What did our car just turn into?

The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown

Picture it, the turn of the millennium, and the dawn of the online music revolution. jD just shelled out his last few dollars on The Tragically Hip’s seventh studio record, Music at Work, unaware that it would mark the end of an era for him - his final first-day purchase. From there we take a deep dive into the album's reception, its relevance today, and the debate if it was a step out of The Hip's comfort zone.

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Transcript

Track 1:

[0:00] Welcome to getting hip to the hip. I'm JD. I'm here as always with Pete and.

[0:06] Tim How are you fellas doing this fine day?

Track 3:

[0:10] Doing great doing great Just getting it going and excited to be here and see a couple of my favorite dudes over the interwebs.

Track 2:

[0:19] I Am doing supercalifragilisticexpialidocious to fucking discuss this fucking record Oh, wow.

Track 3:

[0:27] Oh, boy.

Track 2:

[0:28] Oh, boy.

Track 3:

[0:29] So... Fasten your seatbelts, folks.

Track 1:

[0:31] Fasten your seatbelts, folks.

Track 2:

[0:32] What does that mean? Spoons, plural. Spoons full of sugar. Not just fucking... Not just one.

Track 1:

[0:39] The Disney references are just rolling out.

Track 3:

[0:41] Jeez.

Track 1:

[0:44] Well, we're here today to talk about the 2000 release, June 2000, the seventh studio record by seminal Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip.

Music at work. Before we go into our vaunted segment of song by song, let's just get a general sense of what you guys thought of this record.

Where you listened to it, what you were exposed to, how it formed over time.

What do you think there, Pete?

Track 2:

[1:21] I'll be brief, because I want to really dive into the songs, too, but I will say, I listened to this record at work.

Well, I was at my computer.

Come on, Tim, did you want that one? Were you waiting to use that one?

Track 3:

[1:42] No, it was your turn. It was your turn.

A lot of listeners right now are like, oh my god, we're out of here.

Track 2:

[1:52] Listen to it in the car. The sound system in the car made it really pop.

But I will say, probably the best place to listen to it was on runs. It was just...

I love the record. I really, really enjoyed this record profusely.

So I'll say that. I'll leave it there. All right.

Track 1:

[2:21] Mr. Leiden.

Track 3:

[2:22] Yeah, so I listened to this. I had a bunch of headphone-based physical therapy the past week, and I pretty much had it on for all of that, which was very much focused movement and definitely could consider audio.

And it was it was pretty good.

It took me back to, I think, mostly to Live Between Us, like if we're gonna go apples to apples or apples and oranges throughout their discography thus far, for many reasons.

And there's some songs on here I really like a lot. There's a couple that I thought were pretty different, like definitely a step out than past albums.

And yeah, at one point I thought this might be my favorite so far in our work to get to this point.

I thought this might be one of my favorite albums so far, but I'm still questioning it. I'm still thinking that there might be another one out there in the future that I just I Give you know nine point five two or whatever.

Album Rating and Discussion on Critics' Opinions

Track 1:

[3:35] It might be Gotcha Yeah, this was rated relatively low by all music and what?

Track 3:

[3:43] Big fucking surprise They're like the professor that doesn't give a is you know, yeah, yeah negative five out of five I I have a little bit of a vibe with that, but I understand sometimes there's a great piece of work out there that still doesn't get the accolades it deserves, and that happens so often.

Track 1:

[4:06] Yeah. Well, shall we get into it?

Track 3:

[4:10] Yeah.

Track 2:

[4:12] What did they give it, by the way, J.D.? I'm curious.

Track 1:

[4:14] Three out of five.

Track 3:

[4:15] Three, right? Three out of five.

So just some quick research on the title that I found of the album, Music at Work.

So from what I read, it's poking fun at a rock station in Canada, 100.5 FM. Yeah. E-Zed Rock or Easy Rock, whichever.

Track 4:

[4:38] You went with Zed first. You're so Canadian. Oh my God. So Canadian.

Track 3:

[4:45] Music at Work was their tagline, you know.

It was like, imagine this kind of 80s looking logo in essence like a corporatized Van Halen Firebird Camaro looking Easy Rock 100.5 FM and underneath at music at work.

That makes sense. But I thought maybe, yeah, I thought maybe the hip tagging, you know, taking this tagline was perhaps their, I guess, you know, maybe even, I think it was their stab at back at clear channel.

I thought like Like, these guys, yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought these guys are still talking.

Track 2:

[5:36] Was that a Clear Channel station?

Track 3:

[5:38] Rock and roll.

Track 2:

[5:39] I'm sure they were.

Track 3:

[5:40] Dude.

Track 1:

[5:41] It's a heavy format.

Track 3:

[5:42] I didn't look it up, but if you look at everything about it, I'm sure it is.

Track 2:

[5:48] And at that time, dude, nowadays it's like, it's not even a competition.

Like Clear Channel owns the Airwaves, but I remember at that time it was like, you were We were starting to realize that every station was a clear channel station.

Track 1:

[6:02] Yeah. Yeah.

Track 3:

[6:04] Yeah. So, that was kind of some brief history on the album title.

The first song, you know, title track, album name.

The First Single from the Record

Track 1:

[6:40] You I think it's a, little bit of a, a That chives.

Yeah, it was the first single from the record too. So okay. Yeah, it dropped a couple weeks before the record came out.

Track 2:

[7:33] Well, not to correct Tim, but I'm going to do it. Do it. It is not the title track.

Ah, yes. The name of the track is actually my music at work.

Yeah, interesting. And I didn't...

No, no, no.

Track 3:

[7:54] I was really close, man.

Track 2:

[7:56] You were close, too.

Track 3:

[7:58] You know, okay. The influence of the...

The Groove and Tightness of the New Record

Track 2:

[8:07] I mean, if I picture myself as I have now, listen, have listened to the previous hip records, anticipating this new record coming out, hearing this first track on this new record and just like putting it on volume up, start my car, light my cigarette, open my Red Bull, whatever the fuck I was doing in the year 2000.

And just fucking wow. I mean, they must have just been like, fuck yes.

I mean, this song, it was, I wrote this down. This is one of the things I wrote down in the notes. The song was born in the pocket.

Like when you talk about when you're in the pocket, musically, I think we all know what that means. I'm sure most of the listeners know what it means.

But it's just, it's in the pocket. It's just the groove, the rhythm, the fucking instruments, everything is just fucking tight and it fits, gourd sounds fucking great.

It's a great build after the La La La with the soft guitar.

Oh God, I've got to eventually get there.

Track 3:

[9:29] I'll just quickly add in there the La La La.

Track 2:

[9:30] Johnny Cain?

Track 3:

[9:31] Okay, go, go, go.

Track 2:

[9:32] Go ahead. No, no. You go ahead.

Track 3:

[9:35] I was going to fill in for you. The La La La part for this one, I mean that was new. We haven't had La La La's yet in soft. No, not really. Right.

Track 2:

[9:42] No, no, yeah But but Johnny Johnny Faye. Yeah drummer.

Yeah Really just fucking builds it into where the song you know starts to go at that point and then there's a There's a Lord of the Rings reference in there.

I think I feel like it is I took it as what cuz he says middle of the earth.

Ah Which I'm always My record store that I grew up going to in down in California, now out of business, was called Middle Earth.

And it was a fucking great record store. This is the type of record store where dollars to fucking donuts, man.

If you were there in the 90s, they were like, if you went up to the front and asked this guy Larry for a recommendation, he would have fucking slipped you a hip record.

Hands down. I was just too scared to fucking go up to Larry cause he was cool.

Larry had a picture of David Bowie where David Bowie was smiling, not Larry.

Track 1:

[10:47] Wow.

Track 2:

[10:48] Like that goes to show you how cool fucking Larry was.

Track 3:

[10:51] You know what? I can't tell you how many.

Stories I've heard about like interviews with artists who had that record store They went to growing up and how walking up to the clerk whoever was working was like the most intimidating thing Like you like you like so many artists would walk I've read it about it so many times Walking a record store with like kind of tail between your legs and you're afraid to purchase what you've picked For being ridiculed or anything, right?

It's just it was like the most I mean think about it back You know in the 80s or 70s or 90s like going to Tower Records or wherever you go and grabbing that Item and walking up to this like hipper than thou person Clerk and trying to make over just yeah Yeah, this was before that it was common where people had like, you know Sleeves of tattoos and like ear and nose piercings like you saw somebody up there at the front with a fucking a bar through the nose a two sleeves of tattoos, and green hair.

