I didn't know that the crows in Portland spoke english!

Prepare to journey into the heart of the Hip's 2009 album, "We Are the Same." This week, we're pulling back the curtain on an album that made fans wait an extra year for its release. We're not just talking about the music; we're delving into the nostalgia, the reception, and the adventure of listening to this collection of songs.

Tracks

Morning Moon - Studio version

The Last Recluse - Montreal 2009

The Depression Suite - San Fransciso 2009

Frozen in my Tracks - Syracuse 2009

Transcript

Track 1:

[0:01] For the first time in over 20 years, hip fans had to wait longer than two years for new material.

It was three years after we got World Container that Bob Rock came down from the mountain with the Stone Tablet Masters of what appeared to be a campfire album called We Are TheSame.

Although it launched with a cool promo, the hip, performing live at the bathhouse, beamed to cineplex theaters across Canada, and it debuted at number one, I have absolutely no memoryof this album entering the zeitgeist.

In fact, I could tell you that only Love Is a First made it to my ears before the Fully and Completely podcast.

My first full listen of this album was followed by a visit to the grocery store where I bumped into my co-host Greg, and I remember us casually throwing around terms like milk toast andbeige when describing what we were getting into with this springtime release.

What followed though is something amazing and it's something only music can truly do.

[1:05] You see, I gave this album its due and by that I mean a good solid listening session.

On walks, at my desk, on my patio, the beige started to turn into a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes.

The album was making me feel nostalgic for my 1977 El Camino.

I could envision loading up the back of this hog with camping gear and taking this record to the cottage for the May long and listening to nothing but.

Yes, I had become a fan of We Are The Same.

Today it's an album I reach for when I feel wistful and I want to reminisce with my past.

I adore Morning Moon and the Depression Suite, but the deeper cuts do it for me too.

Will the love that Pete and Tim felt on the Bob Rock produced World Container spill over onto this record, or will their first experience be like mine?

We're here now, so we may as well be getting hip to the hip.

Track 4:

[2:31] Hey it's JD here and welcome back to Getting Hip to the Hip.

I'm here every week with my friends Pete and Tim and what we do is we talk about the Tragically Hip one album at a time week over week trying to understand what it's like to hear thisband for the first time again.

Pete, Tim, How the fuck are you guys doing?

Ola, como estas? Buenas tardes. Bueno, bueno, bueno. Los fanes de Tragically Hip.

That's how they would say it here. I'm not culturally appropriating.

That's how people talk here in Spain. In Spanish, you mean? Yeah, yeah.

And they wouldn't change the name of Tragically Hip. hip, they would just say tragically hip, just like they say.

See, see, see. Cloud, cloud, or cloud, or cloud. I don't know where he's went to, but there was a guy on Facebook.

He's in the Facebook group. And his name is Luca Tadia, I believe.

And he's Italian. And he discovered the hip out of, he's an Italian, he's in a band. He's a singer-songwriter.

[3:47] And he was at a really low point. And he discovered the hip.

And he, he really feels so strongly about them that he's rewritten, rewritten.

[3:59] The lyrics like transcribe, like not transcribe them. What word am I looking for?

Translated them, but in many cases he's had to write his own because there's so many turns of phrase he's, he's having to write like his own sort of stuff, but, but to fit in the melodicstructure and then, you know, he, he alters the melodic structure a little bit, but he's released a whole whack and he's coming out with a record and everything, but I haven't seen, I haven'tseen anything about him in a while.

So what a fucking surface, Luca, come back to it.

I'll point out, I'll send some stuff to the thread later this week, but, um, I'm getting way, uh, way caught up in the weeds here because we're here to talk about a record we're here to talkabout, we are the same, uh, released in 2009, which interesting tidbit.

This is the first time that a hip band had had to wait more than two years for a record since the band emerged in 1987.

They had to wait three years. So it was 2006, then 2009. Was that the longest three years of hip's lives?

Or what was going on during that time? I'm guessing the diehards were losing their minds. Yeah. Are they breaking up? What's going on?

Like, Gord was doing solo stuff. Rob Baker was doing Stripper's Union in 2005.

So he might have toured Stripper's Union in 2006.

[5:22] I don't know, they did their usual stuff, but they, like, to my...

[5:28] To my knowledge, they, I mean, the record still opened at number one, um, for the week that it was released, which was consistent with what the hip had been doing.

I think they had eight in a row or something like that, but they just weren't part of the zeitgeist, you know, they weren't part of, or maybe it's just, they weren't part of my zeitgeist.

