Hip Hip

I’m having one hell of a great week. Gord Sinclair, my good friend and bassist for the Tragically Hip, asked if I’d write a fan’s view biography for their upcoming (11th!) album, which of course I did. He sent it off to their management company and to Gord Downie, lead singer and chief decision maker and, dreams coming true, Gord D. emailed me a thank you. EMAILED ME. I just got word that they want to use it in an upcoming press release! I don’t care so much about that; I just keep rereading his email. I love this business.

Tragically Hip Bio – World Container

With the release of their eleventh album, the Tragically Hip continues to suffuse music with a mastery of creative ingenuity and a limitless foray of passion. The Kingston quintet has delivered their unbridled formula of silvery alchemy for over twenty-years. Fusing with acclaimed producer Bob Rock (Metallica) in his studio in Maui, the band entrusted Rock’s ingenious wizardry to command the presence of the album; the result is a surrendering to equal-parts intrinsic, artistic depths.

Rock’s vision and skill, coupled with his own rich belief in the Hip’s sound, commitment and loyalty to one another, helped arrange and amass an unremitting expanse of new, creative styles. Rock, hard-driving and focused, inspired the band to unleash new methods and styles, leaving no sonic or lyrical performance unturned.

The Tragically Hip is a band that endures. Gord Downie’s prose, mixed with the band’s rhythmic movement, wraps around you like a tight vine. Their latest release, World Container, mixes the deeply haunting, quintessential style for which the Hip is revered with a few energetic power-pop explosions, such as “In View” and “Yer Not The Ocean,” throughout. Downie’s embellished “whews” and “ohs” in the buoyant “The Kids Don’t Get It” are his trademark punctuation. The poet laureate of the rock “arena,” Downie maintains an unwavering alliance to world issues. Actively involved in environmental endeavors, including a seat on the board of RFK Jr’s Waterkeeper organization, Downie’s connection to his beliefs permeates throughout the dissertation of his lyrics. This is best reflected in Downie's blusey pleas in “World Container,” a world view of concern and hope.

The friendship and bond—brothers, really—between band members Gord Downie, Rob Baker (lead guitar), Paul Langois (rhythm guitar), Gord Sinclair (bass) and Johnny Fay (drums) is a universal truth of introspection, allegiance and global awareness. Musically, they have good song writing down to an artform. These are guys who “get it,” and no one understands this better than their fans. Hip fans form a race, not a culture. There is a tangible bond connecting the Hip to their fans, the legions of discerning followers who formed the grassroots movement that jumps and throttles passionately around the world hunting and collecting others. As the crowds mosey inside a venue to see the band, the collective chant “Hip Hip Hooray” wields its heralding allegiant theme.

I’d wager that the Hip were voted “Most Likely to Perform the Best Live Show” in high school, a prediction they have long since accomplished. Standing, swaying or jumping before the band, you’re completely immersed in the music as it penetrates your every thought and breath. No band builds a better song, and the songs on World Container come with the same promise of an intensely live performance: a Hip standard with any album. Listening, fans swear to know exactly what Downie is trying to convey with his words; the beauty is that sometimes you don’t fully (certainly never completely) understand what the hell he’s talking about. But like any allusive poem, Gord’s lyrics resonate differently to each listener, but the magnetism is always the same.

Collectively, Hip fans await the purchase of each new album and there's no end in sight. The band keeps collaborating, keeps writing compelling songs, and for seasoned players in a wayward industry, they keep getting better. The Hip continue creating great music and leaving it behind for the listeners; and we, the devout fanatics, are the benefactors who are enjoying our inheritance.