Podcast appearances and mentions of Evan S Connell

Dream State by Eric Puchner is a story spanning fifty years, with three best friends grappling with life, love, family and climate change set against the Montana terrain. Puchner joins us to talk about what inspired the novel, his writing process, what he loves about storytelling and more with Miwa Messer, host of Poured Over. This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang.                     New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. Featured Books (Episode): Dream State by Eric Puchner To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson Light Years by James Salter North Woods by Daniel Mason The End of Vandalism by Tom Drury Skylark by Dezső Kosztolányi Stoner by John Williams Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell

This week in the pod, the gang is up to their neck in the fantastic effort by Gord and the Sadies. You're gonna want to check this one out!Transcript: Track 1:[0:00] Hey, it's Craig here, and I just wanted to let you know that Christmastime in.Track 1:[0:03] Toronto is coming early this year. Join me and the Discovering Downey crew for the recording of our podcast finale, live at The Rec Room in downtown Toronto on Friday, July 19th. Long Slice Brewing presents A Celebration of Gord Downey, which will include a special in-person interview with Gord's brother, Patrick Downey. Spend the evening listening to your favorite hip tunes provided by the almost hip and help us raise money for the gourd downy fund for brain cancer research with a silent auction featuring incredible items up for grabs visit discoveringdowny.com for tickets or for more information about the event, let's have a toast for charity wickedness and most importantly hope.Track 2:[1:04] DOS Beauty I name my guitar My Beautiful Behor Everybody's coughing here And music's infiltrating work In the most pleasant way It's a system based on silverware Listening's an extrasensory Perception And talking the only psychic thing and I can dress you in my thoughts until you wear them. I've been taking care of my clothes like they're cattle. Try this shirt. It would look so good on you.Track 1:[1:42] Welcome, music lovers. Long Slice Brewery presents Discovering Downy. Hey, it's J.D.Track 2:[1:52] Here, and welcome to Discovering Downey, an 11-part project with a focus on the music and poetry of Mr. Gord Downey. The late frontman of the Tragically Hip gave to the world an extensive solo discography on top of the hip's vocal acrobatics that awed us for years. So far, he's released eight records in total, three of them posthumously. Now listen, you might be the biggest fan of The Hip out there, but have you heard these records? Because I'm an inquisitive podcaster, I enlisted my friends Craig, Justin, and Kirk, giant fans in their own right, to discover Downey with me, JD, as their host. Every week we'll get together and listen to one of Gord's records. We're starting with Coke Machine Glow and working from there in chronological order. We discuss and dissect the album, the production, the lyrics, and we break it down song by song. This week we're going to be talking about Gord's fourth record, and his first and only with the Sadies.Track 3:[2:58] Occurring son kirk from chino how the fuck are things with you buddy jd.Track 6:[3:04] I'm uh i'm back home after a little bit of travel it's been good travel um it's allowed me to really kind of soak this album in so i'm excited talking about it with you boys.Track 3:[3:15] Can you confirm this craig i'm kidding yeah how's it going pretty.Track 4:[3:20] Good yeah also looking forward to talking about this album them and it this one took me a little bit of time to get into but we'll talk about that i have been a little under the weather since the last recording it was about halfway through the last podcast i started feeling something coming on and just won't go away just a cold thankfully but yeah other than that things are well.Track 3:[3:41] Well that's good justin you've been a podcasting machine today are you spent or are you ready to talk shop with me i'm.Track 5:[3:49] Just getting started buddy.Track 3:[3:50] Yeah well let's get into it then and the conquering sun is the album we are discussing this week after three consecutive solo outings with some form of the country of miracles gourd wrote and produced this one with the sadies who had just come from supporting the hip on their world container tour Like so many, this marriage was consummated by the CBC, when the Sadies chose Mr. Downey to collaborate with, as was the program's premise. The Sadies are a Toronto-based and road-tested throughout Canada and beyond, with an original lineup consisting of Travis Goode, Sean Dean, Mike Belotiski, and Dallas Goode, who sadly passed away in 2022. This band, as I mentioned, is road-tested with buckets of swagger and chops for days. But how do you talk about The Conquering Sun? After the loose and improvised feeling of the last three records, this record is tight and economical. With a 30-minute runtime, I had to listen twice to get my walk in.Track 3:[4:55] Of the four records we've listened to so far, this one makes my Olympic podium for rock and roll with a hard-fought bronze medal, which is nothing to shake a stick at unless, of course, you're shaking the stick in a complimentary fashion. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this album. In fact, in my opinion, this record is the closest we get to a sound that is reminiscent of the hip, up and down on this record. The songs are screaming for radio play if only radio had been a factor upon its release in 2014. From the rip of Crater right through Saved, there isn't a missed opportunity on this record. I could go on about how much I like this record, na-na-na-na, blah-blah-blah, etc. You might be curious how I'm literally singing this album's praises, yet I've only ranked it third of four. I promise I'm not damning with faint praise. It's more that I loved the ceiling of the country of miracles, particles and the idea that we don't get a fourth effort from that entity bums me out a little bit so it's hard to go into this one with that ripple of bummed outness influencing me a little more than frankly i'd like but who cares what i think let's check in with the crew craig we'll start with you this week.Track 4:[6:04] Yeah this album like i i mentioned took took a few listens to get into um it's definitely not in you know it's not my favorite of the four we've heard so far but it's really just it's drastically different it just has a different vibe and there are a lot of things I really like about it and I think that my biggest realization is this this is a summer album this is a a nice weather taking a drive in the car putting the windows down this it's that kind of album and for the first couple weeks I didn't have that weather but but just past in the past few days we have and it's just it totally changed my outlook of this this album.Track 3:[6:45] I was on mute. Justin, what are your thoughts overall?Track 5:[6:49] Oh, I needed this one. I needed this album to get my headspace back into this. And I think I'm going to rank this number two so far out of the four. I actually really love this album a lot. And like Craig, it took me a minute to get into it, but something clicked and I have been listening to it at least two or three times a day every day since. And in the car, on my phone, with or without earbuds trying to get the different parts of the sound, and it kicks my ass every time. I really just like this album from start to finish. Every song kind of sounds the same, which makes it sound like one big long song, and I really kind of love that.Track 3:[7:28] Interesting. I can't wait till we break it down. What say you, Kirk from Chino?Track 6:[7:32] Like my brethren here, it took me a while. In fact, it took me a while because it almost felt like a divorce and maybe a bit of an affair Was going on with with our buddy Gord. I was so I.Track 6:[7:48] Immersed into what was happening with the country miracles and like you said in the beginning like the ceiling like i wanted more and i was so ready for more i had the vinyl of this one the last ground bounce i didn't and i listened to it and i knew there was something there but i was angry honestly i was angry because i wanted more as we had mentioned but man did it grow and grow row. I'm not going to rank it right now because every time I rank something, a day or two goes by and something happens. And I realized, oh man, that was, you know, the grand bounce. That was Coke machine glow that, and you know, every album that we've had a chance to listen to has been, I think in every slot, if that makes sense, depending on the time of day or what's going on. And and so again it just brings you back to joy because i didn't dive in when it was happening which of course i'm a little sad about but i'm so excited now that i'm like i'm really loving music discovery again i'm really loving listening to albums i'm really loving i don't care if it's in the car if i'm walking the dog if i'm sitting at work if i'm you know working on something on on the computer and I've got the music going.Track 6:[9:11] Like I have not spent this much time with new music. I say that in quotes because it's obviously not new, but it's new to me, new to us.Track 6:[9:23] And I'm just, I'm loving the ride. That's all I got to say. This one is the last two, I mean, like I'm going to be listening to these forever. And I'm going to try and preach the word and get some people to jump on board because it makes me sad when I look at Spotify or something and I see the honestly and don't jump on me. It's like the limited number of listens to the Gord stuff. I have friends that have put stuff out that have more downloads than that. I'm not saying that in a negative, I'm saying that in a like, that shouldn't be. That shouldn't be, so. Right. My diatribe's over, sorry.Track 3:[10:03] No, no. Well, that's why I was mentioning off the top too too, that it screams for radio play to me. It's very radio-friendly. There's nothing over four minutes. And fucking radio just didn't matter in 2014. So of course we were never going to hear this. Unless we were paying very close attention.Track 6:[10:26] Absolutely.Track 3:[10:27] Clearly we were not.Track 6:[10:28] Absolutely. Radio.Track 5:[10:29] Radio still matters to me. I'm a radio guy. I'm going to tell you that right now. Yeah. Love radio.Track 3:[10:34] Radio doesn't love you back though. That's the problem. Like it's getting stripped down and worn down and these formats, you know, like if you've got a, if you've got a local that you love, then by going to stand with it, right?Track 5:[10:47] Yeah, you're right. We have, we have a, I'm going to sidebar here for just a second. We have a great station here in Southern Vermont, WEQX, which is one of the last great independent alternative rock stations in North America. And they discovered No Rain by Blind Melon. They were the first one to play it. And they just got this great pedigree, and they love to play Gord's solo stuff. From 2020 on, there's been a lot of new Gord solo stuff that's really been great.Track 3:[11:19] Get up. Right.Track 5:[11:20] And it's kind of been hard to not listen ahead during this project. Wow. I don't know if they played any of the stuff from this album, but this would totally fit.Track 4:[11:28] Yeah, we once had a really awesome independent radio station down in Bellingham, Washington, which we could pick up in Vancouver. And they actually, their tagline was something like, we don't play Canadian music because we have to. We play it because it rocks or something along those lines. And they would play The Hip and Rush. and yeah that's the only american station i've heard that that played a ton of the hip and yeah of course about 15 years ago they got whatever bought out by chorus or someone and it's now just yeah yeah your standard rock radio well.Track 3:[12:02] Should we eradicate this problem and educate people on this record go through it track by track are we ready let's.Track 5:[12:10] Go sure yeah.Track 3:[12:12] All right we start with track one side a it's the classic rock tinged crater what did you think of this one mr greg.Track 4:[12:25] My dad uh came to vancouver from new zealand in 1965 to to buy a 65 chevy impala and this song crater is a 1965 chevy impala cruising down the road it's just a great rock and roll track yeah um man that snare drum is yes snare snare yeah it is it is there in the mix yeah definitely i didn't dive into the lyrics at all especially um the songs that were more kind of rocking i i just i was just enjoying them and the only thought i had lyric wise was um almost like an idea of like either you're you're the crater or you're the meter meteor And I was kind of thinking along the lines of there's that not so great Dire Straits song, Heavy Fuel, where he says, you know, sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug. And that was kind of the... What i got out of the lyrics on this song.Track 6:[13:25] I i wonder in the lyrics and maybe you guys did further research that i didn't see like how much of it was gord how much of it was the gents from the sadies because i i knew the name the sadies but i honestly until this i had not really you know dove into some of their music and i think in one of our you know communications justin had mentioned that as well like he's doing a lot of listening to the sadies and and i try i you know my listening at first it's this is it's going to sound weird um i did a lot of listening at first obviously like through spotify or whatever else but it wasn't until youtube and i got to see these guys and they're wearing like their nudie suits is what it looks like you know and i just i just saw a bunch of them they had a big exhibit at the you know country music uh hall of fame and they were We're talking about that LA country and, you know, very much a country tinge, but, you know, they're using those hollow body guitars. And anyway, so back to lyrics, like what's the balance between Gord and the Sadie's? Did anyone find anything on that?Track 4:[14:30] My understanding is that they, that the Sadie's wrote the songs and Gord wrote the lyrics that, yeah. And it was recorded apparently over a number of years. This wasn't like an album that was done in one session, which I find surprising because like someone said earlier, it's, it sounds just like a, it's a great album. It, it really sounds like it was just tracked in one day or something. It's yeah, there's a.Track 6:[14:53] There's YouTube has a, uh, interview of, I think the Sadie's had just put an album out. It was like 2010 and Gord was with them and they, you know, obviously had some discussions about their, their time together. And in some of the research it talks about, this has definitely been a long-term type of thing. Great song.Track 5:[15:10] Yeah, there was a CBC fuse in 2007 is what put them together. So it took seven years for this album to come out from that first collaboration. Collaboration I really like the sound.Track 6:[15:21] From a musicianship standpoint ethereal is really the kind of the adjective that came to mind on a lot of the the guitar parts that the Sadie's had you know very much a hollow body type guitar going through either a Fender a lot of reverb I really liked that driving sound I really really liked it it was it was pretty prevalent throughout in my opinion anything.Track 3:[15:43] Else on crater i.Track 5:[15:46] Just yeah i mean this is gourd this is like this is a live show on a record um this one song particularly and he is giving it all he has what at the end of the second verse and if we record any of these songs this is the one i'm doing because this is a this is a screamer and it's so much fun to be it you know we don't want to we don't want to do it we want to be it this song is fun to sing, Yeah. So I also, I downloaded an app because I noticed my foot was tapping a lot faster at the end of the song than the beginning. And I, so I, I downloaded an app and it picks up 13 beats per minute from the start to the finish.Track 4:[16:29] Oh yeah. That's something I'm going to be talking about later. Cause I, it was driving me nuts. One of the songs I was trying to actually figure out what was happening mathematically and yeah. Okay. I'm glad I'm not the only one noticed.Track 6:[16:43] I love that. I love the time changes in a variety of different songs. I put them down in a few notes. But the one thing I really want to say before we dive into any more, long live the guitar solo. And there's quite a few guitar solos on this album, specifically Crater. And they're just, they're solos. They're good solos. And on the other albums, we'll call lead lines, but there's not a lot of solos. And I'm digging that, getting that back, because we haven't had that in the first three.Track 5:[17:15] Oh, yes.Track 3:[17:16] Nice. Well, the next one is sort of the titular track, but not quite. The Conquering Sun does what for you, Justin?Track 5:[17:27] When I look out the window and see Audette's Blue Spruce Farm across the street, That's kind of what I think about. I mean, it's getting on time to plant. And here it is as we record this. It's planting season and working the fugitive dust. Nature, please be good to us. You know, we just had this massively wet spring that wiped out a shit ton of the farms around here. That's, you know, before they even got started. For me, that's part of what this song is. There's also the line, she is more than a conqueror. And I wonder if that's a reference to Gord's wife, Laura, with her recent cancer battle. I don't know when this song was recorded in the timeline of all that, like what year this happened. But I interpreted it as possibly something that could be a reference to defeating the cancer. And the other thing that I really, it was a callback to We Are The Same is when Gord's, his vocal run during hearing, ooh, day is your word, night is the glue. He does that exact same thing in The Depression Suite. That very same run, the change, the pitch, the length, I love it.Track 4:[18:41] Yeah, I caught that too. That's great.Track 6:[18:43] Great song. It was one of those. I think I mentioned on the last time we spoke, there was not a definitive MVP for me. This one has fallen in and out of MVP, and it may fall back in at the end of this recording. morning. But that's one of the things that really showed me this was a great album, but specifically this song. I just felt immersed in it. And like I said earlier, Ethereal, again, another great solo, another great, that sound that the Sadies have. They have, these guys, what are they like six, five, six, six, they look like trees and they might be a buck or five soaking wet and the suits are barely hanging on them and he's just playing this you know telecaster like it's a little tiny you know a small ukulele and they just have this they they just have this presence and like i said it really wasn't until i i started seeing them that i i got the sadie's because when i was listening it didn't hit me as much and i was kind of hoping i don't know if i mentioned this earlier because they were on the world container tour and i was wondering if they were the opening band I didn't find anything that showed them specifically, but when I watch the videos, it doesn't bring a memory or recollection that I saw. I think it was Sam Roberts that opened for a lot of the shows that I saw here in California.Track 5:[20:06] I saw Joel Plaskett as the opener on that tour.Track 6:[20:11] Got it. Got it. Yeah. So I was kind of hoping that they were one of the openers. But you know now i'm really excited that you know just in the last couple of days i would say is really when my attention has gone towards them and when you start hearing and seeing how they crafted these songs together and how they worked so well with gourd and his phrasing and and so yeah love this love this yeah.Track 4:[20:38] The the sadies are actually on tour as we record this and i'm hoping to pick to go down to the the vancouver show uh so you might you might want to look at dates they They might be coming down your way.Track 6:[20:48] I hope so.Track 4:[20:48] Yeah, this song, to me, as soon as I heard it, it reminded me of Nico Case. And Nico Case is someone who's worked with the Sadies. And so it is very much that sort of alt-country vibe on this song. And this was probably the song that drew me in right away. Again, like Kirk said, it was in the contention for my MVP track for sure, which, like you, keeps changing. and yeah it's just just a great feel to this song.Track 3:[21:18] Yeah i couldn't agree more i think we're two for two so far on this record and we're gonna find out that let's go pretty even record it's a pretty even fucking record los angeles times has the aforementioned swagger dripping from it, Kirk, did you like this one as much as I did?Track 6:[25:07] I'm going to say yes, absolutely. But it didn't start out that way. This actually was one of my least favorite tunes after the first couple of passes. I just didn't quite get it. It was just kind of like, it was almost too much swagger at first for me. Because remember, I think we're in a divorce right now. I think this is an affair that's going on. So I'm a little adverse to the song and the album and almost everything because I still have his last, you know, that last record that just moved us all. It was still here. So there was this almost a betrayal, swagger, distaste that I had in the beginning. But listening to it, re-listening to it, listening to it in headphones, listening to it on vinyl, listening to it in the car, listening to it in the plane, listening to it in the hotel. The key changes, like we'd mentioned earlier, just another great solo, just great rock. And, hey, I'm an LA guy. So this one definitely turned and has also filtered through multiple times sometimes on the mvp track side so yeah to me it's three for three and i'm just gonna pre-call it for y'all.Track 4:[26:22] Yeah yeah i found this song to be um i was the same way i found the the progression to be a bit generic at first and so i didn't really love it right away but yeah it really grew and i think what makes it work is that this band is just so tight they're so i mean loose but Yeah, the tempo, you know, picks up and, you know, there's the push and push and pull, but they are such a great band that they can pull off anything. Just a simple strumming pattern and make it sound pro. And there's that thing you mentioned off the top, JD, the blah, blah, blah, et cetera, which I was wondering if, I'm sure you guys were thinking the music at work, live, Gord would do the et cetera thing. Did you find anything lyrically, Justin?Track 5:[27:10] Yeah. So there's a dedication at the end of the lyrics for Walter Van Tilburg Clark, who wrote The Oxbow Incident, among many other works. And that became kind of one of the great Western movies of all time. And it's about, the subject is these cowboys thought that one of their buddies got murdered and that somebody stole their cows. And then they found this group of three people that they thought did it and they hanged them. And then they found out that the guy survived and it wasn't them and you know it was just a big mess so it was it was the oxbow incident and uh yeah so it was a complicated story and but this isn't about the story it's about the author there are a lot of references to lines in the book or the movie but it's you know there's a line he was born and raised and moved away and that's about i think walter van tillberg clark who was born in maine but then his parents moved him to nevada and then he moved to in New York and then he went he was kind of all over the place beyond that I don't know it's, There's one thing that is a bit of a departure, I think, on this album is that the lyrics aren't too deep. There's not a lot of mystery in this album with Gord's lyrics. And I was hoping for more of that, but the research was a little easier than I wanted it to be on this.Track 4:[28:26] That was something I noticed too, is like there didn't seem to be as much to dig into.Track 4:[28:31] And once I kind of got past that and just started enjoying it, I really did grow to appreciate the album a lot more. It's funny that you mentioned the Oxbow incident because number one, a couple of weeks ago i was in la and we did did a couple studio tours and this is one of the movies they actually mentioned i forget if it was warner brothers or universal but it was shot at one of those two places in the next song so one good fast job one of my notes here is oxbow incident because of the line it says art shot said wellman to fonda so wellman the director and uh fonda the the star of the show so um nice kind of a neat little tie and i had no idea that the previous song had that reference so i'm glad you caught that this song i really love and this was the one i was um i found really interesting the the progression you've got like almost like a eight bar blues but then they throw in an extra bar so it's like this nine bar which just throws you off off balance a little bit once you once you hear it a few times it makes perfect sense but there's the lyric about drop you know planes dropping paper and dropping scissors and the chimps becoming regular wizards i think it is. And so that made me think of, there's a couple of Simpsons episode that reference like the infinite monkey theorem.Track 4:[29:46] What is it? Infinite monkeys, or give a monkey a typewriter and let it type for infinity. It would create, you know, Shakespeare. And you know, it would just some ridiculous theory that has, you know, been, you know, criticized heavily, but I wonder if there's something to that.Track 6:[30:03] Sorely discredited.Track 4:[30:05] And I really like, there's the line too about something about forget the commas. This is one good fast job. And it almost made me think of this album that they just like banged off this out. Like, let's not, let's just have fun. Let's just write some songs and let's not take ourselves too seriously. So those are my thoughts.Track 5:[30:23] Well, I think there was some controversy over the name of the band. And there are commas in that band name. And I think that they're just saying, you know, screw it. And like, nobody asked for this. We're just doing it. let us enjoy it. I did see a couple of interviews where Gord and members of the band were like, can we not dissect this? This is just rock and roll.Track 4:[30:44] Yeah.Track 6:[30:46] One thing in watching some of those videos that I had mentioned, the last two songs that we discussed that they had played, it was a Greenbelt Harvest Festival thing show that was on. They had almost every song on there and he was playing with the Sadie's and watching the crowd to me was actually quite entertaining because they just sat there and looked in bewilderment right because I don't know they obviously have probably some relationship with with the hip and who knows if they're early hit people or later hit people or die hard all the way but when Gord does the solo stuff and then if they're not familiar with the Sadie's they just sat there and looked like yeah why don't what are we experiencing here what what's what's going on and bewilderment was the note note that i wrote right.Track 3:[31:34] Right i mean this makes no sense to me fuck okay sorry uh continue.Track 6:[31:42] It man one good fast job and almost back to kind of those punk type roots and that driving rocking it it's uh who i jd like this album has everything and, Also, one thing I wanted to mention, I know we're not through it all, but I think they did a great job of tracking. I really felt good about where all the songs were. I needed Crater to get me going, even though I was still mad and angry, like we mentioned, and then Saved at the end that we'll talk about. It just was like, okay, I got a good, nice, warm hug. Thank you. you um which.Track 5:[32:26] You know what's amazing is there were so many reviews about this album that said it was not cohesive and inconsistent and like what the hell are you talking about and.Track 3:[32:36] Uneven and blah blah.Track 4:[32:37] Blah yeah what.Track 3:[32:38] The hell man agree.Track 4:[32:39] Yeah no that's a reviewer who read that it was you know recorded over many years yeah that's ridiculous like maybe if you gave it one or two listens but even then even the first listen i didn't love it but it sounded like an album yeah Yeah. One more thing about this song though, before, before we move on, I love the middle section. There's like a bridge or maybe even call it a chorus. It only goes to it once the, I had to look, I had to go, I had to laugh. And it's really interesting how they go through it once, then there's that extra bar, like they keep doing, and then they change the chord progression and back off a bit. Like if you listen to the way the, you know, they're the same instruments, but they just back off and the feel changes totally. And it's such a great effect. Rather than ramping up a bridge, they almost like pull back a bit. And that really was unique. And it only happens once. It feels like a chorus to me, but it's right smack dab in the middle of the song. And I think it's two minutes and like 23 seconds or something. And this is definitely one of my favorites.Track 3:[33:43] Yeah, it's a good one. And the next one is a good one as well. It's got to hold the record for the longest title in Gord's solo oeuvre. Kirk mentioned a moment ago that there's a bit of everything on this record. And to me, the beginning of this song, just the very beginning, is shoegazy.Track 5:[34:00] Yes.Track 3:[34:00] Or it goes into a real punk sort of vibe. And it didn't start to break my heart until this afternoon. Justin, what have you got for us?Track 5:[34:09] So the line, we fought like two Irons, really stuck out to me. and it goes with Kirk. I don't know that this was the middle of a divorce. I think Gord is just polyamorous at this point because this project took seven years and in the middle of it, he released the third album, Grand Bounce. So he is just sleeping around. I love the punk, the hard driving, just we're going to beat the fuck out of this song.Track 4:[34:38] My first real positive experience with this song was driving to my show last weekend and it was like i said a nice day i was driving along and to me like i said it's a real good driving album and i was coming up to this i guess it was a school zone but it was a weekend so there's no school and there was a uh a flashing like speed limit sign it was like a happy face and as i'm driving by it's like it turns to a sad face because i guess i was a little bit above the limit i'm not a huge speeder but i found that kind of quite funny especially after the i just just listen to the line what is it um something about driving fast oh yeah drive drive it like we stole it yeah it's a great great line that's right and then later on there's the dishwasher loaded which i love because i i wish i could say that most of my music listening was in the car but i only have about a five minute commute to work so most of my listening is actually doing the dishes and so this is just a great song when you're doing the dishes and and dishwasher loaded it and it really really kind of got you know i.Track 5:[35:40] Had the same experience man that's.Track 4:[35:41] Found it pretty funny and i actually the first time i noticed that lyric i was actually had just put this open i was closing the door of the dishwasher and so it was just it was just perfect it's so funny yeah.Track 5:[35:51] That's amazing oh.Track 4:[35:53] And great harmonies too on the chorus like love those harmonies