 Well, it was Tim asked me the question, yeah. 0:16:50 - Speaker 3 I don't know. We're like 15 minutes in. I think we could just call it. That was good enough. 0:16:55 - Speaker 1 Well, here's the kicker. Here's the kicker. I don't think I told this part on fully and completely, but the kicker is I had been dating a girl all through university and I broke up with her the summer of 98 and sewed my wild oats And this was all toward the end of the summer of 98. And she was in Hamilton to meet me after the show. So I'm backstage with the hip and they go Okay, well, we're going to go to the after party now in the next room over, because this was in the green room or whatever And we're going to go in the after party room and drink some beers. Do you guys want to join us? And I had to say no. I had to say no because my girlfriend was waiting outside for me. Now, in hindsight, what a boner move I made, because I wanted to get back together with her. Totally. It only lasted another two years after that, like I then absolutely blew up, but it was those. Those final two years were awful anyway, like they just weren't, you know, like both of us would agree to that now I'm sure the university years were wonderful, they were, they were great, but those those two years after our break up we're not so good And I blew a chance to go party with the hip. 0:18:15 - Speaker 3 You had a Davis Manning moment. 0:18:18 - Speaker 1 Yes, Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 0:18:22 - Speaker 3 He chose the girl over your fandom. 0:18:25 - Speaker 1 The hip lived between us. 0:18:27 - Speaker 3 They totally lived between you. They might still sorry, sorry, jess. 0:18:38 - Speaker 1 Well, folks, should we go song by song? 0:18:41 - Speaker 3 Yeah, let's do it, let's do it. 0:18:44 - Speaker 4 So I really liked this song. I really liked poets. This is probably the song I would say I have the least to say about. I really like the verse phrasing. I think it's probably the best part of this song, the way he phrases the verses. There's a part where the lines of a verse he kind of like carries into the next measure. It's really weird, like, like, like the mind, you think, okay, you sing the verse, then it's the next measure, but like he sings that verse over there Because it's when you look at it it's a complete line. I can't remember the line specifically, but it was. It was cool man. It's a hard thing to pull off man, but like that guy just does. It was so much, so much finesse. I liked the layered guitars in it, yeah. But I think, going back to what we're saying sort of at the beginning of the top of the show, it was, this song didn't punch me in the face Like right when I, right when I started listening, i dug it. I it was a soft open, it was a soft open. 0:19:59 - Speaker 1 All right, how'd you feel, tim? 0:20:01 - Speaker 3 I felt it was a harder open. I thought it was it. You know this. Like we've talked about before the cadence of songs and track orders. You know the first one I expect to really get me, bring me in, and this one did it. I thought it was pretty good. There's a fun kind of change over into the chorus It again I spoke about this a little bit before, but the kind of remind me of REM in REM's, like first half of the 90's albums, like they come on with like a punch of a song and then, like the cadence of the album kind of goes soft and then gets whoa, got a little dirty there, gets a little bit harder as time evolves. But yeah, this I thought this was a good start off. The themes you know I looked into a little bit of the song's meaning regarding lyrics and you know just talk about agriculture and super farms and like I don't know, ultimately fresh vegetables versus buying frozen and what that means. And this, this is the song that references Gwen Jacobs. Right, you know the story about her JD, and she was this woman who walked into town I think in Ontario topless and it created this whole. I don't have to look into this more, but I'm pretty sure this was the song about the Gwen Jacobs case. So Gwen was a woman who walked through town topless and was arrested and started this whole kind of woman's lib. You know movement with. You know making it okay to cut your lawn without a shirt on, just like the men do. That's kind of where the line in here from Gord comes from. It's a let's see. 0:22:02 - Speaker 1 Oh, that's great Lawn caught by breasted women. 0:22:04 - Speaker 3 Yeah, it's kind of this comment on pushing for women's equality and gender rights. So I thought that was fucking cool And that, to me also, is like really appropriate for the 90s or late 90s, you know it was. we were kind of circling back to, of course, some things we've had in North America before and prior decades. So I thought this song was cool. Again, it really reminded me of REM. I kind of went back and started looking at some of REM's albums and I wish, again, i wish I could know what the band listened to when they were traveling Me too. You know what they were sharing, what albums they were digging. you know if any of them were like Oh my God, did you hear REM's new one? We're going to put it in the the the buses stereo or whatever. Like I wish I could know what was influencing them, because I'm hearing, i'm hearing some some themes for sure. 0:22:57 - Speaker 1 Okay, earlier I was telling you about the ice storm. The next track, something on, was recorded and they literally were trapped in the studio. They were, you know, they couldn't leave the bath house, they couldn't leave the studio in bath. So they did what they do best They wrote a song and there's some lyrical content in there about the ice storm even And I think it's really wonderful lyricism. What did you guys think of something on? 0:23:33 - Speaker 3 I felt like, okay, i read about it, i read about this and I read about the ice storm and you know sounded awful. And for I hate to say this, but to go get stuck in a studio, for me that'd be like the time to really fuck things up, like really experiment. You know, you know, just hopefully somebody shows up with a huge bag of weed and somebody shows up with a bunch of acid and somebody shows up with a shit ton of beer and like this is when you like really go to town to experiment and what do we got out of it? We got like kind of a radio hit. So it was a little surprise to kind of hear the whole story and it just made me realize that maybe for this era, the guys were really I mean, they were at a point to where they could bust out a really good album, you know, and what, for me, that really good album is? like you go to a restaurant and it's like yo, that was a good meal. You know, everything was like satisfactory. 0:24:37 - Speaker 1 Well, yeah, it's a blooming onion man. 0:24:38 - Speaker 3 It's a blooming onion, Yeah, but to get stuck in a studio and ice storm, it's like I personally would want to just start going places. I haven't been before with my band, but you know this one's interesting take. Yeah, this one felt. This one felt a little radio felt a little you too, dave Matthews like splash of John Cougar melon camp or something like I don't know. Man, it felt, i know. I know, i know, i know. 0:25:10 - Speaker 1 And I was a big melon camp guy at one point. 0:25:13 - Speaker 4 But Dave, Matthews are regular. 0:25:16 - Speaker 1 Cougar and regular. 0:25:18 - Speaker 3 Yeah, like I couldn't get overly excited about this one. Well, again. 0:25:26 - Speaker 1 I think you were waiting for the follow up from the follow up to trouble at the house, and this isn't the follow up that you're expecting on a trajectory perspective. You know no no, i agree. 0:25:44 - Speaker 4 It's funny. You talk about getting trapped in the studio, like I mean, i don't know if I'd go like full steely Dan when they recorded the Albuquerque show, where, like you know, there maybe was not that much cocaine around, but I still agree with him, i would. I'd get really spacey, and I think they do it on a couple songs that we'll get into, but first time I heard this song got some heavy Jim Blossom's feels. Yeah yeah, Yes that's the first thing that hit me and I couldn't think of any of the band that it was like a buddy of mine used to play the band that they open for them a ton, and I was like the first band that came to mind like this Oh, and it was really poppy. And okay, my notes. Once you get past the repeated cheesiness of the chord progression and the vocal melody, it's not a bad song. 0:26:40 - Speaker 1 Oh dammit, with faint praise here. No, no, no, it's not a bad song. 0:26:44 - Speaker 4 I think it's a good song, but you know it's a good song. If, like you, take this song and go, is this a good song? Anybody will say it's a good song, but like you, said to me compared to the follow up of what you really wanted after trouble. Then else, and this was a song where I feel like Gord sounded a bit like he was put in the cage Like whoever was a universal when this record was getting recorded, put baby in the corner. And this is a song where really I feel like you know he's, he wants to be himself, but somebody's like, hey, man, just could you like you don't have to do it all the songs, but like at least on this one could you just, fucking, you know, tone it down a little bit. And I was just like, ah, where's my fucking, where's my lead singer. 