Track 2:

[11:56] Everybody's got fucking green hair nowadays, right? And you're just like.

Track 1:

[12:00] Makes me sick.

Track 2:

[12:01] No, but you know what I'm saying? Like, you know, my nephew's got green hair for crying out loud.

But like, I don't give a shit, you know, I'm telling my nephew what I'm listening to, but if, you know, back in the 90s, I walked up to the counter and saw somebody like that, that I was like dude I am not bringing up anything that's on the radio right yeah that's so cool that's so cool that you had this this tragically hip frame of reference from back in the record store days I mean I completely don't have that I had a bumper sticker in college you know of my apartment complex neighbor so.

The Second Song: Messy and Incoherent

Track 3:

[19:00] Yeah.

Track 2:

[19:00] Do you want to? I don't know. I mean, I'm ready to fucking blow up in there.

You know what I'm saying? Okay. The fucking the second song.

I mean, it's hard to top this second song.

I mean, it is when I first heard it. I loved how it faded in from the first track.

And then he just starts saying this is what the fuck is Tiger the Lion?

Track 1:

[19:30] I don't.

Track 2:

[19:30] I'm just saying the first time I heard it, right. And I did my research on it, which I kind of regret. I gotta stop looking at lyrics. Once I stopped looking at lyrics, these songs really open up for me.

Track 1:

[19:41] You can't stop though. It's gorg, right? Like, you know?

Track 2:

[19:45] No, but he eventually started listening to them and internalizing them, which is better for me than reading them.

Either way, this fucking song, it just opens up so messy and incoherent and I'm like, what the fuck?

I mean, again, putting myself in the position of a hit fan when they hear this for the first time.

They're like, is this gorgeous going off on his fucking, you know, he wrote some crazy poetry and he's just, you know, free-forming it right now. What's he doing?

You know, but the The instrumentation on it, it's so well thought out.

Track 4:

[20:24] Right? It's...

Track 2:

[20:26] I love how, because for me as a musician, my writing style is pretty incoherent.

A lot of people say, like, lyrics wise, my shit doesn't make sense, which is, you know, it's not like I'm going for it, but it's just, it is what it is.

But the John Cage quote?

Track 3:

[20:45] Yeah.

Track 2:

[20:46] Oh, fuck. I mean, I'm a huge John Cage, but just all about who that guy was as an individual who brought his brain to art and music.

There's a melodic drop down, the purpose is not unique.

I just, I don't know, dude, I did a little bit of research on the meaning of the song about it being like a reference to fighter pilots. Did you get that too, Tim?

Track 3:

[21:21] Yep, yep, yep. Big time. There's been so many World War II references that I just, you know, I instantly went to that, which I have a emotional family connection to World War II, so that hits heavy for me.

Track 2:

[21:36] Two-way radio, yeah. But, uh, this, line...

JD, I thought of you when I read this.

But not to get order from chaos. Tell you how to create simply wait to your life like, like, there's, there, there is no order.

Yeah, there's no other shoe that were, you know, and I don't know, dude, this fucking song is, I still can't fucking and unwrap it and make sense of it. It's just a fucking banger. Yeah. What a song.

Living in the Music: Appreciating Art without Analyzing Lyrics

Track 3:

[22:15] I mean, Pete, as a, maybe you can clarify a little bit for me, as a songwriter, you, when this one came on and you listened through it and you say that you, sometimes you don't want to research lyrics just so you can live in it in your head as much as possible, right?

Is that kind of your sentiment? Right?

Track 2:

[22:34] I mean, I think, I think the lyrics, Because I think that what you, for me, this is me personally, what I tend to do is, is rather than physically listen to the song, which is what the medium is meant to do for listening, I'm reading what I'm listening to.

And so it starts to, I start to make judgment upon what I'm listening to based on what I'm reading.

Which is never like there's so many weird fucking lyrics in this fucking record And I'm sure we can talk about it till the cows come home Yeah But it did me it did more damage for me in the beginning because it was like I'm not fucking getting this I'm not getting this and then I just was like, okay I put the lyrics down and then I just started to listen to it incessantly.

Okay, this shit's fucking making sense. Okay. Got it and then not to Not to bury the lead, but I mean if you don't get the fucking Comfortably Numb, Rob Baker literally Channeling the fucking David Gilmour in this fucking song.

I mean What do you I mean, what are we doing here?

There's one drop where it doesn't it doesn't go down to the next chord that you just feel like it's like going to country, but it doesn't go there and it's just...

[24:01] Yeah, his guitar tone, everything about it. He's using the Strat on this.

[24:06] Fucking it's great song. Sorry. Yeah. Amazing song.

Track 3:

[24:10] For me to go from music at work to this was like, whoa, this is, you know, if this is second gear for taking off in the car, and it's like, what did our car just change into?

Because the song is, Because the song is its own beast.

Man, me and my dad jokes, dad puns, tiger, the lion.

So I mean, this is the longest song on the album.

It's 5 and 1 1⁄2 minutes. And I love songs that can hit 5, 6, 7 minute mark, and you don't even know they're that long.

Track 1:

[24:47] Yeah.

Track 3:

[24:48] Like sometimes you hear a song, and you're like, god damn, These guys just wanted this to be the longest song ever, and they succeeded.

But this one, it's very, no, it doesn't feel that long.

And I think, Pete, you touched on most of it.

But the themes, I guess I should say, I don't read the lyrics or look into the lyrics until I've listened to one of these albums in great length or many times.

So I try not to pay attention to the lyrics. If I'm listening to it in the car and I'm at a stop for too long, then I can actually hit the whatever on Spotify to make the lyrics pop up.

I'll check it out for a minute. But I try to live in my head for as long as possible, I think, kind of like you, Pete, to just get deep into the song.

[25:44] The John Cage references. I mean, there's so much in this song in both that theme and kind of World War II themes, but the kind of two big takeaways for me were this song is about challenging the listener and society and anyone to appreciate, like, nature, art in life, or just art, or like literature or whatever it might be.

And if you live your life without recognizing any art form, then you're like a fucking robot, you know?

That's kind of, that's what the song was about to me in that regard, the John Cage regard and all of that.

The his radio goes silent, you know that like I imagined this as like World War two airplane Pilot, you know the his engines destroyed And he's just falling from the sky, you know, like and stops working.

This is where my head my engine stops working You have this like last bit of life where you hear the wind the radio stops working You know, you're on your way down. That's kind of where I went with.

Track 1:

[27:03] Whoa, that's heavy, man.

Introduction and Researching Band Members

Track 3:

[27:04] Yeah, that's kind of how it felt to me. Okay, so I did some research around who else is playing with this band.

Because we've talked about, at least the past album, I've been talking about, you know, who's that on backup singing blah blah blah blah blah.

Right. So with this, I guess I would have talked about this at the beginning, but with this song we have a guy named Chris Brown from Toronto on keys, right?

So he toured, He recorded and toured with the band with this album.

He came from a band or was in a band called, Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. Yep, you got it. And from the 80s and 90s, which I heard of that, man.

Yeah, which I didn't know an ounce about until I kind of did this research.

So finally, I was making some headway with this album to hear who else we have contributing, which is an obvious impact to me as a listener to hear kind of extra elements going on.

But this song, man, it could be its own album.

That's what I thought. Like this song, this song on a 7-inch on one side, like it's hand me that. I'll pay 20 bucks for it. Like let's go. It's fucking that good.

Track 1:

[28:30] Yeah, I agree.

Track 3:

[28:32] Lake Fever, the next one. This is where I was like, okay, maybe we're shifting gears into like this perfect love song or forlorn love or is this a song about loss or remembrance or you know what is this what is this going on there's amazing prose within this song like was the brief dude seriously i knew pete was just like i knew his heart was melting for this It was probably driving down, you know, here's Pete, everybody in Spain, in his awesome vehicle.

I don't even know what it is, and I don't want to know until I visit him someday, so no spoilers, J.D.

But here's Pete in his awesome vehicle driving down some coastal highway in fucking Spain.

This is a dude from the LBC, right? And this song comes on, and there's tears coming from Pete's face on this beautiful sunny day.

It's like, I, I, you know, I'm, I'm hearing this song during fucking physical therapy. Therapy just gone.