yeah.Track 6:[35:57] That's one thing you'll notice too when you watch those or or you see them like the the harmony part especially especially after what we had just experienced for the last three albums, you know, with the female voice going back to a male voice backing. I love that element that it brought to it. And I'm just gonna jump into the next song, Budget Shoes. This is one that I think has probably held the number one spot for me. I would say it's not necessarily still there, but it's been there more often than not. And maybe I'm far off on this, but being the American, one of the two Americans that really likes Canadian culture, it brought me back to Kids in the Hall for some reason. In fact, so much so, if you think of the Kids in the Hall intro, I actually looked it up to go hoping it was the sadies like that really would have made my day if it was the sadies that had done that song that's the intro to kids in the hall.Track 4:[39:34] There is there is a connection there and i hope i'm correct here but i believe i read that the dallas good the the younger brother who you know passed away recently who.Track 3:[39:44] Was the drummer.Track 4:[39:44] He he played so so the good family was a was a country family like they had like a family band and and the older brother travis actually played with his band and Dallas being younger he he went more towards punk and I believe it said that his first or one of his first bands was with one of the members of uh Shadowy Men is that the name of the band that does the theme yeah yeah.Track 3:[40:11] Shadowy Men oh.Track 6:[40:12] Wow nice it definitely was reminiscent of that uh the entire song to me is just brilliant and it it gives you I mean it It really just digs deep inside my soul going back to the ethereal. When Gord hits those moments of the desperation vocal that we heard a lot, not only in recording, but live when he was with the hip, that brought such a comfort to me, right? Knowing where the hip is at, knowing where Gord is at, knowing what's coming. Like this is three years prior to his passing. And just so thankful that we get another version of Gord. And that's really what it was to me is we got, we have the hip and we love that. We have these first three albums, but now we have another one. And it was, Justin, you mentioned it in his lyrics. It's like, I'm not trying to confuse anyone here. I got this great band. They've given me this good music and I'm just gonna give it, I'm gonna give it what's coming to me at the moment. so when he does his and i call it a desperation vocal i know exactly what.Track 5:[41:22] You mean when you say it though.Track 3:[41:26] Yeah.Track 5:[41:26] Yep. Yep. So I'm going to ask the Canadians in the room here about budget shoes because I did some research on this as well. And apparently there's a tradition in Canada that finance ministers buy a new pair of shoes before presenting the budget and they wear them on the floor. Or if they're pissed off about it, they don't.Track 4:[41:48] Oh, wow.Track 5:[41:48] And it's this thing that has happened since the 1860s.Track 3:[41:53] Jesus. Do they go bare feet? I mean, listen, I was a political science major, and I've never heard of it before, but that doesn't really mean anything.Track 6:[42:01] As the other American, I agree with what you say full-heartedly. Love it. Love that connection.Track 3:[42:10] Yeah, I think it's great.Track 5:[42:11] It was strange, but interesting. And I don't know if this song is a commentary on politics and that, or if it just works well with... I mean, this song sounds like, you know, we're sleeping in a tent in a winter storm unexpectedly in the middle of the desert, you know, and I've got nice shoes and you don't, you know, and I'm going to keep my feet and you're going to lose them to frostbite. I don't know.Track 4:[42:37] What I was thinking was I was imagining almost like an old Western movie. It's like sweltering hot in the desert. And yeah, they're camping overnight. Night and you know the most iconic thing you'll see in a western is that you know the shot of the cowboy boots and the pan up and and i'm just picturing this you know guy sleeping in his budget you know there's cheap shoes and that's kind of what i do balances on yeah yeah.Track 6:[43:04] Ouch shots fired they're.Track 5:[43:05] A great company and they.Track 6:[43:06] Make a fine shoe thank you we're not sponsored by any of these particular shoe brands yeah i mean budget shoes you talk about the westerns it's almost like a spaghetti western type feel just in that uh the guitar riff as well so.Track 3:[43:26] Oh, that's cool. I felt that, too. I wouldn't have put that together. All right, let's move on. Demand Destruction. Is it just me, Justin, or does this song feel very much like the Tragically Hip? Am I crazy?Track 5:[43:38] No, I don't think you're crazy about that at all. And this song is, I think, Gord kind of putting out his own views. Again, there's a notation at the bottom. The last one, Budget Shoes, was dedicated to Evan S. Connell, who was the author of the book about Custer where the title of The Grand Bounce came from. So that's a continuation. And then this one is dedicated to Dr. Helen Caldicott, who was an Australian physicist and anti-nuclear war advocate. And it just feels like a protest song to me. I really don't have a lot of notes about it. It's just a nice, fun tune. But there's definitely a message in there. And I think it's Gord speaking about, let's not fuck this up. and maybe some reverence for Dr. Caldecott. It says, I'm not a fan, I just like what you do. I don't know. I don't have a whole lot to unpack on this one.Track 3:[44:30] Right. Well, no, I think you unpacked quite a bit. Craig, what have you got for us?Track 4:[44:36] One thing I'll say about this song is I found maybe the snare was a little too biting for me. I found that if you if you were listening quietly it it just jumped right out of the mix to the point where you almost couldn't hear anything else and when you turned it up it just had just a little a tinge too much oh yeah you guys know who who mixed the album yeah so bob rock and i think he did a great job overall but it definitely you know he's known for those big huge drums and i just would have liked a little more balance i thought the snare was just a little peeking out a little bit too much the rest of the album i think it it works but maybe the song is the poppiest.Track 5:[45:17] I think of the of the songs on the album it's certainly.Track 4:[45:20] Radio friendly fairly typical like blues rock sort of yeah um riff at the start yeah.Track 3:[45:25] That's what reminds me it reminds me of something off of road apples you know oh yeah yeah that era.Track 4:[45:31] Yeah great great harmonies again especially in the chorus all.Track 3:[45:34] Right from there we get a change of pace with mandolin and organ off the top of devil enough. Am I right? Was it mandolin Craig?Track 4:[45:44] Um, yeah, I believe so. I need to go back and listen again. Um, yeah, this is the song I referenced earlier that was driving me nuts. Even today I was sitting there tapping my toes, like trying to figure out the time change. And I actually had this like theory about what they were doing with it, you know, how they're getting from one tempo to the next. And then I just realized after a while it's just feel it's all feel. And I won't even get into it, because there are some weird things that happen. And I think it is what Justin mentioned earlier, I think it's just that flexibility of, of like, you know, they're really pushing the tempo, bringing it back quite frequently. And so.Track 4:[46:25] Yeah, if anyone wants to transcribe this drum part for me and send it to me, I would love to see that because I would love to know mathematically how it works, but I'm pretty sure it is just like a feel thing. This was a song that really stuck out to me. I love that time change. Having said all that, it really, the first few times just really struck me. The guitar playing at the end, the sort of Nashville picking at the end is just amazing. There's a few songs that have those great guitar solos. I think often it's Travis, according to the videos I watched, although I believe Dallas will trade off solo sometimes too. There's the line, Streets Ahead, which of course is a song name from Now For Plan A. And I had just actually recently been watching Community. And I'm not sure if you guys know that reference, but there's a, you know, it's like a catchphrase of Chevy Chase's character. And I actually found a, I wondered if it was related and I found an interview where someone asked Gord that question and he's just like, what? He was so like, no, like what are you talking about? Which of course makes sense. I mean, you don't write books. All these songs you're not a prolific writer like gourd if you're if you're.Track 6:[47:36] Spending countless hours.Track 4:[47:39] Binging you know sitcoms with 120 episodes.Track 5:[47:44] Well and gourd gourd's a dan akroyd guy not a chevy chase guy.Track 6:[47:48] Yeah true hey going back to that the ending part craig yes uh you know they almost have a bluegrass feel in some of these instrumental type solos there's There's rock going on against a different instrumentation, which I absolutely love the devil enough to me almost was reminiscent of like your seventies kind of, you know, Barracuda and like the big songs that would have a slow intro and then rock out or go to another slow, but very seventies rock and kind of anthemic type of we're going to switch keys. We're going to switch tempos i very much got that but again going back to the swagger you feel the swagger in in the presentation of the lyrics at least from my perspective with gourd on this loved it loved it.Track 4:[48:43] Yeah there are some um really great songwriting techniques on this album that you can tell you know the sadies are just a pro band i think is it uh one of the guys from blue rodeo i believe was was quoted in the in the barclay book about saying that you know they're the world's greatest rock band and there's the little things like in this song they use the little bars of two to set up you know those changes and just lots of little things like that like an extra bar here an extra bar there it's just some really great little songwriting tricks what did you think justin i.Track 5:[49:14] Just this song you know growing up we only had like 10 or 12 channels on on tv and one of them was tnn the nashville network and so the grand ole opry was was on all the time, because we didn't have a choice. If it wasn't Hockey Night in Canada, it was TNN. And just this song, that run with the picking is really cool. It brought me back to late 80s, early 90s, just watching the hoedown.Track 4:[49:42] Not a country fan, but when I hear a great guitar player like that, though, like a great Nashville player, it really is great. This whole album isn't the type of music I would typically listen to. And I think that's why I gravitate more towards an indie rock feel, like the Battle of the Nudes. But man, this album is really, really solid.Track 6:[50:06] Yeah, it has a good... I mean, I know you guys say you don't like country, and I say it too. But I bet you you'd be surprised about what you do like that's country-esque. And so for me, when I think of country, I get turned away by some of the modern country. although I'm really digging some Chris Stapleton and some of these other guys I'm really digging. But like when I hear country, I think Kenny Rogers, Merle Haggard, I think Willie Nelson, I think, and I think we really do dig, even going back Hank Williams and even a little further, like when the, as you listen to, I love this that we're talking like, oh, we only had 10 channels and whatever else. And I'm going hockey night in Canada and the nashville network you know and throw in a little emma daughter's jug band christmas and that's my childhood and i'm happy and i love all that so i i i get what you're saying but this i mean the sadie's i think alt country i heard earlier from one of you guys that's very much the feel from devil enough you roll into i'm free disarray me justin you you inspired me because i I have the vinyl here with me. And so I quick looked at the bottom and I'm like, okay, I gotta catch this one cause I've missed all the other references that you mentioned. So you got Virginia Woolf, who's listed at the bottom of I'm Free Disarray Me. And when you do your research, you think about stream of consciousness.Track 6:[51:31] And that really, I think, kind of sums up your lyrics in this particular song.Track 6:[51:37] Swagger again it's it's it's it's it's the same but it's not i heard us all say that it's the same but it's not i i i loved where it went with this and it's bringing us down now right because we only have one more song we talked about the track listings and the order and now it's given us getting us i think this is kind of setting us up for saved at least me personally uh what you think craig.Track 4:[52:03] This was the first song that actually popped into my head just out of the blue one morning when i woke up because it took quite a long time for that to happen with this album i was still singing grand bounce songs you know every morning waking up and then one day it was that i was like wow okay and and same one thing i want to mention this is kind of, going off of what you're talking about with vinyl i was listening to this you know doing dishes.Track 4:[52:29] With you know on apple and the amount of times in the last few months of doing this you know this show with you guys listening to music and it glitches for just a second when i'm streaming and it just drives me nuts and so just that was one thing that i just had a note note about that that this album needs to be listened to on cd on on on vinyl anyways that was just a little pet peeve of mine and also the the snare again in this song was just a little a little much for me it was it was it was really up front and i i like loud drums typically in a mix but i just I don't know there there was it's almost like with the snare being that loud I'm missing a bit of the kick drum and speaking of which you guys must have noticed that the the bass players you know playing stand-up I had the thought a few times like I wonder and this is not to take away from what he's doing but I just wonder what it would have sounded like if they if they used an electric bass on this album because I found the bass to be not as prominent as on the last three albums you know there it wasn't sticking i don't think that's just part of the style of this band.Track 6:[53:38] Great i have a question though craig in when i look at the watch the videos oh yeah he has an he has an ampeg like he has a bass amp so he's taking a stand-up bass which traditionally you just mic or go straight into the board and he's he's running it through a traditional rock bass you know pickup bass right in through like the standard road hard ampeg so um so it gives it that good gritty sound but i will agree 100 it's not as prominent and i would like it to be a little bit more only just being a musician but it didn't didn't didn't dissuade me from my love for this album yeah.Track 4:[54:21] Not at all and i think it were like sometimes the best bass players are the ones you don't notice like they're just tight to the to the drummer and that's really all that matters but there was really only a couple times on this album where i where i noticed.Track 6:[54:34] Very accurate Accurate statement.Track 5:[54:36] This, I think, is my MVP. As a kid who was raised on prog, you fall into the song and just let it kind of take over. I don't know. I actually found, weirdly, a karaoke version of this on YouTube.Track 3:[54:52] Really?Track 5:[54:53] An instrumental version of this. No way. And I played the piss out of it just today driving. Driving and uh yeah it's it's really odd that this is the one that's an instrumental track for, yeah but just the phrasing of things lyrically and musically like he's it this doesn't sound like any other song that gourd has has put together as far as i'm concerned i.Track 6:[55:17] Love i love that connection with prog rock justin because you've mentioned that multiple times that that's something you love. And when you said it, I had not placed it until you said it. And I agree with you on that's a great, great, great description of it.Track 5:[55:31] There was a lot of references to the Sadie's covering Pink Floyd in live shows. And I'm like, oh, there it is right there. The song is that.Track 6:[55:42] The next one to the next one to could be, you know, Jim Ladd headset session, listening like with Pink Floyd.Track 3:[55:50] Oh, the next one is gorgeous, I think. It's the first slower tempo song that we have on the record called Saved.Track 5:[58:56] Again, I can't believe that the reviews said this album doesn't make sense because about halfway down, the plane starts to land, right? And every song from halfway on is just you're descending and you land perfectly softly unsaved. And this song also sounds a lot like Coke Machine Glow. And it's just really mellow and it's Gord doing his thing. and i i don't know i love it.Track 6:[59:26] Almost every album i feel like has had a an extended version of coke machine glow track to it i i i love that i i hadn't placed it until you just said that because i felt the same way about some of the other the other albums is there that could be on coke machine glow but you're exactly right and then he continues that theme as it goes almost like the uh like his is the poetry book.Track 3:[59:53] Craig is holding up his notes.Track 4:[59:55] Nobody else can see it. I said the exact same thing. Pattern of Ending solo albums and some hip albums with a track with a much different feel is what I had written.Track 5:[1:00:07] Which goes back to Road Apples.Track 4:[1:00:12] I really love the line the music is so loud that it flaps your pant leg. It reminded me a little bit of Yawning or Snarling. Just the line in that.Track 5:[1:00:23] Thank you. I would hold up my notebook if it wasn't typed out. Because that's exactly what I have to.Track 4:[1:00:30] We are, let's see, as of recording this episode, we are, what time is it there? We're about two and a half hours away from the 10 year anniversary of this album. Of the release of this album.Track 3:[1:00:41] Oh, get the fuck out.Track 4:[1:00:42] Yeah. Wow.Track 3:[1:00:44] Oh, wow.Track 4:[1:00:46] I just had to look it up yesterday. I was like, wow, that's pretty cool.Track 5:[1:00:48] Oh, shit.Track 3:[1:00:48] That is cool. Huh. I normally have them all in my calendar, and I don't have that in my calendar. Huh. Good find. Yeah, it's going to be, yeah.Track 6:[1:01:00] Good find, Craig. Great find.Track 5:[1:01:02] J.D., you have about two and a half hours to make a post.Track 3:[1:01:06] Any more unsaved?Track 5:[1:01:09] I don't know. I didn't pick it apart too much. I loved that imagery of the line, Craig, that you just mentioned. The music is so loud, it flaps your pant leg. And there's a really strange, it's almost not, rhythm to the way that he sings it. It would be really hard to transcribe that onto a, onto a sheet of music.Track 4:[1:01:29] I also enjoyed the, um, the, the, the, they finally played a bit without the drums, you know, like this whole album has been very much like a full band. And I mentioned last week, I believe that one of the strengths of, of country of miracles was that they had so many members that they could all just take a break every once in a while. They didn't feel the need to always fill up every space. This band's the opposite because they're, you know, there's just four of them and they, they, you know, they're very much a typical rock band where everyone's playing all the time and so i actually enjoyed that there was a bit of time at the start of the song without drums no no offense to the drummer um but sometimes you just need a break this.Track 6:[1:02:07] Song to me was the you know that that cup of coffee after dessert or you know the cigarette after sex it was that finisher it was uh it was that we're all in good, good, good company. I love the connection back with Coke Machine Glow. I love the connection back with that changing that ending song. But to me, it was, all right, more so than the others. It was like, okay, here's your big warm hug before whatever comes up next.Track 3:[1:02:39] Oh, I like it. It does feel like a warm hug. It's a very comforting song for me. I don't know why, but it chills me right out. It's a great cigarette after sex. Kirk, I love that. It's really tremendous.Track 5:[1:02:55] It sucks that this album was only a half hour long.Track 3:[1:02:58] I know. It's so strange after The Grand Bounce, which was nearly an hour. But again, these guys are just so efficient and economical.Track 5:[1:03:10] It's one good fast job, baby.Track 3:[1:03:12] That's right.Track 6:[1:03:14] So does- Hey, did you know that that is his second highest played single, or at least versus Spotify when I last checked? Does that not totally blow you away? Like at least if you just look in his Spotify category, I believe it's number two behind like the Chancellor, I think is probably the most sense. But now i'm now i'm gonna look sorry i'm gonna i'm gonna see if i can back my own research.Track 5:[1:03:43] So interestingly i i don't have hard copies of any of these albums so i'm i'm strictly listening on streaming i use the youtube music app i don't really care for the interface on spotify and there is zero existence of this album in that in that space so i had to download band camp and buy the album that way which i was happy to do yeah i love band camp but yeah i had to uh that's the only way I could find this lyrics.Track 6:[1:04:07] All right, gents. I did the research. I was incorrect by two. It's Chancellor, the East wind. Oh, I am lost.Track 4:[1:04:15] That's then one good. Mind blowing.Track 5:[1:04:17] No shit.Track 6:[1:04:18] Number four.Track 4:[1:04:19] Yeah.Track 6:[1:04:20] Like that. It's even in the top five to me over like.Track 4:[1:04:23] You know, it's a great song. These songs that I thought were more well-known. Wow.Track 6:[1:04:29] Thank you.Track 4:[1:04:29] Yeah.Track 6:[1:04:30] It's surprising to me that.Track 3:[1:04:32] Yeah.Track 5:[1:04:33] Well, even, Even the opener on this one, Crater, I mean, it has a great video too.Track 6:[1:04:39] Oh, that's right. That's right. It is a really cool video.Track 4:[1:04:43] So the album art's interesting too. Did you catch that there's the different members of the band on the album? There's probably about these portraits of like, I don't know, 50 people. And if you look carefully, you can find all of the members of the band. I did.Track 6:[1:05:01] I did, absolutely. It's, yeah, on the album.Track 5:[1:05:04] And the artwork and the sound and all that, it kind of reminded me of the Beatles. I don't know why. But there was something about it that was familiar.Track 3:[1:05:16] Beatles-esque.Track 5:[1:05:17] Yeah. Yeah.Track 6:[1:05:20] I could see that. I mean, especially from an artistic standpoint. Yeah. Very much can see that.Track 3:[1:05:26] Yeah.Track 5:[1:05:27] Overall, I was super happy that this was the next thing. And I wish that there had been another one to follow it.Track 3:[1:05:33] So does it stay in your rotation then, Justin?Track 5:[1:05:36] Mm-hmm.Track 3:[1:05:37] Yeah, it does. Craig, how about you?Track 4:[1:05:40] A couple of days ago, I probably would have said maybe not. It's an album I'll definitely pull out here and there. But no, I do think I really am enjoying it lately. And like I said, the turn of the weather really helped. This is, to me, a summer album, not a, I think, come winter, I'll put it away again.Track 5:[1:05:59] End but the i'm sorry but i got it before i forget it right we just had the eclipse as we're recording this and i was stuck in traffic it's a 17 minute commute to get home and it took me 90 minutes so i listened to this album three times on the ride home and it's a great even if you're stopped it's a great album to be in the car.Track 6:[1:06:20] It's going to hit the turntable for me on a fairly regular basis for a while. Like I said, Grand Bounce, I couldn't get it out of my head. And finally, it might even have been an I'm Free Disarray Me, just that very methodical line that came through that turned it for me. Me but i love i i love it absolutely love it in fact i'm i'm probably more excited about digging deeper into the sadies once this whole project is done the sadies and several other canadian bands that i'm not as familiar with that you guys have introduced me to and i'm very thankful for but uh yeah this this one's staying in the rotation if you've got any.Track 3:[1:07:02] Bands that are gore adjacent or canadian indie adjacent uh send them our way discovering downy at gmail.com And we'll be sure to read that email on the air.Track 5:[1:07:18] I will say that as much as I've enjoyed this album, I've also really enjoyed the songs that are not on the album that Gordon and Sadie have played together. The cover of Search and Destroy. Holy shit.Track 3:[1:07:32] Right, you sent that to us a few days ago.Track 5:[1:07:35] That song melted my goddamn face off. It was so good. So good. And it was like 7, 12 in the morning or something. I was like, all right, I'm out of bed now. This is awesome.Track 4:[1:07:45] One of the shows I found online was here in Vancouver at the media club. And I actually remember hearing about it. And I'm just kicking myself that I didn't get to that show. This is like a tiny, tiny, like this is where my original band a number of years ago did our CD release party. And yeah, there's maybe room for 80 to 100 people in there. would have been amazing.Track 3:[1:08:10] Oh damn that.Track 6:[1:08:14] Is definitely i don't have a lot of regrets gentlemen but not seeing any iteration of gourd solo is very much i'm glad video was around because but i would have really really really enjoyed.Track 3:[1:08:28] Seeing that feeling thousand percent live yeah.Track 5:[1:08:32] I go back to that sweaty basement uh in me in massachusetts and like dude i went to those shows all the time and I wasn't there.Track 3:[1:08:39] That's crazy so Justin you've already sort of given this away even though we we you know we tease it throughout the show and typically give it away at the end but we'll start with you and your MVP track.Track 5:[1:08:56] Yeah, it's totally I'm free, disarray me, which took me by surprise, but then it didn't totally. You know, after the way that by, you know, the music that my parents played when I was a kid, this song is just cosmic cowboy, trippy shit.Track 3:[1:09:14] Kirk, how about you?Track 6:[1:09:15] All right. Los Angeles Times.Track 3:[1:09:21] Excellent. I love that pick. I liked your pick too, Justin.Track 5:[1:09:25] That's the hometown.Track 6:[1:09:26] Oh, yeah.Track 5:[1:09:27] That's okay.Track 6:[1:09:28] And it definitely is not one that I would have really settled in on had it not been for our discussion today, honestly. Because almost every song on the album has really fallen into near the top. You know, Conquering Sun, Budget Shoes, I would say, of everything, those definitely hit that number one spot for me multiple times. But Los Angeles Times is the one that just kept coming back, and I just kept feeling, and I kept growing further, enamored with on all fronts. So that's my pick, and I'm sticking to it.Track 3:[1:10:03] Very cool. Craig, you?Track 4:[1:10:06] Yeah, I had a hard time picking a song. And I found, kind of like what Kirk said, there was almost less of a range between the songs I enjoyed and the songs I enjoyed less. They were all in roughly the same region, whereas the other albums, there was some tracks that right away really, really got to another level with me. I think this album maybe doesn't quite have quite the emotion that the first three did, which is usually what hits me when I really love a song. Usually it just grabs me emotionally. And this album didn't have that in the same way. my my go-to song here is is going to be uh it didn't start to break my heart until this afternoon, just just a good good punk rock song yeah just nice just a great yeah great driving tune and.Track 3:[1:11:00] Gets the blood flowing, right? And I agree with you about the previous three records. They're just sort of more raw and improvised feeling.Track 4:[1:11:08] And more range to them, right? This just feels... There was more... Yeah, just... More variety. Yeah, more...Track 3:[1:11:15] Dynamics. Yeah. Yeah.Track 5:[1:11:20] There was a point where critics were really starting to tear Gord and the hip down. Yeah. When this album was coming out. And they were like, all right, we get it. The soup's getting cold. It's the same shit over and over, year after year. The performances are boring. It's not great. And I think, I don't know, but I'm thinking that this album was Gord's big middle finger to those guys. I'm still doing this. He's 50 years old.Track 4:[1:11:49] Can you think of another artist that has done what Gord has done? He's now got three bands that are all so amazing. Yeah, that's right.Track 5:[1:12:01] At the same time.Track 3:[1:12:01] At the same time, yeah, you're right.Track 4:[1:12:03] Yeah, mind-blowing how much high-quality work he put out through his whole career, but especially in this middle chunk here.Track 3:[1:12:12] Well, and if you think about it, this is a perfect segue because beginning in 2012, he started work on the record we're going to talk about next week, which is Secret Path. And that record didn't see the light of day until 2016. 16. So even then with that record, he's assembled the band again, and it's a great band as well. So this guy is just producing at a level presumably around the same time he's doing Luster Parfait. Because he's working with Bob Rock pretty exclusively, right?Track 5:[1:12:49] Right.Track 3:[1:12:50] So, God, just fascinating what we're what we've gotten up to so far i can't wait we are halfway done his records we've got one more studio record and then god damn it three posthumous records uh it's going to be tough to get through those ones guys i know it yep anything else you want to say before we wrap things up i.Track 5:[1:13:15] Don't know i love it man i i love this project i feel like we're a broken record because we're all going to say the same thing and we'd say it every episode But this project has gotten me back into, just like you said, Kirk, discovering new music. Or it's new to me. Right. And I am finding so many new things that I didn't know I didn't know.Track 3:[1:13:35] Right.Track 6:[1:13:37] I'm i have been frightened from the beginning because you know you listen because it's your first time listening to a solo stuff for you know i was frightened every single album that, yeah i was going to be disappointed yeah yep and i just keep finding a new way to be enamored and i don't mind being that easy when it comes to gourd and what's going on uh you know i i we talked about, you know, my, my experience with the hip, you know, having to hear about it from friends and not having that, you know, immediate access to everything. So I'm thoroughly loving the fact that the emotion and the feeling that Gord and the hip, all the musicians he's been involved with on the solo, just keep raising the level. So I'm now just like, I'm, I'm, you know, what I like about this, you guys is you're nervous and worried. Now I'm not nervous and worried. I'm I'm just, I'm excited about listening to what's coming up and I'm so excited.Track 5:[1:14:37] If you, if you enter the, if you enter the room knowing it's going to be a mindfuck when you get there, it's perfect

