It would have been a shame if the band had quashed the "crazy suits" idea. I hate that kind of tall-poppy stuff. And if I remember right, the suits were a GO even before the illness, weren't they? Which does the band credit, if true.
It may well be that I've overestimated the extent to which the Hip were met with indifference around the time of NFPA. It did sell "less than half" the number of copies than the previous two albums in the first week, according to Wikipedia, and went gold rather than platinum in Canada. So that's some evidence that I'm not completely off my nut to say the Hip were in a fairly dreary commercial place by that point. Anecdotally speaking, I found the album met with depressing indifference from Hip fans, my own friends, and the general public; and by the time the tour reached Vancouver almost all its songs had been dropped from the playlist; but I don't want to push the point too hard. After all, to do so risks inviting further gratuitous personal attacks on me from andrew sharpe.
Killer Whale Tank Wrote:After all, to do so risks inviting further gratuitous personal attacks on me from andrew sharpe.
Personal? Definitely. Gratuitious? Matter of opinion
Quit yer whinin and give me your interpretation of Dougie Stardust and the mullet baby.
Joe Wrote:sean.bonner Wrote:Re: M@W Art
I once saw an animated gif on how the artwork was constructed (layer by layer). Just took a quick look for it but I couldn't find it! Anybody know where this can be found?
I got you
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010828030156im_/http://thehip.com:80/html/images/artwork-animation.gif">https://web.archive.org/web/20010828030 ... mation.gif</a><!-- m -->
Awesome! Thanks so much!
I love the M@W artwork!
Good call earlier on whoever called the Flaming Lips Show pretentious.
They have a couple songs I like but their stage show strikes me as gimmickry.
Hamster balls. Confetti.
Come on.
If a band has really got it, you don’t need any BS accompaniment.
And that was certainly the Hip.
If you’re good enough to get by without all the crap and silliness, you’re pretty damn good indeed.
FourPistols Wrote:Good call earlier on whoever called the Flaming Lips Show pretentious.
They have a couple songs I like but their stage show strikes me as gimmickry.
Hamster balls. Confetti.
Come on.
If a band has really got it, you don’t need any BS accompaniment.
And that was certainly the Hip.
If you’re good enough to get by without all the crap and silliness, you’re pretty damn good indeed.
Speaking of the Flaming Lips, I remember seeing them headline at Sasquatch '06. The giant hamster ball was mildly amusing, but their overall show was pretty sup-par in my opinion and relied too much on the silly gimmicks. Due to a scheduling conflict they had traded places with Ben Harper who was originally supposed to headline that night (the Hip had also played earlier in the day, which was the main reason I was there of course). Needless to say, after an incredible day of music featuring mind-blowing performances from The Hip, Ben Harper, Gomez, and Neko Case among others, the Flaming Lips were a big letdown by comparison. I've been completely turned off that band ever since. Not that I was ever a fan to begin with, but bands like that just don't do it for me. Never have. It's the same reason I've always hated Kiss.
Welll I didn't mean to imply that any band was pretentious. I think bands should do whatever they want. I just meant the Hip are decidedly unpretentious and the David Bowie theme just felt a bit uncharacteristic. But, again, it being the last tour subverted any negative connotations I might have had. Seeing everyone get behind the flashy suits and doing their own "Gord" was pretty cool.
Here's a thought that struck me the other day.
If this album was originally called Dougie Stardust, did that version of the album start with Man and conclude with Machine?
Or did those songs only open and close the album that we eventually got?
We may not get an answer on this.
The other thing I thought of is that we never got Gord Downie's thoughts on the songs on this album.
He didn't do any media until after the tour concluded so any insights on this album were never public record.
I'd be curious to hear the boys in the band share some thoughts on what Gord may have thought of some of these songs.
FourPistols Wrote:I'd be curious to hear the boys in the band share some thoughts on what Gord may have thought of some of these songs.
Beyond the obvious reason, it is too bad that the usual press cycle didn't happen. It's a different album for the band, and it would have been interesting to hear their perspective on the process of working with Drew. This would also be one album where I'd be really curious to hear demos and the evolution of songs.