[29:42] Is this a wedding song or is it a funeral song or do I want this at my wake or do I play this for Amy on her next anniversary?

Like what the fuck is this emotional song going on in place three after my music at work and after Tiger the Lion we have this Lake Fever.

It's like what the hell so yeah it was this you know this this is that third gear song where i'm like okay, let's see let's see where this is gonna go what's this about is it oh yeah okay maybe it is about the cholera outbreak in toronto in 1834 oh fuck god damn it okay that's what it's about guess i'm I'm not playing at my anniversary.

No, not playing at next April 14th, honey.

Track 1:

[30:38] But it's more than that because the protagonist is regaling his potential lover with that story.

Like the song isn't necessarily about like fever. It's like this couple are walking in the woods about to go, you know, have sex.

And he's so nervous that he's trying to like, you know, talk to this girl and he's telling her, well, there was this time in Toronto that there was a sewer back up and cholera got in the way and it went all the way up to Ottawa and near Kingston and it was terrible, many people died and she's just like, hurry, just hurry.

Just Coital Fury, you know, like, yeah, that wine, man.

Track 2:

[31:26] Fuck, it's good. Dude, you know, I tell you, it's it's funny because I think it's just the Canadian.

I mean, last week, Tim and I both heard the rush in fireworks for last week's a record but you know I started to hear the first thing I heard and now I like don't hear it at all but the first thing I heard with this song was the percussion feeling very once again very Alanis, right wow but yeah put that all kind of behind it's kind of all in the past dude the glockenspiel which I think they're using and like the keyboard effect over when he says the the word courage is I'm just you're right Tim I'm driving down the fucking coast in the mountainous windy roads of Malaga Spain and just fucking crying with my wind blowing, my air blowing in the wind.

Cigarette out the window, the arm just like, Oh, just fucking loving this.

[32:42] We're going to get into it a little bit more, because I because there's a there's a couple of songs on this record.

And I remember I don't know what record it was, oh, it was, was Troll Dan House that I referred to as the Tragically Hips Xerope.

Track 1:

[33:01] Yes.

Track 3:

[33:02] Right, right.

Track 2:

[33:05] But, do you know what this record is?

Track 1:

[33:07] Yeah.

Track 2:

[33:07] And it's funny because this record actually came out before the record I'm going to reference. And I'll tell you why.

Track 1:

[33:14] All right, hit me.

Track 2:

[33:15] This is fucking the Tragically Hips Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

All of the fucking instrumentation on it, all the pianos, the echoey pianos, a lot of the guitars.

It's so fucking Wilco, man.

And so I started thinking to myself, well, you know, what, what the fuck did, what, you know, what do we, well, I'll get into it, I'll get into the next one.

Track 1:

[33:44] We'll go. Give her.

Track 2:

[33:46] Yeah, we're going to put it down. So this song, there's a line in there saying the United States of ricochet.

Something something happy in way. You know what I'm talking about, JD?

Track 1:

[34:02] I don't know the lyric offhand though, sorry.

Track 2:

[34:04] Great fucking line. And I'm getting very like, ashes of American flags like references to because I feel like I feel like Gord was really, um, getting, like, a lot of the shit that he focused on was the, God, the phrase, the term I'm trying to look for, like the plight of Canadians. Okay.

Track 3:

[34:30] I got it. I got it here if you want me to read it.

Track 2:

[34:33] Yeah, you want to read it, Tim?

Track 3:

[34:35] Yeah, it's just United States of Ricochet from the Boardwalk to the Appian Way, which I... From the Boardwalk to the Appian Way, yeah, that's what I'm looking for. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Track 2:

[34:42] Diamond Files, Corporate Wraves, you know.

So he's, I feel like up until this point, he's made a lot of references to not just the indigenous folks up north, in terms of, you know, what he's talked about, and what I know he's eventually going to talk more about.

But I started to think like, God, what other band do I know that did that?

And like, that's kind of where Wilco went, you know, they had Uncle Tupelo and then AM, which was their first record.

And being there were kind of like a soft watered down version of, of that country vibe of Uncle Tupelo.

And then when they hit Yankee Hotel, it was like, Whoa, what the fuck is this?

This is not the same band. I remember hearing and I got the same vibe.

And so I, anyway, I Googled and started doing a little research, come to find out. So I read Jeff Tweedie's.

Memoir, which is a great book, you'll get through it in a day, man. It's called Let's Go So We Can Get Back.

And he references them on tour with Tragically Hip during the Another Roadside Attraction tour.

Track 1:

[36:03] That's right. The third one. That's right. Yeah, yeah.

Wilco's Similarities to Other Bands and Songwriting Influences

Track 2:

[36:07] Yeah. And just this record came out a year before Yankee Hotel.

So I don't know what if they were trading demos back and forth or they were playing music together on Tour and but fuck man.

I mean so many similarities with this record and that record interest so many Do you feel you might catch my drift here?

Track 3:

[36:32] But do you feel like?

When you hear other bands and are reminded of Wilco do you feel like Wilco has just borrowed so much from other bands or do you feel like I'm not gonna we're not going to turn this into a Wilco podcast by the way or do you feel like Wilco like really do you feel like Wilco just absolutely stand on their own as songwriters because I mean that's there that's like to me songwriting music you know what I mean yeah I know what you mean um it's a good question and I'll answer it as short as possible because I think This is something you could fucking have a garage with a, you know, half ounce and fucking go on forever.

Track 2:

[37:17] But I think Jeff Tweedy is an amazing songwriter, and he'd probably be the first one to admit that they've taken so much from other people.

But I think that that band, especially when they went in, their record, two records after they did Yankee Hotel was a record called Sky Blue Sky.

When they really got into that, they were just like...

They were at the top of their fucking game. and they they they knew how to um, but it's It's hard to say man.

I mean It's a great question tim because I you could say the same for Tragically him who are they both big time?

Track 3:

[38:05] Yeah, we've had so many references.

Track 2:

[38:07] I don't think I don't think rob baker would he be the last person to say he wasn't fucking fucking playing the exact notes that Gilmore played on fucking comfortably on that guitar solo or on Tiger the Lion.

But it's not like you're saying, oh, you're stealing. It's like, it's an homage.

It's also working it into a song that is not that song is, you know, you do it all.

I've been writing a tune this week that is a is a indie rock tune adapted from the fucking Opening theme of the one of the Legend of Zelda songs. So cool.

And am I stealing from Koji Kondo?

Yes but It's in so I look at it more as an inspiration.

Track 3:

[38:54] Well, I mean they I mean all all artists, you know are inspired from every direction I just I don't I don't want to get into it too deep.

Track 1:

[39:01] I just went from no Writers I think good songwriters Make it almost Like a magician, you know, like a good songwriter. You don't see the sleight of hand.

You don't see the Palming you don't see it like they're absolute pros and they stand on their own But of course you can't help but be affected by what you are exposed to and what you enjoy, you know You can't help it.

Track 2:

[39:34] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and JD, you're right when you say that, because there was something that I put down, and I think I sent it to you, but I put this down about a month and a half ago, and there was a little guitar lick I put on there, and it was Nell.

I recorded it with a fucking jazzmaster.

It was Nell's Climb from fucking Wilco.

And I was like, I was so worried that it was so obvious, and I played it for Issa, my wife, And I played it for you and I think I was like was it too much and like no it's just it was just right It was perfect.

It was like kind of like a little but to me it was like My ears I literally stole the fucking Notes from him and like I took them and I said those are mine now.

Thank you very much You know, but like it's it's not easy to do man. I don't know JD.

Track 3:

[40:25] Yes. I thought it I think they pulled it was just me JD that Pete Pete called up in the middle of my night and serenaded me with some guitar licks.

Damn, I'm not feeling as special now.

Track 2:

[40:40] You'll get it Tim, you'll get it.

Track 3:

[40:42] Hey, I thought putting down...

Track 1:

[40:43] Putting down, yeah.

Track 3:

[40:45] Yeah, so putting down, I felt like, I mean Pete commented on the, you know, the references and stories of this great continent and what we did to the Indigenous folks that were already here and the land grabs and you know that's hitting hard with this one and I feel like with Gord's themes and songwriting and his connotations of it all, this is that song for the album, I thought it was like big and heavy.

[41:22] I didn't really know what it was about my first handful of listens.

