That’s right fans; after months of anticipation The Hip’s new album “World Container” is available for purchase at your favourite CD retailer and the iTunes Store.
After you’ve had a listen, post your thoughts in the comments. If you’ve heard a song in concert, how does it sound on the album? Better? Worse? The same?
CANOE — JAM! Music: WORLD CONTAINER
WORLD CONTAINER
The Hip continue to evolve
By DARRYL STERDAN — Winnipeg Sun
Tragically Hip
World Container
(Universal)
When you’re a big-time rock band — even a big-time Canadian rock band — it must be tempting to stay safely ensconced in your own little self-important world. To make the same crowd-pleasing CD over and over again.
To play the hits for the same fans at the same sold-out arenas year after year. To do nothing to burst the bubble of your own fame and fortune.
So you’ve got to give Gord Downie and his Tragically Hip bandmates some credit for not being that band. They don’t necessarily reinvent their CanRock wheel every time they go into the studio.
But they do seem to try to move in a few new directions instead of just sticking to the same old worn pathways.
Their dozenth disc World Container is no exception. “There are places I’ve never been and always wanted to go,” yelps Downie on the aptly titled Fly. And so he does — in the musical sense, anyway.
The charming single In View may be the most obvious jumping-off point, with its bouncy beat and poppy keyboard hook offsetting Downie’s high-register warble and lovey-dovey lyrics. But the 11-song disc holds several other subtle departures from the 23-year-old quintet’s trademark sound.
The Lonely End of the Rink borrows some ringing reggae-rock guitars from The Police. The Kids Don’t Get It goes one step further, with a skanking guitar and nimble bassline that possess vaguely Clash-like overtones. It’s followed by Pretend, which cunningly recasts Kids’ lyrical dialogue — ” ‘If I ask you a question, are you gonna lie to me?’ / ‘Is that your question? ‘Cause that one is easy’ ” — into a pretty piano-ballad waltz. The title cut also brings out the keyboard, closing the album on an elegantly mellow mood.
But just because The Hip have moved forward doesn’t mean they’ve left old fans in the lurch. There are no shortage of moody guitar-driven rockers here, from the alternately jangly and chunky opener Yer Not the Ocean to the slow-burning blues-boogie The Drop-Off and the chugging Family Band (which has another lyrical bon mot: “One day I’ll make some honest rock ‘n’ roll, full of handclaps and gang vocals”). And for all its sonic detours, the disc still delivers plenty of crunching guitar interplay and taut, rock-solid grooves — topped, of course, with Downie’s poetic political allegories and nervous yelp.
Which is to say: It covers enough familiar turf to rock your world, along with enough changes of scenery to make for an interesting journey.
Track Listing:
1. Yer Not the Ocean
2. The Lonely End of the Rink
3. In View
4. Fly
5. Luv(sic)
6. The Kids Don’t Get It
7. Pretend
8. Last Night I Dreamed You Didn’t Love Me
9. The Drop Off
10. Family Band
11. World Container
CANOE — JAM! Music – Artists – Tragically Hip, The: Downie jazzed about new Hip album
Downie jazzed about new Hip album
By ROB HONZELL – Calgary Sun
It’s good to see inspiring people feeling inspired.
And that’s just how Gordon Downie is looking these days.
With The Tragically Hip’s new album, World Container, set to drop Tuesday, frontman Downie seems enthusiastic as he sits in a hotel lobby, talking about The Hip, Bob Rock and rock ‘n’ roll.
A string of intriguing topics to any music fan.
“I guess I’m jazzed about this record, and excited about it, because I feel like I stumbled onto something,” says Downie.
For the making of World Container, The Hip teamed up with famed rock producer Bob Rock, who has produced some of the greatest rock albums of all time, including Motley Crue’s Dr. Feelgood and Metallica’s self-titled album.
“The sound is fresh,” says Downie.
“It’s a celebration of a great working and personal relationship with Bob that didn’t exist two years ago.”
The relationship, thankfully, was one that flourished easily and early.
“It became clear this was going to be a very different record for The Hip,” writes Rock in his World Container biography.
“The songs were very personal and one in particular, Fly, got to me right away. I had never heard a song like that from The Hip.”
