Grey, if your looking for a good Powderfinger album i would recommend Odysseynumberfive, like Boo Boo Foo said they are an amazing band, and i have no idea why they arent huge everywhere.
Ryan Malcolm. I don’t know if he’s a weiner, but I’ve seen fifty or more singers at karaoke contests who could sing better than him. I would say without fear of exaggeration that Malcolm is not one of the 100 best professional musicians to come out of KINGSTON. The quality of talent in “Canadian Idol” was embarassingly bad - of the final ten contestants, I honestly thought that 8-9 of them wouldn’t have even made the first cut in American Idol, and I don’t think any of them would have survived as far as the final 32. My sister went with some friends to try out and reported that the initial screening - the part before you got to see the four main judges - was almost entirely random. Boy, was she right.
I didn’t even talk about The Hip on concert, gosh, how did I forget that? I’ve seen them seven times, including the Fort Henry show. God, they’re amazing. I like it when they dust off an old classic, tweak it a little, and just rock the house down. At one show they did a version of “Locked in the Trunk of a Car” - not one of my fave songs - that just brouht the house down, absolutely butt-kicking amazing. My favourite show, though, was a surprise visit to the Ironhorse Saloon in Kingston they did for charity. We scored tickets and attended a Hip show five feet from the band. I have never heard a better live band.
The only problem with the Hip is frickin Dan Aykroyd. Aykroyd, a Kingstonian, hangs around the band. I’m sick of him. He’s a fat, philandering jerk and everyone hates him. Fortunately, this has given us the opportunity to burn him. On one memorable occasion my sister was downtown and ran into Aykroyd and Johnny Fay. She immediately asked for Johnny’s autograph and started gishing and talking to him about the band’s latest CD… but completely ignoring Aykroyd. This went one for five minutes, and then Aykroyd freaked out about being ignored and started saying things like “Hey, Johnny Fay, that’s great. I’m just Dan Aykroyd here! Might want my autograph to!” She completely ignored him, didn’t even look at him. He started pacing around, “Yup, the great Johnny Fay! Get his autograph! Forget me! I wrote Ghostbusters!” I swear, he actually did that.
Heh. I swear, almost everyone in Kingston has a Tragically Hip story.
I was kinda sorta into The Hip when I was younger. And then I met my Anam Cara*, Ashley. She is such a big Hip fan, and we plunged into their music together.
I must admit that “Killer Whale Tank” is my fave bootleg of all time.
As for fave Hip songs, I have to say;
- Fifty Mission Cap
- Locked In The Trunk Of A Car
- Fireworks
- Lake Fever (it reminds me so much of Ashley)
- Bobcaygeon
- Poets
- Little Bones
- Gift Shop
- 38 Years Old
- Ahead By A Century
So, how many Hip fans in this thread are American? Looks like a gaggle of Canucks to me.
How do we get these silly Americans to listen to them?
Get Justin Timberlake to be their new front man.
TTH listening American, but aurally Canadian by association and infection from the Windsor station.
Before they broke, the Barenaked Ladies used to sell out every show in Detroit, way above what their popularity level was in the rest of the US, by way of example.
Barenaked Ladies. 
I’m getting old; I remember when the Queen’s Student Council banned them because the name was misogynistic.
Yeah, didn’t make much sense then either.
I love all the music I’ve heard by the Hip.
Unfortunately, my sole exposure has been to songs put on a mix Hip CD by a Canuck friend of mine. Even more unfortunately, he didn’t put the names of any of the songs on the CD, so I don’t know what they’re called or what album they’re from! I’ve been able to figure out a few of what the songs are called (Ahead by a Century and Hundredth Meridian spring to mind), but mostly I just listen to my one mix CD and love love love their music.
The only time I had the opportunity to see them play was when I was living in the SF Bay Area, and I had to go to San Diego for a family reunion the weekend they played in SF! GRRRR!!
Anyone know where I can find a reliable tour date schedule for them?
I love the Hip, and have ever since I bought their first EP on vinyl. Favourite song of theirs: Fifty Mission Cap.
One question about the song Bobcaygeon I’m hoping someone can help me with. One section goes
The “Aryan twang” reference (along with the references to “riding on horseback and keeping order restored” and “that riot”) seems to suggest that The Men They Couldn’t Hang are a neo-Nazi or skinhead band that caused a riot. But I own a Men They Couldn’t Hang album (Silvertown) and there’s nothing on the album to suggest white supremacy - just some fine songs about Soccer hooligans (“Rosettes”), gentrification (“Company Town”) and Frances Farmer (“Lobotomy Gets 'Em Home”). So am I misreading that stanza, or is there a darker truth about TMTCH that I’m not aware of?