I couldn't really peg it until I did a little bit deeper diving into it.

But you know, it was my first few listens, it was kind of like a car ride sing-along song.

I felt, you know, it just felt familiar. It felt hip.

I didn't think like, this is the best song on the album, and I thought it held its place on the album for what it was.

So that's kind of where it ended with me.

Cool. The next one, Stay, on the other hand, I thought, man, this song, it's quiet, it's cute, it's cute.

I hadn't had that feeling before. Is it a thank you?

You know, the Bureau Chiefs and the Shrugging Spies, I thought this was at first when I first heard this?

I thought this is hilarious. Without researching, I thought this was like a thank you or something to the band's road crew, because I heard beer and cheese and shrugging spies, not bureau chiefs.

I mean, I was like, I was so incorrect with this song. You were a great crew.

You were a great you. You know, what is the storyline here? Is it about going to war and relationships or what? What is going on here?

Track 1:

[42:48] Maybe a little of everything.

Track 3:

[42:49] Yeah, maybe, but one, you know, after I did, after the leak, Sit down and kind of research what it's about. Hopefully Pete you have some more music based Comments about it, but one person I need to shout out here.

The the handle is The letter Y Salvatore, there was a song meanings.com.

[43:15] Reference from 2005 so this this is amazing it said one theory is the song is about Fox Mulder from the X-Files lines like there's no one up above us and with the Bureau Chiefs and the shrugging spies on the X-Files series Mulder is often working against the establishment as a sentiment in this song you've got no business in here brother Mulder is obsessed Pete from I'll go with UFO so lines like you see a light and then another this this song maybe it's about UFOs maybe it's about aliens I don't know this this was like this was a total head-scratcher for me not to say that I didn't like it but it was like what is this song about it wasn't beer and cheese I don't know it's not it's funny that you say that because one of the lines already is this song makes me want to sit in a pub and drink beer with my buddy.

I didn't say eat cheese, but like, that's the vibe I got.

Appreciating the musicianship on this record

Track 2:

[44:21] I mean, it's, um, there's, there's, okay.

I could say a lot. I really liked this song a lot. I loved it.

It. The riffing that Gore does with the vocals.

I think there's a bridge part of all things being balanced where John Fahy's drums...

I feel like every musician on this record, on this record, really shines.

Like everybody shines. Gord Sinclair, I feel like, has always been really top-notch.

That guy is fucking flawless. He's so underrated. Extremely underrated.

Uh, when it comes to, you know, I, I just because I'm, you know, playing wise, obviously Gordoni, I mean, there's nothing you can say about that, but playing wise, Paul Langlois, am I saying? Langlois.

Track 1:

[45:25] Langlois.

Track 2:

[45:27] Um, and Rob Baker. I've always kind of gone back. I'm starting to appreciate the differences between those guys because they're two Diametrically different guitar players.

I mean so different and and That happened on this album.

Track 3:

[45:43] Don't you?

Track 2:

[45:43] Oh, yeah more so really noticeable and I went down a bit of a rabbit hole this week I'll try not to go as deep as I went, but I told JD I was watching some live stuff and looking at Rob Baker's set up.

[46:05] Paul Ling Hua, he always plays that black Les Paul, but Rob Baker plays that Strat, which I fucking love.

And he's got something called Lace Sensors pickups in it, which not to get too technical for the listeners.

They were apparently these were like standard issue Fender pickups from 90 from 85 to like 96 and then they just became too expensive.

But they're really cool. The only shitty part is they look horrible on a guitar.

They don't look it doesn't make it look like a Strat anyway.

But he also plays a Paul Reed Smith, which I absolutely hate those guitars because, and JD I told you this, they're the Carlos Santana guitar and when they first became like available to the public so to speak or like mainstream people were able to buy them.

I remember walking into a guitar center in the 90s and seeing one up on the wall that was like, it was like $19,000 or $20,000 it was like ridiculous and just going, and now can buy a PRS for like $1,800, $2,000, but it just turned me off and I fucking hate it.

And if I'm Rob Baker, if I'm Rob, if you're listening, just don't ever play the fucking PRS, man. Get rid of it. Ditch it.

Rob Baker's guitar choices and preferences

[47:30] The telly's cool, but that strat is where it's at, man.

[47:35] He does play Tele, and there's one other one I can't remember, but there's a great website, and I sadly have been on it more times than I can count.

Oh, and he plays an SG, and I play an SG too.

The website's called Equipboard.com, and it's got, they can pretty much look at any like, musician that's like, you know, quote, unquote, made it, so to speak, and find their rig, and they have the references, like, not just like, they don't just tell you, but they go, this is why we know that this is they're playing and they have a link to like a concert video, or a picture of them pointing out the gear, which is fucking cool.

Track 1:

[48:24] It's really cool. Yeah. I love, neither of you guys mentioned it, but I love Gord's voice in this song.

He's doing a different sort of thing with his voice. It's lower register, softer I suppose, right? Because it is a soft song.

But it's down, it's, you know, sorry you can't see my hand, but it's down here, like belly button wise.

Uh is really quite quite uh effective on this song i agree with that jd when are you gonna fix your your belly button cam you're gonna get that going next next pod what's that my belly button cam Yeah, that took me a minute to get. Sorry.

All right, track number six. Track number 6 is The Bastard.

Appreciating the Percussion and Lyrical Insanity

Track 2:

[56:45] Wow.

This song starts with the they're not bongos, but there's some sort of kind of cool percussion.

Track 3:

[56:54] They're there. Yeah, it's some kind of yeah, yeah, yeah.

Track 2:

[56:59] There's a lot.

Track 3:

[57:00] It's fun. I love when they bring those in.

Track 2:

[57:02] Yeah, it's really cool. This song lyrically is fucking insane.

There's a word in there called crepuscular?

Track 1:

[57:16] Yeah, what is that? Like, what does that even mean?

Track 2:

[57:19] Yeah, it means, um, adjective of resembling or relating to twilight.

Yeah, I mean, gnarly shit and- Oh, gourd.

Track 1:

[57:31] Oh, man.

Track 3:

[57:36] Crepuscular rays, as the sun groomed the plane with crepuscular rays.

Track 2:

[57:41] There's a line in there about the Purple Italians, like it's just...

Track 3:

[57:47] Yeah, what is that referencing? I meant to look that up. I meant to look that up more and did not.

Track 2:

[57:52] Some weird-ass lyrics. I noticed something too.

I love the line, the presaging pel-nel. Yeah.

Track 3:

[58:03] Yeah, the pre-stage pel-nel.

Track 1:

[58:05] Pre-stage and pel-nel.

Track 3:

[58:06] Yeah, that was my favorite.

Track 2:

[58:09] It's um i noticed that in addition to to to um gordon sinclair being so in the fucking zone on this song like a like a like a hypnotized fucking i don't know dude he's just he's a fucking machine on this song song.

He, I watched a little bit of the Woodstock, Woodstock live show 99.

And in this song, during Grace 2, which is what they opened up with, Gord starts testing out some of these lyrics to this song during Grace 2. Bird's Eye View, right?

Track 1:

[58:54] He talks about a bird's eye view of a bird's eye view. Yeah, yeah.

So cool that you got to see that.

Track 2:

[59:01] Finished watching the whole thing.

Track 1:

[59:02] And you recognize it.

Track 2:

[59:04] Go ahead.

Frustration with lack of guitars in "Grace II"

Track 1:

[59:10] Yeah, I went down to Rabbit Hole the other day and was just watching a whole bunch. I started with that when I texted you guys and was like, yeah, I'm watching it. And for the beginning of Grace II, it's all drums and Gord's voice, which I don't mind, but I want to hear those guitars, you know?

And then suddenly it kicks in.

Track 3:

[59:29] The purple people, the purple Italian people, I just found it was an Italian mass protest movement to call for the resignation of a prime minister, one of their prime ministers.

I feel like, I don't know, there must have been an earlier historical use of this because this is actually from 2009. So yeah, I'm curious.

Well, I forgot to tell you guys that Gord is actually reference a mystic he could see in the future yes I wouldn't be surprised yes guys if there's any more sorry there's any more insight on the purple people somebody somebody let us know Tim at getting hit So I got an email.

Mention of an email received regarding the purple people

Track 1:

[1:00:19] Yeah. Got to get our $80 worth.

