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4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - Printable Version

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4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - sean.bonner - 09-03-2016

I know the last few months have been Hip crazy, but I cannot overstate how much Mr. Downie's 'solo' career kicks ass. All Hip albums in the Top 200 and not even one Downie record? Coke Machine Glow hasn't cracked the Top 200 yet? Jeeeeshhhh

Last night, my case of Labatt 50 was accompanied by Battle of the Nudes, and there are several moments on that record that are.... ..... ....epic.

Who By Rote -> Steeplechase - Probably my favourite moment on BotN at the moment.

As someone who wants all of his favourite albums on vinyl... CMG and BotN need a vinyl pressing!

Has anybody else been rediscovering these albums? (Or, re-re-re-rediscovering?)

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - mark - 09-03-2016

sean.bonner Wrote:Last night, my case of Labatt 50 was accompanied by Battle of the Nudes, and there are several moments on that record that are.... ..... ....epic.

what year is this?

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - chancellor - 09-03-2016

mark Wrote:
sean.bonner Wrote:Last night, my case of Labatt 50 was accompanied by Battle of the Nudes, and there are several moments on that record that are.... ..... ....epic.

what year is this?
Epic. Almost eveything is better than 50.

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - sean.bonner - 09-03-2016

Not cheaper though...

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - mark - 09-03-2016

chancellor Wrote:
mark Wrote:
sean.bonner Wrote:Last night, my case of Labatt 50 was accompanied by Battle of the Nudes, and there are several moments on that record that are.... ..... ....epic.

what year is this?
Epic. Almost eveything is better than 50.

correction, everything is better than 50.

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - direwolf74 - 09-03-2016

sean.bonner Wrote:I know the last few months have been Hip crazy, but I cannot overstate how much Mr. Downie's 'solo' career kicks ass. All Hip albums in the Top 200 and not even one Downie record? Coke Machine Glow hasn't cracked the Top 200 yet? Jeeeeshhhh

Last night, my case of Labatt 50 was accompanied by Battle of the Nudes, and there are several moments on that record that are.... ..... ....epic.

Who By Rote -> Steeplechase - Probably my favourite moment on BotN at the moment.

As someone who wants all of his favourite albums on vinyl... CMG and BotN need a vinyl pressing!

Has anybody else been rediscovering these albums? (Or, re-re-re-rediscovering?)

Labatt 50? Yikes, why would you do that to yourself?

As for Gord's solo work, I think my favorite is The Conquering Sun. I think it's one of the best projects Gord has ever been involved with. I was already a big fan of the Sadies and I'd been waiting years for this collaboration to come to fruition. When the album finally saw the light of day in 2014, it exceeded my expectations. At the time I thought it was better than the previous three Hip albums, and I still feel that way. It's a flawless record in my opinion. The five of them really do make a killer rock n' roll band, and I hope that one day we might see some unreleased material surface. Knowing how prolific the Sadies and Gord both are, I'm sure there must have been a few tracks left on the cutting room floor from those sessions. One can only hope.

CMG is certainly his "artiest" and most unconventional album. I absolutely adore it. I remember buying it on release day and I loved that it came packaged together with the book. It was so vastly different from his work with the Hip, and I think that album opened up a lot of eyes and ears, particularly in the underground rock community. Suddenly those elitist indie music snobs who had slagged off the Hip time and time again started taking notice and finally acknowledged (albeit begrudgingly) Downie's undeniable talent. I had a buddy at the time who absolutely despised the Hip, but once he heard Coke Machine Glow he started to come around on them. Now he's one of the biggest Hip/Downie fans I know. This album was his way in.

If I'm not mistaken, I remember reading somewhere that Battle of the Nudes was partially made up of leftovers from the CMG sessions, minus a couple of tunes that were recorded later at the Bathouse. I don't think it's as strong as the rest of his solo work, and I can't say I listen to it much. But I still dig it. I agree, the Who By Rote/Steeplechase combo is amazing. Into the Night and Figment are also two of my favorites.

Last but certainly not least, we have the Grand Bounce, which for me is probably tied for 2nd with CMG. So many outstanding songs on that record: East Wind, As a Mover, Gone, Drowning Machine, Yellow Days, Retrace, Broadcast...this is easily some of Gord's finest writing. It also features the best artwork of any Gord/Hip project, not to mention the coolest packaging and lyric booklet. Makes me wish Gord was more involved in the artwork for Hip records.

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - Tthip - 09-03-2016

I am a huge fan of the sound of The Grand Bounce.
I wished for the past two Hip records that Chris Walla would have produced at least one.

PS
I drove past a street today named Steeplechase and I so badly wanted to turn around and take a picture but it was ten minutes into my 8 hour drive and I talked myself out of turning around.

[youtube]jhAGoJVva7U[/youtube]
[youtube]mgsHeirOCn0[/youtube]
[youtube]i9Ehr6y3BQw[/youtube]

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - sean.bonner - 09-04-2016

direwolf74 Wrote:I think my favorite is The Conquering Sun.

I think I agree with you. My fav. track one that record is hands down 'I'm Free, Disarray Me'. Driving home from work on a Friday, this tune usually gets cranked to 11.

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - sean.bonner - 09-04-2016

direwolf74 Wrote:East Wind, As a Mover, Gone, Drowning Machine, Yellow Days, Retrace, Broadcast
Moonslow is my favourite on TGB. How do you not have it listed here? Blasphemy!

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - HandsInTheRiver41 - 09-05-2016

Moonglow is a beauty. But Yellow Days is still probably my favourite. Always the soundtrack of the post-summer blues.

