Dez's Top Rock/Pop, #17: The Tragically Hip

But They’re Big in Swaziland
There’s no accounting for taste. I’ve always found it interesting how some bands are huge in one part of the world, but are an obscurity or unheard of elsewhere. Rock and pop history is littered with examples. Take a-ha. “Take On Me,” right? One hit wonder from the 80’s with the singer with the impossibly high range and the innovative cartoon/live action music video. While a-ha’s moment Stateside was relatively shortlived and you may consider them an 80’s trivia answer, they have been releasing music for almost three decades internationally and regularly sell out arenas throughout Europe. They have an excellent and fairly deep catalogue. (If you are interested, I would recommend 2000’s Minor Earth Major Sky. So good.) Stone Roses is another example. Their life as a band was short, but they were huge in Britain, inspiring a musical revolution of sorts. Didn’t make much of a dent here. (It is funny to note that Jimi Hendrix had to go to England and break there first, and then he returned to the U.S. and we finally took notice, after he was already a sensation in England). I recall in the mid-1990’s when Men At Work reunited briefly for a tour. The dates in the U.S. were at casino lounges and small clubs. They released a live album from the tour (Brazil), that was recorded at a football (or should I say, futbol) stadium in Rio.

Which brings me around to The Tragically Hip, which has to be one of the greatest band names ever. Well, they’re huge in Canada! In fact, The Hip is one of the biggest and most successful Canadian bands of the last two decades, having won 14 Juno Awards (the Canadian version of a Grammy), and releasing an impressive 46 (and counting) singles on the Canadian charts. They have already been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame (I know, insert joke here). Point is, The Hip are an institution in the Great White North, but not very well known at all here. Which says something about Canadian tastes. If we could be so lucky to have a band so, well, hip as one of our biggest acts. And they certainly don’t hide their Canadianess (?) With a song titled “The Dark Canuck” and songs referencing Canadian sports legend Bobby Orr, these guys know their roots.


ABOVE: Famous musical Canadians. You probably recognize the one on the right (Neil Young). You should also know the one on the left.

I could be mistaken, and if so, I apologize. But back when the Hip were threatening to break in the U.S. (they never really did) after the release of their second U.S. (third Canadian) album, Road Apples, my group of friends were all Hip fans. As far as I can tell, they fell off the radar of most of my compadres (except my friend Bryan G., I recently found out). That is really too bad. Because over the course of their 12 studio albums and one live record, they have remained a compelling band. The five man line-up has remained intact throughout their career, and while the band is great, the focus is frontman Gordon Downie. With his quivering vocals and often poetic lyrics (for good and sometimes for bad), he gyrates and free associates onstage, making Hip shows always intriguing, as he leads the band down musical alleyways (and sometimes rabbit holes), rarely leaving a song the same as it was before. That is about as close to real artistic exploration as you will get with rock and roll music.

What To Listen To:
This is tough with The Hip. They have released a lot of records. Every one of them has worthwhile tunes on them, but almost every one of them also has some filler. They have trouble making a killer record from start to finish, but you can cherry pick killer songs on every one of those 12 records. Up To Here and Road Apples really lay the foundation, and they are probably their two strongest records from start to finish. Amongst Hip fanatics, Road Apples is generally considered their finest release. From there, I really like the experimental (for them) Day For Night and the more recent Phantom Power. Fans and band complain about the production on Fully Completely, but many of those songs are fan favorites. Their two disc compilation, the aptly titled Yer Favourites, has great songs on it, but it is a scattered listen. They conducted an online poll and allowed their fans to choose the tracks (kind of cool), but it is haphazardly sequenced so it doesn’t present the band’s development as it should. It is almost as if they pressed “random” on an iPod for the sequencing. Plus, it is already out of date, because they have released some very good records since it came out.