0:27:33 - Speaker 3 Yeah, I totally agree, Because you know it's still a good song, because it's still all the guys and it still has themes, because it's Gord, you know you're still going to get one liners that are amazing. I feel like probably no matter what in any hip song there's going to be some standout lyric to me, some standout part like to the core fan. That's. That's really what I'm imagining. The line that stood out in this one for me was your imaginations having puppies, I mean yeah, yeah. I've had so many letters of puppies, you guys. It's like I'm just, i've got puppies all over the place. It's like. 0:28:11 - Speaker 4 I was a cool. I really like that one. Yeah, like that, like that video for new recruits or something. 0:28:17 - Speaker 3 Yeah, so I like identified in it. You know, at that personal level, which I think they're able to do just about on any song which is fucking amazing for a band to do, because I could probably name 10 bands right now. What that does not happen to me, yeah, so you know. So, in that regard, like hip fans, you know I'm, i'm I'm not really trying not to be the bad guy here, but we this, this, this just made this song, just made me keep going So into save the planet. I mean, i got to this one, arrived at this one, and I was like, is this the band's fucking Earth Day song? or stretch their reach to get on the farm aid bill, like what is going on here? I felt like I don't know, there's a flute in there. Who's playing the flute? 0:29:09 - Speaker 1 Who plays the flute? You know, i don't. I don't have the liner notes handy And on the wiki page it is remarkably barren in terms of additional players. Yeah, it doesn't, it doesn't have them, so I need people to write in. 0:29:25 - Speaker 3 If people know, let us know, because there's some flute in there And it made me wonder like what else? 0:29:31 - Speaker 1 there's keys all over this record. 0:29:33 - Speaker 3 Yeah, what else have I been missing in the background that maybe other people are participating in? But I felt, like you know this song, in the placement we were, we were filling, we were filling in the gaps on the menu And you're like, no, I had a burger yesterday. No, I'm not in the mood for that. Oh, I could really use some lasagna. Here we go. That's that's how Save the Planet felt, felt very time appropriate. This is, like you know, the millennial song. 0:30:02 - Speaker 1 Okay. 0:30:03 - Speaker 4 All right. So if anybody's got a line on the flute player, email Tim getting hip to the hip, talk there you go. Right, i copy Pete at getting hip Yeah. Save the Planet. I thought it was a banger. I really dug it. I at first I saw that too, but then I kind of look past the name of it And just look at the song itself. There's a. There's two references in this album to Crossing the Street, to pedestrian crossings. Yes, i'll point out the other one. This is the first one Fucking solo bangs in this. I thought the flute at the end was cool because it was so random. 0:30:47 - Speaker 3 I was like well, what the fuck is that? Yeah? 0:30:50 - Speaker 4 Same. 0:30:52 - Speaker 1 There's. You just can't imagine listening to road apples and having a flute right Like. It's just not part of this band. You know like and and and it works It works well, no, right? 0:31:05 - Speaker 4 Yeah, you know, if they went into that I'd be like, well, what the fuck's going on? 0:31:10 - Speaker 3 But I'll just quickly, quickly add that I'm okay with the flute. Like sometimes, the flute really is awesome. Oh, i think it's great. So you know, like some people like hear the flute and they're like oh why You know, but it works. 0:31:24 - Speaker 4 No, i dug it And this is again. This is not the first song, or not the only song in this record where I got some heavy Alanis vibes. The phrasing on if the bathwater is clear and my ears underwater, it's a tolerant hum from the core. Carry the water Like that the way he phrases that shit, it's just. I don't know if I see because it's a Canadian band, if I see everything through the lens of like Canadian pop artists. But like it's just the vibe I got from this and it's a great tune to get out and move your feet to get running. It's a fucking cool song to run. 0:32:09 - Speaker 3 All right, i'll put it on my point first I hear your Alanis vibes marry and up with my Michael Stipe vibes. I think those are in sync for sure, for sure. 0:32:20 - Speaker 1 I think there's a nice correlation between the hip and REM, like I think you're right, like they both have that enigmatic front man, you know, who is really literate and really interesting in the way they sort of phrase things and put things together. 0:32:39 - Speaker 4 They both went bold too, halfway through the careers, that's right, that's a fair point. 0:32:45 - Speaker 1 Fair point, fair point, all right, we're getting in the car right now and we are cruising northeast of here and we're going to Bob Cajun. I left your house this morning. 0:33:40 - Speaker 7 It was quarter after nine. I left your house this morning. I left your house this morning. I drove back to town this morning This morning with working on my mind, i thought I'd maybe try to leave an ear behind. I went back to bed this morning and it's time pulling down the blind. Yeah, the sky was dull, it was high but never come. And morning went down at a time that night in Toronto And I was jacking boardboards, riding on horseback and keeping order restored. Tell the men they couldn't hide. Step to the mic and sign and their voices rang with the area of time. To your house this morning. It was quarter after nine. In the middle of that riot I couldn't get you off of my mind. To your house this morning. It was just a little hour tonight Cause it was in my page on the rossard and constellation, but they themselves won't starve at time. To your house this morning It's a little after nine Cause it was in my page on the rossard and constellation, but they themselves won't starve at time. 0:37:32 - Speaker 5 Tell the men they couldn't hide, they didn't choose your bones and bones. They're all south of the wind and down the lawn to the lake For as long as it takes. 0:38:05 - Speaker 7 I don't want to be a hill of the birds last hour. I don't want the last words out of my mouth to be stained Out of my way. 0:38:16 - Speaker 4 Okay, I fucking love this tune. I got some heavy and Tim, yes or yes. If I hear no, I'm just I'm off this podcast Got some really strong G love special sauce vibes from this. Yes, Just the way they owe up. Am I my GD? 0:38:42 - Speaker 1 I don't know, i think I think I'm very familiar. 0:38:46 - Speaker 3 I did not go there, but I will Okay. 0:38:51 - Speaker 4 Right, i mean the. there's a oh dude that it could have been Willie, could have been the wine. I heard that song. The first time I heard that song I was. I took it out for a run and I came home and I like I listened to it again because I just thought it was such a good fucking song, because it's a weed. reference to may not necessarily be about them listening to Willie Nelson. It's like they were smoking weed or they were drinking wine, absolutely Yeah. The opening, like spacey guitar licks The dobro which I think he's playing. there's a dobro in there that he's playing which kind of gets sort of like a banjo slash guitar vibe. Oh God, just. 0:39:40 - Speaker 1 I feel like that lyric that you just quoted, though, could have been the Willie Nelson, could have been the wine. That's like one, like when he wrote that he should have just put the book down, put on a fedora, long overcoat, grabbed his briefcase, just went home for the day, that's. That's the days. That's the day at the office, that's a fucking. Exactly. 