This week in the pod, the gang is up to their neck in the fantastic effort by Gord and the Sadies. You're gonna want to check this one out!Transcript: Track 1:[0:00] Hey, it's Craig here, and I just wanted to let you know that Christmastime in.Track 1:[0:03] Toronto is coming early this year. Join me and the Discovering Downey crew for the recording of our podcast finale, live at The Rec Room in downtown Toronto on Friday, July 19th. Long Slice Brewing presents A Celebration of Gord Downey, which will include a special in-person interview with Gord's brother, Patrick Downey. Spend the evening listening to your favorite hip tunes provided by the almost hip and help us raise money for the gourd downy fund for brain cancer research with a silent auction featuring incredible items up for grabs visit discoveringdowny.com for tickets or for more information about the event, let's have a toast for charity wickedness and most importantly hope.Track 2:[1:04] DOS Beauty I name my guitar My Beautiful Behor Everybody's coughing here And music's infiltrating work In the most pleasant way It's a system based on silverware Listening's an extrasensory Perception And talking the only psychic thing and I can dress you in my thoughts until you wear them. I've been taking care of my clothes like they're cattle. Try this shirt. It would look so good on you.Track 1:[1:42] Welcome, music lovers. Long Slice Brewery presents Discovering Downy. Hey, it's J.D.Track 2:[1:52] Here, and welcome to Discovering Downey, an 11-part project with a focus on the music and poetry of Mr. Gord Downey. The late frontman of the Tragically Hip gave to the world an extensive solo discography on top of the hip's vocal acrobatics that awed us for years. So far, he's released eight records in total, three of them posthumously. Now listen, you might be the biggest fan of The Hip out there, but have you heard these records? Because I'm an inquisitive podcaster, I enlisted my friends Craig, Justin, and Kirk, giant fans in their own right, to discover Downey with me, JD, as their host. Every week we'll get together and listen to one of Gord's records. We're starting with Coke Machine Glow and working from there in chronological order. We discuss and dissect the album, the production, the lyrics, and we break it down song by song. This week we're going to be talking about Gord's fourth record, and his first and only with the Sadies.Track 3:[2:58] Occurring son kirk from chino how the fuck are things with you buddy jd.Track 6:[3:04] I'm uh i'm back home after a little bit of travel it's been good travel um it's allowed me to really kind of soak this album in so i'm excited talking about it with you boys.Track 3:[3:15] Can you confirm this craig i'm kidding yeah how's it going pretty.Track 4:[3:20] Good yeah also looking forward to talking about this album them and it this one took me a little bit of time to get into but we'll talk about that i have been a little under the weather since the last recording it was about halfway through the last podcast i started feeling something coming on and just won't go away just a cold thankfully but yeah other than that things are well.Track 3:[3:41] Well that's good justin you've been a podcasting machine today are you spent or are you ready to talk shop with me i'm.Track 5:[3:49] Just getting started buddy.Track 3:[3:50] Yeah well let's get into it then and the conquering sun is the album we are discussing this week after three consecutive solo outings with some form of the country of miracles gourd wrote and produced this one with the sadies who had just come from supporting the hip on their world container tour Like so many, this marriage was consummated by the CBC, when the Sadies chose Mr. Downey to collaborate with, as was the program's premise. The Sadies are a Toronto-based and road-tested throughout Canada and beyond, with an original lineup consisting of Travis Goode, Sean Dean, Mike Belotiski, and Dallas Goode, who sadly passed away in 2022. This band, as I mentioned, is road-tested with buckets of swagger and chops for days. But how do you talk about The Conquering Sun? After the loose and improvised feeling of the last three records, this record is tight and economical. With a 30-minute runtime, I had to listen twice to get my walk in.Track 3:[4:55] Of the four records we've listened to so far, this one makes my Olympic podium for rock and roll with a hard-fought bronze medal, which is nothing to shake a stick at unless, of course, you're shaking the stick in a complimentary fashion. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this album. In fact, in my opinion, this record is the closest we get to a sound that is reminiscent of the hip, up and down on this record. The songs are screaming for radio play if only radio had been a factor upon its release in 2014. From the rip of Crater right through Saved, there isn't a missed opportunity on this record. I could go on about how much I like this record, na-na-na-na, blah-blah-blah, etc. You might be curious how I'm literally singing this album's praises, yet I've only ranked it third of four. I promise I'm not damning with faint praise. It's more that I loved the ceiling of the country of miracles, particles and the idea that we don't get a fourth effort from that entity bums me out a little bit so it's hard to go into this one with that ripple of bummed outness influencing me a little more than frankly i'd like but who cares what i think let's check in with the crew craig we'll start with you this week.Track 4:[6:04] Yeah this album like i i mentioned took took a few listens to get into um it's definitely not in you know it's not my favorite of the four we've heard so far but it's really just it's drastically different it just has a different vibe and there are a lot of things I really like about it and I think that my biggest realization is this this is a summer album this is a a nice weather taking a drive in the car putting the windows down this it's that kind of album and for the first couple weeks I didn't have that weather but but just past in the past few days we have and it's just it totally changed my outlook of this this album.Track 3:[6:45] I was on mute. Justin, what are your thoughts overall?Track 5:[6:49] Oh, I needed this one. I needed this album to get my headspace back into this. And I think I'm going to rank this number two so far out of the four. I actually really love this album a lot. And like Craig, it took me a minute to get into it, but something clicked and I have been listening to it at least two or three times a day every day since. And in the car, on my phone, with or without earbuds trying to get the different parts of the sound, and it kicks my ass every time. I really just like this album from start to finish. Every song kind of sounds the same, which makes it sound like one big long song, and I really kind of love that.Track 3:[7:28] Interesting. I can't wait till we break it down. What say you, Kirk from Chino?Track 6:[7:32] Like my brethren here, it took me a while. In fact, it took me a while because it almost felt like a divorce and maybe a bit of an affair Was going on with with our buddy Gord. I was so I.Track 6:[7:48] Immersed into what was happening with the country miracles and like you said in the beginning like the ceiling like i wanted more and i was so ready for more i had the vinyl of this one the last ground bounce i didn't and i listened to it and i knew there was something there but i was angry honestly i was angry because i wanted more as we had mentioned but man did it grow and grow row. I'm not going to rank it right now because every time I rank something, a day or two goes by and something happens. And I realized, oh man, that was, you know, the grand bounce. That was Coke machine glow that, and you know, every album that we've had a chance to listen to has been, I think in every slot, if that makes sense, depending on the time of day or what's going on. And and so again it just brings you back to joy because i didn't dive in when it was happening which of course i'm a little sad about but i'm so excited now that i'm like i'm really loving music discovery again i'm really loving listening to albums i'm really loving i don't care if it's in the car if i'm walking the dog if i'm sitting at work if i'm you know working on something on on the computer and I've got the music going.Track 6:[9:11] Like I have not spent this much time with new music. I say that in quotes because it's obviously not new, but it's new to me, new to us.Track 6:[9:23] And I'm just, I'm loving the ride. That's all I got to say. This one is the last two, I mean, like I'm going to be listening to these forever. And I'm going to try and preach the word and get some people to jump on board because it makes me sad when I look at Spotify or something and I see the honestly and don't jump on me. It's like the limited number of listens to the Gord stuff. I have friends that have put stuff out that have more downloads than that. I'm not saying that in a negative, I'm saying that in a like, that shouldn't be. That shouldn't be, so. Right. My diatribe's over, sorry.Track 3:[10:03] No, no. Well, that's why I was mentioning off the top too too, that it screams for radio play to me. It's very radio-friendly. There's nothing over four minutes. And fucking radio just didn't matter in 2014. So of course we were never going to hear this. Unless we were paying very close attention.Track 6:[10:26] Absolutely.Track 3:[10:27] Clearly we were not.Track 6:[10:28] Absolutely. Radio.Track 5:[10:29] Radio still matters to me. I'm a radio guy. I'm going to tell you that right now. Yeah. Love radio.Track 3:[10:34] Radio doesn't love you back though. That's the problem. Like it's getting stripped down and worn down and these formats, you know, like if you've got a, if you've got a local that you love, then by going to stand with it, right?Track 5:[10:47] Yeah, you're right. We have, we have a, I'm going to sidebar here for just a second. We have a great station here in Southern Vermont, WEQX, which is one of the last great independent alternative rock stations in North America. And they discovered No Rain by Blind Melon. They were the first one to play it. And they just got this great pedigree, and they love to play Gord's solo stuff. From 2020 on, there's been a lot of new Gord solo stuff that's really been great.Track 3:[11:19] Get up. Right.Track 5:[11:20] And it's kind of been hard to not listen ahead during this project. Wow. I don't know if they played any of the stuff from this album, but this would totally fit.Track 4:[11:28] Yeah, we once had a really awesome independent radio station down in Bellingham, Washington, which we could pick up in Vancouver. And they actually, their tagline was something like, we don't play Canadian music because we have to. We play it because it rocks or something along those lines. And they would play The Hip and Rush. and yeah that's the only american station i've heard that that played a ton of the hip and yeah of course about 15 years ago they got whatever bought out by chorus or someone and it's now just yeah yeah your standard rock radio well.Track 3:[12:02] Should we eradicate this problem and educate people on this record go through it track by track are we ready let's.Track 5:[12:10] Go sure yeah.Track 3:[12:12] All right we start with track one side a it's the classic rock tinged crater what did you think of this one mr greg.Track 4:[12:25] My dad uh came to vancouver from new zealand in 1965 to to buy a 65 chevy impala and this song crater is a 1965 chevy impala cruising down the road it's just a great rock and roll track yeah um man that snare drum is yes snare snare yeah it is it is there in the mix yeah definitely i didn't dive into the lyrics at all especially um the songs that were more kind of rocking i i just i was just enjoying them and the only thought i had lyric wise was um almost like an idea of like either you're you're the crater or you're the meter meteor And I was kind of thinking along the lines of there's that not so great Dire Straits song, Heavy Fuel, where he says, you know, sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug. And that was kind of the... What i got out of the lyrics on this song.Track 6:[13:25] I i wonder in the lyrics and maybe you guys did further research that i didn't see like how much of it was gord how much of it was the gents from the sadies because i i knew the name the sadies but i honestly until this i had not really you know dove into some of their music and i think in one of our you know communications justin had mentioned that as well like he's doing a lot of listening to the sadies and and i try i you know my listening at first it's this is it's going to sound weird um i did a lot of listening at first obviously like through spotify or whatever else but it wasn't until youtube and i got to see these guys and they're wearing like their nudie suits is what it looks like you know and i just i just saw a bunch of them they had a big exhibit at the you know country music uh hall of fame and they were We're talking about that LA country and, you know, very much a country tinge, but, you know, they're using those hollow body guitars. And anyway, so back to lyrics, like what's the balance between Gord and the Sadie's? Did anyone find anything on that?Track 4:[14:30] My understanding is that they, that the Sadie's wrote the songs and Gord wrote the lyrics that, yeah. And it was recorded apparently over a number of years. This wasn't like an album that was done in one session, which I find surprising because like someone said earlier, it's, it sounds just like a, it's a great album. It, it really sounds like it was just tracked in one day or something. It's yeah, there's a.Track 6:[14:53] There's YouTube has a, uh, interview of, I think the Sadie's had just put an album out. It was like 2010 and Gord was with them and they, you know, obviously had some discussions about their, their time together. And in some of the research it talks about, this has definitely been a long-term type of thing. Great song.Track 5:[15:10] Yeah, there was a CBC fuse in 2007 is what put them together. So it took seven years for this album to come out from that first collaboration. Collaboration I really like the sound.Track 6:[15:21] From a musicianship standpoint ethereal is really the kind of the adjective that came to mind on a lot of the the guitar parts that the Sadie's had you know very much a hollow body type guitar going through either a Fender a lot of reverb I really liked that driving sound I really really liked it it was it was pretty prevalent throughout in my opinion anything.Track 3:[15:43] Else on crater i.Track 5:[15:46] Just yeah i mean this is gourd this is like this is a live show on a record um this one song particularly and he is giving it all he has what at the end of the second verse and if we record any of these songs this is the one i'm doing because this is a this is a screamer and it's so much fun to be it you know we don't want to we don't want to do it we want to be it this song is fun to sing, Yeah. So I also, I downloaded an app because I noticed my foot was tapping a lot faster at the end of the song than the beginning. And I, so I, I downloaded an app and it picks up 13 beats per minute from the start to the finish.Track 4:[16:29] Oh yeah. That's something I'm going to be talking about later. Cause I, it was driving me nuts. One of the songs I was trying to actually figure out what was happening mathematically and yeah. Okay. I'm glad I'm not the only one noticed.Track 6:[16:43] I love that. I love the time changes in a variety of different songs. I put them down in a few notes. But the one thing I really want to say before we dive into any more, long live the guitar solo. And there's quite a few guitar solos on this album, specifically Crater. And they're just, they're solos. They're good solos. And on the other albums, we'll call lead lines, but there's not a lot of solos. And I'm digging that, getting that back, because we haven't had that in the first three.Track 5:[17:15] Oh, yes.Track 3:[17:16] Nice. Well, the next one is sort of the titular track, but not quite. The Conquering Sun does what for you, Justin?Track 5:[17:27] When I look out the window and see Audette's Blue Spruce Farm across the street, That's kind of what I think about. I mean, it's getting on time to plant. And here it is as we record this. It's planting season and working the fugitive dust. Nature, please be good to us. You know, we just had this massively wet spring that wiped out a shit ton of the farms around here. That's, you know, before they even got started. For me, that's part of what this song is. There's also the line, she is more than a conqueror. And I wonder if that's a reference to Gord's wife, Laura, with her recent cancer battle. I don't know when this song was recorded in the timeline of all that, like what year this happened. But I interpreted it as possibly something that could be a reference to defeating the cancer. And the other thing that I really, it was a callback to We Are The Same is when Gord's, his vocal run during hearing, ooh, day is your word, night is the glue. He does that exact same thing in The Depression Suite. That very same run, the change, the pitch, the length, I love it.Track 4:[18:41] Yeah, I caught that too. That's great.Track 6:[18:43] Great song. It was one of those. I think I mentioned on the last time we spoke, there was not a definitive MVP for me. This one has fallen in and out of MVP, and it may fall back in at the end of this recording. morning. But that's one of the things that really showed me this was a great album, but specifically this song. I just felt immersed in it. And like I said earlier, Ethereal, again, another great solo, another great, that sound that the Sadies have. They have, these guys, what are they like six, five, six, six, they look like trees and they might be a buck or five soaking wet and the suits are barely hanging on them and he's just playing this you know telecaster like it's a little tiny you know a small ukulele and they just have this they they just have this presence and like i said it really wasn't until i i started seeing them that i i got the sadie's because when i was listening it didn't hit me as much and i was kind of hoping i don't know if i mentioned this earlier because they were on the world container tour and i was wondering if they were the opening band I didn't find anything that showed them specifically, but when I watch the videos, it doesn't bring a memory or recollection that I saw. I think it was Sam Roberts that opened for a lot of the shows that I saw here in California.Track 5:[20:06] I saw Joel Plaskett as the opener on that tour.Track 6:[20:11] Got it. Got it. Yeah. So I was kind of hoping that they were one of the openers. But you know now i'm really excited that you know just in the last couple of days i would say is really when my attention has gone towards them and when you start hearing and seeing how they crafted these songs together and how they worked so well with gourd and his phrasing and and so yeah love this love this yeah.Track 4:[20:38] The the sadies are actually on tour as we record this and i'm hoping to pick to go down to the the vancouver show uh so you might you might want to look at dates they They might be coming down your way.Track 6:[20:48] I hope so.Track 4:[20:48] Yeah, this song, to me, as soon as I heard it, it reminded me of Nico Case. And Nico Case is someone who's worked with the Sadies. And so it is very much that sort of alt-country vibe on this song. And this was probably the song that drew me in right away. Again, like Kirk said, it was in the contention for my MVP track for sure, which, like you, keeps changing. and yeah it's just just a great feel to this song.Track 3:[21:18] Yeah i couldn't agree more i think we're two for two so far on this record and we're gonna find out that let's go pretty even record it's a pretty even fucking record los angeles times has the aforementioned swagger dripping from it, Kirk, did you like this one as much as I did?Track 6:[25:07] I'm going to say yes, absolutely. But it didn't start out that way. This actually was one of my least favorite tunes after the first couple of passes. I just didn't quite get it. It was just kind of like, it was almost too much swagger at first for me. Because remember, I think we're in a divorce right now. I think this is an affair that's going on. So I'm a little adverse to the song and the album and almost everything because I still have his last, you know, that last record that just moved us all. It was still here. So there was this almost a betrayal, swagger, distaste that I had in the beginning. But listening to it, re-listening to it, listening to it in headphones, listening to it on vinyl, listening to it in the car, listening to it in the plane, listening to it in the hotel. The key changes, like we'd mentioned earlier, just another great solo, just great rock. And, hey, I'm an LA guy. So this one definitely turned and has also filtered through multiple times sometimes on the mvp track side so yeah to me it's three for three and i'm just gonna pre-call it for y'all.Track 4:[26:22] Yeah yeah i found this song to be um i was the same way i found the the progression to be a bit generic at first and so i didn't really love it right away but yeah it really grew and i think what makes it work is that this band is just so tight they're so i mean loose but Yeah, the tempo, you know, picks up and, you know, there's the push and push and pull, but they are such a great band that they can pull off anything. Just a simple strumming pattern and make it sound pro. And there's that thing you mentioned off the top, JD, the blah, blah, blah, et cetera, which I was wondering if, I'm sure you guys were thinking the music at work, live, Gord would do the et cetera thing. Did you find anything lyrically, Justin?Track 5:[27:10] Yeah. So there's a dedication at the end of the lyrics for Walter Van Tilburg Clark, who wrote The Oxbow Incident, among many other works. And that became kind of one of the great Western movies of all time. And it's about, the subject is these cowboys thought that one of their buddies got murdered and that somebody stole their cows. And then they found this group of three people that they thought did it and they hanged them. And then they found out that the guy survived and it wasn't them and you know it was just a big mess so it was it was the oxbow incident and uh yeah so it was a complicated story and but this isn't about the story it's about the author there are a lot of references to lines in the book or the movie but it's you know there's a line he was born and raised and moved away and that's about i think walter van tillberg clark who was born in maine but then his parents moved him to nevada and then he moved to in New York and then he went he was kind of all over the place beyond that I don't know it's, There's one thing that is a bit of a departure, I think, on this album is that the lyrics aren't too deep. There's not a lot of mystery in this album with Gord's lyrics. And I was hoping for more of that, but the research was a little easier than I wanted it to be on this.Track 4:[28:26] That was something I noticed too, is like there didn't seem to be as much to dig into.Track 4:[28:31] And once I kind of got past that and just started enjoying it, I really did grow to appreciate the album a lot more. It's funny that you mentioned the Oxbow incident because number one, a couple of weeks ago i was in la and we did did a couple studio tours and this is one of the movies they actually mentioned i forget if it was warner brothers or universal but it was shot at one of those two places in the next song so one good fast job one of my notes here is oxbow incident because of the line it says art shot said wellman to fonda so wellman the director and uh fonda the the star of the show so um nice kind of a neat little tie and i had no idea that the previous song had that reference so i'm glad you caught that this song i really love and this was the one i was um i found really interesting the the progression you've got like almost like a eight bar blues but then they throw in an extra bar so it's like this nine bar which just throws you off off balance a little bit once you once you hear it a few times it makes perfect sense but there's the lyric about drop you know planes dropping paper and dropping scissors and the chimps becoming regular wizards i think it is. And so that made me think of, there's a couple of Simpsons episode that reference like the infinite monkey theorem.Track 4:[29:46] What is it? Infinite monkeys, or give a monkey a typewriter and let it type for infinity. It would create, you know, Shakespeare. And you know, it would just some ridiculous theory that has, you know, been, you know, criticized heavily, but I wonder if there's something to that.Track 6:[30:03] Sorely discredited.Track 4:[30:05] And I really like, there's the line too about something about forget the commas. This is one good fast job. And it almost made me think of this album that they just like banged off this out. Like, let's not, let's just have fun. Let's just write some songs and let's not take ourselves too seriously. So those are my thoughts.Track 5:[30:23] Well, I think there was some controversy over the name of the band. And there are commas in that band name. And I think that they're just saying, you know, screw it. And like, nobody asked for this. We're just doing it. let us enjoy it. I did see a couple of interviews where Gord and members of the band were like, can we not dissect this? This is just rock and roll.Track 4:[30:44] Yeah.Track 6:[30:46] One thing in watching some of those videos that I had mentioned, the last two songs that we discussed that they had played, it was a Greenbelt Harvest Festival thing show that was on. They had almost every song on there and he was playing with the Sadie's and watching the crowd to me was actually quite entertaining because they just sat there and looked in bewilderment right because I don't know they obviously have probably some relationship with with the hip and who knows if they're early hit people or later hit people or die hard all the way but when Gord does the solo stuff and then if they're not familiar with the Sadie's they just sat there and looked like yeah why don't what are we experiencing here what what's what's going on and bewilderment was the note note that i wrote right.Track 3:[31:34] Right i mean this makes no sense to me fuck okay sorry uh continue.Track 6:[31:42] It man one good fast job and almost back to kind of those punk type roots and that driving rocking it it's uh who i jd like this album has everything and, Also, one thing I wanted to mention, I know we're not through it all, but I think they did a great job of tracking. I really felt good about where all the songs were. I needed Crater to get me going, even though I was still mad and angry, like we mentioned, and then Saved at the end that we'll talk about. It just was like, okay, I got a good, nice, warm hug. Thank you. you um which.Track 5:[32:26] You know what's amazing is there were so many reviews about this album that said it was not cohesive and inconsistent and like what the hell are you talking about and.Track 3:[32:36] Uneven and blah blah.Track 4:[32:37] Blah yeah what.Track 3:[32:38] The hell man agree.Track 4:[32:39] Yeah no that's a reviewer who read that it was you know recorded over many years yeah that's ridiculous like maybe if you gave it one or two listens but even then even the first listen i didn't love it but it sounded like an album yeah Yeah. One more thing about this song though, before, before we move on, I love the middle section. There's like a bridge or maybe even call it a chorus. It only goes to it once the, I had to look, I had to go, I had to laugh. And it's really interesting how they go through it once, then there's that extra bar, like they keep doing, and then they change the chord progression and back off a bit. Like if you listen to the way the, you know, they're the same instruments, but they just back off and the feel changes totally. And it's such a great effect. Rather than ramping up a bridge, they almost like pull back a bit. And that really was unique. And it only happens once. It feels like a chorus to me, but it's right smack dab in the middle of the song. And I think it's two minutes and like 23 seconds or something. And this is definitely one of my favorites.Track 3:[33:43] Yeah, it's a good one. And the next one is a good one as well. It's got to hold the record for the longest title in Gord's solo oeuvre. Kirk mentioned a moment ago that there's a bit of everything on this record. And to me, the beginning of this song, just the very beginning, is shoegazy.Track 5:[34:00] Yes.Track 3:[34:00] Or it goes into a real punk sort of vibe. And it didn't start to break my heart until this afternoon. Justin, what have you got for us?Track 5:[34:09] So the line, we fought like two Irons, really stuck out to me. and it goes with Kirk. I don't know that this was the middle of a divorce. I think Gord is just polyamorous at this point because this project took seven years and in the middle of it, he released the third album, Grand Bounce. So he is just sleeping around. I love the punk, the hard driving, just we're going to beat the fuck out of this song.Track 4:[34:38] My first real positive experience with this song was driving to my show last weekend and it was like i said a nice day i was driving along and to me like i said it's a real good driving album and i was coming up to this i guess it was a school zone but it was a weekend so there's no school and there was a uh a flashing like speed limit sign it was like a happy face and as i'm driving by it's like it turns to a sad face because i guess i was a little bit above the limit i'm not a huge speeder but i found that kind of quite funny especially after the i just just listen to the line what is it um something about driving fast oh yeah drive drive it like we stole it yeah it's a great great line that's right and then later on there's the dishwasher loaded which i love because i i wish i could say that most of my music listening was in the car but i only have about a five minute commute to work so most of my listening is actually doing the dishes and so this is just a great song when you're doing the dishes and and dishwasher loaded it and it really really kind of got you know i.Track 5:[35:40] Had the same experience man that's.Track 4:[35:41] Found it pretty funny and i actually the first time i noticed that lyric i was actually had just put this open i was closing the door of the dishwasher and so it was just it was just perfect it's so funny yeah.Track 5:[35:51] That's amazing oh.Track 4:[35:53] And great harmonies too on the chorus like love those harmonies yeah.Track 6:[35:57] That's one thing you'll notice too when you watch those or or you see them like the the harmony part especially especially after what we had just experienced for the last three albums, you know, with the female voice going back to a male voice backing. I love that element that it brought to it. And I'm just gonna jump into the next song, Budget Shoes. This is one that I think has probably held the number one spot for me. I would say it's not necessarily still there, but it's been there more often than not. And maybe I'm far off on this, but being the American, one of the two Americans that really likes Canadian culture, it brought me back to Kids in the Hall for some reason. In fact, so much so, if you think of the Kids in the Hall intro, I actually looked it up to go hoping it was the sadies like that really would have made my day if it was the sadies that had done that song that's the intro to kids in the hall.Track 4:[39:34] There is there is a connection there and i hope i'm correct here but i believe i read that the dallas good the the younger brother who you know passed away recently who.Track 3:[39:44] Was the drummer.Track 4:[39:44] He he played so so the good family was a was a country family like they had like a family band and and the older brother travis actually played with his band and Dallas being younger he he went more towards punk and I believe it said that his first or one of his first bands was with one of the members of uh Shadowy Men is that the name of the band that does the theme yeah yeah.Track 3:[40:11] Shadowy Men oh.Track 6:[40:12] Wow nice it definitely was reminiscent of that uh the entire song to me is just brilliant and it it gives you I mean it It really just digs deep inside my soul going back to the ethereal. When Gord hits those moments of the desperation vocal that we heard a lot, not only in recording, but live when he was with the hip, that brought such a comfort to me, right? Knowing where the hip is at, knowing where Gord is at, knowing what's coming. Like this is three years prior to his passing. And just so thankful that we get another version of Gord. And that's really what it was to me is we got, we have the hip and we love that. We have these first three albums, but now we have another one. And it was, Justin, you mentioned it in his lyrics. It's like, I'm not trying to confuse anyone here. I got this great band. They've given me this good music and I'm just gonna give it, I'm gonna give it what's coming to me at the moment. so when he does his and i call it a desperation vocal i know exactly what.Track 5:[41:22] You mean when you say it though.Track 3:[41:26] Yeah.Track 5:[41:26] Yep. Yep. So I'm going to ask the Canadians in the room here about budget shoes because I did some research on this as well. And apparently there's a tradition in Canada that finance ministers buy a new pair of shoes before presenting the budget and they wear them on the floor. Or if they're pissed off about it, they don't.Track 4:[41:48] Oh, wow.Track 5:[41:48] And it's this thing that has happened since the 1860s.Track 3:[41:53] Jesus. Do they go bare feet? I mean, listen, I was a political science major, and I've never heard of it before, but that doesn't really mean anything.Track 6:[42:01] As the other American, I agree with what you say full-heartedly. Love it. Love that connection.Track 3:[42:10] Yeah, I think it's great.Track 5:[42:11] It was strange, but interesting. And I don't know if this song is a commentary on politics and that, or if it just works well with... I mean, this song sounds like, you know, we're sleeping in a tent in a winter storm unexpectedly in the middle of the desert, you know, and I've got nice shoes and you don't, you know, and I'm going to keep my feet and you're going to lose them to frostbite. I don't know.Track 4:[42:37] What I was thinking was I was imagining almost like an old Western movie. It's like sweltering hot in the desert. And yeah, they're camping overnight. Night and you know the most iconic thing you'll see in a western is that you know the shot of the cowboy boots and the pan up and and i'm just picturing this you know guy sleeping in his budget you know there's cheap shoes and that's kind of what i do balances on yeah yeah.Track 6:[43:04] Ouch shots fired they're.Track 5:[43:05] A great company and they.Track 6:[43:06] Make a fine shoe thank you we're not sponsored by any of these particular shoe brands yeah i mean budget shoes you talk about the westerns it's almost like a spaghetti western type feel just in that uh the guitar riff as well so.Track 3:[43:26] Oh, that's cool. I felt that, too. I wouldn't have put that together. All right, let's move on. Demand Destruction. Is it just me, Justin, or does this song feel very much like the Tragically Hip? Am I crazy?Track 5:[43:38] No, I don't think you're crazy about that at all. And this song is, I think, Gord kind of putting out his own views. Again, there's a notation at the bottom. The last one, Budget Shoes, was dedicated to Evan S. Connell, who was the author of the book about Custer where the title of The Grand Bounce came from. So that's a continuation. And then this one is dedicated to Dr. Helen Caldicott, who was an Australian physicist and anti-nuclear war advocate. And it just feels like a protest song to me. I really don't have a lot of notes about it. It's just a nice, fun tune. But there's definitely a message in there. And I think it's Gord speaking about, let's not fuck this up. and maybe some reverence for Dr. Caldecott. It says, I'm not a fan, I just like what you do. I don't know. I don't have a whole lot to unpack on this one.Track 3:[44:30] Right. Well, no, I think you unpacked quite a bit. Craig, what have you got for us?Track 4:[44:36] One thing I'll say about this song is I found maybe the snare was a little too biting for me. I found that if you if you were listening quietly it it just jumped right out of the mix to the point where you almost couldn't hear anything else and when you turned it up it just had just a little a tinge too much oh yeah you guys know who who mixed the album yeah so bob rock and i think he did a great job overall but it definitely you know he's known for those big huge drums and i just would have liked a little more balance i thought the snare was just a little peeking out a little bit too much the rest of the album i think it it works but maybe the song is the poppiest.Track 5:[45:17] I think of the of the songs on the album it's certainly.Track 4:[45:20] Radio friendly fairly typical like blues rock sort of yeah um riff at the start yeah.Track 3:[45:25] That's what reminds me it reminds me of something off of road apples you know oh yeah yeah that era.Track 4:[45:31] Yeah great great harmonies again especially in the chorus all.Track 3:[45:34] Right from there we get a change of pace with mandolin and organ off the top of devil enough. Am I right? Was it mandolin Craig?Track 4:[45:44] Um, yeah, I believe so. I need to go back and listen again. Um, yeah, this is the song I referenced earlier that was driving me nuts. Even today I was sitting there tapping my toes, like trying to figure out the time change. And I actually had this like theory about what they were doing with it, you know, how they're getting from one tempo to the next. And then I just realized after a while it's just feel it's all feel. And I won't even get into it, because there are some weird things that happen. And I think it is what Justin mentioned earlier, I think it's just that flexibility of, of like, you know, they're really pushing the tempo, bringing it back quite frequently. And so.Track 4:[46:25] Yeah, if anyone wants to transcribe this drum part for me and send it to me, I would love to see that because I would love to know mathematically how it works, but I'm pretty sure it is just like a feel thing. This was a song that really stuck out to me. I love that time change. Having said all that, it really, the first few times just really struck me. The guitar playing at the end, the sort of Nashville picking at the end is just amazing. There's a few songs that have those great guitar solos. I think often it's Travis, according to the videos I watched, although I believe Dallas will trade off solo sometimes too. There's the line, Streets Ahead, which of course is a song name from Now For Plan A. And I had just actually recently been watching Community. And I'm not sure if you guys know that reference, but there's a, you know, it's like a catchphrase of Chevy Chase's character. And I actually found a, I wondered if it was related and I found an interview where someone asked Gord that question and he's just like, what? He was so like, no, like what are you talking about? Which of course makes sense. I mean, you don't write books. All these songs you're not a prolific writer like gourd if you're if you're.Track 6:[47:36] Spending countless hours.Track 4:[47:39] Binging you know sitcoms with 120 episodes.Track 5:[47:44] Well and gourd gourd's a dan akroyd guy not a chevy chase guy.Track 6:[47:48] Yeah true hey going back to that the ending part craig yes uh you know they almost have a bluegrass feel in some of these instrumental type solos there's There's rock going on against a different instrumentation, which I absolutely love the devil enough to me almost was reminiscent of like your seventies kind of, you know, Barracuda and like the big songs that would have a slow intro and then rock out or go to another slow, but very seventies rock and kind of anthemic type of we're going to switch keys. We're going to switch tempos i very much got that but again going back to the swagger you feel the swagger in in the presentation of the lyrics at least from my perspective with gourd on this loved it loved it.Track 4:[48:43] Yeah there are some um really great songwriting techniques on this album that you can tell you know the sadies are just a pro band i think is it uh one of the guys from blue rodeo i believe was was quoted in the in the barclay book about saying that you know they're the world's greatest rock band and there's the little things like in this song they use the little bars of two to set up you know those changes and just lots of little things like that like an extra bar here an extra bar there it's just some really great little songwriting tricks what did you think justin i.Track 5:[49:14] Just this song you know growing up we only had like 10 or 12 channels on on tv and one of them was tnn the nashville network and so the grand ole opry was was on all the time, because we didn't have a choice. If it wasn't Hockey Night in Canada, it was TNN. And just this song, that run with the picking is really cool. It brought me back to late 80s, early 90s, just watching the hoedown.Track 4:[49:42] Not a country fan, but when I hear a great guitar player like that, though, like a great Nashville player, it really is great. This whole album isn't the type of music I would typically listen to. And I think that's why I gravitate more towards an indie rock feel, like the Battle of the Nudes. But man, this album is really, really solid.Track 6:[50:06] Yeah, it has a good... I mean, I know you guys say you don't like country, and I say it too. But I bet you you'd be surprised about what you do like that's country-esque. And so for me, when I think of country, I get turned away by some of the modern country. although I'm really digging some Chris Stapleton and some of these other guys I'm really digging. But like when I hear country, I think Kenny Rogers, Merle Haggard, I think Willie Nelson, I think, and I think we really do dig, even going back Hank Williams and even a little further, like when the, as you listen to, I love this that we're talking like, oh, we only had 10 channels and whatever else. And I'm going hockey night in Canada and the nashville network you know and throw in a little emma daughter's jug band christmas and that's my childhood and i'm happy and i love all that so i i i get what you're saying but this i mean the sadie's i think alt country i heard earlier from one of you guys that's very much the feel from devil enough you roll into i'm free disarray me justin you you inspired me because i I have the vinyl here with me. And so I quick looked at the bottom and I'm like, okay, I gotta catch this one cause I've missed all the other references that you mentioned. So you got Virginia Woolf, who's listed at the bottom of I'm Free Disarray Me. And when you do your research, you think about stream of consciousness.Track 6:[51:31] And that really, I think, kind of sums up your lyrics in this particular song.Track 6:[51:37] Swagger again it's it's it's it's it's the same but it's not i heard us all say that it's the same but it's not i i i loved where it went with this and it's bringing us down now right because we only have one more song we talked about the track listings and the order and now it's given us getting us i think this is kind of setting us up for saved at least me personally uh what you think craig.Track 4:[52:03] This was the first song that actually popped into my head just out of the blue one morning when i woke up because it took quite a long time for that to happen with this album i was still singing grand bounce songs you know every morning waking up and then one day it was that i was like wow okay and and same one thing i want to mention this is kind of, going off of what you're talking about with vinyl i was listening to this you know doing dishes.Track 4:[52:29] With you know on apple and the amount of times in the last few months of doing this you know this show with you guys listening to music and it glitches for just a second when i'm streaming and it just drives me nuts and so just that was one thing that i just had a note note about that that this album needs to be listened to on cd on on on vinyl anyways that was just a little pet peeve of mine and also the the snare again in this song was just a little a little much for me it was it was it was really up front and i i like loud drums typically in a mix but i just I don't know there there was it's almost like with the snare being that loud I'm missing a bit of the kick drum and speaking of which you guys must have noticed that the the bass players you know playing stand-up I had the thought a few times like I wonder and this is not to take away from what he's doing but I just wonder what it would have sounded like if they if they used an electric bass on this album because I found the bass to be not as prominent as on the last three albums you know there it wasn't sticking i don't think that's just part of the style of this band.Track 6:[53:38] Great i have a question though craig in when i look at the watch the videos oh yeah he has an he has an ampeg like he has a bass amp so he's taking a stand-up bass which traditionally you just mic or go straight into the board and he's he's running it through a traditional rock bass you know pickup bass right in through like the standard road hard ampeg so um so it gives it that good gritty sound but i will agree 100 it's not as prominent and i would like it to be a little bit more only just being a musician but it didn't didn't didn't dissuade me from my love for this album yeah.Track 4:[54:21] Not at all and i think it were like sometimes the best bass players are the ones you don't notice like they're just tight to the to the drummer and that's really all that matters but there was really only a couple times on this album where i where i noticed.Track 6:[54:34] Very accurate Accurate statement.Track 5:[54:36] This, I think, is my MVP. As a kid who was raised on prog, you fall into the song and just let it kind of take over. I don't know. I actually found, weirdly, a karaoke version of this on YouTube.Track 3:[54:52] Really?Track 5:[54:53] An instrumental version of this. No way. And I played the piss out of it just today driving. Driving and uh yeah it's it's really odd that this is the one that's an instrumental track for, yeah but just the phrasing of things lyrically and musically like he's it this doesn't sound like any other song that gourd has has put together as far as i'm concerned i.Track 6:[55:17] Love i love that connection with prog rock justin because you've mentioned that multiple times that that's something you love. And when you said it, I had not placed it until you said it. And I agree with you on that's a great, great, great description of it.Track 5:[55:31] There was a lot of references to the Sadie's covering Pink Floyd in live shows. And I'm like, oh, there it is right there. The song is that.Track 6:[55:42] The next one to the next one to could be, you know, Jim Ladd headset session, listening like with Pink Floyd.Track 3:[55:50] Oh, the next one is gorgeous, I think. It's the first slower tempo song that we have on the record called Saved.Track 5:[58:56] Again, I can't believe that the reviews said this album doesn't make sense because about halfway down, the plane starts to land, right? And every song from halfway on is just you're descending and you land perfectly softly unsaved. And this song also sounds a lot like Coke Machine Glow. And it's just really mellow and it's Gord doing his thing. and i i don't know i love it.Track 6:[59:26] Almost every album i feel like has had a an extended version of coke machine glow track to it i i i love that i i hadn't placed it until you just said that because i felt the same way about some of the other the other albums is there that could be on coke machine glow but you're exactly right and then he continues that theme as it goes almost like the uh like his is the poetry book.Track 3:[59:53] Craig is holding up his notes.Track 4:[59:55] Nobody else can see it. I said the exact same thing. Pattern of Ending solo albums and some hip albums with a track with a much different feel is what I had written.Track 5:[1:00:07] Which goes back to Road Apples.Track 4:[1:00:12] I really love the line the music is so loud that it flaps your pant leg. It reminded me a little bit of Yawning or Snarling. Just the line in that.Track 5:[1:00:23] Thank you. I would hold up my notebook if it wasn't typed out. Because that's exactly what I have to.Track 4:[1:00:30] We are, let's see, as of recording this episode, we are, what time is it there? We're about two and a half hours away from the 10 year anniversary of this album. Of the release of this album.Track 3:[1:00:41] Oh, get the fuck out.Track 4:[1:00:42] Yeah. Wow.Track 3:[1:00:44] Oh, wow.Track 4:[1:00:46] I just had to look it up yesterday. I was like, wow, that's pretty cool.Track 5:[1:00:48] Oh, shit.Track 3:[1:00:48] That is cool. Huh. I normally have them all in my calendar, and I don't have that in my calendar. Huh. Good find. Yeah, it's going to be, yeah.Track 6:[1:01:00] Good find, Craig. Great find.Track 5:[1:01:02] J.D., you have about two and a half hours to make a post.Track 3:[1:01:06] Any more unsaved?Track 5:[1:01:09] I don't know. I didn't pick it apart too much. I loved that imagery of the line, Craig, that you just mentioned. The music is so loud, it flaps your pant leg. And there's a really strange, it's almost not, rhythm to the way that he sings it. It would be really hard to transcribe that onto a, onto a sheet of music.Track 4:[1:01:29] I also enjoyed the, um, the, the, the, they finally played a bit without the drums, you know, like this whole album has been very much like a full band. And I mentioned last week, I believe that one of the strengths of, of country of miracles was that they had so many members that they could all just take a break every once in a while. They didn't feel the need to always fill up every space. This band's the opposite because they're, you know, there's just four of them and they, they, you know, they're very much a typical rock band where everyone's playing all the time and so i actually enjoyed that there was a bit of time at the start of the song without drums no no offense to the drummer um but sometimes you just need a break this.Track 6:[1:02:07] Song to me was the you know that that cup of coffee after dessert or you know the cigarette after sex it was that finisher it was uh it was that we're all in good, good, good company. I love the connection back with Coke Machine Glow. I love the connection back with that changing that ending song. But to me, it was, all right, more so than the others. It was like, okay, here's your big warm hug before whatever comes up next.Track 3:[1:02:39] Oh, I like it. It does feel like a warm hug. It's a very comforting song for me. I don't know why, but it chills me right out. It's a great cigarette after sex. Kirk, I love that. It's really tremendous.Track 5:[1:02:55] It sucks that this album was only a half hour long.Track 3:[1:02:58] I know. It's so strange after The Grand Bounce, which was nearly an hour. But again, these guys are just so efficient and economical.Track 5:[1:03:10] It's one good fast job, baby.Track 3:[1:03:12] That's right.Track 6:[1:03:14] So does- Hey, did you know that that is his second highest played single, or at least versus Spotify when I last checked? Does that not totally blow you away? Like at least if you just look in his Spotify category, I believe it's number two behind like the Chancellor, I think is probably the most sense. But now i'm now i'm gonna look sorry i'm gonna i'm gonna see if i can back my own research.Track 5:[1:03:43] So interestingly i i don't have hard copies of any of these albums so i'm i'm strictly listening on streaming i use the youtube music app i don't really care for the interface on spotify and there is zero existence of this album in that in that space so i had to download band camp and buy the album that way which i was happy to do yeah i love band camp but yeah i had to uh that's the only way I could find this lyrics.Track 6:[1:04:07] All right, gents. I did the research. I was incorrect by two. It's Chancellor, the East wind. Oh, I am lost.Track 4:[1:04:15] That's then one good. Mind blowing.Track 5:[1:04:17] No shit.Track 6:[1:04:18] Number four.Track 4:[1:04:19] Yeah.Track 6:[1:04:20] Like that. It's even in the top five to me over like.Track 4:[1:04:23] You know, it's a great song. These songs that I thought were more well-known. Wow.Track 6:[1:04:29] Thank you.Track 4:[1:04:29] Yeah.Track 6:[1:04:30] It's surprising to me that.Track 3:[1:04:32] Yeah.Track 5:[1:04:33] Well, even, Even the opener on this one, Crater, I mean, it has a great video too.Track 6:[1:04:39] Oh, that's right. That's right. It is a really cool video.Track 4:[1:04:43] So the album art's interesting too. Did you catch that there's the different members of the band on the album? There's probably about these portraits of like, I don't know, 50 people. And if you look carefully, you can find all of the members of the band. I did.Track 6:[1:05:01] I did, absolutely. It's, yeah, on the album.Track 5:[1:05:04] And the artwork and the sound and all that, it kind of reminded me of the Beatles. I don't know why. But there was something about it that was familiar.Track 3:[1:05:16] Beatles-esque.Track 5:[1:05:17] Yeah. Yeah.Track 6:[1:05:20] I could see that. I mean, especially from an artistic standpoint. Yeah. Very much can see that.Track 3:[1:05:26] Yeah.Track 5:[1:05:27] Overall, I was super happy that this was the next thing. And I wish that there had been another one to follow it.Track 3:[1:05:33] So does it stay in your rotation then, Justin?Track 5:[1:05:36] Mm-hmm.Track 3:[1:05:37] Yeah, it does. Craig, how about you?Track 4:[1:05:40] A couple of days ago, I probably would have said maybe not. It's an album I'll definitely pull out here and there. But no, I do think I really am enjoying it lately. And like I said, the turn of the weather really helped. This is, to me, a summer album, not a, I think, come winter, I'll put it away again.Track 5:[1:05:59] End but the i'm sorry but i got it before i forget it right we just had the eclipse as we're recording this and i was stuck in traffic it's a 17 minute commute to get home and it took me 90 minutes so i listened to this album three times on the ride home and it's a great even if you're stopped it's a great album to be in the car.Track 6:[1:06:20] It's going to hit the turntable for me on a fairly regular basis for a while. Like I said, Grand Bounce, I couldn't get it out of my head. And finally, it might even have been an I'm Free Disarray Me, just that very methodical line that came through that turned it for me. Me but i love i i love it absolutely love it in fact i'm i'm probably more excited about digging deeper into the sadies once this whole project is done the sadies and several other canadian bands that i'm not as familiar with that you guys have introduced me to and i'm very thankful for but uh yeah this this one's staying in the rotation if you've got any.Track 3:[1:07:02] Bands that are gore adjacent or canadian indie adjacent uh send them our way discovering downy at gmail.com And we'll be sure to read that email on the air.Track 5:[1:07:18] I will say that as much as I've enjoyed this album, I've also really enjoyed the songs that are not on the album that Gordon and Sadie have played together. The cover of Search and Destroy. Holy shit.Track 3:[1:07:32] Right, you sent that to us a few days ago.Track 5:[1:07:35] That song melted my goddamn face off. It was so good. So good. And it was like 7, 12 in the morning or something. I was like, all right, I'm out of bed now. This is awesome.Track 4:[1:07:45] One of the shows I found online was here in Vancouver at the media club. And I actually remember hearing about it. And I'm just kicking myself that I didn't get to that show. This is like a tiny, tiny, like this is where my original band a number of years ago did our CD release party. And yeah, there's maybe room for 80 to 100 people in there. would have been amazing.Track 3:[1:08:10] Oh damn that.Track 6:[1:08:14] Is definitely i don't have a lot of regrets gentlemen but not seeing any iteration of gourd solo is very much i'm glad video was around because but i would have really really really enjoyed.Track 3:[1:08:28] Seeing that feeling thousand percent live yeah.Track 5:[1:08:32] I go back to that sweaty basement uh in me in massachusetts and like dude i went to those shows all the time and I wasn't there.Track 3:[1:08:39] That's crazy so Justin you've already sort of given this away even though we we you know we tease it throughout the show and typically give it away at the end but we'll start with you and your MVP track.Track 5:[1:08:56] Yeah, it's totally I'm free, disarray me, which took me by surprise, but then it didn't totally. You know, after the way that by, you know, the music that my parents played when I was a kid, this song is just cosmic cowboy, trippy shit.Track 3:[1:09:14] Kirk, how about you?Track 6:[1:09:15] All right. Los Angeles Times.Track 3:[1:09:21] Excellent. I love that pick. I liked your pick too, Justin.Track 5:[1:09:25] That's the hometown.Track 6:[1:09:26] Oh, yeah.Track 5:[1:09:27] That's okay.Track 6:[1:09:28] And it definitely is not one that I would have really settled in on had it not been for our discussion today, honestly. Because almost every song on the album has really fallen into near the top. You know, Conquering Sun, Budget Shoes, I would say, of everything, those definitely hit that number one spot for me multiple times. But Los Angeles Times is the one that just kept coming back, and I just kept feeling, and I kept growing further, enamored with on all fronts. So that's my pick, and I'm sticking to it.Track 3:[1:10:03] Very cool. Craig, you?Track 4:[1:10:06] Yeah, I had a hard time picking a song. And I found, kind of like what Kirk said, there was almost less of a range between the songs I enjoyed and the songs I enjoyed less. They were all in roughly the same region, whereas the other albums, there was some tracks that right away really, really got to another level with me. I think this album maybe doesn't quite have quite the emotion that the first three did, which is usually what hits me when I really love a song. Usually it just grabs me emotionally. And this album didn't have that in the same way. my my go-to song here is is going to be uh it didn't start to break my heart until this afternoon, just just a good good punk rock song yeah just nice just a great yeah great driving tune and.Track 3:[1:11:00] Gets the blood flowing, right? And I agree with you about the previous three records. They're just sort of more raw and improvised feeling.Track 4:[1:11:08] And more range to them, right? This just feels... There was more... Yeah, just... More variety. Yeah, more...Track 3:[1:11:15] Dynamics. Yeah. Yeah.Track 5:[1:11:20] There was a point where critics were really starting to tear Gord and the hip down. Yeah. When this album was coming out. And they were like, all right, we get it. The soup's getting cold. It's the same shit over and over, year after year. The performances are boring. It's not great. And I think, I don't know, but I'm thinking that this album was Gord's big middle finger to those guys. I'm still doing this. He's 50 years old.Track 4:[1:11:49] Can you think of another artist that has done what Gord has done? He's now got three bands that are all so amazing. Yeah, that's right.Track 5:[1:12:01] At the same time.Track 3:[1:12:01] At the same time, yeah, you're right.Track 4:[1:12:03] Yeah, mind-blowing how much high-quality work he put out through his whole career, but especially in this middle chunk here.Track 3:[1:12:12] Well, and if you think about it, this is a perfect segue because beginning in 2012, he started work on the record we're going to talk about next week, which is Secret Path. And that record didn't see the light of day until 2016. 16. So even then with that record, he's assembled the band again, and it's a great band as well. So this guy is just producing at a level presumably around the same time he's doing Luster Parfait. Because he's working with Bob Rock pretty exclusively, right?Track 5:[1:12:49] Right.Track 3:[1:12:50] So, God, just fascinating what we're what we've gotten up to so far i can't wait we are halfway done his records we've got one more studio record and then god damn it three posthumous records uh it's going to be tough to get through those ones guys i know it yep anything else you want to say before we wrap things up i.Track 5:[1:13:15] Don't know i love it man i i love this project i feel like we're a broken record because we're all going to say the same thing and we'd say it every episode But this project has gotten me back into, just like you said, Kirk, discovering new music. Or it's new to me. Right. And I am finding so many new things that I didn't know I didn't know.Track 3:[1:13:35] Right.Track 6:[1:13:37] I'm i have been frightened from the beginning because you know you listen because it's your first time listening to a solo stuff for you know i was frightened every single album that, yeah i was going to be disappointed yeah yep and i just keep finding a new way to be enamored and i don't mind being that easy when it comes to gourd and what's going on uh you know i i we talked about, you know, my, my experience with the hip, you know, having to hear about it from friends and not having that, you know, immediate access to everything. So I'm thoroughly loving the fact that the emotion and the feeling that Gord and the hip, all the musicians he's been involved with on the solo, just keep raising the level. So I'm now just like, I'm, I'm, you know, what I like about this, you guys is you're nervous and worried. Now I'm not nervous and worried. I'm I'm just, I'm excited about listening to what's coming up and I'm so excited.Track 5:[1:14:37] If you, if you enter the, if you enter the room knowing it's going to be a mindfuck when you get there, it's perfect