Needless to say, Rock agreed to do the album, and the rest, as they say, is what they don’t teach you in history class.
The Hip’s Rob Baker and Paul Langlois will be joining us for a live chat on Oct. 23 @ 12:30 p.m. ET.
Rock’s rock ‘n’ roll style shines through on World Container.
“Bob said to us at the beginning, ‘you’re a great rock band, you know, you’ve got a great groove.’ ”
“It wasn’t like ‘let’s keep it simple,’ but … when we sort of started sifting through material to try, he would … politely move beyond (some stuff) or push it aside.”
Downie says these songs inevitably would be the ones that seemed, “too much from the head and not so much from the heart. And I think I’m interested in what the heart has to say.”
“I think it shows on this record.”
“The heart is one’s greatest resource,and I don’t know if I was really going to it enough.”
Something else Downie says he’s not sure if The Hip were doing enough was letting their musical inspiration shine through.
“I think it’s always fun to show those influences a bit,” he says. “To show that you’re very cognizant and aware of your role in the great lineage of music.”
And being part of that lineage is something Downie is proud of.
“I love music constantly. I love that it’s part of my life.”
“My 11-year-old daughter bought The Killers’ new single and played it maybe 40 times in a row the other day.
“And I was in the kitchen making toast, and I tell you, every time she put it on and I thought Yeah!
“Because that’s what I would have done … you save up your allowance and it’s either candy or record. And you’d get the record and you’d play it a thousand times in a row because you own it, it’s yours.
“And I love that feeling.”
As far as what it is about rock ‘n’ roll he still loves: “I think it’s an instrument of change. I think it can change the world.”
Whether World Container will change the world, we’ll have to wait and see.
But whether or not The Tragically Hip has changed the world of Canadian rock is a no-brainer.
I was lucky enough to attend the taping of The Hip’s performance for The Hour yesterday afternoon – surrounded by hundreds of fans who were thrilled to be there, except this girl who spent the entire show knitting! (Do not adjust your speakers – there isn’t any sound on the video.)
A Hip displacement of water
Love and liquid abound on band’s liveliest disc in years
Published: Saturday, October 14, 2006
EDMONTON – It’s almost too tragic to even think about — life without The Hip.
Frontman Gord Downie won’t come out and say his group was on the verge of breaking up, but he does admit the 23-year-old Canadian rock institution didn’t have any plans after recording the first four songs for World Container, in stores Tuesday.
“We weren’t convinced we were going to see each other again,” he says during a brief promotional stop in Edmonton.
“There was no tension or anything, but nothing was planned. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, we’re going to make a record.’ It was like, ‘We’ll meet in Vancouver and we’ll cut a few songs and we’ll go from there.’ That’s about as planned as it got.”
Two studio sessions and a year later, The Tragically Hip give us their liveliest album in years, World Container, featuring hints of reggae, gang vocals, Moogs, ’70s punk, sexy bass grooves and some of most straightforward, personal and powerful lyrics ever written by Downie. “I love you / You know I do,” he sings on the first single, In View, a boppy, rootsy ditty about phone calls.
Love and water, in lakes, oceans or frozen sheets of ice, play a central role in The Hip’s songs.
One of the most touching is The Lonely End of the Rink, a cold-climate number propelled by the sunny reggae rhythms of Jamaica.
It’s also a tale of silent solidarity, inspired by Downie’s dad.
“I was a rink-rat growing up,” he says. “I was a goalie and my father was a busy father of five, so he would come when he could. When he did show up, I’d look up and there he would be. He’d never go so far as saying ‘I’ll be there,’ because you don’t break promises to children — unless you’re Stephen Harper — and then I’d make a couple of saves, look up and he’d be gone. So it was a really cool phantom in my life.”
Downie credits The Hip’s newfound exuberance to powerhouse producer Bob Rock, who recently severed ties with Metallica after a decade of recording with Lars Ulrich and company.
You wouldn’t know it by listening to The Hip’s 50 Mission Cap or Little Bones or Fireworks, but the Kingston rockers are big fans of Rock’s work on Motley Crue’s 1989 metal classic, Dr. Feelgood.
“Every musician I knew of every stripe had that record, because the snare drum just sounded so good,” smiles the singer.