0:40:00 - Speaker 4 That's just a great lyric Exactly dude, no, 100%, it's so good. I was like you know. You know, a line is a good line when you hear it and it's so good you think you've heard it before. Meaning like I'm like right, i mean because it just sounds like it belongs on this in the history of life, Like like someone has, like if someone hadn't said it, they sure as shit should have said it. Does that make sense? Yeah, you know, it sounds like it's just. It's a great fucking line. I thought I maybe quit that line. It's just. It's really the part of this song where Gord starts coming out of the cage. On this record, i feel like that was the moment Somebody gave, somebody unlocked the door of the cage and he's starting to come out, and then the song ends on a random minor chord, which is so weird, it's such a happy, spacey song that ends on this minor chord. 0:41:09 - Speaker 3 I loved that. I loved that about it. So for me this one it felt a little Out of the gates. I need to listen to the beginning of it to see your G-Love reference. But out of the gates. It felt to me a little bit country and a little bit like are we reaching again for some crossover fans Along? the southern belt of the US. Like where are we? What's happening here? You know there's some slide guitar, but is it a song about lost love? You know looking up at the stars waiting for a reveal. You know there's synth work in here again, so there's some sort of keyboard happening, which is fucking cool. And to me, the first lesson I had all those kind of questions going through my head And then I thought at one moment like this is actually a fucking beautiful song. Like it's a little bit of an odd man out on the album, but it's actually a beautiful song. There's this long ending with no singing. It's just mysterious. Like you said, pete, the last five seconds or so, or this just bizarre tune out. It's like I found one quote when Gord was asked about this song. He said this was an interview in 2004,. He said this one asks the question evil in the open or evil just below the surface? That was his comment about this song. So it's like this song to me was super mysterious Yeah, super mysterious song which I fucking love, like I don't need literal storytelling every single song you know. Social themes, i don't know all these different things, i don't need that. Every single song I love you know kind of the knuckleball that comes in. You're like whoa okay, this is reeling me back in to the album in a good way, a way that I'm looking for, you know, i'm hoping for, but still, again, this one felt a little bit odd, man, just the way it fits into the album. They've done this before. They've gotten. 0:43:15 - Speaker 4 They lose green man. 0:43:16 - Speaker 3 Yeah, they've gone on this path of like okay, this one, now we're going to turn off the highway and head down this two-lane road and we're going to stop at this farm and we're going to have an afternoon barbecue with this family, and you know, i don't know, like it's just this one's off the highway. 0:43:35 - Speaker 1 Cool. What do you guys think of the bridge? It makes my arm hair stand up That night in Toronto with the checkerboard floors. There's a bar in Toronto that's famous legendary in fact called the Horseshoe and that references the Horseshoe, the checkerboard floors. Oh shit, that's one of the first big gigs they played in Toronto. 0:43:55 - Speaker 4 Can I get taken to that bar when I come visit Toronto? 0:43:57 - Speaker 1 Absolutely. Let's do it. Sure shit hopes so man. 0:44:00 - Speaker 4 That would be cool. This song is actually the most listened to hip song on Spotify. 0:44:07 - Speaker 1 Oh, wow Yeah. 0:44:09 - Speaker 3 Surpasses. I read something about that as well. 0:44:13 - Speaker 4 What was the one that it surpassed? 0:44:16 - Speaker 1 I can't remember Anyway yeah Well, so it's a hit all around Pop Cage. 0:44:21 - Speaker 3 Yeah, it was a fucking interesting song, right? This is. 0:44:25 - Speaker 1 So we shift gears now in a well, not in a huge way, because this is sort of low tempo or slower tempo. We go to Thompson Girl and you're both hesitating to start Thompson Girl. 0:44:41 - Speaker 4 Go ahead Tim. 0:44:42 - Speaker 3 Yeah, well, you know what's the story about here. I don't know. It's the story potentially about where is it here, This town in Manitoba, thompson, yeah, or it's. You know it's potentially about a nickel mining company up there. You know it's got this kind of sweet, forlorn grunt work somewhere between dream and duty, poking through with all them shoots of beauty. I mean, what is that about? You know, this is kind of a cute, in a way stripped down acoustic song. There's some banjo in there. You know, i've kind of been waiting for, I had been waiting for this type of stripped down, simpler song that you know it's kind of this forlorn, sad song to me at the same time. 0:45:42 - Speaker 1 Probably Pete. 0:45:44 - Speaker 4 I loved it. I thought it was cool. I think I don't know if it's consistent with you and I, tim, but like I really try not to look too deep into the lyrics because oftentimes I'm disappointed, that's why I don't do it. I know you do it a lot more than I do I totally do. 0:46:03 - Speaker 3 I mean it's because of Gord, like Gord Gord. for me, gord merits it. 0:46:09 - Speaker 4 I get intrigued though, but like dude so does. I mentioned Celie Daner earlier. Like Donald Fagan's lyrics are notoriously cool as fuck. But have you ever asked that guy like what he you know what's, what's the meaning of? you know Dr Woo or whatever, like he'll be, like I don't know man, we're on so much cocaine. Back in the day I was just getting shipped to prime or whatever you know like, and I know that's not really the case here. But that line, the way he goes up so high with grunt work, i can't. I'm not even gonna fucking try lest I fucking destroy your listener base JD by singing that line. But when he goes grunt work time between dream and duty the melody is so fucking good It's then there's a part. Um, i don't know if it's like, i don't know, i wouldn't call it the bridge, but it is a bit of a some sort of key change to the regular chord progression. When he goes really high and then the mandolin starts to come in fucking dug that. And then the piano kind of comes in at the end as well, it's fucking cool. I really dig it. Yeah, i liked it First. I didn't like it. I didn't like the chord progression. It just seemed to like, like you said, tim, acoustic. It's sending, like it was like this should be an acoustic song. 0:47:30 - Speaker 3 Keep it that way. Yeah, yeah. But then it grew on me real quick, which is maybe something I would potentially envision. From a stuck in the studio couple days, you know, you'd get to a point to where everybody's kind of burned out and you pick up the acoustic and somebody says to the piano and you talk about is it INCO, inco and the fucking nickel mining, and I, you know, i looked at it a little bit into that in Manitoba and was like, oh geez, here's, here's a historical. You know, just rabbit hole that I can't go down right now. But it just this, to me, is just one of those, one of those songs that fits in well with this whole album And it's something we haven't really had in the past. So it's kind of happy to hear it. Next one membership Who's who's singing backups Somebody found, is it Gord Is? 0:48:28 - Speaker 1 it Gord over. Usually it's Paul Angla, usually Well. 0:48:32 - Speaker 3 I don't think it's Paul. It might be doubled. If you, if you go in and listen again, check out membership and listen to the backups, because it sounds like a woman to me and it sounds really familiar, like I've heard this voice before And I've looked and looked and looked but I can't find anything. It might be one of the guys, just you know, editing it in post or something, i don't know. But there's, there's some beautiful backup happening. This one, though you know it's wasn't my favorite on the album, i'm not going to put it on the playlist There's kind of a big change after the three minute mark with, like this new chorus. Of course it has my fade out at the end. You know there's there's kind of this bigger start to the song, but it's kind of slow in a way. I don't know. It's maybe about addiction, it's kind of a ballad. you know this, this one, it just felt like it didn't really fit in, didn't really wasn't really sure how it was working and it it made me consider you know I've done this a few times that it made me consider the band and what they were feeling you know they're coming in on 2000 here What they were feeling after 10 years, which is long for any band to retain some amount of success 10 years of playing and predominantly being popular in their home country and not even gaining a huge you know the level they deserved in the neighboring USA. So this this kind of made me think about all those things. I just didn't know if it was like about power abuse of power addiction or longing loss, i don't know. This song was kind of all over the map for me, but ultimately the chorus bugged me and it stuck in my head for a little while. I was like, oh, i need, i need some other, i need some other hip song stuck in my head and that's kind of where, honestly, that's where, like blow a high dough, just comes and takes over my brain. So that's what happened. 