That, that might be it. Uh, they, they might've been, but, but I feel like if they were as big as they were in 96 in 2009, then they would have never fell off my radar, sort of.

And it wasn't that they fell off my radar. They, I just started listening to other music.

I just, you know, I- Were you aware of their whole, their whole bathhouse performance at the end or before the release? Like they played at the bathhouse to, they played a show?

I would have lost my, like, I would have lost my mind. So I, yeah, I don't, I don't know.

[6:24] It was just out of my reference point. Yeah, so I read that they played at the Bathhouse and it was screened, I guess, at Cineplex Theatres across Canada.

It's like, these guys were, you know, celebrating for sure. Do you know what Cineplex Theatres owns?

One of the things they own is a branch of places called the Rec Room.

And one of the Rec Rooms is in Toronto, where we're going to be hosting our event. And we hope you all make it. Get out of fucking town.

Wait, what's this event? What are we doing?

[6:59] Come on be on board I hate the pull it out game That's gonna be a fun night.

I just can't wait. That's gonna be a real fun. Oh, don't lie Jay Jay D Your pull-out game is great.

[7:15] Oh my gosh He's got like 12 pockets on his outfit right now he's pulling shit out of her. Oh man. Yeah, I know, the event's going to be great, tickets are selling through, so get themwhile you can. Hit them quick.

Get more information on our Twitter feed or send any of us an email, JD, Pete, Tim at gettinghiptothehip.com you can do all of that and more.

So let's get into this Bob Rock produced record.

This one's recorded entirely at The Bath House, which is a stark contrast from World Container, which was recorded at a big studio in Vancouver and a relatively large studio in Toronto.

This was now The Hip on their own ground. I feel like as a result of that we get a very different sounding record.

It's got like the nuances the nooks and crannies that the bathhouse records are sort of becoming famous for but it's still like holy shit is this record produced.

Like it is depending on what side of the fence you're on it's either intricate or too busy you know like in terms of some of the arrangements.

[8:34] The general, I don't know, gist of it that I was kind of reading about is a little bit of a love-hate. I don't know. I also read that that extra year they're waiting for Bob Rock to returnfrom a carnival cruise.

Like a really extended long carnival cruise.

Oh, wow. That's boggers. That's my joke right there. Oh, okay.

Oh, yeah, I got that, it took me a second.

Yeah, me too. Sorry. We'll dial it in, we'll dial it in in post.

I'll test my new editing tools on that one.

Punch up the laughter. Okay. No, I really, I read a bit about this album.

It is very much highly produced. I feel like it's, the all music reviews, three stars. Yeah. Which is lower, you know, by at least half a point than usual.

And one term they used about it was a creative bankruptcy.

Like, they pulled out all the stops. All of the stops for this album and tapped the tank.

So I thought that was a pretty fucking harsh review. That's very harsh.

Considering three years, man.

Yeah, no, no, don't be sorry. I just, I don't see that it's, it's, yeah.

[9:59] I like this. I like this record. I'll tell you guys. I didn't.

The first time I heard it, did not.

So I was the same. Yeah, yeah. Let's hear about your experience listening to the record. I was kind of the same. I listened to it. Well, I listened to parts of it. I couldn't sit through it all thefirst try.

It was like, I don't know, it was like reading a series of books and getting to the next book and it's like, oh my gosh, this book's going to take me forever.

That's what it just felt like to me and finally got through it. I'll say finally.

[10:32] And wasn't so sure, but you know there were songs, I'll just say that there were songs that grew on me after repeat listens and I and I got to a point where I thought I could see howhip fans either embraced the whole trajectory of the hip and continued to absolutely love this band and I could see how some hip fans were like Like, what the fuck?

When are we going to get this Bob Brock guy out of here? Yeah.

Because, I mean, I feel like that's still, I don't know, still a thread going through it. So yeah, that was my take. Listened to it kind of everywhere.

[11:11] I just, I gave this album some real attempts.

But I listened to it also, I think, less than other albums in general.

Okay. Pete?

You know, I say we get into it cause I got a lot to say about the, you know, the record as we go.

And I'll leave my comments to the record as we move on. Okay, well then kick us off here. Let's start right out with Morning Moon.

I mean, I thought it was, I thought it was, let's see.

It definitely a different tone to begin the record on with the acoustic vibe, the melody was really cool.

I was surprised by the strings, but as we'll talk about as we go on here, the strings become a thing. Hey, that's a good way of putting it, Tim.

[12:12] There's a really cool country lick with the electric guitar, I like it.

Chorus is catchy, heavy harmonies, twangy guitar. I got some, I got some like a little bit of Eagles vibes on this too. Sure. Clearly hear it.