“I think Bob brings an artistry to everything he does. I think he’s underestimated, I think people assume too much about him. He’s very much an artist in temperament, inquisitiveness, work ethic. He’s got the heart and soul of a painter.”
As the “benevolent dictator” of the project, Rock tried to wring every ounce of passion out of the musicians and push them in new directions. Every day in the studio was an unpredictable adventure.
“He would hear (a song) and say, ‘I want to do this.’ He’d preface everything with ‘Call me crazy or this might be in-sane … . ‘ It was endless,” says Downie.
“He doesn’t plan too far ahead, he doesn’t plan two lines ahead in a song or chorus. This is what’s in front of him, this is what he thinks we should do, this will be our next step. That’s very refreshing. That’s how we approached it. I’m very lucky to have met him when we did. It feels like we just started (as a band).”
Downie says working on World Container in bits and pieces was also a big help for The Hip, who released their self-titled debut in 1987. For the first time in the group’s recording history, the five musicians were able to take a break from their songs and contemplate them over a few weeks.
“It was a real boon to the record to be able to step away, in my case, and listen to the lyrics and reconfigure and edit them. As opposed to being immersed in them for six weeks. You can get very lost in that. This way, it was very civilized — do a few tracks, step back, listen to them, go back in, mix things, change things. I would do it the same way from now on. It’s not very practical, but it was the way to go,” says Downie.
“It allowed the record to organically develop, for it to make its needs known, as opposed to us forcing too much, trying too many changes. It allowed us to be very patient with the material. You have to — you have to allow something to tell you what it wants to be.” For the first time, the enigmatic lyricist was also challenged by one of his producers.
Rock wanted to know the meaning behind all of Downie’s cryptic lyrics and persuaded him to use repeating choruses on Fly — a songwriting convention he usually spurns. He even uses the same opening line — “You said, ‘If I ask you a question, are you gonna lie to me?’ ” — in two songs, The Kids Don’t Get It, a clangy punk number, and Pretend, a soaring piano ballad.
“I was definitely shooting for conciseness. Bob did a lot for adding a whole chapter to my book on how to be a songwriter,” he says. “He was very, very helpful. It wasn’t easy. We’d talk a lot, which to date, I hadn’t really done much. It’s fine — producers have a lot on their plate when they’re making records, but Bob manages to fit it all in.”
More importantly, Downie says he has a greater appreciation for his friends and bandmates, guitarist Rob Baker, drummer Johnny Fay, bassist Gord Sinclair and guitarist Paul Langlois.
They’ll tour Canada in January and February, but exact dates haven’t been announced yet.
“You sort of get so lulled into thinking of yourself as this five-headed thing, the group, the band, The Hip, I guess you just forget,” he admits. “It’s a family, and like every good family, you can forget. But you’re also committed to each other, so there’s always room to grow, to learn and relearn.”
ssperounes@thejournal.canwest.com
Read more of Gord Downie’s quotes on my blog at www.edmontonjournal.com.
HIP CLIPS
Check out the Hip’s new CD, World Container.
www.edmontonjournal.com and go to Online Extras
CANOE — JAM! Music – Artists – Tragically Hip, The: Gord Downie is Hip to saving Earth
Gord Downie is Hip to saving Earth
By YURI WUENSCH — Edmonton Sun
Gord Downie
What Gord Downie wants is a nice, clean Bath.
The Tragically Hip’s lead singer was in Edmonton at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald last Wednesday on a press stop for the band’s 11th full-length album, World Container. It’s out this Tuesday. But, in talking about the new LP, his thoughts drifted back to Bath, a hamlet on the shores of Lake Ontario, roughly a 15-minute drive from the band’s native Kingston.
In Bath, the Hip has a recording studio, dubbed “the Bath House.” But from out the studio’s back window, the otherwise scenic horizon line is in doubt.
“There’s a cement kiln beside our studio that wants to start burning tires as an alternative fuel,” says Downie, “but it’s really to save a couple million dollars.”
Downie grew up around the lake, so he has a vested interest in seeing it protected. He’s also one of its three trustees via Waterkeeper Alliance, a grassroots organization committed to protecting the world’s waterways.