0:50:50 - Speaker 4 on membership, I you know I have a ton to say about this song. It's kind of like I put in the same categories Poets. It wasn't my favorite song in the record. I liked it, felt it like it was a very drone rock with a chord progression. It's the way it sounded. I love the harmonies. Tim mentioned the harmonies being drawn along by it. Like that line with the harmonies come in The middle, guitar solo where they kind of tease you with the guitar solo helps build the song kind of cool. But then, yeah, the fade out at the end is just like to me. It felt like they maybe didn't have, they didn't nail everything down with this one. That's all I'll say, you know, but yeah we can move on if you want, let's slide over to fireworks. 0:51:46 - Speaker 7 You like fireworks? Yeah, me neither. The frustrating part Never back in old 72 Without school, just a gun, without a gun or trigger. I don't remember a reason. Set me sight of you. You said I couldn't get a fuck about the party. Never heard something true back before You held my hand. We were on the long way Loosing in my grip on Bobby Moore. Never heard anything wrong before I blushed. When these ever sensations get in your way, no doubt this shit me spurred right now By your shoulder, and that an amazing what you can't accomplish now I'm not together every single moment. That's what we thought. We'd be married. We both do deep with the grip of art, of fish chaos, believing in the country, me and you. Christ has a faith in Christ, the sinner cramming Yeah, we've heard all this before It's winter time. The house is solid to the bones, loosing in our grip on this fake cold war. Is it an amazing and a better accomplish When we don't let no nation get in our way? No doubt this shit me spurred right now By your shoulder, and that an amazing what you can't accomplish now, next to your comrades in the nation of fitness, the program regarding some eternal past time, clopping to the mind in a fit of laughter, showing no patience, no tolerance, no respect By your words, next to the distance, contemplating towering, towering star By your words. And in late, never, till there are no stars anymore By your words. And in, straight in heaven, contemplating towering, towering star, till there are no stars shining up in heaven, till there are no stars anymore. Isn't it an amazing and a better accomplish When we don't let no nation get in our way? No doubt this shit me spurred right now By your brand of error, shining up in heaven, contemplating towering, towering star. I think this one thing never goes away And this ones thing's always supposed to stop. Oh, this funny thing doesn't have to go away, and I'm gonna lie. 0:55:41 - Speaker 4 Oh fuck, How much time you got, then Fucking song, this song, i just have the word. It's this fucking rush, rush, rush, rush, rush. Just so much rush in this song. Really, there's a couple of rush references on this record and this is number one. I would say that is it. Gord Sinclair, yeah, so like and I think he would agree with me, because I don't know that I don't know any bass player in Canada, let alone the entire world, would put them up against Geddy Lee. So I can't like, true, Like. I don't think the bass in this song was supremely rushed, but the chord progression, the structure of the song, the lyrics, isn't it amazing? anything's accomplished Is fucking. It's so fucking dude, it's fucking rush, completely Fucking. It's like they should have just made a record with one song on it and sent it to Rush and been like this is for you guys, we love you guys. And dude, i'm not saying anything remotely like they jocked anything. It's an homage in the sweetest sense. It's fucking beautiful. I fucking listened to the song so many times. There's I don't know if he's playing a Les Paul or a Hamer Rob Baker, but it's got some hollow tone electric guitar. There's a line in there Christ in the Kremlin. I'm fucking. The words in this song are fucking spectacular. I bet it just destroyed. Destroyed. The crowd live Like. I mean if they played this fucking live you'd have to close with this or I don't know what you'd play with this. I mean it's just fuck. What's the other line Next year? comrades in the National Fitness Program caught in some external flex arm hang dropping the mat. Dude the lot. This that the way he speeds up that verse and fits all those fucking words into that, and then he goes back to the normal cadence, like when I say cadence I mean like the tempo, not a modal cadence, but like tempo. He goes back to that. I just bet when they, when they all listened to this track after it was mixed, or they all recorded everything, they all just fucking high-fived and hugged each other and had a big old fucking circle 100% Yeah. Dude, it's a fucking. It's one of my favorite fucking hip songs period. 0:58:23 - Speaker 3 Oh, you know what they. You know what they said after they recorded this. They were like this is going to be an every jukebox across Canada. I mean, it's a jukebox song. I mean, really, this is like play something by the tragically hip. Okay, i'm at the jukebox. Stick in a quarter. Oh, here's fireworks. Everybody loves this song. You know, that's that's. I couldn't agree more, pete. I just felt like this could be put on a seven inch only and out in the world. You know it was one of the first songs in a while where, like, i immediately just started snapping my fingers. It was like, okay, this, this song's, this song's moving. I completely agree with the rush references I love. I so identified with this girl. There was actually a girl who said she didn't give a fuck about hockey. I never heard a girl swear and I've never heard someone say that before. It was like there was some whole other world out there which is hard to fathom at times. I don't follow hockey. I totally identify with this. When I go on Facebook and it's like near the weekend it's mostly fucking NFL comments from people I know in Southern California. It's like, god damn, i wish I had a sports filter on my life because I don't really follow any sports. So the hockey the hockey comment, i was like yes, i, i want to hang out with you, let's go drink beers. You know, i probably follow that. It's whatever I just I just identify with that part, it's. You know this, though, you're right, pete, isn't it amazing you could do anything when the notion isn't in your way, believing in the country of me, and you, ah, you know, it's just, it's, it's, this is, it's more. It's more than an anthem. 1:00:17 - Speaker 4 You know, the crazy is so it's so, Getty Lee, though man. 1:00:21 - Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. What's? 1:00:24 - Speaker 4 this, it's, it's spirit of the radio. Okay. That's the song thing you have in so many ways. Yeah, i mean, and I don't think any musician in the band would say like they can you know drum? like Neil Pert? I think the guitar is pretty. It's got some solid Alex life and vibes. like you could fucking compare that guitar wise. but like bass and drums, you can't fucking come close to those, like it's just. but sorry, tim, i didn't mean to interrupt you, but it's just a fucking. 1:00:55 - Speaker 3 That's good. Good, it's such a JD. What JD, what? what were your thoughts on the song? Do you have, do you have memories of hearing the song, or anything, or like? 1:01:03 - Speaker 1 I think it's, I think it's a romantic song, Like. I think it's like the firework of like meeting somebody that is just, you know, absolutely the sparkle of your eye, you know, sort of thing. The context, to give you some context, the goal that he's talking about, the goal that everyone remembers, is when Canada beat the Soviets in 1972. And that was, that was during the Cold War. So it was a big deal, that series, Canada playing hockey against Russia. you know a few games here in Canada and a few games in Moscow. It was a big deal, Like for these Canadian hockey players to go to Russia. Like at that time Russia was so mysterious And there was a very famous goal that won the series by Paul Henderson that everyone remembers. It's one of those moments in Canada, the, if you're of the right age or generation I'm not, I'm born in 74. So it's over my head, But if you were there then it's one of those like you know where you were moments. you know what I mean. 1:02:10 - Speaker 3 It's huge huge moment in sports history. 