My note that I, my note I wrote down was, it's got an AM radio chorus.

Yeah. Yeah, totally, totally. But, but.

In a good way. Yeah, in a good way. But I wasn't like, I wasn't like, ah, ah, fuck. This is, yeah. I mean, this is not...

[12:49] This is not music at work. This does not grab you by the balls and punch you in the face and then throw you down the fucking hill. It doesn't do that.

[13:02] Not to say that I want that, but yeah, interesting start. That's all I'll say. Track one.

We'll go there. We'll talk about Bob Rock as we keep going. Oh, Bobby, I thought, you know, this is an interesting start as well.

It's got this country rock ballad, you know, it's like, are we jumping into a good condition 90s Chevy Suburban driving through Nashville in this one, like heading to the barbecue place?

I don't know. But it also felt like, you know, I was listening through and I also thought this is so singable and it's kind of lovely and it's balladish and And it feels a little country.

There's slide guitar. There's some, I don't know, cello or something that comes in.

There's strings happening. And then I thought, I could rewrite the lyrics of this song and play it for anybody, and they would like it.

I could actually turn this into a country music song. Or you could turn it into, dare I say, a Christian rock song.

It just felt really mainstream, stream kickoff song to this album.

It was like beautiful. Yeah, it's beautiful. And I like dug it, but it felt like programmed, I felt kind of programmed.

[14:26] I would never suggest rewriting Gord Downie lyrics.

I agree. But the music merited a feeling of, this could be a song played on different types of radio stations. It just, yeah.

I wanted, you know, the kickoff on an album for me, it's got to be gripping.

And it puts you in the seat. And you put on your seat belt. And you go.

And this one was like, OK, what's number two?

[14:56] Which, before we get into number two, honey, please, which, from each of you, song would you have used to kick off the record if you were sequencing the record?

Is there a song on there that does that, that throws you down the hill, or grabs you by the throat?

I know which one I would not, out of all of them, but I'll take it.

It's a good question, but to be honest with you, I feel like this record, there are songs on.

There's even notes that I'll say when we get into other songs.

I feel like there's songs that don't belong in this record.

Gotcha. Yeah, it's hard to say. I mean, they kicked it off the way they kicked it off. And I think it's, you know, you can't argue with what's been done.

And I can't make their fucking decisions.

But yeah. Yeah, I don't know. That's a tough question. It's a good question, but I can't answer it, JD.

All right, honey, please. Oof. Here's another one I thought that kind of had this R.E.M. feel.

I have East Street Band written down. OK.

I also had. The beginning just reminds me of that piano lick at the beginning.

Just reminds me of Springsteen.

[16:08] It just feels like it's going into a Springsteen song.

OK. This one, it somehow made me think of the band Big Country.

I think they were, where were they from? Were they Scottish?

I don't know. It just, Gord comes in softly, you know, I kind of felt like, oh, I wonder if they do this one live and he's angrier.

Like it just, it just, I felt like there was a shift that wasn't in this song.

Like it just felt like a great radio song, but at the same time.

It was also playing in the ceiling speaker system when I was in Vancouver, BC getting my teeth cleaned.

You know, like it just, it was really, it like, it was like I couldn't figure out what it was.

It was that, or it was almost a wedding song. Like I couldn't figure out what this song was supposed to be. I just, it just kind of stumped me.

It was good and sing along and everything, but it was also like, where are we going?

I know, it's hard. This is that song, this might be the album that got kicked in the balls at the show on September 1st.

Somebody might just walk up and kick me in the balls. Oh, there are big fans of this record. This might be that album. I'm wearing a cup, dude.

[17:33] On Amazon, like, no fucking way. I'm wearing a mouth guard. I'm wearing a wig and I'm going to have like a voice modifier on my throat.

I can just set you guys up behind the screen like so nobody can see you.

You know, one of those things like silhouette.

The old cage. You remember like watching fucking Roadhouse where the band played behind like a fucking like a chain link fence.

And that band was? Jeff Healy and the...

Fuck, Jeff Healy and the... I can't remember the band. I would have just said Jeff Healy band.

Fucking shadow puppets. Here's my shadow puppets, Pete and Tim.

Jesus Christ, man. Great fucking man, though. You know, we've been drinking the Kool-Aid and sometimes you get a little gherpie from, you know, too much Kool-Aid.

I think that's just kind of... It's funny you say that, Tim, because I'm reading my notes for this song and it's... And honey, please... You've got gherpie written down. No, no, it didn't matter.