Track 3:

[1:00:25] I loved the pre-staging Pell-Mel. There's been a handful.

I wish I would have started a list of the gourdisms that would be so fun to learn and reference, because that was so good. When I first heard him sing that, it was like, you know.

Track 1:

[1:00:42] What is pell-mell?

Track 3:

[1:00:44] Well, it just means like, it just means like absurd craziness or warning, like presaging means like warning together.

Well, pell-mell means confusion or disorder or like a confused haste.

So it's, presaging is, you know, the warning of a disorderly moment or the warning of something about to go down.

That's kind of what I took.

Track 1:

[1:01:16] That's dire, I love it.

Track 3:

[1:01:19] Pre-saging, yeah, it's good. I mean, it's a loaded three words, basically.

I think Pete hit on a lot of it, but this song to me kind of got us back in the car and down the road again. It was like driving, rocking, feeling, which I totally dug.

The reference of all of this auger as well, you know, auger meaning like a fucking coring, drilling, coring into something and it's just this good rocking song.

Track 1:

[1:01:55] It's different though. Auger spelled one way is coring, but there's another, like to auger is to portend a good or bad outcome.

Track 3:

[1:02:08] Okay.

Track 1:

[1:02:11] So it's like, to pretend. Yeah. And I believe that's what it, like, it's all this auger's well, like, but, right, like, auger a well could mean digging a hole.

But auger's well means pretending to, portending to good things are going to happen.

Track 3:

[1:02:37] Okay, okay. I just thought there were some beautiful lyrics in here.

Also, I mean, all this augurs well or yeah, it's the The stanza never mind that pool in the mountains victory came and went on winged elephants I saw you all this augurs. Well, like you know, what?

What is what is going on there? But it I thought it was likely this loaded very story specific Specific song without researching it, you know, I heard the lyrics Billy Sunday shout in Philadelphia for Christ Like who really is this song about did you look up Billy Sunday?

Track 1:

[1:03:15] Yeah.

Track 3:

[1:03:16] Yeah. I loved I loved reading about that This is like one of those that is one of those songs easy, right?

Yeah, you barely you barely touch into on the research side and Realize that you know Billy Sunday was baseball player.

Track 1:

[1:03:33] I want to say a pitcher from like 1891.

Track 3:

[1:03:36] Yeah, he was this total this this I guess amazing pitcher And he played for chicago and boston and philly and which During those times you played for a team like your whole career, you know, you stayed in the city You you you became a presence with the team and the community and all that stuff if you did but this this this fellow William Ashley or Billy Sunday Sunday was his family name he he was like a total drunk ladies man and he moved from team to team to team and I think this from what I read the cops and the ladies got to know him really well And then after playing in Philly, he was witnessed to on the street and ultimately became a traveling preacher.

[1:04:32] He went from standout pitcher to traveling preacher.

And while he was preaching, teams even were soliciting him to come back and pitch. And during those days, if you made like 400 bucks a month playing professional baseball, that was like, a great salary. Yeah, I'm sure. And at one point, I read the Pittsburgh Pirates offered him $2,000 a month, and he still declined, and he still continued to be a traveling preacher.

And his kind of schtick was talking about like the sex and alcohol lifestyle, from what I gathered, a lot about alcohol.

And it was so much that when towns heard he was coming, they would just close up the bars until he went out.

Literally, because he was so like, you know, he was his own prohibitionist.

So it's all the personality.

Track 2:

[1:05:37] Yeah Thinking of that was the runner then I Don't know Like losses lay or some Forrest Gump.

Track 1:

[1:05:45] No.

Track 2:

[1:05:45] No, this is a reference from the hip Oh Terry Fox Harry Fox.

Track 1:

[1:05:50] Very fine.

Yeah no he's a guy that ran across canada or something and he got close but he died he ran a marathon everyday he ran a marathon everyday on one leg yeah.

Oh okay yeah cuz he and he was he was like.

He was twenty one years old and he got cancer they removed his leg and he decided he was gonna run across canada and he started on the east coast he passed away thunder bay so he passed away about one third of the way through.

Track 3:

[1:06:21] Wow.

Track 1:

[1:06:22] Oh, it's fucking still, man. That's crazy. But it's like, every day his stump was like, like, euchred because he was wearing one of the, like, now, probably, somebody could do it on one of those, like, one of those spring legs, you know?

Track 3:

[1:06:37] Yeah, yeah.

Track 1:

[1:06:38] Yeah, but back in the day, he had, like, just an old school prosthetic leg, and it was crazy. Yeah.

Track 3:

[1:06:45] Pete, on this one, did you feel like, Did you ever get an inkling like, uh, perhaps this one was music first lyric second, or did you pick up at all on like the kind of background guitar riffing that was kind of over here?

And yeah, it was like, I don't know, it sounded a little after thought ish, that guitar riffing, just kind of carrying you through it all worked.

But this one, this one, I think compositionally.

You know, song, story, Billy Sunday reference aside, which is amazing to dive into and learn about.

I mean, I almost want to paint Billy Sunday or something with like on the pulpit with a baseball bat. That's cool.

A fifth of whiskey in the other hand or something. But anyways, I felt like compositionally, the song writing-wise fits in the album.

It just It just kind of fits in there, but also like, eh.

Track 1:

[1:07:46] You weren't big on it.

Track 3:

[1:07:49] No, it didn't grab me. It was like, OK, let's get back in the car.

We're back on the road. Let's get through the song. It's rocking.

Yeah, let's see what's next.

Track 2:

[1:07:56] I think at first it was like that, but then the song really like, because instrumentally, it's so fucking rich.

Yeah, but like Gord, dude, again, Gord could match, pick the most complex composition that any composers have ever written.

And I'm sure there is some fucking book that Gord Downie wrote lyrics in, somewhere floating around or shoved in his fucking basement, that lyrics.

Track 3:

[1:08:29] I would hope there's like, yeah, like 200.

Track 2:

[1:08:32] Yeah, he could fit to that. I mean, they probably just, yeah.

So I feel you. I feel you. I feel you. Yeah.

Track 1:

[1:08:40] So let's move into track number seven, The Completist.

Track 2:

[1:08:44] I don't have a ton to say about this. I would say I really love this song.

Again, this is a fade in from the previous track.

Gord Sinclair again. fucking standout performance on this song.

The percussive chops of the band at this point in the record.

I mean, there are other songs that come up that you're just like, what the fuck?

But they're not a bar band anymore. I mean, I know they still, but I still think like, I don't know if it was Phantom Power before, a record or two before, you see that kind of bar band thing still rearing its head a little bit, Like, this is just so far from that.

These guys are fucking, they've really become superb musicians from the EP to now.

Like, they've honed their fucking craft.

And then the...

Musicians' dedication to improvement

Track 1:

[1:09:51] Road tested.

Track 2:

[1:09:52] Yeah, I mean, it's the road, it's the recording, it's the composition.

But it's clear that like, every single musician in this band is like, I want to become better at my instrument.

And I'm going to do this. It wasn't just like they just played a bunch, kept doing it, like, they clearly actively tried to become better musicians, as they were continuing.

Like, I would put that to any of these fucking guys, if they're standing in front of me, and tell me, like, tell me I'm lying.

Like, tell me I'm full of shit. And they would say no. Like, Whether it's, I mean, fucking Kirk Hammett for fuck's sake was taking lessons from Steve Vai when he was already in Metallica.

Like, what does that tell you? You know, like, musicians want to become better and they, these guys clearly.

The only thing I was gonna say was the woman singing, I thought it was Kate Fenner from before, but it's not, right?

Track 1:

[1:10:52] I don't know, I thought it was Kate Fenner.

Track 2:

[1:10:54] Apparently it's, um, Julie.

Do I run Dorian, Julie Dorian, Dorian.

Track 1:

[1:11:02] Oh, Julie Dorian.

Track 2:

[1:11:03] Okay.

Track 1:

[1:11:03] Yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense.

Track 2:

[1:11:05] But I, and this is just, you know, I want to say this earlier, Tim, but I want to say that I did do a little research on Kate Fenner and her, um, her label that she's signed to is called UFO music. So that's awesome.

Track 1:

[1:11:19] Oh, you must love that.

Track 2:

[1:11:20] I do.

Track 3:

[1:11:22] You just stole my thunder for Toronto 4. We'll get there.