1:02:13 - Speaker 1 So for him to be just blown away. Like you know, loosening my grip on Bobby Orr, like I just picture, the 16 year old who's in love with Bobby Orr has the hockey cards on the wall, you know, he's just tremendous and all of a sudden he just oh, there's girls out there. Oh, and there's this particular girl who doesn't give a fuck about what, like whoa fireworks, you know. 1:02:40 - Speaker 3 Yeah, great song, Great song. This. yeah, I could have had this song, you know, and had a satisfied meal and went to bed. 1:02:49 - Speaker 1 You and your food All right. Go next to vapor trails. 1:02:58 - Speaker 3 So vapor trails, like I started this one and paused and had to come back to it, i didn't keep going like this, this, this, this was one of the breaks. And now for me, where I was like, okay, i'm not, either not in it enough or not focused enough, let's come back to it and didn't hold your attention. He would not not at the get go, but eventually it did. Oh, eventually it did bring me in. It totally was one of those songs that I wasn't so sure about, but over time was like humming it while walking around the house. You know, there's just to me it has some mysticism to it. There's this mysterious not to say it again but backup singer, whoever is in there. I mean there's some really good backup singing happening, but I just love some of the lyrics. There's nothing uglier than a man hitting a stride. 1:04:00 - Speaker 1 What a great lyric, right Dude And just the way he says it as well. There's nothing uglier than a man hitting a stride, yeah. 1:04:09 - Speaker 3 I can't wait to use that some point in life. You know, watching something happen, yeah, chords, use that line, throw away the rudder, float away, like they portrayals. You know, i get this. It's like, it's this feeling of like giving up. You know, at some point we all, everyone, i think everyone has contemplated, you know, life being different or serious change, or giving up, or you know, we've all had these heavy times in our lives and maybe the song kind of hits on that. There's amazing guitar riffing just towards four minute mark. It felt, you know, just to kind of wrap it up. For me it felt like a produced ending. You know, the fade out was like it wasn't just let's wrap the song up, let's just fade it out, it was like let's produce the fade out. So it was a little, i don't know a little more, a little more orchestrated. But yeah, it's, this song is. This song was a banger. I think it was really good for the spot in the album. I think it was like really fitting. 1:05:27 - Speaker 1 Yeah, because we're well into the second side now. Yeah yeah. Second track, second side, if you're playing by those roles, It has a good place, good place in the album. What do you think of APR Trail's Pete? 1:05:39 - Speaker 4 Well, this is the other thing that I thought was it's not. It's not a Rush reference, but I actually think there's a possibility that Rush's 2001 record Vapor 12, vapor Trails was perhaps, maybe, an homage to Tragically Hip. Wow, i don't know, that's my, that's my in my dream world. I don't know if that's really true, but and I saw them on that tour and they were fucking just amazing. Saw them at the Irvine Meadows man. 1:06:18 - Speaker 1 Such a great show. 1:06:19 - Speaker 4 Never saw. 1:06:20 - Speaker 1 Rush. I was supposed to see Rush on a tour in 93 and guess who was opening for them? Who, tragically Hip Jesus Christ. Wow, on Road Apples. Yeah, dude. 1:06:30 - Speaker 4 I don't know what's a bigger fail That or not partying with them. 1:06:34 - Speaker 1 Oh God, it's the, that's the, that's the fail. 1:06:36 - Speaker 3 They're close. Not partying, I think. 1:06:39 - Speaker 4 Well, we, let's put it this way, we, we, we showed to that concert, i think, and they were they, we were at that time. It's strange, real quick, because I know. but during that time, because 2001 was coming out of the Napster years and years, right And into, like I think it was right where the iPods came out, um, so people started buying music online again, sort of. So bands didn't have money to pay for opening bands during that time, so a lot of bands would tour and be like who's opening? And like there's nobody opening. So we assumed that somebody was opening, for Rush happened to me with pavement one time, but that's another story Um, and we walked, we're, we're racing through the parking lot Because we hear a spirit of the radio, but right into Red Bar Chat after that and just fucking made my, made my life. But to the song. Paper Trails. Um, the fucking vocal melody in the opening verse same. I got the same cadence, Tim. I don't know if you mentioned this as Thompson girl. Um, but the song I loved it. I imagine when they sung this song live, that when Gord sings the line you can throw away the rudder. He probably blows out either part of the low end or part of the mid end frequencies in the fucking speakers at this this, this house, his voice is just at that frequency where, if he really punches it like he could, he could break. He could break some fucking windows, because it's, it's just fucking just the way he delivers that shit. Throw away the rudder, um, uh, what else? Yeah, just that line to me was worth buying the fucking record. Pulled the car over. There's nothing uglier. Yeah. Then a man hitting his stride. Yeah, there's a transition from the bridge back to the chord progression. That's super abrupt And it's so cool because there's no transition. It's just like boom, boom, they go right back into the chord progression and it's fucking cool. I'm not, can't think of any band that I've heard do that. And then the last thing is the line, and it's it's. It's maybe Rob Baker, i don't know who's singing the backup, but Mexicans dressed in beige shirts Crazy line, yeah. 1:09:16 - Speaker 1 Yeah, I've never heard that Mexicans dressed in beige shirts. 1:09:19 - Speaker 4 It's. It's like almost whispered. 1:09:25 - Speaker 3 Wow references you know references, folks who spend their life picking the strawberries and raspberries. 1:09:31 - Speaker 1 We, i believe, Yeah, I would guess so. 1:09:37 - Speaker 3 I believe it does So yeah. 1:09:39 - Speaker 4 Are we going to? 1:09:40 - Speaker 1 rules. You got it, dude. 1:09:48 - Speaker 4 I love the song. It was so fucking cool and so chill. This starts out with those huge cymbal crashes in the beginning. This is the second song in the record that references a pedestrian crossing, talks about a crossing guard not doing their job. 1:10:04 - Speaker 1 So yeah, it's really reference of and the second reference of super farmer. Uh-huh Right. 1:10:11 - Speaker 3 In that same in that same Stan's line. Got some agricultural themes happening. Probably the third agricultural theme. 1:10:21 - Speaker 4 Yeah, I don't know I just the phrasing was beautiful. I'm wondering what a bard is. B-a-r-d. 1:10:28 - Speaker 3 There's a couple of references with that. One is it has to do with a Shakespeare reference. 1:10:35 - Speaker 1 That's what I thought, yeah. 1:10:36 - Speaker 3 Yeah, and then the other one is I'm not going to butcher it, the other one has to do with fighting. I have to look it up. 1:10:46 - Speaker 1 Let's just go with Shakespeare. 1:10:48 - Speaker 3 Yeah, it's some Shakespeare reference. 1:10:52 - Speaker 4 And then to the line about the vacuum's got a guarantee. I just that line hooked me in so much because it was so random that I was like really in just pay super close attention to what he said. And the next line that he delivers, which is it could suck a virus, an ancient virus from the sea, is like what the like again put on the hat, put on your jacket, close the briefcase. Fucking. Done your job today. 1:11:23 - Speaker 1 Leave the office, gordon, that's right Punch out or whatever. 1:11:27 - Speaker 4 The whole, that whole stand is fucking amazing. There's a table slide And then oh, by the way, this song, and fuck, there was one other song. God damn this song. and one other song at the record. on the record It's earlier. I want to say it may be something on or say the planet. at the very end of it You hear the word somebody in the studio is cool. Yeah, so it doesn't feel so and there was one other two, one other song on the record that they did, so I was like they did that twice. 