This week in the pod, the gang is up to their neck in the fantastic effort by Gord and the Sadies. You're gonna want to check this one out!Transcript: Track 1:[0:00] Hey, it's Craig here, and I just wanted to let you know that Christmastime in.Track 1:[0:03] Toronto is coming early this year. Join me and the Discovering Downey crew for the recording of our podcast finale, live at The Rec Room in downtown Toronto on Friday, July 19th. Long Slice Brewing presents A Celebration of Gord Downey, which will include a special in-person interview with Gord's brother, Patrick Downey. Spend the evening listening to your favorite hip tunes provided by the almost hip and help us raise money for the gourd downy fund for brain cancer research with a silent auction featuring incredible items up for grabs visit discoveringdowny.com for tickets or for more information about the event, let's have a toast for charity wickedness and most importantly hope.Track 2:[1:04] DOS Beauty I name my guitar My Beautiful Behor Everybody's coughing here And music's infiltrating work In the most pleasant way It's a system based on silverware Listening's an extrasensory Perception And talking the only psychic thing and I can dress you in my thoughts until you wear them. I've been taking care of my clothes like they're cattle. Try this shirt. It would look so good on you.Track 1:[1:42] Welcome, music lovers. Long Slice Brewery presents Discovering Downy. Hey, it's J.D.Track 2:[1:52] Here, and welcome to Discovering Downey, an 11-part project with a focus on the music and poetry of Mr. Gord Downey. The late frontman of the Tragically Hip gave to the world an extensive solo discography on top of the hip's vocal acrobatics that awed us for years. So far, he's released eight records in total, three of them posthumously. Now listen, you might be the biggest fan of The Hip out there, but have you heard these records? Because I'm an inquisitive podcaster, I enlisted my friends Craig, Justin, and Kirk, giant fans in their own right, to discover Downey with me, JD, as their host. Every week we'll get together and listen to one of Gord's records. We're starting with Coke Machine Glow and working from there in chronological order. We discuss and dissect the album, the production, the lyrics, and we break it down song by song. This week we're going to be talking about Gord's fourth record, and his first and only with the Sadies.Track 3:[2:58] Occurring son kirk from chino how the fuck are things with you buddy jd.Track 6:[3:04] I'm uh i'm back home after a little bit of travel it's been good travel um it's allowed me to really kind of soak this album in so i'm excited talking about it with you boys.Track 3:[3:15] Can you confirm this craig i'm kidding yeah how's it going pretty.Track 4:[3:20] Good yeah also looking forward to talking about this album them and it this one took me a little bit of time to get into but we'll talk about that i have been a little under the weather since the last recording it was about halfway through the last podcast i started feeling something coming on and just won't go away just a cold thankfully but yeah other than that things are well.Track 3:[3:41] Well that's good justin you've been a podcasting machine today are you spent or are you ready to talk shop with me i'm.Track 5:[3:49] Just getting started buddy.Track 3:[3:50] Yeah well let's get into it then and the conquering sun is the album we are discussing this week after three consecutive solo outings with some form of the country of miracles gourd wrote and produced this one with the sadies who had just come from supporting the hip on their world container tour Like so many, this marriage was consummated by the CBC, when the Sadies chose Mr. Downey to collaborate with, as was the program's premise. The Sadies are a Toronto-based and road-tested throughout Canada and beyond, with an original lineup consisting of Travis Goode, Sean Dean, Mike Belotiski, and Dallas Goode, who sadly passed away in 2022. This band, as I mentioned, is road-tested with buckets of swagger and chops for days. But how do you talk about The Conquering Sun? After the loose and improvised feeling of the last three records, this record is tight and economical. With a 30-minute runtime, I had to listen twice to get my walk in.Track 3:[4:55] Of the four records we've listened to so far, this one makes my Olympic podium for rock and roll with a hard-fought bronze medal, which is nothing to shake a stick at unless, of course, you're shaking the stick in a complimentary fashion. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this album. In fact, in my opinion, this record is the closest we get to a sound that is reminiscent of the hip, up and down on this record. The songs are screaming for radio play if only radio had been a factor upon its release in 2014. From the rip of Crater right through Saved, there isn't a missed opportunity on this record. I could go on about how much I like this record, na-na-na-na, blah-blah-blah, etc. You might be curious how I'm literally singing this album's praises, yet I've only ranked it third of four. I promise I'm not damning with faint praise. It's more that I loved the ceiling of the country of miracles, particles and the idea that we don't get a fourth effort from that entity bums me out a little bit so it's hard to go into this one with that ripple of bummed outness influencing me a little more than frankly i'd like but who cares what i think let's check in with the crew craig we'll start with you this week.Track 4:[6:04] Yeah this album like i i mentioned took took a few listens to get into um it's definitely not in you know it's not my favorite of the four we've heard so far but it's really just it's drastically different it just has a different vibe and there are a lot of things I really like about it and I think that my biggest realization is this this is a summer album this is a a nice weather taking a drive in the car putting the windows down this it's that kind of album and for the first couple weeks I didn't have that weather but but just past in the past few days we have and it's just it totally changed my outlook of this this album.Track 3:[6:45] I was on mute. Justin, what are your thoughts overall?Track 5:[6:49] Oh, I needed this one. I needed this album to get my headspace back into this. And I think I'm going to rank this number two so far out of the four. I actually really love this album a lot. And like Craig, it took me a minute to get into it, but something clicked and I have been listening to it at least two or three times a day every day since. And in the car, on my phone, with or without earbuds trying to get the different parts of the sound, and it kicks my ass every time. I really just like this album from start to finish. Every song kind of sounds the same, which makes it sound like one big long song, and I really kind of love that.Track 3:[7:28] Interesting. I can't wait till we break it down. What say you, Kirk from Chino?Track 6:[7:32] Like my brethren here, it took me a while. In fact, it took me a while because it almost felt like a divorce and maybe a bit of an affair Was going on with with our buddy Gord. I was so I.Track 6:[7:48] Immersed into what was happening with the country miracles and like you said in the beginning like the ceiling like i wanted more and i was so ready for more i had the vinyl of this one the last ground bounce i didn't and i listened to it and i knew there was something there but i was angry honestly i was angry because i wanted more as we had mentioned but man did it grow and grow row. I'm not going to rank it right now because every time I rank something, a day or two goes by and something happens. And I realized, oh man, that was, you know, the grand bounce. That was Coke machine glow that, and you know, every album that we've had a chance to listen to has been, I think in every slot, if that makes sense, depending on the time of day or what's going on. And and so again it just brings you back to joy because i didn't dive in when it was happening which of course i'm a little sad about but i'm so excited now that i'm like i'm really loving music discovery again i'm really loving listening to albums i'm really loving i don't care if it's in the car if i'm walking the dog if i'm sitting at work if i'm you know working on something on on the computer and I've got the music going.Track 6:[9:11] Like I have not spent this much time with new music. I say that in quotes because it's obviously not new, but it's new to me, new to us.Track 6:[9:23] And I'm just, I'm loving the ride. That's all I got to say. This one is the last two, I mean, like I'm going to be listening to these forever. And I'm going to try and preach the word and get some people to jump on board because it makes me sad when I look at Spotify or something and I see the honestly and don't jump on me. It's like the limited number of listens to the Gord stuff. I have friends that have put stuff out that have more downloads than that. I'm not saying that in a negative, I'm saying that in a like, that shouldn't be. That shouldn't be, so. Right. My diatribe's over, sorry.Track 3:[10:03] No, no. Well, that's why I was mentioning off the top too too, that it screams for radio play to me. It's very radio-friendly. There's nothing over four minutes. And fucking radio just didn't matter in 2014. So of course we were never going to hear this. Unless we were paying very close attention.Track 6:[10:26] Absolutely.Track 3:[10:27] Clearly we were not.Track 6:[10:28] Absolutely. Radio.Track 5:[10:29] Radio still matters to me. I'm a radio guy. I'm going to tell you that right now. Yeah. Love radio.Track 3:[10:34] Radio doesn't love you back though. That's the problem. Like it's getting stripped down and worn down and these formats, you know, like if you've got a, if you've got a local that you love, then by going to stand with it, right?Track 5:[10:47] Yeah, you're right. We have, we have a, I'm going to sidebar here for just a second. We have a great station here in Southern Vermont, WEQX, which is one of the last great independent alternative rock stations in North America. And they discovered No Rain by Blind Melon. They were the first one to play it. And they just got this great pedigree, and they love to play Gord's solo stuff. From 2020 on, there's been a lot of new Gord solo stuff that's really been great.Track 3:[11:19] Get up. Right.Track 5:[11:20] And it's kind of been hard to not listen ahead during this project. Wow. I don't know if they played any of the stuff from this album, but this would totally fit.Track 4:[11:28] Yeah, we once had a really awesome independent radio station down in Bellingham, Washington, which we could pick up in Vancouver. And they actually, their tagline was something like, we don't play Canadian music because we have to. We play it because it rocks or something along those lines. And they would play The Hip and Rush. and yeah that's the only american station i've heard that that played a ton of the hip and yeah of course about 15 years ago they got whatever bought out by chorus or someone and it's now just yeah yeah your standard rock radio well.Track 3:[12:02] Should we eradicate this problem and educate people on this record go through it track by track are we ready let's.Track 5:[12:10] Go sure yeah.Track 3:[12:12] All right we start with track one side a it's the classic rock tinged crater what did you think of this one mr greg.Track 4:[12:25] My dad uh came to vancouver from new zealand in 1965 to to buy a 65 chevy impala and this song crater is a 1965 chevy impala cruising down the road it's just a great rock and roll track yeah um man that snare drum is yes snare snare yeah it is it is there in the mix yeah definitely i didn't dive into the lyrics at all especially um the songs that were more kind of rocking i i just i was just enjoying them and the only thought i had lyric wise was um almost like an idea of like either you're you're the crater or you're the meter meteor And I was kind of thinking along the lines of there's that not so great Dire Straits song, Heavy Fuel, where he says, you know, sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug. And that was kind of the... What i got out of the lyrics on this song.Track 6:[13:25] I i wonder in the lyrics and maybe you guys did further research that i didn't see like how much of it was gord how much of it was the gents from the sadies because i i knew the name the sadies but i honestly until this i had not really you know dove into some of their music and i think in one of our you know communications justin had mentioned that as well like he's doing a lot of listening to the sadies and and i try i you know my listening at first it's this is it's going to sound weird um i did a lot of listening at first obviously like through spotify or whatever else but it wasn't until youtube and i got to see these guys and they're wearing like their nudie suits is what it looks like you know and i just i just saw a bunch of them they had a big exhibit at the you know country music uh hall of fame and they were We're talking about that LA country and, you know, very much a country tinge, but, you know, they're using those hollow body guitars. And anyway, so back to lyrics, like what's the balance between Gord and the Sadie's? Did anyone find anything on that?Track 4:[14:30] My understanding is that they, that the Sadie's wrote the songs and Gord wrote the lyrics that, yeah. And it was recorded apparently over a number of years. This wasn't like an album that was done in one session, which I find surprising because like someone said earlier, it's, it sounds just like a, it's a great album. It, it really sounds like it was just tracked in one day or something. It's yeah, there's a.Track 6:[14:53] There's YouTube has a, uh, interview of, I think the Sadie's had just put an album out. It was like 2010 and Gord was with them and they, you know, obviously had some discussions about their, their time together. And in some of the research it talks about, this has definitely been a long-term type of thing. Great song.Track 5:[15:10] Yeah, there was a CBC fuse in 2007 is what put them together. So it took seven years for this album to come out from that first collaboration. Collaboration I really like the sound.Track 6:[15:21] From a musicianship standpoint ethereal is really the kind of the adjective that came to mind on a lot of the the guitar parts that the Sadie's had you know very much a hollow body type guitar going through either a Fender a lot of reverb I really liked that driving sound I really really liked it it was it was pretty prevalent throughout in my opinion anything.Track 3:[15:43] Else on crater i.Track 5:[15:46] Just yeah i mean this is gourd this is like this is a live show on a record um this one song particularly and he is giving it all he has what at the end of the second verse and if we record any of these songs this is the one i'm doing because this is a this is a screamer and it's so much fun to be it you know we don't want to we don't want to do it we want to be it this song is fun to sing, Yeah. So I also, I downloaded an app because I noticed my foot was tapping a lot faster at the end of the song than the beginning. And I, so I, I downloaded an app and it picks up 13 beats per minute from the start to the finish.Track 4:[16:29] Oh yeah. That's something I'm going to be talking about later. Cause I, it was driving me nuts. One of the songs I was trying to actually figure out what was happening mathematically and yeah. Okay. I'm glad I'm not the only one noticed.Track 6:[16:43] I love that. I love the time changes in a variety of different songs. I put them down in a few notes. But the one thing I really want to say before we dive into any more, long live the guitar solo. And there's quite a few guitar solos on this album, specifically Crater. And they're just, they're solos. They're good solos. And on the other albums, we'll call lead lines, but there's not a lot of solos. And I'm digging that, getting that back, because we haven't had that in the first three.Track 5:[17:15] Oh, yes.Track 3:[17:16] Nice. Well, the next one is sort of the titular track, but not quite. The Conquering Sun does what for you, Justin?Track 5:[17:27] When I look out the window and see Audette's Blue Spruce Farm across the street, That's kind of what I think about. I mean, it's getting on time to plant. And here it is as we record this. It's planting season and working the fugitive dust. Nature, please be good to us. You know, we just had this massively wet spring that wiped out a shit ton of the farms around here. That's, you know, before they even got started. For me, that's part of what this song is. There's also the line, she is more than a conqueror. And I wonder if that's a reference to Gord's wife, Laura, with her recent cancer battle. I don't know when this song was recorded in the timeline of all that, like what year this happened. But I interpreted it as possibly something that could be a reference to defeating the cancer. And the other thing that I really, it was a callback to We Are The Same is when Gord's, his vocal run during hearing, ooh, day is your word, night is the glue. He does that exact same thing in The Depression Suite. That very same run, the change, the pitch, the length, I love it.Track 4:[18:41] Yeah, I caught that too. That's great.Track 6:[18:43] Great song. It was one of those. I think I mentioned on the last time we spoke, there was not a definitive MVP for me. This one has fallen in and out of MVP, and it may fall back in at the end of this recording. morning. But that's one of the things that really showed me this was a great album, but specifically this song. I just felt immersed in it. And like I said earlier, Ethereal, again, another great solo, another great, that sound that the Sadies have. They have, these guys, what are they like six, five, six, six, they look like trees and they might be a buck or five soaking wet and the suits are barely hanging on them and he's just playing this you know telecaster like it's a little tiny you know a small ukulele and they just have this they they just have this presence and like i said it really wasn't until i i started seeing them that i i got the sadie's because when i was listening it didn't hit me as much and i was kind of hoping i don't know if i mentioned this earlier because they were on the world container tour and i was wondering if they were the opening band I didn't find anything that showed them specifically, but when I watch the videos, it doesn't bring a memory or recollection that I saw. I think it was Sam Roberts that opened for a lot of the shows that I saw here in California.Track 5:[20:06] I saw Joel Plaskett as the opener on that tour.Track 6:[20:11] Got it. Got it. Yeah. So I was kind of hoping that they were one of the openers. But you know now i'm really excited that you know just in the last couple of days i would say is really when my attention has gone towards them and when you start hearing and seeing how they crafted these songs together and how they worked so well with gourd and his phrasing and and so yeah love this love this yeah.Track 4:[20:38] The the sadies are actually on tour as we record this and i'm hoping to pick to go down to the the vancouver show uh so you might you might want to look at dates they They might be coming down your way.Track 6:[20:48] I hope so.Track 4:[20:48] Yeah, this song, to me, as soon as I heard it, it reminded me of Nico Case. And Nico Case is someone who's worked with the Sadies. And so it is very much that sort of alt-country vibe on this song. And this was probably the song that drew me in right away. Again, like Kirk said, it was in the contention for my MVP track for sure, which, like you, keeps changing. and yeah it's just just a great feel to this song.Track 3:[21:18] Yeah i couldn't agree more i think we're two for two so far on this record and we're gonna find out that let's go pretty even record it's a pretty even fucking record los angeles times has the aforementioned swagger dripping from it, Kirk, did you like this one as much as I did?Track 6:[25:07] I'm going to say yes, absolutely. But it didn't start out that way. This actually was one of my least favorite tunes after the first couple of passes. I just didn't quite get it. It was just kind of like, it was almost too much swagger at first for me. Because remember, I think we're in a divorce right now. I think this is an affair that's going on. So I'm a little adverse to the song and the album and almost everything because I still have his last, you know, that last record that just moved us all. It was still here. So there was this almost a betrayal, swagger, distaste that I had in the beginning. But listening to it, re-listening to it, listening to it in headphones, listening to it on vinyl, listening to it in the car, listening to it in the plane, listening to it in the hotel. The key changes, like we'd mentioned earlier, just another great solo, just great rock. And, hey, I'm an LA guy. So this one definitely turned and has also filtered through multiple times sometimes on the mvp track side so yeah to me it's three for three and i'm just gonna pre-call it for y'all.Track 4:[26:22] Yeah yeah i found this song to be um i was the same way i found the the progression to be a bit generic at first and so i didn't really love it right away but yeah it really grew and i think what makes it work is that this band is just so tight they're so i mean loose but Yeah, the tempo, you know, picks up and, you know, there's the push and push and pull, but they are such a great band that they can pull off anything. Just a simple strumming pattern and make it sound pro. And there's that thing you mentioned off the top, JD, the blah, blah, blah, et cetera, which I was wondering if, I'm sure you guys were thinking the music at work, live, Gord would do the et cetera thing. Did you find anything lyrically, Justin?Track 5:[27:10] Yeah. So there's a dedication at the end of the lyrics for Walter Van Tilburg Clark, who wrote The Oxbow Incident, among many other works. And that became kind of one of the great Western movies of all time. And it's about, the subject is these cowboys thought that one of their buddies got murdered and that somebody stole their cows. And then they found this group of three people that they thought did it and they hanged them. And then they found out that the guy survived and it wasn't them and you know it was just a big mess so it was it was the oxbow incident and uh yeah so it was a complicated story and but this isn't about the story it's about the author there are a lot of references to lines in the book or the movie but it's you know there's a line he was born and raised and moved away and that's about i think walter van tillberg clark who was born in maine but then his parents moved him to nevada and then he moved to in New York and then he went he was kind of all over the place beyond that I don't know it's, There's one thing that is a bit of a departure, I think, on this album is that the lyrics aren't too deep. There's not a lot of mystery in this album with Gord's lyrics. And I was hoping for more of that, but the research was a little easier than I wanted it to be on this.Track 4:[28:26] That was something I noticed too, is like there didn't seem to be as much to dig into.Track 4:[28:31] And once I kind of got past that and just started enjoying it, I really did grow to appreciate the album a lot more. It's funny that you mentioned the Oxbow incident because number one, a couple of weeks ago i was in la and we did did a couple studio tours and this is one of the movies they actually mentioned i forget if it was warner brothers or universal but it was shot at one of those two places in the next song so one good fast job one of my notes here is oxbow incident because of the line it says art shot said wellman to fonda so wellman the director and uh fonda the the star of the show so um nice kind of a neat little tie and i had no idea that the previous song had that reference so i'm glad you caught that this song i really love and this was the one i was um i found really interesting the the progression you've got like almost like a eight bar blues but then they throw in an extra bar so it's like this nine bar which just throws you off off balance a little bit once you once you hear it a few times it makes perfect sense but there's the lyric about drop you know planes dropping paper and dropping scissors and the chimps becoming regular wizards i think it is. And so that made me think of, there's a couple of Simpsons episode that reference like the infinite monkey theorem.Track 4:[29:46] What is it? Infinite monkeys, or give a monkey a typewriter and let it type for infinity. It would create, you know, Shakespeare. And you know, it would just some ridiculous theory that has, you know, been, you know, criticized heavily, but I wonder if there's something to that.Track 6:[30:03] Sorely discredited.Track 4:[30:05] And I really like, there's the line too about something about forget the commas. This is one good fast job. And it almost made me think of this album that they just like banged off this out. Like, let's not, let's just have fun. Let's just write some songs and let's not take ourselves too seriously. So those are my thoughts.Track 5:[30:23] Well, I think there was some controversy over the name of the band. And there are commas in that band name. And I think that they're just saying, you know, screw it. And like, nobody asked for this. We're just doing it. let us enjoy it. I did see a couple of interviews where Gord and members of the band were like, can we not dissect this? This is just rock and roll.Track 4:[30:44] Yeah.Track 6:[30:46] One thing in watching some of those videos that I had mentioned, the last two songs that we discussed that they had played, it was a Greenbelt Harvest Festival thing show that was on. They had almost every song on there and he was playing with the Sadie's and watching the crowd to me was actually quite entertaining because they just sat there and looked in bewilderment right because I don't know they obviously have probably some relationship with with the hip and who knows if they're early hit people or later hit people or die hard all the way but when Gord does the solo stuff and then if they're not familiar with the Sadie's they just sat there and looked like yeah why don't what are we experiencing here what what's what's going on and bewilderment was the note note that i wrote right.Track 3:[31:34] Right i mean this makes no sense to me fuck okay sorry uh continue.Track 6:[31:42] It man one good fast job and almost back to kind of those punk type roots and that driving rocking it it's uh who i jd like this album has everything and, Also, one thing I wanted to mention, I know we're not through it all, but I think they did a great job of tracking. I really felt good about where all the songs were. I needed Crater to get me going, even though I was still mad and angry, like we mentioned, and then Saved at the end that we'll talk about. It just was like, okay, I got a good, nice, warm hug. Thank you. you um which.Track 5:[32:26] You know what's amazing is there were so many reviews about this album that said it was not cohesive and inconsistent and like what the hell are you talking about and.Track 3:[32:36] Uneven and blah blah.Track 4:[32:37] Blah yeah what.Track 3:[32:38] The hell man agree.Track 4:[32:39] Yeah no that's a reviewer who read that it was you know recorded over many years yeah that's ridiculous like maybe if you gave it one or two listens but even then even the first listen i didn't love it but it sounded like an album yeah Yeah. One more thing about this song though, before, before we move on, I love the middle section. There's like a bridge or maybe even call it a chorus. It only goes to it once the, I had to look, I had to go, I had to laugh. And it's really interesting how they go through it once, then there's that extra bar, like they keep doing, and then they change the chord progression and back off a bit. Like if you listen to the way the, you know, they're the same instruments, but they just back off and the feel changes totally. And it's such a great effect. Rather than ramping up a bridge, they almost like pull back a bit. And that really was unique. And it only happens once. It feels like a chorus to me, but it's right smack dab in the middle of the song. And I think it's two minutes and like 23 seconds or something. And this is definitely one of my favorites.Track 3:[33:43] Yeah, it's a good one. And the next one is a good one as well. It's got to hold the record for the longest title in Gord's solo oeuvre. Kirk mentioned a moment ago that there's a bit of everything on this record. And to me, the beginning of this song, just the very beginning, is shoegazy.Track 5:[34:00] Yes.Track 3:[34:00] Or it goes into a real punk sort of vibe. And it didn't start to break my heart until this afternoon. Justin, what have you got for us?Track 5:[34:09] So the line, we fought like two Irons, really stuck out to me. and it goes with Kirk. I don't know that this was the middle of a divorce. I think Gord is just polyamorous at this point because this project took seven years and in the middle of it, he released the third album, Grand Bounce. So he is just sleeping around. I love the punk, the hard driving, just we're going to beat the fuck out of this song.Track 4:[34:38] My first real positive experience with this song was driving to my show last weekend and it was like i said a nice day i was driving along and to me like i said it's a real good driving album and i was coming up to this i guess it was a school zone but it was a weekend so there's no school and there was a uh a flashing like speed limit sign it was like a happy face and as i'm driving by it's like it turns to a sad face because i guess i was a little bit above the limit i'm not a huge speeder but i found that kind of quite funny especially after the i just just listen to the line what is it um something about driving fast oh yeah drive drive it like we stole it yeah it's a great great line that's right and then later on there's the dishwasher loaded which i love because i i wish i could say that most of my music listening was in the car but i only have about a five minute commute to work so most of my listening is actually doing the dishes and so this is just a great song when you're doing the dishes and and dishwasher loaded it and it really really kind of got you know i.Track 5:[35:40] Had the same experience man that's.Track 4:[35:41] Found it pretty funny and i actually the first time i noticed that lyric i was actually had just put this open i was closing the door of the dishwasher and so it was just it was just perfect it's so funny yeah.Track 5:[35:51] That's amazing oh.Track 4:[35:53] And great harmonies too on the chorus like love those harmonies yeah.Track 6:[35:57] That's one thing you'll notice too when you watch those or or you see them like the the harmony part especially especially after what we had just experienced for the last three albums, you know, with the female voice going back to a male voice backing. I love that element that it brought to it. And I'm just gonna jump into the next song, Budget Shoes. This is one that I think has probably held the number one spot for me. I would say it's not necessarily still there, but it's been there more often than not. And maybe I'm far off on this, but being the American, one of the two Americans that really likes Canadian culture, it brought me back to Kids in the Hall for some reason. In fact, so much so, if you think of the Kids in the Hall intro, I actually looked it up to go hoping it was the sadies like that really would have made my day if it was the sadies that had done that song that's the intro to kids in the hall.Track 4:[39:34] There is there is a connection there and i hope i'm correct here but i believe i read that the dallas good the the younger brother who you know passed away recently who.Track 3:[39:44] Was the drummer.Track 4:[39:44] He he played so so the good family was a was a country family like they had like a family band and and the older brother travis actually played with his band and Dallas being younger he he went more towards punk and I believe it said that his first or one of his first bands was with one of the members of uh Shadowy Men is that the name of the band that does the theme yeah yeah.Track 3:[40:11] Shadowy Men oh.Track 6:[40:12] Wow nice it definitely was reminiscent of that uh the entire song to me is just brilliant and it it gives you I mean it It really just digs deep inside my soul going back to the ethereal. When Gord hits those moments of the desperation vocal that we heard a lot, not only in recording, but live when he was with the hip, that brought such a comfort to me, right? Knowing where the hip is at, knowing where Gord is at, knowing what's coming. Like this is three years prior to his passing. And just so thankful that we get another version of Gord. And that's really what it was to me is we got, we have the hip and we love that. We have these first three albums, but now we have another one. And it was, Justin, you mentioned it in his lyrics. It's like, I'm not trying to confuse anyone here. I got this great band. They've given me this good music and I'm just gonna give it, I'm gonna give it what's coming to me at the moment. so when he does his and i call it a desperation vocal i know exactly what.Track 5:[41:22] You mean when you say it though.Track 3:[41:26] Yeah.Track 5:[41:26] Yep. Yep. So I'm going to ask the Canadians in the room here about budget shoes because I did some research on this as well. And apparently there's a tradition in Canada that finance ministers buy a new pair of shoes before presenting the budget and they wear them on the floor. Or if they're pissed off about it, they don't.Track 4:[41:48] Oh, wow.Track 5:[41:48] And it's this thing that has happened since the 1860s.Track 3:[41:53] Jesus. Do they go bare feet? I mean, listen, I was a political science major, and I've never heard of it before, but that doesn't really mean anything.Track 6:[42:01] As the other American, I agree with what you say full-heartedly. Love it. Love that connection.Track 3:[42:10] Yeah, I think it's great.Track 5:[42:11] It was strange, but interesting. And I don't know if this song is a commentary on politics and that, or if it just works well with... I mean, this song sounds like, you know, we're sleeping in a tent in a winter storm unexpectedly in the middle of the desert, you know, and I've got nice shoes and you don't, you know, and I'm going to keep my feet and you're going to lose them to frostbite. I don't know.Track 4:[42:37] What I was thinking was I was imagining almost like an old Western movie. It's like sweltering hot in the desert. And yeah, they're camping overnight. Night and you know the most iconic thing you'll see in a western is that you know the shot of the cowboy boots and the pan up and and i'm just picturing this you know guy sleeping in his budget you know there's cheap shoes and that's kind of what i do balances on yeah yeah.Track 6:[43:04] Ouch shots fired they're.Track 5:[43:05] A great company and they.Track 6:[43:06] Make a fine shoe thank you we're not sponsored by any of these particular shoe brands yeah i mean budget shoes you talk about the westerns it's almost like a spaghetti western type feel just in that uh the guitar riff as well so.Track 3:[43:26] Oh, that's cool. I felt that, too. I wouldn't have put that together. All right, let's move on. Demand Destruction. Is it just me, Justin, or does this song feel very much like the Tragically Hip? Am I crazy?Track 5:[43:38] No, I don't think you're crazy about that at all. And this song is, I think, Gord kind of putting out his own views. Again, there's a notation at the bottom. The last one, Budget Shoes, was dedicated to Evan S. Connell, who was the author of the book about Custer where the title of The Grand Bounce came from. So that's a continuation. And then this one is dedicated to Dr. Helen Caldicott, who was an Australian physicist and anti-nuclear war advocate. And it just feels like a protest song to me. I really don't have a lot of notes about it. It's just a nice, fun tune. But there's definitely a message in there. And I think it's Gord speaking about, let's not fuck this up. and maybe some reverence for Dr. Caldecott. It says, I'm not a fan, I just like what you do. I don't know. I don't have a whole lot to unpack on this one.Track 3:[44:30] Right. Well, no, I think you unpacked quite a bit. Craig, what have you got for us?Track 4:[44:36] One thing I'll say about this song is I found maybe the snare was a little too biting for me. I found that if you if you were listening quietly it it just jumped right out of the mix to the point where you almost couldn't hear anything else and when you turned it up it just had just a little a tinge too much oh yeah you guys know who who mixed the album yeah so bob rock and i think he did a great job overall but it definitely you know he's known for those big huge drums and i just would have liked a little more balance i thought the snare was just a little peeking out a little bit too much the rest of the album i think it it works but maybe the song is the poppiest.Track 5:[45:17] I think of the of the songs on the album it's certainly.Track 4:[45:20] Radio friendly fairly typical like blues rock sort of yeah um riff at the start yeah.Track 3:[45:25] That's what reminds me it reminds me of something off of road apples you know oh yeah yeah that era.Track 4:[45:31] Yeah great great harmonies again especially in the chorus all.Track 3:[45:34] Right from there we get a change of pace with mandolin and organ off the top of devil enough. Am I right? Was it mandolin Craig?Track 4:[45:44] Um, yeah, I believe so. I need to go back and listen again. Um, yeah, this is the song I referenced earlier that was driving me nuts. Even today I was sitting there tapping my toes, like trying to figure out the time change. And I actually had this like theory about what they were doing with it, you know, how they're getting from one tempo to the next. And then I just realized after a while it's just feel it's all feel. And I won't even get into it, because there are some weird things that happen. And I think it is what Justin mentioned earlier, I think it's just that flexibility of, of like, you know, they're really pushing the tempo, bringing it back quite frequently. And so.Track 4:[46:25] Yeah, if anyone wants to transcribe this drum part for me and send it to me, I would love to see that because I would love to know mathematically how it works, but I'm pretty sure it is just like a feel thing. This was a song that really stuck out to me. I love that time change. Having said all that, it really, the first few times just really struck me. The guitar playing at the end, the sort of Nashville picking at the end is just amazing. There's a few songs that have those great guitar solos. I think often it's Travis, according to the videos I watched, although I believe Dallas will trade off solo sometimes too. There's the line, Streets Ahead, which of course is a song name from Now For Plan A. And I had just actually recently been watching Community. And I'm not sure if you guys know that reference, but there's a, you know, it's like a catchphrase of Chevy Chase's character. And I actually found a, I wondered if it was related and I found an interview where someone asked Gord that question and he's just like, what? He was so like, no, like what are you talking about? Which of course makes sense. I mean, you don't write books. All these songs you're not a prolific writer like gourd if you're if you're.Track 6:[47:36] Spending countless hours.Track 4:[47:39] Binging you know sitcoms with 120 episodes.Track 5:[47:44] Well and gourd gourd's a dan akroyd guy not a chevy chase guy.Track 6:[47:48] Yeah true hey going back to that the ending part craig yes uh you know they almost have a bluegrass feel in some of these instrumental type solos there's There's rock going on against a different instrumentation, which I absolutely love the devil enough to me almost was reminiscent of like your seventies kind of, you know, Barracuda and like the big songs that would have a slow intro and then rock out or go to another slow, but very seventies rock and kind of anthemic type of we're going to switch keys. We're going to switch tempos i very much got that but again going back to the swagger you feel the swagger in in the presentation of the lyrics at least from my perspective with gourd on this loved it loved it.Track 4:[48:43] Yeah there are some um really great songwriting techniques on this album that you can tell you know the sadies are just a pro band i think is it uh one of the guys from blue rodeo i believe was was quoted in the in the barclay book about saying that you know they're the world's greatest rock band and there's the little things like in this song they use the little bars of two to set up you know those changes and just lots of little things like that like an extra bar here an extra bar there it's just some really great little songwriting tricks what did you think justin i.Track 5:[49:14] Just this song you know growing up we only had like 10 or 12 channels on on tv and one of them was tnn the nashville network and so the grand ole opry was was on all the time, because we didn't have a choice. If it wasn't Hockey Night in Canada, it was TNN. And just this song, that run with the picking is really cool. It brought me back to late 80s, early 90s, just watching the hoedown.Track 4:[49:42] Not a country fan, but when I hear a great guitar player like that, though, like a great Nashville player, it really is great. This whole album isn't the type of music I would typically listen to. And I think that's why I gravitate more towards an indie rock feel, like the Battle of the Nudes. But man, this album is really, really solid.Track 6:[50:06] Yeah, it has a good... I mean, I know you guys say you don't like country, and I say it too. But I bet you you'd be surprised about what you do like that's country-esque. And so for me, when I think of country, I get turned away by some of the modern country. although I'm really digging some Chris Stapleton and some of these other guys I'm really digging. But like when I hear country, I think Kenny Rogers, Merle Haggard, I think Willie Nelson, I think, and I think we really do dig, even going back Hank Williams and even a little further, like when the, as you listen to, I love this that we're talking like, oh, we only had 10 channels and whatever else. And I'm going hockey night in Canada and the nashville network you know and throw in a little emma daughter's jug band christmas and that's my childhood and i'm happy and i love all that so i i i get what you're saying but this i mean the sadie's i think alt country i heard earlier from one of you guys that's very much the feel from devil enough you roll into i'm free disarray me justin you you inspired me because i I have the vinyl here with me. And so I quick looked at the bottom and I'm like, okay, I gotta catch this one cause I've missed all the other references that you mentioned. So you got Virginia Woolf, who's listed at the bottom of I'm Free Disarray Me. And when you do your research, you think about stream of consciousness.Track 6:[51:31] And that really, I think, kind of sums up your lyrics in this particular song.Track 6:[51:37] Swagger again it's it's it's it's it's the same but it's not i heard us all say that it's the same but it's not i i i loved where it went with this and it's bringing us down now right because we only have one more song we talked about the track listings and the order and now it's given us getting us i think this is kind of setting us up for saved at least me personally uh what you think craig.Track 4:[52:03] This was the first song that actually popped into my head just out of the blue one morning when i woke up because it took quite a long time for that to happen with this album i was still singing grand bounce songs you know every morning waking up and then one day it was that i was like wow okay and and same one thing i want to mention this is kind of, going off of what you're talking about with vinyl i was listening to this you know doing dishes.Track 4:[52:29] With you know on apple and the amount of times in the last few months of doing this you know this show with you guys listening to music and it glitches for just a second when i'm streaming and it just drives me nuts and so just that was one thing that i just had a note note about that that this album needs to be listened to on cd on on on vinyl anyways that was just a little pet peeve of mine and also the the snare again in this song was just a little a little much for me it was it was it was really up front and i i like loud drums typically in a mix but i just I don't know there there was it's almost like with the snare being that loud I'm missing a bit of the kick drum and speaking of which you guys must have noticed that the the bass players you know playing stand-up I had the thought a few times like I wonder and this is not to take away from what he's doing but I just wonder what it would have sounded like if they if they used an electric bass on this album because I found the bass to be not as prominent as on the last three albums you know there it wasn't sticking i don't think that's just part of the style of this band.Track 6:[53:38] Great i have a question though craig in when i look at the watch the videos oh yeah he has an he has an ampeg like he has a bass amp so he's taking a stand-up bass which traditionally you just mic or go straight into the board and he's he's running it through a traditional rock bass you know pickup bass right in through like the standard road hard ampeg so um so it gives it that good gritty sound but i will agree 100 it's not as prominent and i would like it to be a little bit more only just being a musician but it didn't didn't didn't dissuade me from my love for this album yeah.Track 4:[54:21] Not at all and i think it were like sometimes the best bass players are the ones you don't notice like they're just tight to the to the drummer and that's really all that matters but there was really only a couple times on this album where i where i noticed.Track 6:[54:34] Very accurate Accurate statement.Track 5:[54:36] This, I think, is my MVP. As a kid who was raised on prog, you fall into the song and just let it kind of take over. I don't know. I actually found, weirdly, a karaoke version of this on YouTube.Track 3:[54:52] Really?Track 5:[54:53] An instrumental version of this. No way. And I played the piss out of it just today driving. Driving and uh yeah it's it's really odd that this is the one that's an instrumental track for, yeah but just the phrasing of things lyrically and musically like he's it this doesn't sound like any other song that gourd has has put together as far as i'm concerned i.Track 6:[55:17] Love i love that connection with prog rock justin because you've mentioned that multiple times that that's something you love. And when you said it, I had not placed it until you said it. And I agree with you on that's a great, great, great description of it.Track 5:[55:31] There was a lot of references to the Sadie's covering Pink Floyd in live shows. And I'm like, oh, there it is right there. The song is that.Track 6:[55:42] The next one to the next one to could be, you know, Jim Ladd headset session, listening like with Pink Floyd.Track 3:[55:50] Oh, the next one is gorgeous, I think. It's the first slower tempo song that we have on the record called Saved.Track 5:[58:56] Again, I can't believe that the reviews said this album doesn't make sense because about halfway down, the plane starts to land, right? And every song from halfway on is just you're descending and you land perfectly softly unsaved. And this song also sounds a lot like Coke Machine Glow. And it's just really mellow and it's Gord doing his thing. and i i don't know i love it.Track 6:[59:26] Almost every album i feel like has had a an extended version of coke machine glow track to it i i i love that i i hadn't placed it until you just said that because i felt the same way about some of the other the other albums is there that could be on coke machine glow but you're exactly right and then he continues that theme as it goes almost like the uh like his is the poetry book.Track 3:[59:53] Craig is holding up his notes.Track 4:[59:55] Nobody else can see it. I said the exact same thing. Pattern of Ending solo albums and some hip albums with a track with a much different feel is what I had written.Track 5:[1:00:07] Which goes back to Road Apples.Track 4:[1:00:12] I really love the line the music is so loud that it flaps your pant leg. It reminded me a little bit of Yawning or Snarling. Just the line in that.Track 5:[1:00:23] Thank you. I would hold up my notebook if it wasn't typed out. Because that's exactly what I have to.Track 4:[1:00:30] We are, let's see, as of recording this episode, we are, what time is it there? We're about two and a half hours away from the 10 year anniversary of this album. Of the release of this album.Track 3:[1:00:41] Oh, get the fuck out.Track 4:[1:00:42] Yeah. Wow.Track 3:[1:00:44] Oh, wow.Track 4:[1:00:46] I just had to look it up yesterday. I was like, wow, that's pretty cool.Track 5:[1:00:48] Oh, shit.Track 3:[1:00:48] That is cool. Huh. I normally have them all in my calendar, and I don't have that in my calendar. Huh. Good find. Yeah, it's going to be, yeah.Track 6:[1:01:00] Good find, Craig. Great find.Track 5:[1:01:02] J.D., you have about two and a half hours to make a post.Track 3:[1:01:06] Any more unsaved?Track 5:[1:01:09] I don't know. I didn't pick it apart too much. I loved that imagery of the line, Craig, that you just mentioned. The music is so loud, it flaps your pant leg. And there's a really strange, it's almost not, rhythm to the way that he sings it. It would be really hard to transcribe that onto a, onto a sheet of music.Track 4:[1:01:29] I also enjoyed the, um, the, the, the, they finally played a bit without the drums, you know, like this whole album has been very much like a full band. And I mentioned last week, I believe that one of the strengths of, of country of miracles was that they had so many members that they could all just take a break every once in a while. They didn't feel the need to always fill up every space. This band's the opposite because they're, you know, there's just four of them and they, they, you know, they're very much a typical rock band where everyone's playing all the time and so i actually enjoyed that there was a bit of time at the start of the song without drums no no offense to the drummer um but sometimes you just need a break this.Track 6:[1:02:07] Song to me was the you know that that cup of coffee after dessert or you know the cigarette after sex it was that finisher it was uh it was that we're all in good, good, good company. I love the connection back with Coke Machine Glow. I love the connection back with that changing that ending song. But to me, it was, all right, more so than the others. It was like, okay, here's your big warm hug before whatever comes up next.Track 3:[1:02:39] Oh, I like it. It does feel like a warm hug. It's a very comforting song for me. I don't know why, but it chills me right out. It's a great cigarette after sex. Kirk, I love that. It's really tremendous.Track 5:[1:02:55] It sucks that this album was only a half hour long.Track 3:[1:02:58] I know. It's so strange after The Grand Bounce, which was nearly an hour. But again, these guys are just so efficient and economical.Track 5:[1:03:10] It's one good fast job, baby.Track 3:[1:03:12] That's right.Track 6:[1:03:14] So does- Hey, did you know that that is his second highest played single, or at least versus Spotify when I last checked? Does that not totally blow you away? Like at least if you just look in his Spotify category, I believe it's number two behind like the Chancellor, I think is probably the most sense. But now i'm now i'm gonna look sorry i'm gonna i'm gonna see if i can back my own research.Track 5:[1:03:43] So interestingly i i don't have hard copies of any of these albums so i'm i'm strictly listening on streaming i use the youtube music app i don't really care for the interface on spotify and there is zero existence of this album in that in that space so i had to download band camp and buy the album that way which i was happy to do yeah i love band camp but yeah i had to uh that's the only way I could find this lyrics.Track 6:[1:04:07] All right, gents. I did the research. I was incorrect by two. It's Chancellor, the East wind. Oh, I am lost.Track 4:[1:04:15] That's then one good. Mind blowing.Track 5:[1:04:17] No shit.Track 6:[1:04:18] Number four.Track 4:[1:04:19] Yeah.Track 6:[1:04:20] Like that. It's even in the top five to me over like.Track 4:[1:04:23] You know, it's a great song. These songs that I thought were more well-known. Wow.Track 6:[1:04:29] Thank you.Track 4:[1:04:29] Yeah.Track 6:[1:04:30] It's surprising to me that.Track 3:[1:04:32] Yeah.Track 5:[1:04:33] Well, even, Even the opener on this one, Crater, I mean, it has a great video too.Track 6:[1:04:39] Oh, that's right. That's right. It is a really cool video.Track 4:[1:04:43] So the album art's interesting too. Did you catch that there's the different members of the band on the album? There's probably about these portraits of like, I don't know, 50 people. And if you look carefully, you can find all of the members of the band. I did.Track 6:[1:05:01] I did, absolutely. It's, yeah, on the album.Track 5:[1:05:04] And the artwork and the sound and all that, it kind of reminded me of the Beatles. I don't know why. But there was something about it that was familiar.Track 3:[1:05:16] Beatles-esque.Track 5:[1:05:17] Yeah. Yeah.Track 6:[1:05:20] I could see that. I mean, especially from an artistic standpoint. Yeah. Very much can see that.Track 3:[1:05:26] Yeah.Track 5:[1:05:27] Overall, I was super happy that this was the next thing. And I wish that there had been another one to follow it.Track 3:[1:05:33] So does it stay in your rotation then, Justin?Track 5:[1:05:36] Mm-hmm.Track 3:[1:05:37] Yeah, it does. Craig, how about you?Track 4:[1:05:40] A couple of days ago, I probably would have said maybe not. It's an album I'll definitely pull out here and there. But no, I do think I really am enjoying it lately. And like I said, the turn of the weather really helped. This is, to me, a summer album, not a, I think, come winter, I'll put it away again.Track 5:[1:05:59] End but the i'm sorry but i got it before i forget it right we just had the eclipse as we're recording this and i was stuck in traffic it's a 17 minute commute to get home and it took me 90 minutes so i listened to this album three times on the ride home and it's a great even if you're stopped it's a great album to be in the car.Track 6:[1:06:20] It's going to hit the turntable for me on a fairly regular basis for a while. Like I said, Grand Bounce, I couldn't get it out of my head. And finally, it might even have been an I'm Free Disarray Me, just that very methodical line that came through that turned it for me. Me but i love i i love it absolutely love it in fact i'm i'm probably more excited about digging deeper into the sadies once this whole project is done the sadies and several other canadian bands that i'm not as familiar with that you guys have introduced me to and i'm very thankful for but uh yeah this this one's staying in the rotation if you've got any.Track 3:[1:07:02] Bands that are gore adjacent or canadian indie adjacent uh send them our way discovering downy at gmail.com And we'll be sure to read that email on the air.Track 5:[1:07:18] I will say that as much as I've enjoyed this album, I've also really enjoyed the songs that are not on the album that Gordon and Sadie have played together. The cover of Search and Destroy. Holy shit.Track 3:[1:07:32] Right, you sent that to us a few days ago.Track 5:[1:07:35] That song melted my goddamn face off. It was so good. So good. And it was like 7, 12 in the morning or something. I was like, all right, I'm out of bed now. This is awesome.Track 4:[1:07:45] One of the shows I found online was here in Vancouver at the media club. And I actually remember hearing about it. And I'm just kicking myself that I didn't get to that show. This is like a tiny, tiny, like this is where my original band a number of years ago did our CD release party. And yeah, there's maybe room for 80 to 100 people in there. would have been amazing.Track 3:[1:08:10] Oh damn that.Track 6:[1:08:14] Is definitely i don't have a lot of regrets gentlemen but not seeing any iteration of gourd solo is very much i'm glad video was around because but i would have really really really enjoyed.Track 3:[1:08:28] Seeing that feeling thousand percent live yeah.Track 5:[1:08:32] I go back to that sweaty basement uh in me in massachusetts and like dude i went to those shows all the time and I wasn't there.Track 3:[1:08:39] That's crazy so Justin you've already sort of given this away even though we we you know we tease it throughout the show and typically give it away at the end but we'll start with you and your MVP track.Track 5:[1:08:56] Yeah, it's totally I'm free, disarray me, which took me by surprise, but then it didn't totally. You know, after the way that by, you know, the music that my parents played when I was a kid, this song is just cosmic cowboy, trippy shit.Track 3:[1:09:14] Kirk, how about you?Track 6:[1:09:15] All right. Los Angeles Times.Track 3:[1:09:21] Excellent. I love that pick. I liked your pick too, Justin.Track 5:[1:09:25] That's the hometown.Track 6:[1:09:26] Oh, yeah.Track 5:[1:09:27] That's okay.Track 6:[1:09:28] And it definitely is not one that I would have really settled in on had it not been for our discussion today, honestly. Because almost every song on the album has really fallen into near the top. You know, Conquering Sun, Budget Shoes, I would say, of everything, those definitely hit that number one spot for me multiple times. But Los Angeles Times is the one that just kept coming back, and I just kept feeling, and I kept growing further, enamored with on all fronts. So that's my pick, and I'm sticking to it.Track 3:[1:10:03] Very cool. Craig, you?Track 4:[1:10:06] Yeah, I had a hard time picking a song. And I found, kind of like what Kirk said, there was almost less of a range between the songs I enjoyed and the songs I enjoyed less. They were all in roughly the same region, whereas the other albums, there was some tracks that right away really, really got to another level with me. I think this album maybe doesn't quite have quite the emotion that the first three did, which is usually what hits me when I really love a song. Usually it just grabs me emotionally. And this album didn't have that in the same way. my my go-to song here is is going to be uh it didn't start to break my heart until this afternoon, just just a good good punk rock song yeah just nice just a great yeah great driving tune and.Track 3:[1:11:00] Gets the blood flowing, right? And I agree with you about the previous three records. They're just sort of more raw and improvised feeling.Track 4:[1:11:08] And more range to them, right? This just feels... There was more... Yeah, just... More variety. Yeah, more...Track 3:[1:11:15] Dynamics. Yeah. Yeah.Track 5:[1:11:20] There was a point where critics were really starting to tear Gord and the hip down. Yeah. When this album was coming out. And they were like, all right, we get it. The soup's getting cold. It's the same shit over and over, year after year. The performances are boring. It's not great. And I think, I don't know, but I'm thinking that this album was Gord's big middle finger to those guys. I'm still doing this. He's 50 years old.Track 4:[1:11:49] Can you think of another artist that has done what Gord has done? He's now got three bands that are all so amazing. Yeah, that's right.Track 5:[1:12:01] At the same time.Track 3:[1:12:01] At the same time, yeah, you're right.Track 4:[1:12:03] Yeah, mind-blowing how much high-quality work he put out through his whole career, but especially in this middle chunk here.Track 3:[1:12:12] Well, and if you think about it, this is a perfect segue because beginning in 2012, he started work on the record we're going to talk about next week, which is Secret Path. And that record didn't see the light of day until 2016. 16. So even then with that record, he's assembled the band again, and it's a great band as well. So this guy is just producing at a level presumably around the same time he's doing Luster Parfait. Because he's working with Bob Rock pretty exclusively, right?Track 5:[1:12:49] Right.Track 3:[1:12:50] So, God, just fascinating what we're what we've gotten up to so far i can't wait we are halfway done his records we've got one more studio record and then god damn it three posthumous records uh it's going to be tough to get through those ones guys i know it yep anything else you want to say before we wrap things up i.Track 5:[1:13:15] Don't know i love it man i i love this project i feel like we're a broken record because we're all going to say the same thing and we'd say it every episode But this project has gotten me back into, just like you said, Kirk, discovering new music. Or it's new to me. Right. And I am finding so many new things that I didn't know I didn't know.Track 3:[1:13:35] Right.Track 6:[1:13:37] I'm i have been frightened from the beginning because you know you listen because it's your first time listening to a solo stuff for you know i was frightened every single album that, yeah i was going to be disappointed yeah yep and i just keep finding a new way to be enamored and i don't mind being that easy when it comes to gourd and what's going on uh you know i i we talked about, you know, my, my experience with the hip, you know, having to hear about it from friends and not having that, you know, immediate access to everything. So I'm thoroughly loving the fact that the emotion and the feeling that Gord and the hip, all the musicians he's been involved with on the solo, just keep raising the level. So I'm now just like, I'm, I'm, you know, what I like about this, you guys is you're nervous and worried. Now I'm not nervous and worried. I'm I'm just, I'm excited about listening to what's coming up and I'm so excited.Track 5:[1:14:37] If you, if you enter the, if you enter the room knowing it's going to be a mindfuck when you get there, it's perfect