Track 2:

[1:11:28] I thought the lyrics in the song were beautiful. It was fucking, the beautiful fucking lyrics. Amazingly beautiful.

Track 1:

[1:11:35] Yeah.

Yeah.

Track 3:

[1:11:37] Well, I'll have to look into Julie Dorian. I had not found her.

And we'll get to it, but we haven't talked much about Kate Fenner, nor who we mentioned earlier.

Chris Brown. The fellow on keys, Chris Brown.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. For me, this song to complete us, I felt like it was like at first it was kind of, OK, we're already back to a slowdown.

Like, it felt a little bit of a chug placement-wise in the album, it's a beautiful song.

You know, I just didn't, it kind of left me hanging a little bit.

Like, it didn't grab me and shake me around or rattle me around or anything like that. It felt like it could have been an ender.

Like, it felt like, is this the end of the album? I mean, this could be the end of an album, so that's good.

Track 1:

[1:12:29] Well, it's the end of side one, if you're thinking. Oh, maybe. LPs.

Track 3:

[1:12:36] Yeah, yeah, okay, okay.

Track 1:

[1:12:37] And that would make sense with our next song too, Freak Turbulence, opening side two with a banger, right?

Track 3:

[1:12:44] Yeah, big time. I mean, this is like we're alive again. We're back in the driver's seat or the passenger's seat. Like we have this backup singing again.

I think this was Kate Fenner at this time. I'm not sure.

Between the two. I don't know enough of Julie's voice to distinguish between the two.

Track 1:

[1:13:06] There are definitely people out there that will tell us for sure.

Track 3:

[1:13:10] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm gonna look it up because I think I got Kate Fenner down. I mean, yes, yeah, yeah. So back to the song though, there's a comedy factor here, am I wrong?

Like, this is so much about Gord being afraid to fly or not liking flying or, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's all this talk about.

I don't know, it feels lighter and more fun than usual.

Track 1:

[1:13:39] Like, did the captain just say this? Like, did the captain just say, like?

Track 3:

[1:13:45] Well, we'll land in less than 10 minutes. Or he says, or unless.

Did he say unless or less? Yeah, he's afraid.

You know, I think this is the song that guys.

Were had to fly back to Canada from the US because originally this album Was to be recorded on a moving locomotive train.

Track 1:

[1:14:11] They talked about doing that. Yes I don't know how that would have ever happened.

Track 3:

[1:14:15] No shit. What a fucking cool idea I mean imagine that Pete moving locomotive with all the sounds and shakes and rattles I mean maybe maybe for a song but a whole album yeah with some serious that was some serious weed smoking yeah I'm up with that idea you know we should do guys we should fly back down to Memphis take the train take the train to LA and record the home anyways this this is a this was kind of a fun song it was a little more jovial I dug it there's a There's a weird, PeepeePie caught this, there's some weird guitar feedback, like the last 10 seconds or so, which made the song feel kind of ominous, or maybe the Freak Turbulence was like the plane going down, I don't know.

It was funny in that regard, it was like a total head-scratcher, but this one I kind of dug.

Track 2:

[1:15:15] Oh, I dug this one, man, there's a line in there that really stuck with me, it's Satan Holding back hands, our nose and our chin.

Track 3:

[1:15:22] Yeah, yeah.

Track 2:

[1:15:24] I love that. There's a really, I think, the mix, there was a lot of moments where I wrote down, this is probably the first time I've said it, but it's written on a ton of songs, the mix on this song, how they mix this song with the instruments, like the levels of all the instruments, it's just so, it really, you know, it makes the fucking song.

It makes this song so fucking cool the vocals build, Yeah, I really, you know, I'll rather than to, I'll save my, you know, I'll yield my time only because I have some, some hefty shit to say about some stuff coming up.

But I, this song made me run, like when this song came on and I was going on some runs, I definitely put it into a higher gear with this song.

I loved it. I loved it. Yeah.

Track 3:

[1:16:20] Yeah. Yeah. Especially after the completed, you know, transitioning into this one.

It's like, yes, OK, here we go again. This is definitely the if it's side two, it definitely is the the side one. Get us going again.

"Sharks" - a monotonous but intriguing song

[1:16:36] Sharks, can I go? Sharks. Yeah. This one kind of lazes along for me.

It's got a few interesting bridges, but it's kind of monotonous, but not not.

I'm not saying that in a negative way. It's almost like, it's almost got this head down, shoegazy kind of feel, you know?

Then at the three minute mark, there's this like heavy tom kind of bass kind of transition in there.

It's the bass guitar is like kind of all over the neck for just a brief second, but you know, it's one of, the, this song is, it has what I enjoyed because they they're starting to do this more because they're all just accelerating as musicians is that it has like well over a minute of music the last portion of it is just like great music carrying you through rather than singing until like the last seconds or giving like seven seconds at the end or what have you so it's.

[1:17:42] It was kind of a fun song in that way. It just felt different than the rest, but also worked, you know, positively.

Track 2:

[1:17:52] I love, this is another fade in from the previous track, which I love, that they're doing that, making it very concept-y.

I love the line in there about the Mariana's Trench. That's just fucking cool.

It's such a, it's always been a fascination of mine, probably since I saw fucking, what was the name of that movie? Was that Harris? I don't know.

I thought it was a James Cameron movie for Christ's sake, it was huge. The Abyss.

The Abyss. Oh, The Abyss. The Abyss was in Maria's Trench.

Track 1:

[1:18:29] Right, right, right, right.

Track 2:

[1:18:32] But yeah, I mean, the big standout for me here is Rob Baker's guitar is just fucking insanity.

He does these really cool arpeggios in the song.

And the coolest thing for me was, I was like, what's that fucking effect on this guitar? And I was like, I wrote this down early on, I was like, he's got a, like a delay on the guitar, but not a delay. So it's going bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.

It's so, the delay time is so small that you can't really hear it like a repetitive delay.

It's just, when you put it down almost to zero, it just has this cool, and then I look on no shit by the time I found that website and he's got a Line 6 DL4 delay pedal that no doubt he was using on this fucking song.

It just made me feel cool because I was like, my ears still work after all these years. But I fucking love it.

If I didn't, I didn't think there was a song that could rival Tiger the Lion and I still don't think it beats it but it's pretty up there and that's fucking Toronto 4.

An analysis of the opening guitar arpeggios

Track 1:

[1:26:42] Talk to me. Talk to me.

Track 2:

[1:26:44] I mean, the way it opens with the, like, the record static.

Yep. Again, Rob Baker's doing these weird arpeggios, like he, like, it's kind of like a falling guitar, like he goes from a, like a, it's a D chord or whatever the hell, the octave, than the chord, then the seventh, then the diminished. Makes it feel really sad.

It's just, or like, kind of sad and mysterious, and it's floating.

It's like all the echo-y shit that there's, I don't know if it's Kate Fenner on this. It is.

It is? Okay.

Track 3:

[1:27:26] Yeah.

Track 2:

[1:27:27] Yeah. The way that the, I don't know if it's like he's using mallets or what, but Johnny Fay is like coming in with the cymbals with these really soft mallets that like kind of give it like a gong sound to make it really super dramatic but the songs it's fucking awesome I mean I was like what it was weird because this was a song that early on I would get through the first nine tracks because I was doing like shorter runs when I would take it out and I didn't get to like Toronto for and then the first time I heard it I was like what in the fuck the surf tone on guitar is just...

It's a cool jam dude.

It's cool as fuck. A lot of Pink Floyd, I feel, influence on there.

Track 3:

[1:28:18] I agree with all that. I felt like the percussions on this, the drums on this one, had sort of this metronome, just more of a... I don't know.

Track 2:

[1:28:28] You do the panning on the left to right?

Track 3:

[1:28:31] Yeah, like the pace of the percussion really, to me, held the song like all the way through and was perfect.

I mean, I often hone in on drum stuff like you do guitar and I felt like that was just, I don't know, this song is, it starts slow, it's emotional, it kind of feels like apologetic you know also feels like i don't know familiar maybe it's like the mention of Vesuvius as a metaphor for like family and stresses and breakups and i don't know the The song was just, it's pretty jam packed. I didn't.

Look big into the background on lyrics or story or any of that, you know, I just questioned, which I said to JD like a week ago, I was like, why the hell Toronto four? Are there three other Toronto songs?

Or what is what is that about?