1:12:05 - Speaker 1 That's cool. I'm going to need access to your premium sound system. 1:12:10 - Speaker 4 Well, I mean GD, that's. We know this is not stuff we just hand on. It's kind of like you know top secret Clarence, There's a lot involved, A lot of screaming All right, all right, all right. 1:12:22 - Speaker 3 He passed. He's done it. Yes, true, yes, we're adjourning my current, for he's had it. Yeah, i heard the song and I thought Pete loves this song so much And when we come talk about it on the pod it's going to be all Pete. 1:12:43 - Speaker 1 You know how much to say. 1:12:44 - Speaker 3 I thought it was kind of a yonder. I got you know some, some from it, But you know I was like this. The song isn't for me. I thought it was kind of a yonder. I was going to leave it to Pete. 1:12:58 - Speaker 1 We're going to come back in a year because it's going to be a grower for you. I guarantee this song will be a grower for you. 1:13:04 - Speaker 3 If it's not, you guys both have to buy me beers. I can live with that, Yeah, yeah. 1:13:11 - Speaker 1 Okay. Well then let's slide into Sugar and Falls Ohio. 1:13:15 - Speaker 4 Take it Timbo. 1:13:17 - Speaker 3 Yeah, so Sugar and Falls. So this song I thought was basically a huge fuck off to corporate man, to the man. I thought this is like. This song is driving some culture into the fan base. It's probably, you know, was played a lot on the radio. I thought this one you know I could be wrong, but this song to me felt like on the verge of angry a little bit more than usual. I'd maybe really wonder about it live, if this got more raucous, if it got a little bit more I don't know violent feeling. And I think it's because it thematically, which is where I'm going to go, not so much with music on this one, but thematically it Sugar and Falls, in my research. That's the headquarters of Clear Channel, which at the time Clear Channel Corporation was slowly taking over media, especially North America. Yeah, so that's a lot of the references to Grand Falls. You know where the unknown won't even go. Because at this point I mean that line to me says if you're an artist and you're trying to make it like, avoid your Grand Falls, avoid Clear Channel, you know, be careful with what radio you're sending your tapes to your CDs to like this. This is that song that is kind of the band's shout to the world of, you know, corporate media is taking over the airwaves, you know, be aware So that that to me the song has like a mission. It felt like the first time I listened to it. When I got to you know, three quarters, two thirds of the way through, i thought is this song like over five minutes? you know it felt long, but it didn't feel long in a bad way, like it felt like a good, just a really well written song. Like I was kind of digging through Grand Falls, it felt like a five minute song, but it's not a five minute song. I didn't look up live versions of it but I definitely want to find something. 1:15:47 - Speaker 1 Yeah, get the answers to your questions. I can't, unfortunately, answer because I saw them on that tour and I don't remember if they played it, but I can't. 1:15:57 - Speaker 3 It was somewhat rare. I feel like it was probably going to be a rare rarely. 1:16:01 - Speaker 1 Yeah, it would be one that would be, you know, gosh. Well, let me just quickly look up how many times they played it. 1:16:09 - Speaker 3 I mean for people that don't know, Clear Channel took over corporate. I mean took over FM radio. Over time, like so many stations became Clear Channel stations and became programmed. And I remember hearing the transition because, as a big radio listener, being bored in 71, you know, i listened to radio for like 20 years, 15 at least, 20 years and they just completely took over And I remember hearing DJs demeanor changing from independent radio station to now being put into this box And I feel like that's what the band is trying to talk about in this song And I think it's their fuck you to this corporate system of being in a band and trying to make it and just to inspire people to be independently minded. 1:17:08 - Speaker 4 Yeah, it's funny you mentioned Clear Channel only because I want to talk about the song, because I feel a little bit different about the song in some ways than you do, tim, and it's funny, like Tim, i didn't do fucking a pubic here. The research you did for this fucking song. I had to look up where Chagrin Falls was but, and I dug it. But yeah, that's when there used to be a great station in classic rock station in LA called Arrow 93. And they went over to that Jack. You know that Jack format Jack FM, which is just, it's just a guy who like record something and it's like a cheesy line and he comes in every every three or four songs and says something There's no DJ, it's just, it's just music, that's, you know, topping the charts that day and it fucking sucks. It's why radio is dead. But the song itself Huge, huge again. Alanis, beginning that fucking downbeat, the way the song starts, i thought it's crazy. you said it's not, it wasn't something. they went to live a lot because I thought this song would have fucking killed life. Maybe because the because of the subject matter they thought, oh remember, being too political, people aren't going to be into it. But the fucking song is the internal Mel. There's this weird thing going on with these. There's these internal melodies in the song where there's like it's not like harmonies, it's like two different melodies going on like DNA, and it wraps up to make this fucking beautiful code. that is the song. And there's a record. I don't know if it's a record scratch or he's scratching like the low E string of the guitar. Did you hear that? I mean, could have been the premium sound system in the car, which I'm willing to bet that it is in the line. Could have been the Willie, but no, there's definitely some record scratching or some sort of scratching that goes on in the song. 1:19:16 - Speaker 3 I'll try to catch that. 1:19:19 - Speaker 4 The no profound sound that build and then his voice gets all fucking echoey And then really got some Jerry Cantrell vibes from the fucking the harmonies in there from Allison Chains, like just I don't know if that was who was doing the harmonies on that one. 1:19:37 - Speaker 1 But super high, super cool, fucking again. Typically it's Paul, typically like early on it's Gord Sinclair, but then later on it becomes Paul. I looked up the show that I saw it was the one that I saw in Hamilton. It was Saturday, July 4th 1998. They played the entirety of Phantom Power. They played 21 songs on the show, The entirety of Phantom Power. They did play Sugar and Falls. It was the third time they'd ever played it and they played it a total of 127 times. To put that in perspective for you New Orleans is sinking. They played 831 times. 100th Meridian they played 756 times. 1:20:20 - Speaker 3 Head by essentially 693. 1:20:22 - Speaker 1 So, yeah, definitely a rarer song. 1:20:25 - Speaker 3 Okay, that's crazy, cool, cool, All right. Do you remember hearing Sugar and Falls on the radio? Was it a radio? 1:20:35 - Speaker 1 No, it was not, it wasn't a single. This next track was a single, though, and that's strange to me It's strange, Really Yeah me too. Same here 5 minutes, 5 minutes, 52 seconds, that's a long. That's a long ass single. 1:20:50 - Speaker 3 It is, but I love it. The first time I heard this was another one I got to and I was like, ah, save it for later. I'm getting to this point, pete, you talked about this or drinking a lot of hip kool-aid, you know it's like. Oh my God, i'm starting to burp here a little bit And Escape is at the hand of the Trav for the Travel of Man and I got to it and I thought, okay, 5 minute song, i'm at the end, let's just see what Emperor Penguin's all about. But I, of course, came back to it and I came back to it and I came back to it and I thought Travel of Man song. I thought this song could be like its own book. I was at the hand of the Travel of Man. Oh, you're going to play two more. I'll play two more, nice. Welcome to Escape Center Trav of Man. 1:21:58 - Speaker 6 Someone was written down after meeting a gentleman named Jalison. He brought out a man called Material Issue out of Chicago And we met up with a CMJ conference back in the day in New York. You know like nine vans a night And they were on just before us and he was really sick with the cold and they'd driven all night in the van And he was planning on sleeping in the van that night in the cold And Paul and I invited him up tomorrow to stay and he did And we never saw him again And we already died. A few years ago. We wrote this song, Jalison. 