This week on the pod, the gang settles in to the project and describes their experience with Gord's 3rd solo release, The Grand Bounce.Transcript:Track 1:[0:01] Hey, it's Justin. You know and love us on the Discovering Downey podcast, right? So come hang out with us in person for the finale. Join us for Long Slice Brewing Presents, a celebration of Gord Downey at The Rec Room in downtown Toronto on Friday, July 19th. Craig is coming from Vancouver. Kirk is coming from LA. I'm driving from Vermont. And JD is like walking down the street or wherever he lives in Toronto. Tickets are available now on our website at discovererndowney.com. And when you get your tickets, that means you can come hang out with us and our very special guest, Patrick Downey. And you can bid on some incredibly cool silent auction items, all while jamming along with tragically hip cover band The Almost Hip. And most importantly, helping us raise money for the Gord Downey Fund for Brain Cancer Research. Crack open a long slice, put on some Gord tunes, take a journey with us on Discovering Downey, and then crack open another long slice on July 19th and hang out with us in the 6th. I always wanted to sound cool and say that. For more information, follow us on all the socials and visit DiscoveringDowny.com. Cheers.Track 2:[1:23] Thanksgiving. Victims and their victim-ears sit down to Turkey hungry for punishment full of mercury fullimate, serene after the screaming. Grace makes the mouth make shapes it's never made before. We give thanks for the poetry we read and write all day. For freeing us to drink with impunity a toast to no punishment replaces Amen. The prayer is swallowed away for the silence and the quiet carving serene after the was screaming, a little violent, but turkey nevertheless.Track 1:[2:08] Welcome, music lovers. Long Slice Brewery presents Discovering Downey.Track 2:[2:16] Hey, it's J.D. here and welcome back to Discovering Downey. This is an 11-part opus with a focus on Mr. Gord Downey, the late frontman of the Tragically Hip, but somebody who also gave to the world an extensive solo discography. Eight records in total. But have you heard them? That was what I sought out when I enlisted my friends Craig, Justin, and Kirk to discover Downey. These three are giant Tragically Hip fans, but they had little to no exposure with Gord's solo oeuvre. So every week, we get together and listen to one of the records in chronological order and see what we think. Did we miss out? Or did we make the right choice? We're going to find out on Discovering Downey. This week, we're going to dive into Gord's third solo release. This, with The Country of Miracles, it is the grand bounce. Now let's go to the team.Track 1:[3:27] Justin St. Louis, how are you doing this week? Week i'm worn out man and uh i'm ready for this thing to to take over my life tonight and just be back in the normal and enjoy the music and enjoy talking about it with you guys love it yeah kirk where are you headed off to next yeah actually heading off to the big apple nyc i'm uh going to be chaperoning my uh my youngest and they're going to be performing at carnegie so very proud pops Pops. And, uh, we just got back from a really cool trip in Memphis and Nashville and they did really, you know, they did fantastic there. So I've been surrounded by music and, um, that's inspired me, but I'm gonna, you know, concur with Justin and say, I'm definitely looking forward to a discussion about this album. I mean, uh, it's been a pretty cool journey so far, but this, I think this is gonna, this album is going to spark a pretty good conversation in my opinion. So, but doing well and looking forward to traveling again. It'll be interesting for sure. Craig, how are things on the left coast, motherfucker?Track 1:[4:36] Not too bad. Just got back from a family trip to Disneyland that was six years in the making. We tried it, you know, in 2020 and it didn't work out. And so we finally made it down with the kids and spent a few days in LA at the end of the trip and was lucky enough to have Kirk from Chino drive all the way out to LAX and we hooked up for.Track 1:[4:59] Little conversation and yeah, it was cool. It was a good time. Yeah. So first time meeting in person, which was a great night. It was really cool. Yep. No, it worked out actually great. I just got back from that trip with a choir that I'd mentioned and then, uh, hadn't seen my mom in a bit and she was actually staying, um, uh, doing some pet sitting at a house in garden Grove that had some good memories. So it kind of was a half, half the distance to LAX. So it worked out perfect to go and meet you and and i appreciated uh appreciated you giving up some time from your family for a little bit to have a good conversation so and i know it'll carry over tonight well this week on discovering downey we're here to discuss and dissect the june 2010 released from gord and his band the country of miracles consisting of the usual suspects canadian musicians oh.Track 2:[5:48] Man i'm gonna butcher this julie duaron right is that right yeah so she's on vocals guitar and bass then there is gourd's frequent collaborator josh finlayson.Track 1:[6:02] Dale morningstar on lead guitar dave clark on drums and dr p on keyboards chris walla a former member of death cab for cutie turned the knobs on this release but where do you start with the grand bounce it's been seven years and three albums since Gord's last outing, and The Country of Miracles sounds as though they've been chomping at the bit to jam with Gord yet again. This album, to me, is a band album as much as it is a Gord solo affair. As a result, it sounds more cohesive than the previous two releases. While it rarely reaches the heights of Battle of the Nudes, it is a remarkably consistent effort. It's worth noting that the songs on The Grand Bounce seem more structured and maybe even more thought out as three to four minute rock songs that are reminiscent of Gord's day job, The Tragically Hip. There's an energy on this record that's palpable. Perhaps it's the shorthand of working with the same band for three consecutive records?Track 2:[6:58] I'm not sure, but it's there. Now, once we get into the songs on this 50 minute, 13 song opus.Track 1:[7:06] It's tough not to get caught up in the sonic presence that Walla brings to the table. There's a depth to the maturity, And I'll use the term again, a cohesiveness that wasn't as pronounced on the prior two efforts. While the grand bounce is a perfectly fine listen, it's only after letting it grow on you. For me, it sat growing on me since I did the fully and completely podcast. And that to me is when it shows its real prowess, creating earworms and hooks that reel you in and invite you over for dinner just to hang out with the music.Track 1:[7:40] But what do our friends Craig, Justin, and Kirk have to say about the Grand Bounce? Let's not waste any more time and get right to them. Kirk from Chino, talk to me about your first experience with the Grand Bounce. Yeah, well, after we had finished up talking about Battle of the Nudes, I had had some travel for work, and then I was getting some other stuff ready for a very busy week. So I didn't get to jump on to a listen right away. I mean, it was a number of days. But I was doing a walk at night and, you know, cool walk with the dog and had it in my AirPods. And just right away, I was really taken by it. I really felt the maturity of it, you know, very reminiscent of what you had mentioned, JD, in your lead up to, you know, the discussion about the album is it just had a maturity to it. The band, it felt like a band album, exactly what you said. and I, as much as I loved the first two albums, I just felt a comfort. Like the whole time I've listened to this album, which is, I don't know, maybe 15, 20 times at this point, it just, it's a warm blanket to me. It's like, it now is okay.Track 1:[8:57] It's okay, I can like Gord Downie as a solo artist. You know, I just had a great experience with it. I really, really loved it. I could spend a lot of time talking, but I want to hear what the other guys have to say about it. Well, Craig, what do you think? Yeah, this was really a grower for me. I wasn't sure when I first put this on. I didn't think I would like it as much as I do. And overall, I really love this album. I have maybe a couple of critiques, which we'll get to later. Later but my my journey with this album actually goes back to 2015 when you may remember jd that we had a bunch of target stores open in canada in whenever 2010 maybe and they only lasted about four or five years and they went went under and when they were closing down they had cds on sale for five dollars you can get any it could get any cd and i happened upon the grand balance and And actually the next album we'll be doing next week and pick those both up for five bucks. And they sat on open for many years and I just opened them for this podcast. So I I'm lucky enough to have an actual podcast.Track 1:[10:05] Physical copy and the liner notes that came in them so i may be able to offer a few little nuggets um one i would just want to mention off the top chris walla is actually mentioned as a member when it says the country of miracles are and it lists all the members plus him so i believe he was playing guitar on wow much of the album wow very cool some of those videos he was playing so that i'm not surprised by that and i love that thank you for sharing because this is actually the only album that I couldn't get. I tried to get vinyl of everything, but I don't have a CD. So everything has been streaming or online.Track 1:[10:41] And I watched several videos with interviews and he talked specifically about the inlet, the vocal or the lyrics. And you just showed a picture of it, Craig, and it's not the standard sizing that you normally get. So I appreciate you sharing that. That was pretty cool. And I think also what I learned with this album is again, just to trust Trust, you know, Gord, you know, you may not like it right away, but give this album a good listen if you haven't before. It took longer to grow on me than the other two, but highly recommended. Yeah i think a good strategy with this record is to listen the fuck out of it for like two or three days and then put it on the shelf for a week and then pick it up and there's something like kirk was saying that's comforting about it you come back to it and you're like whoa this is really fucking way more hooky than i imagined when i first listened to it but let's uh talk to our friend mr st louis what do you say on the matter of discovering downey v the grand bounce So I also had the word warmth written down, and I did take your strategy, JD, of I listened to it probably 10 times. I started immediately after recording our last episode, which is how I had done the previous. I was like, okay, this is not Battle of the Nudes.Track 1:[12:04] And I immediately heard what I thought was Bob rock sound. But then I realized this isn't Bob rock sound and neither were those other two albums. This is the era that Gord was in with the hip and all of the Bob rock haters probably owe him an apology because this is the type of stuff that Gord was writing at that time. And so it did feel familiar and it did feel comforting and it did feel warm and I liked it. I also, you know, during this time, um, when the album came out i was listening to kings of leon and mumford and sons and stuff like that and there's a lot of that in this in this sound and i you know i was a uh death cab for cutie fan at the time and you know postal service and all that stuff i mean so it was very contemporary for for when it came out and it felt like it belonged in that 2010 range but.Track 1:[12:58] For me, it was a big letdown after Battle of the Nudes, because that album was so damn good. And because we didn't have seven years between recording these episodes for our musical tastes to change, it was like, whoa, this is a massive shift from what we had just digested into this new album. I don't hate it, but I don't think I love it.Track 1:[13:20] Wow. Yeah. I don't see it as such a massive shift. It's going to be interesting as we get into the track by track. Should we do that now, gentlemen? Let's go for it. Let's do it. Okay, the first track on the record is a great one for me in the sense that winter has ended. But when I think about winter, I think about that. I think about Gord standing on the edge of Riverdale Park and having somebody discuss this east wind with him, this strong east wind that blows in and is very cold. And we're going to hear from Craig first on this one. So, Craig, what do you think of the east wind? This is the one song off the album I was familiar with. I had seen maybe a video, I'd heard it quite a few times, and I love it. I think it's a great opener. I want to point something out really quickly that you guys wouldn't necessarily know without the liner notes, but there are Roman numerals, one through four, throughout the album. And at first I thought maybe it was to do with the record I thought maybe the four-sided record which it is, I looked it up but the.Track 1:[14:29] There's three songs per side on the records, and it doesn't quite jive with the numbers in the booklet. So what I think is, I've come up with a little story around, this isn't a concept album by any means, but it's definitely got a story to it. And so I've actually listed what I think the story is about, and I think section one is about a move. And so you've probably done the research too and and gourd at the time was moving up to glenora on the um on the great one of the great lakes so this this first section i think all the songs kind of relate to moving uh the east wind maybe not as much but also interestingly enough the east wind is the only song that doesn't have lyrics printed out in the booklet and i'm not really sure why that would be what yeah so there's a quote at the top it does say the the quote about the east wind is the laziest wind, but right under that is track two. And if you saw some of the video research or YouTube, he talked about it was a neighbor who was a farmer who was describing the east wind, the laziest wind.Track 1:[15:40] So I found that very interesting, Craig, when you proposed the theory of the story. Because I could think to several of the different interviews and different discussions about different songs and how he's definitely pinpointing some real life things that are happening. Like you mentioned the move and, and, uh, obviously some discussions about relationships and, and then he's got his kids involved in some of these songs too. So you may be onto something, my friend. Another theory theory I have is that maybe this song is meant to be like a little bit of an introduction sort of before the story starts. And maybe that's why it didn't have the lyrics in here or maybe it's a misprint who knows, but the song itself musically is, is great. Uh, very much a band jamming again, like we're used to from the previous two albums, but just more layering, more production.Track 1:[16:30] I really love how the guitars are layered. From my count, there's five guitar players on this track, including one who I couldn't find any mention of anywhere on the internet. Someone named Edgar Lewis played guitar, and I believe he plays the guitar at the end, the little guitar melody, the sort of New Order style melody at the end. I couldn't find anything about who he might be. The name Edgar, of course, made me think of Gord's middle name. So not sure if there's a connection there. But yeah, I could not track this person down online. Anybody out there knows who Edgar, what his name is? I apologize. What's his name again? Edgar Lewis or Louie.Track 1:[17:10] Edgar Louie. If you know who Edgar Louie is, shoot us an email at discoveringdowneyatgmail.com. I wonder if he's an acquaintance of Chris Swala. Possibly. Although they did record in Kingston, so it would have been quite the trip for one little guitar melody. But yeah, maybe he was someone working in the studio. Maybe he's a friend of the band or who knows. But yeah, the Chris Walla production is very noticeable on this song. The way things are, you know, I think Gord even mentions in an interview, he just keeps layering things every few bars and very evident. The drums are a good example of this in the song. They come in kind of lightly, but they're still pretty intense. And then the toms come in, and you've got that really almost tribal beat for the first few bars once the whole band kicks in. And then you get just sort of a regular beat. But it's always driving forward. There's always momentum with the drums. It's always picking up momentum right through the end of the song and really strong playing all together. Such a solid song. I think the second part of that build, when I first heard it, was like, oh, this is sort of like maybe some of the tone that was on Battle of the Newts, where it was kind of subdued and subdued.Track 1:[18:31] Just there. And then there's this massive sound, which really works. I do love the song a lot. And I believe you that there's five guitars in it. Um, cause if you have earbuds in and turn it up, you, you feel it. Yeah. And while the chords are quite simple, when you really listen, there's actually a lot going on, even with Gord's guitar. And I feel like on this album, he has matured as a player. You can tell, you know, he's got another seven years of experience and we never did really talk about on the previous episodes his guitar playing but when he first started playing guitar in the hip it was a bizarre thing to watch his strumming patterns it was so awkward to watch him as a guitar player and i'm not even sure he was really too much in the mix back in the early days but he has grown so much as a guitar player he's playing a lot in open tunings i believe i've read that open c was his favorite so i think a lot of the songs on this album or an open C. I noticed in the videos he was playing a Tele for much of this session rather than acoustic.Track 1:[19:33] And yeah, there is a lot of subtleties to the guitar playing, even though it's basically two chords through the whole song. I was going to mention, Craig, and we've all obviously did our research and saw the YouTube, but the bathhouse sessions when they were recording. And, and I'm honestly, it's like, it's a question to this group. They, they were all isolated, but they were all playing live. And you had mentioned how much he was playing guitar. And in the, that little six part series, I loved how Gord was so committed to playing guitar, as you had mentioned. Like there was typically when you're recording an album like you want to do the the vocal and the guitar separately and he was nope i'm going to do it together because the guitar strumming was creating some of the cadence of the vocals and and i loved how or i felt like that was demonstrated there so i think that's a great point that you brought up craig that he was really focused on that playing yeah that makes this album easier to sing to we had mentioned whether i don't remember if it was on air or off air, but we had all had trouble singing along with the first two albums. And this one is much more poppy and rhythm driven. And I think you're absolutely right, Kirk, that him playing the guitar as he sings and it's in every take really kind of made that happen. I also did notice if you, it's really low in the mix, but when this track first starts, somebody says, no more takes.Track 1:[21:01] Like, we have to do it this time, you know? I really, I picked up on that and I enjoyed it, especially after watching that six part series. I'm gonna jump on your story theme, Craig, and Moon Over Glenora.Track 1:[21:14] The next song on the album.Track 1:[24:18] I absolutely love this song right and he talks about the ferry ride and that really goes along when you think of the east wind and being off the lake and then now talking about the ferry, uh justin what'd you think about this song oh man this song solidified my crush on julie this is, such a great track and the duet through every word and then the live performances of this song that i I was able to find on the, on the hips now for plan a record, there's one lyric that's, we don't want to do it. We want to be it talking about the music and they are absolutely the music while they're playing the song. And it's just a lot of fun. And it's like a, it's like going to a club show, which it probably was. I really did love the song. And for me, the ferry ride across Lake Champlain is just a part of life here when you're going over to New York and it just, just talking about the spotlight, finding the ice in the water. I've been on that ferry and the song is really, I think, about two people falling in love, not knowing that they're falling in love. And they're kind of bickering and arguing about it. And they get outside in the ferry and it's cold and it's terrible and you got to stay warm, so let's complain about something.Track 1:[25:29] And they talk about the wolf and they've killed the wolf by the end of the ferry ride. You know um it's the the imagery is really cool and the dead lake right isn't that the last the ocean is dead the ocean is dead yeah yeah it's a great little song i really do love it but i think the star is julie and this really she's fantastic yeah i uh story-wise i actually had almost the opposite thought to me it was maybe um a couple falling out of love and maybe this is the the cracks are starting to show. Like maybe it's not totally fractured yet. And again, I'm not saying that this is about Gord or, you know, I don't know too much about his personal life, but I do know parts of this are inspired obviously by true events, you know, the move to Glenora. Did anyone watch the interview with Gord with Kim Mitchell? If you guys even know who that is? Yeah, I did. Do you know who he is?Track 1:[26:26] Well i had to look it up i didn't know who he was immediately and i got confused because it was that little two-part interview and he had mentioned something about being and i think like saint paul minnesota and it threw me off because it said toronto but then in the second part they they confirmed they were talking in toronto um the one thing sorry and i hopefully i don't derail your thought but the one thing that i loved on that particular interview is the reverence that gordon had for that particular guy so i definitely had to look him up you know to see the songs that he was involved with and and he was uh you know as he mentioned in that he's a hero so sorry go ahead i just wanted to bring him up because he's a you know a classic canadian artist i'm wearing my my cancon shirt here and uh he was definitely a a big part of you know the music scene here in in the 80s and 90s i guess i brought it up because um this was a song that he mentioned really loving that you know kim really loved it also i found it really interesting I'd never heard this before, but Gord references a song that the two of them wrote together.Track 1:[27:29] And by the sounds of it, it's a song that was never released. So it sounds like Kim Mitchell had a song he wrote and then Gord wrote the words too. And so there may be an unreleased song out there, or maybe if a listener's heard this or has any idea how to track this down, I'd love to hear it. So that was my only thing I wanted to add. Oh, and also Dale does some really really cool guitar, little shots on, on this sort of beat two and four. And then he does these little muted scrub scrubs. I'm not even sure how to.Track 1:[27:58] How to put in words what that sound is i'm you know what i mean kind of like a pick almost like a pick slide into the the bends i mean i don't know it it's almost it's a it's a technique it's not it's a rhythmic pattern that he's doing yeah and with with some notes in there but they're sort of muted but anyways i thought that added some nice accent but i agree with with you justin that julie really steals the show on this one it's such a good song on many of the songs on this album that combination of voice, to me, that was what I had mentioned earlier about how much I enjoyed this album, is when you feel that the band is now a band and you feel that connection. But we are so used to hearing Gord as part of the hip and that amazing combination of vocals that he has, you know, with Paul and then obviously with the guitar phrasing and how the hip is the hip and you can hear that. And I think with the vocals that he has with her on many of these albums, but especially on this particular album and several of these songs, to me, that really solidified like, okay, this is a great combination of musicians that are doing fantastic things. So I so appreciated this song.Track 1:[29:19] Another, Gord has that ability to do like an upbeat rhythm and kind of like Pascal's Submarine that we talked about in the last album, where it's kind of a dark subject, but it's a very upbeat song. So I really felt that with this particular song. I couldn't help but think, as he said, the ocean is, as they were repeating, the ocean is dead at the end. I was just thinking about all the water songs that Gord has and how water must be his Roman empire. There are a couple things that come up on this album over and over. Water is one, color is another.Track 1:[29:57] Um, and day and night is a third thing. There was a fourth, I can't remember right now, but there was some definite themes through the entire album. Kirk, what did you think when you first heard as a mover? What I loved specifically about as a mover is the buildup. I think Justin may have referenced in, in some of the, those interviews where, um, how the production was every four bars, you got to get something new. So this really was uh okay you know you get the train feeling that's going on it's that moving it's the transformation it's the sorry not transformation but him him relocating to glenora as we'd mentioned now we're going into this as a mover and you know this these lyrics not just specifically for this song but for for this all album and i think in one of our messages together.Track 1:[30:53] It was hard to pin down some connections on some of these there there are some that are that are there but I agree with that that that guidance on that so as a mover to me loved it you know the sarcasm hey baby want to kiss closes it out with that that that particular theme and it's It's a driving, great rhythmic song. Another thing that was clear in my memory in some of the interviews that we got to see was he was so excited about this album in that it was genre-less, right? You can't just say it's a country album. You can't just say it's a pop album. You can't just say it's a jazz album. It has a little bit of everything. And he even talked about touring for this particular album, that they were doing a bunch of festivals and that they were jazz festival, a pop festival, a rock festival. It was different. So he was pretty proud of that fact. And I got that feeling with that as a mover. Justin, what was your take on the song? So I found a note somewhere that when Gord was writing this album, he was reading a book about Custer. And the title of the album, The Grand Bounce refers to a phrase that was coined during the Custer's involvement, whatever, in the 1860s. Whenever they deserted the cavalry, they called it the Grand Bounce. And desertion and moving and all this stuff really tie in together and –.Track 1:[32:22] This song is kind of what really sparked my thinking about that. Like, you know, this is, there's something happening here and yes, the, the train, you feel like you're on a train as soon as the song starts. And, um, it's definitely a different sound. This song is way different than anything that Gord had put out previously. And I know, again, I, it, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way a little bit. I mean, I've, I've come into all this with an open mind, but it was like, what is he trying to do here? It didn't, the production of this album, And the sound of the songs just did not match up with the first two albums. And this doesn't even match up with anything else that's on this album. And my first reaction was, is he trying too hard with this song to sound different? But it certainly has grown on me. But the theme of moving and desertion and the grand bounce itself, this song tied the album title together for me. Craig, what do you think? In the lyrics, you've got the wife, you know, not wanting to move and you've got the kids wanting to move all that, you know, wanting to go everywhere. And he says he's in the middle, he's got no opinion. So I kind of like that tension in here. I also love the line where he rhymes pressure and less sure. Oh, and he does it in this low register the second time through?Track 1:[33:44] I'm even less sure. And when he says it, he's almost talking it. It's so great. Yeah. And I know I mentioned to you guys in text that when I first heard this song, I was not a fan.Track 1:[33:58] And JD, you were a bit surprised by that. And then it just grew and grew and grew on me. Like more than any other song on the album. I love the song now. I really was not a fan at first. Just love the whole feel of it. And the little drum shuffle with the brushes. And i think what i didn't like at first was just the chorus there was something weird about just those words as a mover it's just not very smooth sounding it doesn't roll off yeah and so that that kind of bothered me at first but really it's whatever feelings i had about it have totally changed now i think it's totally yeah it's a really cool song i was with you that you know At first, I just didn't like it. But then I remembered the song is now 14 years old. And when it came out, I was listening to Mumford & Sons and I was into that sound. And this could be on one of their albums.Track 1:[34:50] And I had to force myself to transport back to that time period. And I would have loved the song back then. And also the, you know, the title as a, as a mover, it made me think like a double meaning could be like a mover is also a dancer. And the next song we have is the dance and its disappearance. And this was another song that I didn't love at first. It's still not one of my favorites on the album, but once I read the lyrics, once I got into the CD booklet and started trying to figure out what it was about, I started to appreciate it a lot more. And so I just want to read you this quick quote in the booklet. There's a quote from Crystal Pite, who I believe is a dancer. And she writes.Track 1:[35:38] It is an extreme expression of the present, a perfect metaphor for life. And it goes on. Once I kind of got what that phrase meant, it just started making sense. And when you watch the live videos of this song, every single performance of this, Gord has something to say about people in the audience with their cell phones. And he's very appreciative when there's not too many people with their cell phones. And he talks about, if you're filming this on a cell phone, you're getting 10% of the experience. Put it away.Track 1:[36:08] And there was one show in Victoria and I wrote down what he said. He says, you like that things disappear as they're happening. I don't see any phones in the air trying to capture 10%. Your brain can handle it. Let it resonate. Let it sink in. Wait till tomorrow, the day after, it'll be all right. Yeah. And I love that message. Yeah, me too.Track 1:[36:26] Fuck. Kirk? This song, when I first heard it, and we've had this discussion on some of the other albums, You know, can this be a hip song? And that opening little riff on this particular song was very hip-like. And there was another interview that I had looked up, I think Alan Cross was his name. And he had even had mentioned that on this particular, he wrote simply a hip-like song. So I think that was one thing that I appreciated is there was not any fear anymore. Like, it's okay because I am the guy who writes the stuff for the hip. So there's going to be songs that sound hip like, and I think he embraced it. But I think that I, the thing that I loved about this, and as I mentioned on the other songs and you guys as well is the, the harmonies with, with, with Julie on this, like that's okay. This is Gord Downie. This is that sound where with the hip it's, this is what I sound like when I sing with Paul or whoever's doing the backup. And I believe that he really captured that in this album, but that song as well. So that was one thing that I noted in my research on this particular song. I think this is my favorite tune on the record.Track 1:[37:41] Gord had that theme, let it disappear into the night and let it happen, use it up. That is a decades-long theme in whatever he's done, and I love the message. I also love the word a squirrel. Holy crap. What a great way to convey that you can't settle down. My mind a squirrel. Holy crap. Did anyone else look up Sudbury yellow? Speaking of colors, I mentioned earlier that color is a huge theme throughout the whole thing. Also tying into the cover art, which was actually a painting by Gord Downie himself. So I think art was much on his mind during the recording of this album. And there is different mentions of colours in so many different songs. So Sudbury Yellow references the colour of the staircase at Sudbury Hall in England. And when you look up a picture of it, it's a very striking yellow. It's actually pretty neat to look up. And also another great So he rhymes the word orange with door hinge. Yeah. Blood orange with door hinge. Yeah. That's great. And I did notice the color theme throughout this and, and art is again, a decades long theme with, with Gordon. And there are many more examples through and we'll get to that.Track 1:[38:57] Well, let's stick with you, Justin, and move forward to The Hard Canadian. When I think of this song, I always, I can close my eyes and I picture, this is going to be lost on the two Americans, I apologize, but I picture Relic from The Beachcombers as The Hard Canadian.Track 1:[39:16] Beachcombers was a CBC show based in the West Coast, and there were some hard-living fishermen type, and there was one character who was sort of a scoundrel, and his name was Relic, And he just looked like a hard Canadian. He looks like the lyrics to this song. But Justin, what do you think of the hard Canadian?Track 1:[39:34] So I had two trains of thought on this. And one was that I thought Gord might have been singing about himself and just the fuck you today kind of thing. But I also thought it was about the weather, maybe in the winter. And go out to the plains and it's brutal out there. And the hard Canadian weather doesn't care about you. You know, and yeah, so the hard Canadian in my weather theory is the hard Canadian don't give a damn about you. What's a windswept face to the elusive presence of the sun to the hard Canadian? Like, you know, it's winter all the time in some places. It's dark all the time in some places, you know, north of 60, right? And it's the line, whether he's just mean or willfully dense, like the weather is controlling itself. self. It was like Mother Nature or whatever is doing this on purpose to test you. Let's see if you come out the other side. Again, the art theme, there's the quote, and it's in quotations from life nothing to death nothing, refers to a piece of art by Frank Stella, which is, forgive my Spanish here, but de la nada vida a la nada muerte. Is that how you'd say it? But that's what it translates to, from life nothing to death nothing. And it's this massive piece of art that's It's very 1965 looking and it's just another theme in there. And I don't know how it ties in other than it's a.Track 1:[40:59] You know, foreboding dark quote. That's just my, I don't know. That's my interpretation of it. But you know, Gord obviously was going through some stuff too. And, and it, it felt like this was almost a third person narrative of a first person point of view. There was two songs on the album that I'm familiar with. The hard Canadian is the first time I heard it. I had definitely had heard it before, but had not, you know, process that it was not a hip song. I think I thought it was like a deep cut hip song or something when I heard it years ago. But the other one is, and I know we'll talk about it, The Night Is Forgetting.Track 1:[41:36] He would sing it when he would do hip songs. He would sing some of his gourd songs. So when I read that story or heard about that story, I'm like, I know I've heard that song before when they played out here in LA or whatever. So, but anyway, the hard Canadian, what he had mentioned was it was Mike, Mike Clattenberg trailer park boys. That's that, that's it's one of the series that I haven't watched. I've watched letter Kenny and I've watched, you know, several other Canadian, but I have not watched the trailer park boys. And he had mentioned that it was one of the guys I guess is one of the creators and he's like yeah I got this new thing and it's hard Canadian it's dope and and so when I'd heard that description I immediately thought of like if you guys are familiar with letter Kenny like Wayne is he's hard Canadian it's just gonna smoke a you know go out and smoke and have a puppers have a dart yeah having a dart exactly so that that was the imagery that I got from it I want to point out that this is the first song in section number two lyrically in the lyric booklet.Track 1:[42:39] And I just noticed that there's a quote here from Walter von Tilburg Clark, night is like a room. It makes the little things in your head too important. And I just realized that's the second verse of the East wind. And then I glanced forward section three has the lyric from the third verse. So the lyrics from the East wind are in here, but they're, they're heading each sections. And so in my mind, and they're quotes from other authors. Is that what it is? Yeah. It was, um, he said that song was made up of the East wind I'm talking about was made up of quote, like three quotes that he, that he loved. And I had seen that somewhere. Yes. And so the hard Canadian to me is like what JD said, like I'm picturing like a relic type. I had a baseball coach when I was a kid who he's this older guy and he always had like this about one inch left of a, of a homemade smoke. And, uh, and that, that line where he says, takes a puff of puff of nothing and pick something from his tongue. Like I just picture Mr. Heller, my baseball coach who, you know, for four years, you know, first 10 minutes of practice, you don't wear a glove. You're, you're passing the baseball just with bare hands and, and just thinking back to those, those times, there was another line that I want to bring up the silences.Track 1:[43:55] He don't listen to them. Do you think that's a reference to Pascal? Maybe that's interesting. Uh, I hadn't thought that, But because I'm thinking now my mind is a squirrel and I, I'm almost thinking this is about, you know, that, that, you know, rural Canadian, um, you know, like a relic type. And in my mind, Gord is trying to say maybe that, that there's more, more to that person than, than maybe meets the eye. I don't be so quick to judge when he says he, he blurs the image, drags his brush through the wet pigment. To me that line saying you know don't be so quick to judge the hard canadian well right at the end he mentions remembering someone too and that's absolutely you know makes sense and i know a lot of hard frenchmen that are from quebec that have been through hell and you get down to it and they're just you know beautiful soft men inside but you got to get through seven layers of onion to get there.Track 1:[44:56] And that really ties perfectly into the next song, which is Gone.Track 1:[48:41] Because it has a very similar story behind it, which I'll get into it a little bit. But Kirk, what were your thoughts on Gone? Yeah, no, I love that you actually had mentioned that you're going to get into more of the meaning of it. Because I have some thoughts and ideas, but what I really wanted to talk about on this particular one, from the musician side, that I absolutely loved about it is – I'll give the note that I wrote. And I can't remember exactly who it was that mentioned it to Gord, but he said it sounded like a moose in the distance.Track 1:[49:16] And when you listen to this tune, which is a beautiful tune, another great example of the harmonies, it's another one where you just hear the range of Gord's vocals that are just phenomenal and how he can cover the spectrum with that. But the fact that Dale Morningstar was using a theremin and had several different layers of the theremin recorded on that and you hear it. And then when you get confirmation of it, you go back and listen to it and you go, oh, wow. Right. Because there's only a few songs out there that we all know and love that have the theremin. Right. There's only what the Beach Boys and Led Zeppelin or the, you know, have have really pulled it off. So it's cool to see them jump out from a musician standpoint, musicianship standpoint.Track 1:[50:05] The other thing that I wanted to mention before, and I definitely want to hear Craig's thoughts on the meaning of it, was that Gord had mentioned in one of his interviews that this and I think The Night Is Forgetting, he called it the grandma and the grandpa. So he'd had these songs for a long time and he'd matured with them. And so I think that that anticipation of so much time between the two albums, but then having songs that came, you know, at different points along the way. And I just felt like this one had, it had marinated and it was, what was presented was what had, he had settled on, because I think that happens anyone who's done music creation. You're, you write it with a thought, a producer takes a look at it, an engineer takes a look at it, the rest of the band, and it becomes something different.Track 1:[50:55] Anyway, Craig, your thoughts on some of the meaning behind it. In the booklet, there's a quote from a Polish writer named Bruno Schultz. And it says, He had not been rooted in any woman's heart. He could not merge with any reality and was therefore condemned to float eternally on the periphery of life in half real regions on the margins of existence. And apparently this was in reference to his own father. So again, coming out of the last song, it seems to kind of tie into that idea of, at the end of The Hard Canadian, where there's someone he was remembering. So this idea of, there's actually the lyric in the song, gone and feeling half real on the edge of your life. And that ties directly to that quote. quote musically the bridge that there's a building bridge with uh julie singing backup and.Track 1:[51:48] Really really great songwriting and this was another song that really grew on me it's just such a catchy kind of fun fun song uh justin what did you think no i loved it right from the beginning it yeah it builds and it starts really slow and then it gets really slow again in the middle and it's quiet. I didn't dive too deeply into the lyrics, but there's definitely, you know, this is a life story kind of thing. And maybe at the end of it. Yeah. I just, I really love the way the song made me feel and that's only surface deep, but sometimes that's all you need in a song. And I don't know, I could listen to this one over and over. And I have. Okay. Kirk, how about the drowning machine? What are your thoughts there? I think we have another nautical disaster, could we call it, on this next song? Yeah, yeah. Through Drowning Machine. Drowning Machine. Until I actually looked it up, I didn't really know what it was talking about. But apparently, the Drowning Machine is like a common name for a weir, which is a low head dam, which if you've seen pictures of them, basically what happens is the water just cycles. And just if you get if you end up going over one of these dams you're.Track 1:[53:02] Pretty much not getting out and so gourd had apparently read a story about um about some girls being saved from the the bow river in alberta and um there was actually i i kind of looked up this this bow river and there's this this notorious um spot on the river where where i believe it said had 14 deaths in 30 years and they actually had a there one story there was there was actually a boom across so if you if you're totally out of you know if you miss all the signs and you you keep going down you can grab on to this boom at one point a storm had washed it washed it away and so a couple of men died in in i believe 2007 because the the boom had been washed out and so finally they did some construction and they and they have now made it into uh an area called the Harvey, this is called the Harvey passage. And apparently people go there to do white water rafting. And there's actually two kind of, um, passages that go through now two channels, uh, at different levels of, you know, for, for different levels of experience, um, for, for rafters. I had, I had done some research on the, um, Glenora song and there's a very treacherous river that it's like, Hey, don't go there, fly over it.Track 1:[54:20] And this reminded me of, reading about that, it reminded me of Niagara Falls, just the immense force of the water at the bottom. And you're not going to get out of there if you go over the falls.Track 1:[54:37] We had a deer camp when I was a kid on the Huntington Gorge here in Vermont. And there's a plaque with a list of 30 or so names of all the people that have died in the gorge. And our deer camp was the spot where the state police would fish the bodies out of the river every time there was one that ended up there you know we we couldn't get to the to the camp because they would use the front porch to be their their base of operations oh yeah wild and i i have to say at the end um there is some lead guitar at the end by dale that really at this point in the album when I was, especially on first listen, when I wasn't totally jiving with some of the earlier tracks, this song was the one that immediately I loved, like right off the bat. And hearing that guitar when Dale finally cuts loose and really leans into that dissonance, I felt like, okay, I'm starting to get this. And Kirk, what did you think of this? Yeah, I am fascinated, obviously, with Gord's fascination with water and the nautical side of things. But again, I think this song was just another great example of their time together and how they really... And I don't know if you guys noticed this.Track 1:[55:58] I don't think they played this on that six-part one, but I really enjoyed that it wasn't like a monarchy. You know, it wasn't Gord was given direction. It was everyone was involved. And I really loved the different parts that you would see with Chris Swala and his just subtle, nice guy production tips. So, um, I really love that interaction of, of how now that they've been done.Track 1:[56:25] A couple albums together and now it had been a little bit. And I also read something about how, yeah, they wanted to definitely get that indie vibe and they definitely wanted to have a variety of different styles of music, but how they also, you know, they're also very accomplished musicians and they've spent some time with some big bands and have played in some pretty, pretty big arena. So they could bring that to the songwriting and, and, and, and the music within this. So, and I really felt that too, moving into Yellow Days, which was the next one.Track 1:[1:00:51] I love this tune. This tune to me, and maybe I'm hearing something wrong, but there was almost kind of like a jazz bossa nova, just a real kind of amazing groove to it. And I also loved hearing about the story about Josie Dye, I think was her name. And they had had a passing at a festival way back when, when I think she was a hip fan and he was just walking around and that that that's That's actually part of the lyrics in this particular tune. But I love this song. He talks about it in some of the interviews and the descriptions about just the Canadian summers and how much the Canadians love that summer, but it goes by so quick.Track 1:[1:01:36] And so they're really just trying to make the most of every time they have good weather and they have a good moment and also keeping with Craig's color theme, which I love that you brought that up and along with the storytelling that's going on uh you know this is the here we are and and enjoying that summertime and almost reminiscent of them recording this album right for the two weeks i think in august and in 09 so justin did you dig this song yeah because we have the same summer and winter pattern that that you guys would up north today you know inside baseball we're not recording this in the summer when this is coming out we're recording it well before and it was the first warm day this year and I wore shorts and it was only 61 degrees outside. It was very windy. I shouldn't have had shorts on. But you take those moments and you wrap your life around them when you can get them. And 61 felt like 81 today. And I know the Canada gray because we have that here. It's Canada gray. Even as it's warm today, it's Canada gray outside. And just the imagery of it is wonderful. wonderful yeah and i mentioned the earlier the you know the theme of of days and nights so you know that's very obvious here uh and going into the next song and um.Track 1:[1:02:53] A couple of things, Kirk, when you were saying, you know, that beat at the start, I had the same thing. I was actually trying last night to figure out what type of beat this really was. The word that came to my mind was Calypso, but then I looked it up and it was not correct. But like this South American, like it's something I've heard. Bossa Nova was what came to my mind. So, you know, Calypso Bossa Nova, it's definitely a Caribbean feel. And, you know, the fact that it's on a Gord album, you know, again, just really talks to, you know, we had your hardcore on the last one and now we're doing Calypso Bossa Nova, you know, jazz type stuff. It's brilliant in my opinion. It reminded me of my grandmother's organ, you know, had those big tab buttons that there's a there's a pre-programmed beat and it's really bad not that the song's bad but on the organ it is yeah kirk your story about the you know everyone you know in this you know having so few.Track 1:[1:03:54] Summer days in certain parts of canada it reminds me of back in 96 my band was was in winnipeg we were playing you know this show at a you know the club that all the you know the all the decent bands played at and so we were really excited about playing this this club and uh it was on a weekend we thought like this is great and it turns out it was the the long weekend in august and everyone in town leaves for the for the lakes and there was nobody in town like not just for our show but anywhere it was just bizarre so those are the the yellow days of winnipeg well let's Let's continue on with you, Craig. Keep this wagon wheel going and talk about Night is Forgetting, which is a great title. Yeah. So, so again, the day, day and night theme and we go from yellow days and tonight is forgetting.Track 1:[1:04:46] And it was really bugging me this song because I'm like, I know that I know this song and I couldn't figure it out. And then I felt so stupid a week ago when I actually looked in my, on my phone and I had the hip version of this, which is from about, I think 2005, it was just a single. As far as I know, it was just released out of nowhere. It was, uh, I think it was left over from in between evolution. Okay. So, so I did have it. So I definitely been listening to it, you know, in the past, but it never was a song that, that interested me very much. So this one again, grew on me. I think I prefer this version now. It's, it's a little more upbeat. I love the piano. So, so shout out to Dr. P, John Press, who I don't think we mentioned last, last episode, but he is such a great player. I actually looked him up last night. I couldn't find too much about him online.Track 1:[1:05:38] And he is so tasteful. He never overplays until this is like, it was almost like someone said to me, you know, just, just let loose. And you can actually see, I'm sure you guys saw on the, on the bathhouse videos, you can see him rehearsing this on his own, kind of coming up with a part and man, he nails those, those runs. It's very impressive. It's so good. So I wrote, or I heard, and I could have definitely stole it, but I heard piano flurries. And that's exactly what it sounds like as a piano flurry when it starts driving. That's exactly what my note says. Yeah, piano flurries. And the one line that stuck out with me or to me was the dew drops on the luminous veil. And I know he mentioned this in the Alan Cross interview and the luminous veil being the suicide barriers they put up on the Bloor Street street viaduct in Toronto. I guess it was a place where there was just mass amounts of suicides, just 500 suicides and they finally put up this barrier.Track 1:[1:06:41] It's a 10 minute walk from my house, the Luminous Vale. When you guys come here, I'll show you the Luminous Vale. At night, it's very pretty, but in sort of a, I don't even know, like an eerie way because Because the sections that hold the guy wires up all look like crosses. Yeah, it's heavy, man. And so my last thing about this song, in one of the interviews, Gord, he mentions that he read a quote from, I believe, Thomas Jefferson saying something about war is forgetting another country's resources.Track 1:[1:07:19] And he said, I just replaced war with night. On the hip version of this, he actually does sing war is forgetting in the last chorus. us. So he changes that for this version. But I was actually looking up quotes from Jefferson last night. I didn't find anything that resembled such an idea. So if any listeners know what he was referencing here, I'd love to hear from you. So when Gord passed, there was an interview on some news, whatever, with Ron McLean from the CBC, or I don't know if he's the CBC anymore, more, but I knew him from Hockey Night in Canada growing up. And what I think was a quote that Gord said, but I've never been able to find it attributed to Gord, was, night takes the chances, day the reward. I love that quote. And he wrote an op-ed about Gord's passing that included that line as well. And it's just a beautiful line. And I sort of.Track 1:[1:08:19] Think of myself with my work that way. I sleep three hours a night just because that's how my body works. And I'm up till one in the morning and then I get up at 5.30. But I also love that forgetting and forgetting are really just a great sound in the song that can be interpreted in any possible way. Yes, I love that part of it. And as I mentioned earlier, this was one of the songs that I know I had heard before. And honestly, until I just recently had either read or heard that it was a hip song or that it was used on a couple of hip shows, I feel 100% positive that one of the shows that I saw, they played this. I haven't gone back and look at all the set list yet, but I feel pretty confident of that. So yeah. But just love the musicality of the song. I mean, that's the only thing I would add is just the musicality is insane. I have created this little thing that I've called Gord's Annunciation Era, where he's got a section of his career with a hip where he absolutely nails every letter in every word. And think of the lonely end of the rink, and it's a very hard – and this song is a great example of that. You know he says every letter in every word in every phrase and it's just a it's very distinct this this section of maybe eight or ten years of his career whether it's with the hip or solo.Track 1:[1:09:46] And I just love how he really makes his body be an instrument with words. And also the line, he says, weird undercurrent, we're undercurrent. And again, another reference to water in a way, but just thought that was a neat little turn of phrase there. Yeah, he's so good at that. And he changes just little tiny tweaks throughout this album in many different songs with words and lyrics and how he, it sounds the same on first two or three listens. And then you realize, oh no, this is a completely different set of words. Christmastime in Toronto, he did that too on the last album. And at the very end of this song, I love how he's singing over and over. Night is forgetting and then forgetting. And then there's one time when they totally phrase it differently. There's pauses.Track 1:[1:10:37] Do you know what I mean? I mean, the very last line, I think it is just a neat little, I love songs that have just one little quirk like that. Yes, yes, absolutely. You know what? It really goes back to, I'll be leaving you or I'll be leaving you tonight. I mean, right from the beginning, right? It's just a really cool trick that he's always done. Well, another, one of the other tricks that he's famous for is invoking his children and lullabying them. The next song, Moon Show Your Lashes, to me is just the process of writing some of these lullabies and things about his children. That's what it means to me. Mr. St. Louis, how about you? I took it as his battle with insomnia, you know, which is also a common theme throughout his career.Track 1:[1:11:25] And yes, I definitely picked up on the thing. Like, you know, there's a, there's a book that my wife and I love called go the fuck to sleep, you know, talking about your kids, like just give us a break, man. And tonight, in fact, before we recorded, my daughter was taking a bath and she's trying to speak Spanish and she's yelling it and asking my wife questions in the other room in Spanish. And I walked in and Linda looks up at me and whispers, she needs to shut the fuck up. You know, just those moments of give it a rest, kid. But I think that it could be interpreted either way that like, yeah, he's talking about his kids. Like just, okay, relax. We get it. moon slow your lashes.Track 1:[1:12:09] But, you know, I think, The way that I took it was more of Gord by the lamp with a notepad trying to come up with the next song and wondering, you know, there's the line, what must he think? And no more, I think he thinks. And kind of judging himself or his work before it's even completed and just not being able to reconcile that. For what it's worth, I love the lyrics in this song. I friggin' hate the tune. I hate this song.Track 1:[1:12:39] It's so annoying. And I don't know what it is about it. And it's such an earworm. And it's the one I can't get out of my head. I can't stand the song. Get out of here. Wow. Actually just blown away by what Justin said, because I absolutely love the tune. Me too. And I think it's that 2010s, as you mentioned, you know, like there's such a massive influence from all of them individually as artists, but obviously Death Cab and that influence, but I think what they were listening to at the time. And so I mentioned that I really liked this album. So, you know, there's, there's no real duds on it for me. So, I mean, there's little things of course that I could critique, but to me, this particular album and, and, and even this song like this, this one's really up there. For me you know i'm still trying to decide what's going to be my favorite song from this and it's the first time that i didn't know instantaneously i particularly i enjoyed you know again just how it made me feel it gave me that that just that cool this is where we're at in this this time in music like it was it was it had it has some heavy lyrics but it it's i mean not crazy heavy but it was an upbeat song, I think, overall. So I appreciated it. So there was a story, Gord, in one of the interviews online I found.Track 1:[1:14:01] Talks about a radio essay he was listening to by, by someone named Neil McDonald. And he was talking about a woman who would go up to a place called high level Alberta. So when they, when he says high level in the, in the book, in, in, in the song, I had noticed in the booklet, it was capitalized. So it actually is a place up in Northern Alberta. And this woman would go up to um, Northern Alberta and, um, make, make some money. You can probably imagine how she's making her money and, and she would do this in order to support her kids. And, uh, and then when she got back to her kids, I just want to want to hold and smell. And another crazy example of how Gord writes these like incredibly upbeat, like you hear it and you fall in love with it because it makes you feel good, but it's dark AF.Track 1:[1:14:52] It's just got some real, real, real just black undertones in some of it, but the music just keeps you going. And that line that says, when, not if, after, when I get out of high level, when, not if. Yeah. And forget the, in the bridge, I think it is the forget the hawks, jaguars, the knife lickers and creeps. And yeah, it just really changed my perspective of the song and and yeah that that juxtaposition between the the sort of cute music and the dark lyrics some some more themes of um you know burgundy the color burgundy dance dance so again dance is the the one earlier that i was forgetting when i was talking about themes so themes on this album water you've got day and night you've got color and you've got dance and this song has a couple of those things in it and and to me it was like you know the things we do for our family oh like i like i said i i really love the story in the song and the lyrics and trying to figure out what i think i thought but just the tune i can't do it i don't know why man i'm sorry i'm i'm i'm not totally crazy about this song uh it's not my lead i'm actually we passed by my my least favorite without me saying but but to me um The Hard Canadian is the weak link on this album. To me, it's just a... Oh, wow. Yeah, it's just... I think it's the chord progression has just so been done before. Yeah, I'm not in love with it either. And that's the one song that I was familiar with on this album. This song, I wasn't too much of a fan of at first, but I do really like it now. It has grown on me, especially I think hearing that story. Well, are we ready to jump into Retrace?Track 1:[1:20:11] This song, my note, it just says vocally amazing. That's the note I have.Track 1:[1:20:18] I'm sure there's an amazing meaning behind the whole song. I really don't care. I just want to hear Gord sing the main line. I retrace my steps. And it just puts me in this amazing, wonderful, just warm place like we talked about in the beginning. And even Gord in some of his interviews talked about how the process and these songs were company to him. And that's what I felt with this retrace, this tune. And again, another great pairing from harmonies and also great build. And also, as we'd mentioned before, where that whole theory of every four bars coming up with something new, the retrace song, it definitely had additions and installations to create this. I just, yeah, maybe I'm dating myself, but I don't know if you guys are familiar with the band, the Smithereens.Track 1:[1:21:17] Kind of had a Smithereens vibe to it. Had a Lou Reed vibe to it. I know that there'

