City Pages – A List Picks
The Tragically Hip Worshiped as rock gods in their own country, Canadian Music Hall of Famers the Tragically Hip never caught on as strongly in the States, despite two decades of touring in support of album after album of sweet hooks and high-energy storytelling by frontman Gordon Downie. Maybe it’s just that they were never really needed in the U.S., where the fruited plains offer up a new crop of rock gods every year. Early reports from the Hip’s current road trip promise an exhilarating rush of a performance, sure to please the same Canuck expats who’ll be turning out to see Sloan the following week. With Winter Sleep. 18 . $25/$30. 7:00 p.m. —Sarah Askari

Bloomberg News/Bloomberg.com

By Paul Goguen

May 11 (Bloomberg) — Back in the ’80s, five schoolmates got together in Kingston, Ontario, and formed a rock group that would become one of Canada’s most successful, recently sharing a bill with the Rolling Stones.

The Tragically Hip’s newest disc, “World Container,” is its most polished effort, likely to please home-country fans and possibly win new ones in the coveted U.S. market.

Lead singer Gordon Downie, 43, spoke about the Hip’s recording life in Bloomberg’s New York studios.

Goguen: The band’s 1989 breakthrough song, “New Orleans Is Sinking,” has an ironic title after Hurricane Katrina. I noticed on your Web site that you are trying to help the people of New Orleans.

Downie: We wrote the song way back when, obviously not about Hurricane Katrina or the city sinking all in one go, but sinking over time — you know, with its position under sea level. That was the idea then, about being a Canadian kid going down for Mardi Gras and spring break, saying that if the city goes down, I don’t want to swim.

After Katrina, great fanfare was made about the pulling of the song at various radio stations — that probably didn’t play it anyway. We had another song called “If New Orleans Is Beat” from our last record, “In Between Evolution.” And so I, with a friend of mine, Joseph Boyden — who lives down there and teaches writing — made a small effort to try and raise a little money and awareness, toward the Red Cross.

Heavy Metal Producer

Goguen: “World Container,” your latest, was produced by fellow Canadian Bob Rock, who is famous for his work with Motley Crue and Metallica. How did you connect, and what it was like working with him?

Downie: It started as a conversation, and we gingerly moved to cutting a few tracks together. We hit it off immediately.

Bob is just really something else. He is a musicologist through and through. He can tell you what he was wearing when he bought “Exile on Main Street,” he can tell you who played on what, he knows music through and through and he loves it. That’s why the records he makes sound the way they do — a 14-year-old who can’t believe he makes records for a living.

Goguen: The jacket copy on “World Container” says “all songs by the Tragically Hip.” Sharing coveted writing credits has caused battles within so many bands. Why do you do it that way?

Downie: We had a brief discussion about it in Paul’s (Hip member Langlois) parents’ basement once. I think that it has really created our main goal or aspiration, which is really just to know each other, to support each other, to grow. It was a good decision.

Song Suits

Goguen: Band members sue each other all the time over songwriting issues.

Downie: Oh, we still sue each other (laughs).

Goguen: The band is hugely popular in Canada. You were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and you’ve won 15 Juno awards, the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy. Does the new album specifically target the U.S. market?

Downie: Well, no. It matters, but not for the reasons one might expect. We have been coming down here for 15 years and converting people, say, 45 at a time, just building it up slowly and surely with our show.

Obviously, if you are in a rock band with a rhythm-and- blues foundation, you want to come to the United States and play your music down here. You want to get close to the source, you want to get close to the flame, where this music originated.

(Paul Goguen writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this story: Paul Goguen at pgoguen1@bloomberg.net

.http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aPyGL1dgH9sM&refer=muse

http://www.pollstar.com/news/viewnews.pl?NewsID=7916

Wed, May 09 2007

The Tragically Hip, who have been going out of their way recently to “spread the green gospel,” are about to embark on the second leg of their North American Tour.  The next round of dates for the Canadian quintet kicks off May 10 at the Vogue in Indianapolis and includes shows at Chicago’s House of Blues (May 11-12), First Avenue in Minneapolis (May 14), the Barrymore Theatre in Madison, Wis. (May 15), and the Warner Theatre in Erie, Pa. (May 18). Tickets for all shows are on sale through links on the band’s web site.

The Hip also have plenty of festival appearances lined up for this summer, including Summerslam in Grand Prarie, Alberta (July 14), the 10,000 Lakes Festival in Detroit Lakes, Minn. (July 20), and Rock Fest in Cadott, Wis. (July 21).

All shows on the band’s most recent arena tour in Canada used non-toxic, non-petroleum-based, biodegradable Green Shift products, including cups, plates and cutlery, on their bus, backstage and at most concession stands. The band’s Ontario shows were powered by Bullfrog Power, the first 100 percentgreen power company in the province.

Band members also carry their green devotion into their personal lives. Lead singer Gord Downie is a trustee of the Lake Ontario Waterkeepers and an avid cyclist who parks his car in the spring and summer and makes good use of a vintage bicycle he picked up in the Netherlands.

It was brought to my attention this week that the commenting feature does not work properly, if at all, for some users. Sadly it appears that it is the theme we were using that was causing the commenting feature to not work. The theme that Ben Grubb made the custom headers for.

So… please bear with me as we try some new themes in an attempt to figure out why the comments do not work with the K2 theme we were using.

That’s right fans, www.hipfans.com is now a green site – meaning that we are carbon neutral. Our hosting company guarantees it!

Read more about it here:

It’s been that long since The Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup. Forty years ago today.

It’s good to see that Leaf fans don’t actually care about winning, as they continue to snap up tickets, paraphernalia and memorabilia at an alarmingly fast rate.