1:23:06 - Speaker 7 It was our third time in New York, your fourth time in New York. We were fifth, sixth on the bill. We talked a little about your band. We talked a little about your future plans. It's not like we were best friends. The number scheme comes back to me. Time to be on, and part B. We hung around till the final band. They're called escape as a hand, the traveling man, the building my air. This music speaks to me. Once they launched into lonely, from rock and roll, from a bad day, checked out an hour ago, closing with all desires turned concrete, those melodies come back to me. Time to be on. And part B Jalison till the slow, jalison till the slow. But you said anytime. All the devil's mind. You said anytime. Jalison till the slow. I walked through your revolving door, got no answer up in 704. The elevator gave a long moon. The pigeons sacked the wire with their weight. Listening to the singing chamber maid, she sang. they checked out an hour ago. The melody may cease to be. Time to be on. and part B. 1:26:20 - Speaker 5 Jalison till the slow, jalison till the slow. But you said anytime. 1:26:40 - Speaker 7 Jalison till the slow, but you said anytime. Jalison till the slow, but you said anytime. Jalison till the slow. 1:27:57 - Speaker 3 Jalison till the slow, but you said anytime Jalison till the slow, but you said anytime. Jalison till the slow, but you said anytime. Jalison till the slow, but you said anytime. Jalison till the slow. What else It's about building that? 1:29:46 - Speaker 1 What do you think of that? Like all these bands and all these songs that this band has created. Like I want a cover band to come out or we should do a pod list for this podcast, but you have to be one of these bands mentioned in this song and the song that you write has to be one of the songs that like somebody needs to write. They checked out an hour ago. Yeah, like what is that song? 1:30:11 - Speaker 3 Yeah. Like that overall it's kind of a heartbreaking song. Yeah. But you know it was one that I for this album. It was one of the few that I kind of went back and dove into and went back and dove into and really dug Like it could have. In a way the album could have ended here for me. 1:30:33 - Speaker 1 Okay. 1:30:34 - Speaker 3 Tell us It's good Yeah. 1:30:38 - Speaker 4 Yeah, i mean I think Tim said most of it. I really like the line. it's not like we were best friends. Yeah, it's just fucking. it's a sad tune. It kind of kills me a little bit. 1:30:53 - Speaker 3 Yeah. 1:30:54 - Speaker 4 You know thinking about what this song, who this song is referring to and like he killed himself, correct, he committed suicide. Right, right, right. I like the tune. I thought it was. The word play was awesome. I love the keyboards in it. I kind of feel the same way as it, like this would have been a good one to end it on, but you know you said most of it, tim. I'll leave it there. I'll leave it there. 1:31:26 - Speaker 3 Yeah, i love that. 1:31:28 - Speaker 1 You guys are killing me here. I want to hear what you love, and then I'll go back to what I was going to say. 1:31:33 - Speaker 3 No, i was just going to kind of wrap on my end with the fact that I love how this song made me think about relationships Maybe think about relationships that I have, that you know I would love to make stronger and add, give more time to, but it kind of fucking doesn't matter. You know, like it reminds me of people I know that I could hang out with tomorrow or I could hang out with them in like 20 years, and it, like I said, it reminds me of meeting, meeting artists who I adore. You know there was a there's this club in Portland. I was at um sing, some bands play and I'm standing there in line in the keyboardist of the band to stand in front of me And I don't know a ton about this person. But you know it just got to the point where it's like what the fuck do you say to somebody who you kind of adore and you know a little bit about? and in essence it kind of doesn't matter if you're not really going to see them again. You know it's just the song left like this feeling of space that would continue on and you could leave it behind and come back to, which I think is pretty fucking cool to do that in a written form of art is fucking cool. 1:32:51 - Speaker 4 You know I gotta give you an answer to that. Like what do you say? cause I've been in that position too, Tim, and honestly I know it sounds stupid and simple, And you know whether it's a specific record or it's the newest record that you came out, that just came out, that you're seeing them on the tour with whoever it is. Just look and dead in the fucking eye and be like I really dug this new record, I really love your music, man, It's just thanks for making it. And you say that shit, Like dude, it's better than any cheeky fucking thing you could think of or like plan or whatever. You'll just make their day Cause like that's, that's why people make music, man, Anybody who says they make music for themselves is full of fucking shit. man, Yeah, I make music myself. I don't care if anybody hears it Fuck you man. Yeah, that's funny. 1:33:45 - Speaker 3 That's why you know what I did in that moment in Portland at that club is I had this stupid numerology app on my phone and I opened it up and I was like Hey, when's your birthday? She turns around and she's like you want to do some numerology thing, don't you? And I said yeah, and so she gave me her birthday and I was like we went into it and we fucking played around with. the queue to get into the bathroom was long and we played around on this app and laughed at each other and, like pointed out personality traits that we love and hate about each other. 1:34:20 - Speaker 1 That is a story that turned out way different than I thought it was going to be. Yeah, Dude, I mean I was like a little bit drunk. 1:34:28 - Speaker 3 Yeah, i was. But I was like you know what do I? I'm not going to stand here for five minutes and tell this woman how much I loved her last album. I was like we got to pass some time while we stand here doing the wee wee dance. 1:34:41 - Speaker 4 What's your favorite? jelly Strawberry More. 1:34:45 - Speaker 1 My daughter was having this discussion this morning because she doesn't like grape jelly. Oh, and I was like oh. I was like, oh, that's terrible, all right, we're, we're, we're searing clear of what is my favorite song on the record. 1:35:00 - Speaker 3 Oh. 1:35:01 - Speaker 1 Emperor. 1:35:02 - Speaker 3 Penguin. 1:35:03 - Speaker 1 So let's hear it, fellas, you know. let's hear everything that you've done wrong here. 1:35:08 - Speaker 3 Well, let's raise a glass of milk to the end of another album review. 1:35:14 - Speaker 4 Yeah. 1:35:15 - Speaker 3 Well done, Tim. He says to the end of the day. You know, it's funny. when I heard that lyric, let's raise a glass of milk to the end of another day. It reminded me of this comedian, this, this bit I heard, and this guy was like ladies, if you are ever out on a first date and you're off to dinner with some guy and he orders a glass of milk with dinner, run, run as fast as you can, And that's, you know, raise a glass of milk. It just reminded me that I started laughing. 1:35:41 - Speaker 4 Right, you need a cluck of orange. 1:35:43 - Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure. You know there there was, I guess, not whole lot to say on the song. I sorry JD, i felt it was maybe out of the whole album kind of the cheesiest one, cheesy. Yeah, even the ending. Even the ending is like really. Like. 1:36:06 - Speaker 4 I just this one, this one, yeah, maybe I could Welcome to getting hip, hip to the hip with my friend Pete, and that's it, yeah. 1:36:18 - Speaker 3 Next next episode JD's like so um Tim died. No he's no longer. 1:36:27 - Speaker 1 Everybody's entitled to an opinion, even if it's Yeah, yeah, yeah. 1:36:30 - Speaker 3 I love the whole Emperor Penguin references, which I kind of knew. Um, you know, this is again where the band hits on like gender equality and all things around. that, if you guys don't know, emperor Penguins, like the female lays the eggs and she dips, she's like she's out, like the male kind of does the work, um, and if she doesn't return and help sustain the nest now and then like everybody dies. you know it's, it's yeah. So this this was a familiar, metaphorically kind of fun, but at the same time I was like all right what's the next album we're going to hear? That's kind of where I went. That's kind of where I went with this whole album, i was like, okay, i really wonder what the next album is going to be like. 1:37:15 - Speaker 1 I'm so curious too Yeah. 1:37:17 - Speaker 3 All right. 