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - thebends - 09-09-2016

HandsInTheRiver41 Wrote:But Yellow Days is still probably my favourite. Always the soundtrack of the post-summer blues.

Second that! Saw this live @ Hillside in Guelph a few years back: blew us away ...
[youtube]A6p2eEFfVWY[/youtube]

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - thedarkcanuck - 09-09-2016

HandsInTheRiver41 Wrote:Moonglow is a beauty. But Yellow Days is still probably my favourite. Always the soundtrack of the post-summer blues.
My favourite as well...we saw the Hip in Kelowna in 2003 and got my maple leaf jersey signed by the band. Gord wrote "summer on" at the top of the leaf. Was awesome hearing that in a song 6-7 years afterwards

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - zoppo - 09-09-2016

Coke machine glow and the grand bounce are my favorites..

Chancellor, gone and yellow days....how good is tbat??

Coke machinne glow came at just the right time for me as a hip fan :-) at that time i got a little into ' alternative' stuff like palace brothers, pedro the lion and what not....and along comes GD with an album that was up and above that. How come that it never really took off? I've always wondered that. I come from the netherlands so maybe it is way different in Canada....any thoughts?

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - hotmetal401 - 09-10-2016

mark Wrote:
sean.bonner Wrote:Last night, my case of Labatt 50 was accompanied by Battle of the Nudes, and there are several moments on that record that are.... ..... ....epic.

what year is this?

I'm actually almost certain I wore a Labatt 50 t-shirt to the Lee's Palace BOTN gig back in 2003. I know I wore it to the Sam Roberts gig there earlier that winter. It's still my weapon of choice at the finest dive bars I patronize. And if they don't have 50, Molson Stock Ale will do.

I certainly enjoyed BOTN when it came out and still do. But few Canadian records of the last 15 years - and somehow, it's 15 years old - are as under appreciated as Coke Machine Glow. It was my soundtrack to the drive home last night after Willie Nelson's show at Rama. It's still as soothing and atmospheric as it was in the final days of high school, when my career of dating the wrong women and having lots to think about on the drive home was just beginning.

Re: 4 Downie Albums Appreciation Thread - Moof_Milker - 09-11-2016

I remember first hearing of a Gord solo album in the summer of 2000. Obviously I was excited, but I remember thinking, does a solo record mean Gord's not happy in The Hip? Are his creative/artistic itches not being scratched well enough? What would these new songs sound like? How would they compare to The Hip? I was dying to know. Flash-forward to early 2001 when a few tracks from the album leaked on Napster. Trick Rider was the first one I heard. I was taken aback. It was a much softer, quieter Gord...and I loved it. Coke Machine Glow instantly became a favourite album of mine. 15 years later it's still one of my all-time favourite albums. The atmosphere that album creates is incredible. The whole album is one big highlight for me. The music, Gord's vocal performance, and his words just take me away every time...even today. His delivery of "...dream of the lofty pines" at the end of Lofty Pines sounds like an ethereal Roy Orbison to me. It's perfect. All of it. And I don't know if it's same place as the one mentioned in the song, it ultimately doesn't matter, but here's my favourite Hip/Gord-related souvenir:
[Image: IMG_9302.jpg?1]

As mentioned above, I do recall hearing that The Battle of the Nudes contained a lot of material that didn't quite make it onto CMG for whatever reason. My expectations were exceedingly high for BotN, which is probably why it's not my favourite Gord album. It's very hard/impossible to compete with CMG imho. There are many moments and songs I love on the album, but I dare say some of it came across a tad pretentious to me. The line between genius and pretentious can be a thin one, and (for me) CMG and BotN drew that line. Again, there are songs I love on the album (like Figment and Pascal's Submarine) but it's not an album I revisit much. Hopefully one day I will. Hopefully my opinion will change, but now I just think of it as the album that followed CMG and isn't really as good.

The Grand Bounce is an incredible record. A worthy companion to CMG. A great record top to bottom. Retrace might be my favourite song - "High as an elephant's eye...before we even left...". And as mentioned above, Yellow Days is fantastic. The music and the lyrics are flawlessly in sync. From the opening gated symbol crash it just creates an atmosphere of heavy humidity that suits the words so well:
"Summer on, bring on august trash
The sweat of Johnny Cash
The hot-knife to the hash
The girls in the grass
Summer, bring it on, oh, at last

The Conquering Sun is another classic for me. It's such a perfectly tight, punchy, poppy, fun record. Gord and the Sadies work so well together. Another skip-less album for me. I love every song. Seeing them play this record in a small theatre with only about 300 people was one favourite live Gord experiences every. I honestly feel that if there was one Gord/Hip show I could magically be transported to, this might be it. I'll never forget being right up at the front and during 'Saved' Gord looked right into my eyes as he sang, "And the music gets so loud it flaps your pant leg". The 'your' being me. Long ago, I was lucky enough to be front row at a Hip show in a small theatre and Gord, after blowing a line, handed me the mic to sing a line. Hard to beat that experience, but this one was close. If there's one Gord album that should have really broken though, it's this one. It's a very accessible album that could have easily been a huge commercial success. "Devil Enough"? C'mon, there's hit song if I ever heard one. "Demand Destruction" too. Instead the album kind of came and went it seems. For any fair-weather fan hopping back on the Gord train this summer, this might be the album I would say to go to first. Even my boys (only 2 and 4 years old when it came out) like this one - whenever we would be driving around and Budget Shoes would come on, they'd sway in unison in the backseat singing out loud, "My sleeping boots, they slow down the wind..."

Needless to say, I can't wait to hear Secret Path.



Thanks for reading...and for sharing your thoughts on these albums too. I could talk about, and read about, Gord's solo records all day long.