“What if we could do anything? Should we do it? What are the consequences?” Ramona Ausubel's new novel The Last Animal asks big questions about motherhood, grief and our responsibility to the planet. And there's a woolly mammoth. Ausubel joins us to talk about the realities of working in male dominated fields, the differences in writing novels and short stories, the power of storytelling and more with Miwa Messer, host of Poured Over. We end this episode with TBR Topoff book recommendations from Marc and Jamie.   This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Executive Producer Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang.          Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays)   Featured Books (Episode):  The Last Animal by Ramona Ausubel A Guide to Being Born by Ramona Ausubel Pastoralia by George Saunders Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell    Featured Books (TBR Topoff):   Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler 

Some of the highlights of this year's Books for Breakfast, featuring contributions by Gabriel Byrne, Thomas McCarthy, Wendy Erskine, Colm Tóibín, Brian Leyden, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Leland Bardwell, Kevin Power, John McAuliffe, Kelly Michels, Mark Granier, Judith Mok and Mark Roper.Enda and Peter also discuss some of the books on their desks at the moment: The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by  David W. Anthony; Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year by Eleanor Parker; The Magpie and the Child by Catriona Clutterbuck; Stretto by David Wheatley; My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley; Crooked Love/Grá fiar by Louis de Paor; Mrs Bridge by Evan S. Connell and Earth's Black Chute by Cian Ferriter. Extract from Lá dá raibh/One Day courtesy of Rockfinch Ltd.Intro/outro music: Colm Mac Con Iomaire, ‘Thou Shalt Not Carry' from The Hare's Corner, 2008, with thanks to Colm for permission to use it. Incidental music from Audio Library Plus. Artwork by Freya SirrTo subscribe to Books for Breakfast go to your podcast provider of choice (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google etc) and search for the podcast then hit subscribe or follow, or simply click the appropriate button above. Support the show

