10-16-2006, 12:37 AM
found this, this morning..
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Today/Music/2006/10/16/2039918-sun.html">http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Today/Music ... 8-sun.html</a><!-- m -->
Hip influences come out of closet
Mon, October 16, 2006
With encouragement from Bob Rock, the Tragically Hip weaves some unusual sounds into its new CD.
By CP
Shoppers Big Box
TORONTO -- An odd thing happens when you pair Canadian rock icons the Tragically Hip with legendary Canadian record producer Bob Rock: hockey to a calypso beat.
Hip lead singer Gord Downie says the band's collaboration with the man behind such huge '80s rock albums as Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood and Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet drew out some unexpected experiments when recording the new album World Container. (See mini-review in Discs feature on this page).
"Any conversation about how the record was made has to start with Bob and probably end with Bob," Downie says.
"He suggests anywhere from 100 to 300 to 500 (takes), I don't know, it just seemed endless, and everything was prefaced with, 'This might sound crazy' or 'Call me insane, but . . .' and he would want to hear something, he would want to hear it go in this direction."
Directions included calypso-tinged guitar upstrokes for the hockey song The Lonely End of the Rink. The standout second track evokes snow- covered roads and frozen lakes with a chugging, island-inspired guitar rhythm -- and it works.
But acknowledging that those musical inclinations were a part of the five-man rock band -- including guitarists Paul Langlois and Rob Baker, bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay -- was a new thing.
Downie says their tendency has been to focus on their instantly identifiable sound -- a full, guitar-driven wall of rock behind such northern anthems as At the Hundredth Meridian and Bobcaygeon.
"We were big Clash fans, you know, big Who fans and I think we would listen to this music and talk about music and do nothing but music night and day, and when it came time to actually making our own music, you feel compelled to sort of tuck all those influences away, not show them," he says.
"I think (for the new album) we willingly surrendered to that idea of fun in the studio and having fun and not being afraid to show your influences . . . as opposed to that dogged pursuit of your own sound."
For his part, Rock has called the collaboration an opportunity to make "the Great Canadian Record," praising the Hip for acknowledging their influences without impersonating anyone and Downie for consistently solid performances.
Downie says such daunting titles as "Great Canadian Record" are not so easily bestowed, but he does concede to being a part of "the Great Canadian Movie" -- starring those unconventional heroes the Trailer Park Boys.
Downie makes a cameo in the big-screen smash, written and directed by friend Mike Clattenburg -- "Canada's Chekhov, or something like that," Downie calls him.
Clattenburg cast Downie and Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson as a couple of cops.
"Acting is like lifting a 400-pound feather," Downie says of his time in front of the camera.
"It's a feather; how hard could it be? And yet, you go to lift it and it's heavy. For that reason, I love it because it's very hard and difficult and challenging and obviously I want to learn more."
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Today/Music/2006/10/16/2039918-sun.html">http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Today/Music ... 8-sun.html</a><!-- m -->
Hip influences come out of closet
Mon, October 16, 2006
With encouragement from Bob Rock, the Tragically Hip weaves some unusual sounds into its new CD.
By CP
Shoppers Big Box
TORONTO -- An odd thing happens when you pair Canadian rock icons the Tragically Hip with legendary Canadian record producer Bob Rock: hockey to a calypso beat.
Hip lead singer Gord Downie says the band's collaboration with the man behind such huge '80s rock albums as Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood and Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet drew out some unexpected experiments when recording the new album World Container. (See mini-review in Discs feature on this page).
"Any conversation about how the record was made has to start with Bob and probably end with Bob," Downie says.
"He suggests anywhere from 100 to 300 to 500 (takes), I don't know, it just seemed endless, and everything was prefaced with, 'This might sound crazy' or 'Call me insane, but . . .' and he would want to hear something, he would want to hear it go in this direction."
Directions included calypso-tinged guitar upstrokes for the hockey song The Lonely End of the Rink. The standout second track evokes snow- covered roads and frozen lakes with a chugging, island-inspired guitar rhythm -- and it works.
But acknowledging that those musical inclinations were a part of the five-man rock band -- including guitarists Paul Langlois and Rob Baker, bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay -- was a new thing.
Downie says their tendency has been to focus on their instantly identifiable sound -- a full, guitar-driven wall of rock behind such northern anthems as At the Hundredth Meridian and Bobcaygeon.
"We were big Clash fans, you know, big Who fans and I think we would listen to this music and talk about music and do nothing but music night and day, and when it came time to actually making our own music, you feel compelled to sort of tuck all those influences away, not show them," he says.
"I think (for the new album) we willingly surrendered to that idea of fun in the studio and having fun and not being afraid to show your influences . . . as opposed to that dogged pursuit of your own sound."
For his part, Rock has called the collaboration an opportunity to make "the Great Canadian Record," praising the Hip for acknowledging their influences without impersonating anyone and Downie for consistently solid performances.
Downie says such daunting titles as "Great Canadian Record" are not so easily bestowed, but he does concede to being a part of "the Great Canadian Movie" -- starring those unconventional heroes the Trailer Park Boys.
Downie makes a cameo in the big-screen smash, written and directed by friend Mike Clattenburg -- "Canada's Chekhov, or something like that," Downie calls him.
Clattenburg cast Downie and Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson as a couple of cops.
"Acting is like lifting a 400-pound feather," Downie says of his time in front of the camera.
"It's a feather; how hard could it be? And yet, you go to lift it and it's heavy. For that reason, I love it because it's very hard and difficult and challenging and obviously I want to learn more."