Track 1:

[1:29:29] So if anybody knows, my only guess is, like my, as far as just guesswork, is might be, it might have been the fourth run, you know, it might have been the fourth take, like it's Sometimes you use the studio parlance to come up with the title of a song that you can't quite name.

Track 3:

[1:29:49] Yeah.

Track 1:

[1:29:50] Well, this is a great, it's a great song, and you're right, you nailed it on the head when you talk about family. Yeah, yeah. It's definitely familial.

It's, you know, it's about the matriarch of his family, his grandmother, holding things up.

And that what are the first the first lyrics are? Absolutely.

They slay me and I can't recall them at the moment.

Track 3:

[1:30:17] You know, you were the rock plug for us all. Did you know you were the conduit of Vesuvius?

You were far more unifying than, you know, I'm not a judge of suitable, but you almost had it all.

I mean, if that's about his grandma being the what a tribute, the rock plug for their family.

I mean rock plug is definitely a volcanic reference of you know a rock holding the mountain together before the magma just blows it apart so it's right fucking cool pretty pretty yeah I mean it's this this one maybe has the simplest lyrics that we've seen in a while.

[1:30:59] It's it's a beautiful song. So Kate Fenner on this one just to touch on her because I Think we've heard her before although.

I only found that she To recorded and toured for this album, but man, she's she's got this How do you describe her voice?

I think it's just gorgeous. I think it's yeah, it's It's just, it's, it's, it's lovely.

I, she, she, somebody described her as less, a lusty alternative to a Joni Mitchell ish sound.

Like all of that is, is true. So she's got her own solo stuff.

She's got, as Pete mentioned, UFO Records is her label. She's got this new album out that I touched on briefly over the weekend.

It's it's pretty she's got a beautiful voice like if she ever tours and we get a chance to just Go and any of us hear her perform.

I'm sure it would be worth it. She's got a dreamy voice So yeah, great great addition to me, too I don't know if you saw this tour JD, but what she did she yeah, do you recall her on stage or yeah?

Track 1:

[1:32:09] Because it was it was strange because both Chris Brown and her were on stage with them the whole time and that was It was just it was sort of a strange look because up until that point It had been the five of the month's age.

Track 3:

[1:32:20] Mm-hmm.

Track 1:

[1:32:20] That was it. And so this you know, it changed the dynamic for sure and I'll be the first to tell you that when this record dropped I Liked it But I didn't love it.

But now 20 years later. Yeah, I fucking love this record Yeah, I can listen to this record at any time like yeah, yeah top to bottom. Okay, okay, Now let's go toward the bottom and talk about Wild Mountain Honey, dude.

Track 3:

[1:32:52] I love this one. So I'm taking I'm taking on this one.

Mr Okay, you can you can fill in do it Yeah, like this this to me I heard Pink Floyd I heard Jerry Garcia of guitar effects Like I I heard like fish.

I don't know like this song to me.

They even the the title is is different, like this one was just a little bit different there. You know, it's the drums are soft, but they can sound kind of angry.

This is one of the songs on the album, you know, the first time listening it through.

Or I thought, OK, I need to find this one live and check it out because I'm sure it gets played harder and louder, maybe faster.

[1:33:43] There's just really good chord changing and bridges and guitar riffs and it feels a little bit patched or contrived at the end you know I was hoping for like a big finish the first time I heard this one because it really grabbed me it made it just this to me was like hip fans who have seen the band play live a a bunch.

Probably love this one live. You know, this one just, it hit some marks for me with going, with going after, like, followers of other bands who I knew probably in the same summer saw Grateful Dead play it or saw Phish play and saw the Tragically Hit play.

Like a lot of, you know, A lot of times when I experience bands playing live over the course of a summer, it kind of, you know, dictates that summer.

Like, you think back to that summer and you're like, oh, that's when I went to X Festival or that's when I saw 8Bandplay a couple times.

The Papa Roach show. Yeah, like that's, yeah, definitely the Papa Roach show.

But no, this one was, This kind of centered me back into the seat of the Tragically Hip. I really dug it. I ended up listening to it a handful of times by itself.

Track 1:

[1:35:08] Oh wow! Cool.

Track 3:

[1:35:11] Probably not a single though, right?

Track 1:

[1:35:13] Not a single, nope.

Track 3:

[1:35:14] Yeah, every once in a while they have a song that's not a single that's a little bit off character that I dig and this is one of those.

Rhythms and Unique Drum Hits in "Wild Mountain Honey"

Track 2:

[1:35:23] I thought that I mean the song it's funny ironically it starts out like wild mountain honey it begins like the name does Soft like wild mountain honey, and it creeps up on you like a whiskey, and it fucking destroys.

Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, I think It's funny because I remember looking for the lyrics online and realized there's a Steve Miller song called why I'm not many as well But when I saw the title of this, I thought of the Peach Boys song, Wild Honey, which neither of those examples are even close to this song.

But what I got from it was, I fucking love the rhythms in this fucking, the drums in the rhythms.

The drum hits in this fucking song are so cool and they're so unique and they don't sound like another band.

Like there's some songs that, like I mentioned, some Wilco stuff earlier, there's other songs from other hip records where it's like they're doing a drum hit or a drum fill and you're like, yeah, that's the same drum fill that this band did on this song and that's been, this is completely fucking different.

And it's so fucking cool. So unique, the rhythms in the song.

[1:36:43] There's a weird keyboard or flute effect in the background going down, it was really faint and hard to pick up.

I'm pretty sure it was a keyboard, but it could have been some sort of setting, but I love the line, I don't want to put another thought in my head, I just thought that was so fucking cool towards the end.

And then the song, the solo starts before, but the part at about 3 minutes 30 seconds of the guitar soloer.

Just, I don't know, dude.

I hope I run into him.

Track 3:

[1:37:18] That carries it to the end, right?

Track 2:

[1:37:22] It does. Yeah. I want to run into Rob Baker at a 7-Eleven or something.

Him buying a Slurpee and me already up front and being like, hey, man, let me get this guy's Slurpee and I'll pay for it or something.

Just be like, alright, man.

Track 1:

[1:37:41] What a gentleman you are.

Track 2:

[1:37:42] I want to be that guy.

It's weird that I did not expect to where I'm at so far in the discography of this band for him to slowly become one of my almost favored guitar players.

And this guy that I never knew before.

I fucking love his fucking guitar playing, dude. It's fucking awesome.

Track 1:

[1:38:09] Yeah, he's really good.

Track 3:

[1:38:11] That's an amazing gift for you, bro. What's that?

So that's an amazing gift for you to have this discovery of a new influence.

Track 2:

[1:38:19] Totally, absolutely Tim, absolutely.

Track 3:

[1:38:22] So Train Overnight, the next one, I think I'll backtrack, I think this is the one that was supposed to be the influence, the idea of recording from a train across the south.

Track 1:

[1:38:33] It references it anyway.

Track 3:

[1:38:34] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the story was they showed up to go do this and I don't know where, I would guess Memphis or somewhere down there, but the train was out of commission and the guy who owned the train was like, sorry, it's done.

It's never going to hit the rails again.

So that whole idea was was Kbosh. I forgot I had these these notes down here, but there's, you know, this great drum startup.

"Train Overnight" - Tough to Crack, but Great Rhythm

[1:39:02] There's this kind of perfect bass coming in.

I don't know the guitars were following each other like really well rather than lead and rhythm like I felt like they were more kind of in sync.

Track 2:

[1:39:17] Playing off each other very well.

Track 3:

[1:39:19] Yeah yeah this this one overall was like a little bit more tough for me to crack aside from those kind of basic takeaways but I don't know What did you think of this one, Pete?

Track 2:

[1:39:33] I loved it. I don't have a ton to say about it, but I will say that, again, great rhythm on the drums. It's just really unique.

There's a really cool key change that happens in there with the guitars.

And then I don't know, I can't remember where in the song, but there's a part where they They bring it down and it gets really soft and Sinclair's bass just, you know, it puts the baby to sleep, dude.

Just fucking puts the baby to sleep. I loved it.

If yeah, I don't have too much to say too much more to say about this unless you do Tim I was gonna kind of kick into the bear Yeah, go for it This the opening of the song is Wilco it's or Wilco Got how to open their fucking future songs based on this one.

I mean, it's just Yeah, it's so The keyboards, after there's a line more capable than anything, there's this oscillating keyboard effect that's over in the left side of the ear, the way they mixed it.