1:37:18 - Speaker 4 Pete what'd you think? Well, JD, give me the, give me the skinny man, Lay some pipe for me real quick. Tell me what. Uh, tell me what you think. Why is it? why is it your favorite, Please? 1:37:28 - Speaker 1 I don't know. I love the way it builds. I love the way it builds, um, i love. You know, like, leaving the. You know the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the. You know, like, leading up to the, to the, to the chorus. Sorry to interrupt your color, but that's a physical impossibility. I love his phrasing. His phrasing is just magnificent in this. Don't wipe your asses with your sleeves. Your crust was just incredible. The radio was edible. The lyric and the phrasing and the structure of them, i just think, are like divine, like wonderful. And it's also a song in a key that I can sing. So I love to sing it And I've sung it before. Um, nice, you know it's, it's uh lovely. I love the slide on the way out. 1:38:12 - Speaker 4 Yeah, It's a fucking. I like the song. This song I think his voice sounds the most raw on, like when I have the headphones on. Yeah, it felt like he was sitting right next to me singing this song I was like kind of gave chills. Right, it's very sparse, it's very much so. And then your, your comments and your, you know, love for the phrasing, huge, huge, huge. And if you disagree with me then fuck it. It'll be the JD and fucking Tim show next week. but Joni Mitchell vibes for the phrasing the way he like. listen to some Joni Mitchell dude and how she squeezes so much shit into some, you know, into a single measure. And that's what I got from this song. Yeah, yeah. There's a volume build that's huge in it that I love. The only issue I take with this song is that I really get the vibe that Gord Downey didn't believe in aliens And that fucking blows. That breaks my heart Like it just fucking does, dude. I'm a huge, huge believer and you know I just I was like really man Cause I think like you know what and you know what. 1:39:28 - Speaker 1 Oh, i picture that being like a reference to what's his name. He used to. Then he used to do coast to coast or Bell or. George Ford, I take that. I take that as a reference to like them driving on the bus in the middle of the night and, like you know, hearing that. Sorry to interrupt you, caller, but you know what I mean. Like like a radio talk, a radio call in, show, right. 1:39:49 - Speaker 4 I, you know that makes sense. That makes sense Because, honestly, like I think about it too and, like you know, i'm not to get all existential here, but like I think about, like I'm not this, i'm a recovering Catholic, so I was raised Catholic but I'm not practicing anymore And I think about, like you know, maybe when you die you get to, like you get all the answers, maybe you get, maybe you go to another planet, this and that. And I'm thinking like you know, fucking. You know, i really wish Gord Downey was fucking around today So I can see them fucking live. But since he's not, i sure as shit hope that he's somewhere with aliens and the jokes on him and he fucking realizes that they actually do this because fucking and hopefully you're right, jd, that that's a reference, because otherwise this song just breaks my fucking heart, man Breaks my fucking heart. 1:40:43 - Speaker 1 Oh, i hope. I hope your heart doesn't remain broken. 1:40:45 - Speaker 4 Yeah, no, we'll repair it by next week All right? 1:40:49 - Speaker 1 Well, let's, let's cruise into the last segment of the show here The, the, the, the MVP song, the song that you're sticking on your playlist. What is it going to be there, Tim? 1:41:03 - Speaker 3 I suppose it's fireworks. 1:41:06 - Speaker 1 I was you're so reticent? Oh, is that because of the popcageon? 1:41:12 - Speaker 3 I mean, i was a fan of vapor trails. I suppose it's fireworks, though It's fireworks to me was like you know, perfect single. It's kind of a self self-help song or a caregiving song. Yeah, i can see, you know it's, it's just it. it checked a lot of boxes. I love also, just you know, kid from Southern California. I love the what the fuck hockey reference you know. So yeah, that one, that one was, that was it for me. 1:41:44 - Speaker 1 All right, Pete, I mean no question, no question fireworks. 1:41:48 - Speaker 4 It just gave me everything I wanted, every fucking thing I wanted to do. 1:41:55 - Speaker 1 Wow, that's amazing. 1:41:57 - Speaker 4 Just so good, what a fucking song. 1:41:59 - Speaker 1 I think this is the first time you guys have had the same song, right? 1:42:02 - Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah, we're in sync. 1:42:04 - Speaker 4 Yeah, for sure. 1:42:06 - Speaker 3 I mean, if Emperor Penguin had like real alien area 51 references, I think Pete would have been all over that. 1:42:12 - Speaker 4 Right And it had. He said they actually do exist. I would have been like, sorry, if I worked, take a seat. 1:42:20 - Speaker 3 Hey, i have some other kind of facts to throw in here real quick, so all right. So when these guys started out, they sold a shit ton of albums and I think made some money pretty quickly, right? And then yeah, then each album thereafter was like a million ish record sold, which is pretty fucking cool, like that's a good job, you know, back in the 90s they're selling albums, they're making a buck or sell a piece On top of touring and doing these massive arenas across Canada or whatever. But it made me think, okay, how does the hip measure up? Maybe this is a bit for another pod, I don't know, jd, but it made me wonder how do they kind of measure up? Why did they? Why, or how, why not? Were they not killing it in the US? So I looked up other Canadian bands and one that came up was Men Without Hats. These guys had they were like a one hit wonder, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, we can dance if we want to blah, blah, blah. So they sold almost a million albums globally and 500,000 in the US. So basically, more than half of their albums they sold in the US, which is, i think, really interesting. The hip, for reference, sold around, didn't they sing? Safety Dance too, safety Dance, yes, safety Dance. That's the one. The hip sold like 8 million-ish, 8, 9 million, and about 10% of that was in the US. Not a whole lot. Bare-naked Ladies, conversely, who I've barely touched on in my life. Pardon the pun. Yeah, about almost 10 million albums, but 7.5 to the US. 1:44:21 - Speaker 1 Yeah, that's because of that record with one week. 1:44:23 - Speaker 3 Substantial Yeah Rush 40 million globally, 26 million to the US. Yeah, all these bands. 1:44:35 - Speaker 4 Bare-naked Ladies did a song called Brian Wilson. It's just so fucking good dude. 1:44:42 - Speaker 1 Yeah yeah, oh. 1:44:44 - Speaker 3 Arcade Fire. Okay, here's something a little more current Three million globally, a million to the US. These stats of globally which is how many went to the USA they don't correlate, they're not apples to apples, they don't drive with the hip And I think that is. I don't know. I just think it's something to note here. What the hell was it? Was it Clear Channel? I don't know What was going on. What was going on. So it's making me just still feel for the band and their lineage and their history, and I think I'll stop there because I'm going to save more for our finale. 1:45:27 - Speaker 1 Okay, cool. Well, fellas, it's been tremendous to hang out with you in this record, live in this space for the last hour and a bit Tremendous work, as always. I look forward to listening to the next record with you Music at work and we'll do that next week. You now have a week to listen to that and we'll reconvene next week. 1:45:49 - Speaker 3 Let's do it. 1:45:50 - Speaker 1 Sounds good. See you guys. Thank you. 1:45:52 - Speaker 3 Steve, see you guys. 1:45:54 - Speaker 1 Pick up your shit. 1:45:57 - Speaker 2 Thanks for listening to Getting Hip to the Hip. Please subscribe, share rate and review the show at GettingHiptotheHipcom. Find us on Twitter and Instagram at Getting Hip Pod And join our Facebook group at Facebookcom. Slash groups slash fully and completely. Questions or concerns. Email us at JD at GettingHiptotheHipcom. We'd love to hear from you.

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