Journalist and biographer Steve Paul and writer and Washington University professor Henry Schvey join host Whitney Terrell live from the Unbound Book Festival in Columbia, Missouri, to discuss their books on novelist Evan S. Connell and Tennessee Williams, respectively. Each of the old masters was from Missouri—Connell from Kansas City and Williams from St. Louis. Paul and Schvey talk about how, though neither man was happy about his city of origin, those locations factored importantly into their work. Finally, they take questions from the live audience at Unbound.  To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/ This podcast is produced by Anne Kniggendorf. Selected Readings: Steve Paul Hemingway at Eighteen Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S. Connell Henry Schvey Blue Song Others Tennessee Williams Ernest Hemingway Mrs. Bridge, Evan S. Connell Mr. Bridge, Connell The Patriot, Connell Son of the Morningstar, Connell The Diary of a Rapist, Connell The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams Night of the Iguana, Williams Anne Lamott Paris Review Max Steele The New Republic Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (film) Wallace Stegner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Discussion Notes: The Land Where Lemon Trees Bloom This week’s story: The Land Where Lemon Trees Bloom by Evan S. Connell  Next week’s story: The Daughters of the Moon by Italo Calvino  Rated: Clean Gerald, Andy and Anais discuss “The Land Where Lemon Trees Bloom” by Evan S. Connell, a story of a man who... The post Ep 201: The Land Where Lemon Trees Bloom appeared first on Literary Roadhouse.