[1:40:56] The overall instrumentation and the arrangements on this song, it's a pretty simple song.

It's not like anything fucking crazy, but it's just an example of how good the fucking musicians are at this point because they can take a simple ass fucking song and make it sound so cool by everything they're doing in it.

I don't know, maybe some of that has to do with production too, but just really good.

Track 1:

[1:41:25] Yeah, this is my second time working with Steve Berlin. So that's got to, like, I don't know because I've never been, well, I have been in a studio, but like, I don't know about working with a producer two times in a row, but I'm going to guess there's benefit there, right?

You start to learn some shorthand, you know what you can get away with, you sort of know what they're looking for sonically.

Track 2:

[1:41:50] Well, if it's a good experience, yeah. If it's a good experience, yeah. Yeah, I would imagine if it's not, then it makes it doubly as hard, but yeah.

Track 1:

[1:42:02] How about you Tim the bear?

Track 3:

[1:42:05] I Mean if any of us win the lottery anytime soon We should make a movie out of the song because this one, you know, if you Musically, I don't have a whole lot on it.

I just thought it was well composed but the story here Tell us about the story.

Yeah, so it's this couple that went and camped on Algonquin Park.

Algonquin Park. Algonquin Park, yeah, which is, you know, this has this island where a bear happened to winter.

And so this couple comes along and, you know, springtime the bear wakes up and he's like, sweet, I've got, you know, food for the next get-me-into-summer.

[1:42:46] And that's what happens. I think that's where the line, I was first attracted by your scent, your heart must be a caramelized onion.

Oh, dude, I loved that. I heard your heart must be a caramelized onion.

And as a guy who really likes food and my wife says doesn't cook enough, but man, just your, I just imagine this bear just like so happy to have these humans to feast on.

It's just like, there's, I don't know, there's this triumph for nature.

Yeah. You know, there's this, just this feeling with this, it's all over for you and, and what's his name?

You know, the bear is clearly just stalked and ate this couple.

And then like, apparently the, when they tried to come maybe rescue the couple or something, the bear was just like standoffish and super protective of his his prizes of this poor couple what a fucking tragic awesome, beautiful song. I mean, can you imagine?

Hiking with your significant other and like, hey, let's swim out to that island and camp there. Oh my god. Wow. Let's make a movie out of this one. That's where I went.

Track 1:

[1:44:03] That's a great idea.

All right, we wrap up the record with As I Wind Down the Pines.

A Beautiful Ender: Acoustic Guitars and Piano

Track 3:

[1:44:12] It's kind of a beautiful ender, you know? It's got really nice acoustic guitars, backup vocals, piano.

It's like, is it a love song? I'm not so sure.

But as far as an ender, this one just closed the book for me.

And like, maybe I might have had this feeling with Phantom power to where I was like, okay, let's let's get to the next album.

This this did it for me, too. So I thought this was a good closure to the track.

Track 1:

[1:44:47] That's what you look for in a record, like like in a sense, you're looking for a closer that'll lead you to the next morsel. Is that often times?

Track 3:

[1:44:56] Yeah. I mean, if I'm if you know it, A lot of this experience has hearkened me back to like...

Listening to the music in the 80s and the 90s because you know we heard shit on the radio and we bought albums and we listened to albums.

I mean I remember like playing in one of the houses I lived in in my 20s, four of us, and I remember buying CDs and making everyone listen to them over and over and over because I wasn't walking around with headphones on and you know so that in that essence, it was more like a score of an experience from start to finish.

And if an album left me hanging, either in a bad way, like, ugh, or left me hanging in a, man, I can't believe this just came out yesterday, and I just, I've listened to it 13 times, and I have to wait two years for the next one to happen.

Like, these were the feelings of me listening to albums, which I've been able to relive again, going album by album through their discography.

So I am looking for that, is a long answer to your question. I am looking for that.

[1:46:07] We've talked about how lots of these songs in here have been singles or standalones or place fillers or what have you, but yeah, I'm looking for that for sure.

So this one was, like I said, a beautiful ender. That was about what I took.

I knew though that Pete was like, there was at least a couple tears coming down his cheeks when he listened to this.

Track 2:

[1:46:35] This was a tough one, man. I mean, I loved it. It was a great ender, of course.

I really like the way the piano and the guitar is coming together and just that it's super simple and, you know, sort of stripped down. There is a siren.

At that comes in, in the very beginning of the song. Did anybody catch that?

Track 3:

[1:47:01] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. I remember that. It's really cool.

Track 2:

[1:47:06] But you know, I really liked the song. I thought it was a great closer.

For me, I don't look for this on a record. I don't look for something to wrap it up and put a bow on it.

If a record, because there were so many records that I bought when I was younger, where there was just like three or four songs that I really liked on the record, I'd play the shit out of them, and then I'd listen to the whole record and get into the rest of it, but it was those three or four songs that I really loved, and that would make me buy the next record.

But when I got older and started to appreciate albums, I think it was probably when I got into The Beatles at a certain age, to appreciate what those guys were doing with albums and just listening to the hits.

Then I started to get more into the concept of an album and listening to it from start to finish.

But, you know, overall, I give this, you know, I get this record, you know, you know, and I don't know, JD might get this reference.

I'm pretty sure Tim would get this reference.

I give this this album 4.5 out of 5 cans of ravioli. You know, um...

Rating the Episode: Ricky's Ravioli Mishap

[1:48:27] I should have said 8.5 out of 9 because in the episode Ricky's like, 9 cans of ravioli, Ricky?

Wrapping up the episode with an MVP track discussion

Track 1:

[1:48:41] Well, well that wraps up music at work.

What we do at the end of every episode though is we We forced you to pick an MVP track, a track that you're going to put on your playlist that we'll distribute at the end of this podcast.

And I'm curious what this is going to be, guys. Really fucking curious.

Track 2:

[1:49:05] Can we do an experiment? Can we do an experiment?

You're going to pick each other's? No, Tim and I are going to say it at the exact same time, but it's going to be, are we doing 1 2 3 or 1 2 3 then go?

What are we doing? 1 2 3 then go.

Track 1:

[1:49:18] 1 2 3 then go, okay?

Track 2:

[1:49:23] We'll say it at the same time, alright Tim?

Track 3:

[1:49:25] So after 3?

Track 2:

[1:49:28] Yes, 1 2 3 then go, if you're playing Rochambeau, you know?

Track 1:

[1:49:36] Yeah, let's do it.

Track 2:

[1:49:37] Alright, you count it off, JD.

Track 3:

[1:49:40] 1 2 3... Tiger the Lion!

Track 1:

[1:49:43] Wow, two records in a row that you picked the same song.

Track 3:

[1:49:45] Well, can I just say, this one definitely is the standout.

I mean, it's fucking cool.

Just the slow, trippy start and then the buildup.

It's got a lot to it. It would be my favorite, too.

I will say, it's a hard second with Wild Mountain Honey. I just like I said, I like I like I like it when they step out a little bit and do something a little bit different I feel like they did with that one, but dude.

Wrapping Up the Episode with Exciting Announcement

Track 2:

[1:50:22] Cool.

Track 1:

[1:50:22] Yeah, Tiger the lion Well folks That yeah, that puts a bow on this episode of getting hip to the hip.

I would be remiss to Remind you though that we've got a big party coming up at the end of the summer September 1st Friday September 1st.

It's at the rec room in Toronto and I I Don't know if you like long slice beer you're gonna love it there and we'll be recording our last episode live with a Tragically hip cover band and a comedian and we're gonna have a fucking whale of a time tickets are on sale at this point, please Buy them that would be cool and come and see us and hang out with us Listen to great music with us and have some fun with us.

Track 3:

[1:51:14] We're all gonna be there. Yeah We're traveling for this.

We're raising money for an amazing cause and it's it's gonna be good Taking my car over on a boat Sit in my my my vehicle listen my premium We'll give you a break Pete and put you in the back and I'll drive if you want.

Track 2:

[1:51:42] That's cool.

Track 1:

[1:51:45] Well guys we'll talk to you again next week.

Track 3:

[1:51:47] That was good, thanks J.D., thanks Pete.

Track 2:

[1:51:49] Thanks guys.

Track 4:

[1:51:50] Pick up your shit! All right. Whew, we're good.

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