It's touched on slightly in the Barclay book, but I find it interesting that Gord had worked with Drew on Secret Path then brought him in for the next Hip record. Maybe one of the few times that his solo work and the band really combined? Without reading through liner notes, I don't recall many instances where someone played a significant role in both sides of his career? I can think of Paul signing some background vocals on CMG, and a Hip version of Night of For Getting. I'm sure there are others, but likely not as significant as producer.
I also wonder what songs would have made it into set lists for a proper MMP tour, or subsequent tours.
edgoffin Wrote:It's touched on slightly in the Barclay book, but I find it interesting that Gord had worked with Drew on Secret Path then brought him in for the next Hip record. Maybe one of the few times that his solo work and the band really combined? Without reading through liner notes, I don't recall many instances where someone played a significant role in both sides of his career? I can think of Paul signing some background vocals on CMG, and a Hip version of Night of For Getting. I'm sure there are others, but likely not as significant as producer.
Wasn't Gord managed by someone from the Hip camp? Maybe not Bernie or Jake, but someone in that circle?
andrew sharpe Wrote:Wasn't Gord managed by someone from the Hip camp? Maybe not Bernie or Jake, but someone in that circle?
Gold, even after he was no longer managing The Hip, if I have the timeline right. I was thinking more musically where in my impression there was little crossover, versus the business side (likely common lawyers, publicists, etc.). As an example, I'm surprised that Kate Fenner was never part of Gord's solo work. Chris Walla is a pretty high profile name who could have generated some media buzz working on a Hip album.
I assume it was an intentional decision to keep solo and band projects fairly separate, and I'm curious about the internal process and decision-making to bring in Drew for the Hip album. I've come to appreciate their pattern of choosing producers, and IMO it was part of what helped them build a 30 year career. I probably would have liked another Don Smith album, but likely beneficial for their overall progression that they moved on.
edgoffin Wrote:FourPistols Wrote:I'd be curious to hear the boys in the band share some thoughts on what Gord may have thought of some of these songs.
Beyond the obvious reason, it is too bad that the usual press cycle didn't happen. It's a different album for the band, and it would have been interesting to hear their perspective on the process of working with Drew. This would also be one album where I'd be really curious to hear demos and the evolution of songs.
Didn't Rob do an XM interview when MMP came out? Or did he not talk about the new album? I wasn't able to listen because I don't have XM/Sirius. I remember someone posting here that the band has an "alternate" version of almost every album they've done...but can't recall anything else.
One thing Barclay makes pretty clear is that GD had a complicated relationship with the rest of the band. He was invariably the one pushing a basically conservative quartet into more exploratory and arty directions; he pushed to get extra musicians involved on M@W, clearly at the price of considerable internal strain; he was the one who pushed out as a solo artist, again straining the band almost to the breaking point, a strain that apparently lingered for years. He also seems to have been the only one with any real dissatisfaction with "The Tragically Hip," what they represented, what their fan-base was, their entire profile. For all the "band of brothers" rhetoric, managing the tension-filled and vexed GD/Hip nexus seems to have been a defining characteristic of the Hip's career, and there may well have been huge resentments and frustrations between him and the other "boys." Heck when you learn that he imported Paul into the band early on as an "ally," you wonder how far back the tension goes...
Anyway, getting Drew in seems to have been of a piece with Gord's wider modus operandi of pushing the band.
Killer Whale Tank Wrote:For all the "band of brothers" rhetoric, managing the tension-filled and vexed GD/Hip nexus seems to have been a defining characteristic of the Hip's career, and there may well have been huge resentments and frustrations between him and the other "boys.".
"Love over money, we fell and we fell out and we got back up..."
Killer Whale Tank Wrote:One thing Barclay makes pretty clear is that GD had a complicated relationship with the rest of the band.
Not saying this is false but I personally won't let much of my opinion be affected by a book based almost entirely on secondary sources.
Well, I see Barclay as a credible source (but hardly an infallible one, of course). More to the point, it really doesn't upset me to think that GD and the rest of the band had a fraught relationship - I've got nothing personally invested in the "band of brothers" myth, myself.