Discussion Notes: The Land Where Lemon Trees Bloom This week’s story: The Land Where Lemon Trees Bloom by Evan S. Connell  Next week’s story: The Daughters of the Moon by Italo Calvino  Rated: Clean Gerald, Andy and Anais discuss “The Land Where Lemon Trees Bloom” by Evan S. Connell, a story of a man who... The post Ep 201: The Land Where Lemon Trees Bloom appeared first on Literary Roadhouse.

Discussion Notes: Callme and Mink This week’s story: Callme and Mink by Brenda Cooper  Next week’s story: The Land Where Lemon Trees Bloom by Evan S. Connell  Rated: Clean Gerald, Andy and Anais discuss “Callme and Mink” by Brenda Cooper, a story about attachments, centered on a robot whose prime directive is to raise and... The post Ep 200: Callme and Mink appeared first on Literary Roadhouse.

Discussion Notes: Callme and Mink This week’s story: Callme and Mink by Brenda Cooper  Next week’s story: The Land Where Lemon Trees Bloom by Evan S. Connell  Rated: Clean Gerald, Andy and Anais discuss “Callme and Mink” by Brenda Cooper, a story about attachments, centered on a robot whose prime directive is to raise and... The post Ep 200: Callme and Mink appeared first on Literary Roadhouse.

From Kansas City to medieval alchemy and a lot in between, the life of Evan S. Connell and what it took for a biographer to cover the interstices of this important writer.

“I think bookstores are really magical places, and not to be too idealistic about it, I really think that they're so important, they're cornerstones to communities, and they are treasures and we need to keep them alive.” Jami Attenberg, author of St. Mazie and The Middlesteins, among other novels, joins us on the show to talk about her first memoir, I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing My Way Home, as well as the difference between loneliness and solitude, managing anxiety, her life as a writer, the books her book club has convinced her to read, her #1000wordsofsummer project, and more. (If writing a book is one of your goals for '22, you don't want to miss this episode.) Featured books: I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home, St. Maizie and The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg, Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell, the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Intimacies by Katie Kitamura. Poured Over is produced and hosted by Miwa Messer and engineered by Harry Liang. Follow us here for new episodes Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional bonus episodes on Saturdays).

The Bucks are inundated with letters from, for, and about Normalville. A resident admits talking to animals and she's the normal one. Laundry tips, snake charming, amorous animals, nd aliens. What more could a town ask for?Dave recalls trout fishing near Normalville with his balance-impaired high school principal. Can you say suck-up?Our first LFA from Latrobe questions the habits of Normalville dogs and give a tip of the hat to TOB.Ranger Rick returns with a book report on Get Up and Ride by Jim Shea, an account of a bike trip from Pittsburgh to DC on the GAP/C&O Canal trail, a distance of 355 miles. Rick did this ride last year and Dave did it ten years ago. try it, you'll like it.Del goes blind trying to track a package, wondering why they have to use 4-font and dumb characters. His second rant involves car ads on TV, wondering why the cars in the ads are always in places you wouldn't go to.  WHY?Dave has flashbacks of his career in corporate America  and giving 110% to take it to the next level. At least he didn't have to worry about lack of bandwidth.Del recommends The Connoisseur by Evan S. Connell, about a man who buys an artifact and becomes obsessed about the value of it. First published in 1974. This was pre-NFT, pre-stovetop art. We still have a few copies of Del's digital art left. Send your request  to buckstwoold@gmail.comFinally, we attempt to solve a problem for a loyal listener from Moscow but fail miserably. 

The thing I love most about England is that they still put ugly people on television.   It has been a great week to learn some shit and my mother and I stuffed our heads with beautiful art knowledge and thanks to the BBC, we took a quest around the world for humankind's greatest achievements. First we talk about this past week in captivity as I undertook the task of sorting out and categorizing my boxes full of old paper photographs.  For the longest time I had wanted to categorize my photos separately in travel, comedy and family sections. Along with this labor came the joy of bagging up ex girlfriends and put them in a box and stuff that box in the deepest corner of my darkest closet. My mom said "Its like cleaning out the cobwebs from the corners of your life." I want to be clear that this doesn't include Ashna, because our whole history in photos is all digital, because she was my wife and because her and I are still friends. Also, Ashna still edits and produces this podcast and there were no dark corners in our relationship, it was most always bright sunshine. The one thing that this Corona virus Covid 19 lockdown has taught me is that I'm going to make someone a really good wife one day. I've been cooking all of our meals and washing the clothes and the dishes. My mom has the bathroom and the floors. Aside from keeping our one bedroom pirate ship clean we have been feeding our brains with the choicest slices of knowledge. In the episode we talk about the last two books my mom read here in the Rhodes library: The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes Goya, A Life by Evan S. Connell After this we talk about the last episodes we watched of The Great Artists by Tim Marlow which cover the artistic lives of Bruegel, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Goya, David, Turner, Vermeer, Stubbs, Constable, Delacroix, Whistler, Van Gogh, Schiele. From there our learning documentary trail led us to the BBC's 'Around The World In 80 Treasures With Dan Cruikshank' which is a quest around the world for humankind's greatest achievements. Considering that the human race is now currently down on its knees it is a good time to be reminded of some of our greatest achievements and some of the fun and beauty we created back in the good old days when we were allowed to spend time together. The thing that I love most about England is that they still put ugly people on television. I told my mother that there isn't a single person in the world I would rather be spending this lockdown with other than her and that is because we both talk the easiest with each other and because we are both interested in the same things. After 40 treasures faulty Dvds didn't allow us to see the last 40 that Dan Cruikshank wanted us to see so we took a trip with National Geographic on a show called 'Time Scanners' where the scan with a mobile laser scanner Petra, St. Paul's Cathedral, The Pyramids, The Coliseum, Ancient Jerusalem and Machu Pichu. This brought our conversation to Peru and the train journey I took once there going from Cusco bound for Puno. This episode ends at Machu Pichu as it should being that this concludes our week of learning here at Corona University. I hope you enjoy listening to this conversation with my mom as much as I enjoyed doing it. I hope this serves up as a good reminder for you to do something nice for your mother this coming Sunday May 10 because it is Mother's Day. Hooray for humanity and hooray for moms!     Why wait until Mother's Day to spoil your mother

In this episode I look at two paintings that depict murders and executions, both born of moments of revolution. The first is Jaques-Louis David's "The Death of Marat." The second is Francisco Goya's "Third of May, 1808." I'll be looking at the history of these paintings, the men who painted them and the people and moments they depict.Sources for this episode include:Evan S. Connell, "Francisco Goya: A Life"Gregory Fremont-Barnes, "Encyclopedia of the Age of Political Revolutions and New Ideologies, 1760-1815"https://www.jacqueslouisdavid.org/biography.htmlMusic for this episode is courtesy of musopen.org.You can follow us on twitter at @SynodusPod and on Instagram at SynodusHorrendaPod. You can support the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/SynodusHorrenda where for $5 a month you will receive access to free monthly bonus episodes.  

We begin in the 1950s, with Evan S. Connell's Mrs. Bridge, a sneakily moving novel comprised of short, comic vignettes in the life of a Kansas City housewife. At the 47 minute mark, we turn to the second round of the NBA Playoffs. We check in on Warriors-Rockets, Raptors-Sixers, Bucks-Celtics and Nuggets-Blazers, before finishing with an exaltation of Damian Lillard, the flat-out coolest player in the league. Next up: the 1940s, with Henry Green's Loving.

In the first pod recorded in Jesse's distinctly unsoundproofed new office, we tackle Muriel Spark's wonderful 1961 novella The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. At the 42 minute mark, Lynwood Robinson joins us to predict the various playoff series. Apologies to Charles Chace, who we wanted to call in for his takes on the 3-6 matchups; we realized too late that the recorder was paused. Timecodes for particular series: 00:49-00:52 Warriors vs Clippers 00:52-00:54 Bucks vs Pistons 00:54-01:00 Nuggets vs Spurs 01:00-01:08 Raptors vs Magic (01:03-1:07 Sidebar discussion of All NBA 3rd Team forwards) 01:08-01:12 Trailblazers vs Thunder 01:12-01:16 76ers vs Nets 01:16-01:23 Rockets vs Jazz 01:23-01:28 Celtics vs Pacers 01:28-end Conference Finals and Finals predictions Next up: The 1950s, and Evan S. Connell's Mrs. Bridge

We welcome special guest Lauren Grodstein (author of, most recently, the novel Our Short History) to discuss a 1959 novel that's become something of a cult classic, one which never earned its author widespread acclaim but which is consistently mentioned as a favorite by other writers. We also talk about Lauren's new book, her love of plot, and how she manages to get so much writing done while being a working mother. For more, visit us online at bookfightpod.com.  Thanks for listening!

Evan S. Connell Deus Lo Volt! Chronicle of the Crusades (Counterpoint) Evan S. Connell, who rarely grants an interview, discusses both the savagery of Holy Wars and his elegant fictionalizing of bloody history.