While he’s happy to answer questions about the new album, Downie seems happiest when asked questions about the environment – he brightens with one of those “I’m glad you asked” expressions when asked about his Waterkeeper Alliance hoodie.
Fortunately, when you’re talking up environmental-related issues and World Container, you tangentially end up talking about the same thing.
Never obviously, though, and never, as Downie says, in a “pedantic or overbearing way.” Recorded in Hawaii, Vancouver and Toronto with veteran producer Bob Rock, the album sees the band tackling new instrumentation (glockenspiel, Moog, harpschichord and epic keys courtesy of Jamie Edwards) and another topic Downie has, to a degree, avoided in the past: love.
“I decided I’d avoided the elephant in the room – love in general – long enough,” he explains. “It’s some dogged pursuit of the non-cliche or the unique thought. I’d just ignored it, because love’s been done to death. When you start poking around, though, it’s the taking a crack at it – that’s the thing. I had to find out what it meant to me.”
But the album does reflect the growing sense of urgency and frustration Downie feels towards environmental preservation. From the ozone-iconography pictured on the disc itself to the album’s very title, which Downie says could have a double meaning of “World: contain her.”
“Ron MacLean (of Hockey Night in Canada) mistakenly called the album Container World and I like that even more,” says Downie.
The album’s title track is also damning of our current environmental trajectory. With lines like “What we have here are all flaws in progress” or, pointing a finger at Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government, “When the country quits on you, it must be dinner.”
“The status quo is not even close to good enough anymore,” laments Downie. “Canadians are clamouring for more and Harper is going backwards.
“They keep talking about rolling out a Made-in-Canada plan to reduce emissions by consulting between industry and government for the next year and they take even longer to implement a plan to cut CO2 emissions. We already have something called the Environmental Protection Act sitting right there to be used – just enforce the rules.
“Pretty soon, people are going to start looking at Canada and going, ‘What the hell is the matter with you guys?’ ”
It’s a question, realizes Downie, that the Tragically Hip’s zealous Canadian fan base has also faced over the years. And it’s a topic that makes him uncomfortable, because he dislikes the idea of a Tragically Hip fan being so easily defined.
The diverse ways the band reaches people, either through his songwriting or in performance, are being reflected on the Hip’s website through the Hip Story Project, inviting people to share their sometimes life-changing TTH tales online.
“The allure of the band is a mystery to some people and as hard as they might try to crack that allure, they kind of end up with this one slightly discriminatory idea that they’re an underclass of people who don’t know any better.
“I think that’s always been the thing that’s sort of been raced over by people who take a view of the group and what it means to people. I’ve watched them painted with one brush and it never quite covers the whole canvas.”
As previously posted, “The Colour Of The Night – A Photographic Retrospective Of The Tragically Hip” through the lens of Richard Beland opened on October 1 at the Pikto Gallery in Toronto’s Historic Distillery District. I went to the opening gala last night and it was fantastic! As MAv pointed out, Richard is a super nice guy, and was a gracious host.
MAv, Rob Baker and a guy who looked exactly like Sean Penn all made appearances before I left the event. (MAv, I’ve got discs for you – see you next Sunday.)
And for those with a few extra bucks in their pockets, all of the prints are for sale – starting at $30.
eTtalk Daily and http://web2.0television.com/ were there with their cameras rolling… keep an eye out for the broadcast as both of them interviewed Rob & Richard.
CANOE — JAM! Music – Artists – Tragically Hip, The: The Hip to chat live Oct. 23rd
JAM! is excited to announce details of our live online chat with Canadian rockers, The Tragically Hip.
Hip guitarists Rob Baker and Paul Langlois will be joining us live on Monday, October 23 @ 12:30 p.m. ET for a one-hour chat.
Baker and Langlois will be answering questions from fans and talking about their upcoming disc “World Container,” which is set to hit Canadian stores on October 17.
Want to know why they chose Bob Rock to produce their album? How about a full-fledged Canadian tour in the future? How about the future of the band?
Start jotting down your questions — we will be posting up the chat window in the next few days for your submissions.
The Live 10 Series :: Volume 2 is available now through the Canadian iTunes Store. Click on the image to go to the download page.
