Review: TheStar.com on World Container

Here’s what thestar.com (The Toronto Star) has to say about World Container:

“Three Stars out of Four”

As a live act, the Tragically Hip remains as popular as ever in this country. The sold-out, four-night run at the Phoenix Concert Theatre that begins Sunday is more lark than necessity for a band still capable of packing the ACC for a night — or even two. In recent years, however, the iconic Kingston band’s recorded output has met with growing indifference. Whether World Container, the Hip’s 11th studio album in 13 years, can reverse the trend remains to be seen — although the bouncy, upbeat power pop of the debut single, “In View,” counts as a serious attempt. Aided by producer Bob Rock, who has fine-tuned discs by heavyweights Metallica and Mötley Crüe, World Container is a concerted effort to tweak, if not ditch, the familiar template. While sometimes still relying too heavily on vehemence as his principal vocal strategy, singer Gord Downie demonstrates a welcome dexterity, even making a bid for crooner on “Pretend” and the title track. Guest keyboardist Jamie Edwards lends leavening touches to both those tracks, as well as opener “We’re not the Ocean,” while “The Lonely End of the Rink” gets a dusting of classical guitar and “Fly” is embroidered with rootsy embellishments.
Vit Wagner

The Tragically Hip | internet radio on icebergradio.com

theTHip_385x125.jpg

The Tragically Hip | internet radio on icebergradio.com
There is no doubt The Tragically Hip is one of the most revered Canadian rock bands of the last 20 years. With such longevity The Hip have never truly slowed down. Instead they have amassed a large collection of songs which have become staples in the Canadian music scene. With the release of the new album, World Container, they continue to build on their reputation as one of Canada’s premier groups. The Tragically Hip discuss the making of their new album in an exclusive album launch.

Review: 2006-10-17 – Toronto, ON

The “secret” show to launch World Container was held last night as The Horseshoe Tavern in downtown Toronto. We arrived at 8:15pm (the email telling us about the event said the doors were at 8, show at 10) and the venue was sparsely populated, but the anticipation was palpable.
2006-10-17 - Toronto, ON SetlistThe band took the stage promptly at 10pm and ripped into The Lonely End Of The Rink followed by a barrage of new tracks and classics. Gord D was more talkative than normal, thanking the crowd and those involved with the production/release of the album on numerous occasions. He seemed really thrilled to be on stage, singing their new tracks and his excitement was shared by the other guys in the band, as evidenced by the perma-grins that they wore all evening.
The crowd was receptive to the new tracks, and the drunk “Captain Canada’s” seemed to be strangely absent making foor an even better show. The only downer of the evening was that as this was a radio contest there were a lot of people there just because they won tickets – no real interest in the band outside of NOIS and Little Bones.

The Horseshoe holds about 400 people, and judging by the number of fans who came up and said hello to me, I’d wager that at least 40% were fans who acquired tickets through MAv and thehip.com/hipbase.com Ticket Stash. (Thanks again MAv!)

Audio (4 sources) and video (5 cameras at least) were recorded. This show will be in the vaults for a while as I have a huge list of shows already queud up for editing.

Hip frontman talks rock, Rock

Hip frontman talks rock, Rock
Producer’s skills on new release impress band

The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie discussed the band’s new album at an Ottawa hotel yesterday.
Photograph by : Julie Oliver, The Ottawa Citizen

Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Tuesday, October 17, 2006

The Tragically Hip’s relationship with legendary producer Bob Rock started with a phone call, singer Gord Downie explained yesterday, probably for the umpteenth time in the last week.

142921-55246.jpgDownie was in Ottawa for a day of what the industry folks term “press and promo” to drum up interest in the veteran Canadian band’s 12th album. In addition to newspaper interviews, he had an early-morning phone interview with a classic-rock radio station, a live question-and-answer session with fans at a mixed-rock radio station, and was an afternoon guest at a new-rock radio station.

Last week, there was a similar schedule in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. While promo tours are fairly common, this one is rare because Downie, the enigmatic frontman, isn’t usually the band member doing the talking when a new Hip record comes out. World Container, in stores today, is the Hip’s zinger of a 12th album, but it’s probably Downie’s first Hip promo tour on his own.

Intense and thoughtful in person, Downie was dressed yesterday in black cap, long sleeves, scarf and funky striped trousers when he came down from his hotel room for photos in the lobby and interviews in the lounge.

He requested coffee — strong, grande, double-double — and sat down to talk about working with Bob Rock and how the band plans to tackle the new songs live.

Why him in the hot seat? “The guys have done a lot of the heavy lifting over the years and it’s probably my turn,” he said.

Besides, it was Downie who made the first connection with Rock, the Canadian musician/producer noted for his work on some pivotal Metallica, Motley Crue and Bon Jovi albums. Thanks to Rock, World Container is the Hip’s most insanely catchy record since Fully Completely.

Rock was at home in Maui and Downie was outside an East Indian restaurant in downtown Toronto when the two musicians first made phone contact. They talked for an hour, Downie says.

“We talked very easily and effortlessly about music and our kids and the doves, and just different things,” he says, “and we just decided ‘why don’t you fly out here?’ ”

Downie visited, armed with a couple of CDs of Hip music. As they drove around in Rock’s pickup truck, the chemistry began to click. It fell into place when Downie invited Rock back to his “shack” to play music together.

“I wouldn’t have seen myself doing that but I just thought he should come and get a sense of these things, and I think at that moment, that was enough to convince him to get the band together in Vancouver, and that should be the next step.”

There were three different sessions with Rock to make World Container, with enough time between to reflect on what had been accomplished. The band members were awed by the producer’s instinct and abilities.

“I can tell you, he’s got the heart and soul of a painter,” Downie says. “He’s an artist through and through, more so than anyone I’ve ever met. He has boundless inquisitiveness and enthusiasm for the project. The work ethic is outta control.

“I’ve never met anyone like him. He’s a rock ‘n’ roller, a music lover through and through, and he doesn’t require any voodoo or mojo or incense to get it going.”

Downie says he was the “exact right guy at the exact right moment” for the Hip. He and guitarists Rob Baker and Paul Langlois, bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay came together as a band in Kingston in the mid-’80s, and were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2005.

“If you’re not thinking about it, and just making music with a reckless abandon, I think that’s a lot of what Bob is about. Build a song, make it more interesting. Get everyone so that you know what you’re doing, and then he comes on hard with ‘OK. Passion, emotion, performances. Let’s have it.’

“That might sound like it shouldn’t be a novel concept, but it kind of is. I think they probably have more rock ‘n’ roll good times at NASA developing something to blast into space than they do making records.”

Among the extra dimensions that Rock brought to the Hip’s music are multi-tracked sonic flourishes and many layers of instruments, including piano. If the Hip wanted to created an exact replica of each studio song on stage, they would have to tour with an extra load of gear and a few more people.

But that’s not their style. True to Hip form, the same five guys played the same instruments at concerts over the summer.

“The songs are different than the record, which is good,” Downie says. “We have to make them wild and woolly and disrespect them a little bit, or at least, just try and lose that need to emulate the record. It’s rock ‘n’ roll. I’m looking forward to that.”

A cross-Canada arena tour is expected this winter.

World Container – In Stores Now!

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?

REVIEW: CANOE.ca: WORLD CONTAINER

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.ca: Downie jazzed about new Hip album

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.

What do you do at a Hip show?

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.)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ,