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Hipeponymous

The Tragically Hip - Hipeponymous Audio CD

A fair review of the The Tragically Hip "Hipeponymous" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Tragically Hip reviews here, or go back to the The Tragically Hip tabs.

Band: The Tragically Hip
Title: Hipeponymous
Rating:

Release Date: 2005-11-08
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: No Threat (New Song) 2: Grace, Too 3: My Music At Work 4: 38 Years Old 5: Gift Shop 6: Ahead By A Century 7: Vaccination Scar 8: Three Pistols 9: So Hard Done By 10: Fiddler's Green 11: Looking For A Place To Happen 12: Cordelia 13: It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken 14: Blow At High Dough 15: Wheat Kings 16: 50 Mission Cap 17: New Orleans Is Sinking 18: Escape Is At Hand For The Travelin' Man 19: Fully Completely 20: Twist My Arm 21: Courage 22: Lake Fever 23: Poets 24: Fireworks 25: Boots Or Hearts 26: Bobcaygeon 27: Nautical Disaster 28: Highway Girl 29: Gus: The Polar Bear From Central Park 30: Scared 31: Something On 32: At The Hundredth Meridian 33: Long Time Running 34: Darkest One 35: Locked In The Trunk Of A Car 36: Little Bones 37: New Maybe (New Song) 38: Vaccination Scar 39: Fully Completely 40: Grace, Too 41: Summer's Killing Us 42: Ahead By A Century 43: Silver Jet 44: As Makeshift As We Are 45: Courage 46: Bobcaygeon 47: Nautical Disaster 48: Gus: The Polar Bear From Central Park 49: Poets 50: At The Hundreth Meridian 51: It Can't Be Nashville Every Night 52: My Music At Work 53: New Orleans Is Sinking 54: Heaven Is A Better Place Today 55: It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken 56: Little Bones 57: Gift Shop 58: Springtime In Vienna 59: Three Pistols 60: Boots Or Hearts 61: Blow At High Dough 62: Vaccination Scar (Multi Angle) 63: Springtime In Vienna (Multi Angle) 64: Three Pistols (Multi Angle) 65: Last American Exit 66: Smalltown Bringdown 67: New Orleans Is Sinking 68: Blow At High Dough 69: Little Bones 70: Locked In The Trunk Of A Car 71: Courage 72: At The Hundreth Meridian 73: Nautical Disaster 74: Thugs 75: Greasy Jungle 76: Grace, Too 77: Ahead By A Century 78: Gift Shop 79: Bobcaygeon 80: Something On 81: Poets 82: My Music At Work 83: It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken 84: Silver Jet 85: Darkest One 86: Vaccianation Scar 87: It Can't Be Nashville Every Night 88: Cooking In Wartime 89: Fish 90: Johnny Speaker Song 91: Loopy 92: Marvin 93: Paul 1, Driving Edible Paper 94: Paul 2, Eves 95: Paul 4 96: Screen 1 97: Song 3 Diving Mind Frame 98: Right Whale/Snow

Where's The Rest Of It?
Which is a darn shame. For sixty bucks I am thinking "Where's the cd of demos, outtakes, and lost tracks?" Well, folks, it's not here. The Hip have screwed us fans once again by refusing to open up their vaults. For a definitve box set I am shocked by the lack of unreleased material. This more of a greatest hits set than anything. Fans of the Hip should already have most of this material eleswhere. I want to hear some of the gems that are lurking in the Hip's vaults- the trove of completed songs, demos, radio performances, and other treats from their earliest years. Why is it that even 18 years after Road Apples we have yet to hear "Get Back Again" released in its proper form?? Where is the proper DVD release of their infamous Misty Moon show in Halifax from 1989? Or the "Heksenketel" documentary? Or the pro- recorded Xmas show from the Spectrum in 1989? Or the countless other shows from the early tours that were of A+ quality?? As a band that prides itself of its connection with its fans it disappoints me greatly that they remain so unwilliing to share some of their greatest material. I can only hope that sometime , maybe after their career has run its course, we will finally see their musical legacy treated with the proper care it deserves.

Love this, Love it all

I count myself among the fanatics (never miss 'em when they come to town!) and for me there was a special treat here. If you're a Hip fan, you'll love this stuff just as much as you love everything else from Das Hip. The Toronto show was great but the Right Whale clips were simply out of this world. A few mushroom would have helped, but for the believers, are not strictly necessary.

I'll say no more. Get this, and get into the Right Whale!

.

Nothing Tragic about this box set
A fan of The Hip for the last 18 years, I would recommend this set to anyone. This box set is simply great. It features songs picked by fans and I think we did an awesome job. The two CD's are packed full of some of the greatest Hip songs making it so easy to pass a few hours. Beyond entertaining. Buy it, now.

Fabulous
It comes with two CD's and two DVD's. I bought this as a present for my finace and he loves it. These are great, the book is a little over rated, but for any tragically hip fan, this is an awesome box set!!.

The DVD is the Drawing Card
), the idea of a box set was not all that interesting to me, since I already have all the band's released music on cd, and then some. As a long time fan of the Tragically Hip (since the 'Call The Office' days in London Ont. IMO, the song selection for the duo cd set is adequate, but too much good stuff seems to have been left off. 'Another Midnite,' from 'Up To Here,' for instance, is one of their most gorgeous yet left behind gems with a simply transcendant refrain, and it is no where to be found. Instead we get the predictable 'Lake Fever' and the heard too often 'Poets. '

No 'Vapour Trail' is also a travesty. But that is nitpicking, really, isn't it; as it would indeed be a difficult job for anyone to pick Hip songs to fill two cd's, as the Hip have so many good ones to choose from. They could have easily filled three cd's. For the uninitiated, this set isnt a bad bet, but I would advise heading straight to the individual records instead - anything from 'Henhouse' and beyond for their 'more atmospheric and ambient' phase - as I like to call it and anything prior to 'Henhouse' for their more rough and ready, blues based approach.

On to the DVD.

It's gorgeously shot, first of all, and very watchable. I cannot stand concert videos where the producers for some reason feel the need to change camera shots every two seconds. You dont watch a concert that way in real life so why would you want to on your TV?? Thankfully the producers of this DVD knew this.

The splitscreen effect is very cool. So is the 'real time' layout of the disk; what you get is the actual show as it unfolded that night with no edits, no splices, no overdubs and no coverups. You get the goofed cues, mangled verses, tripping and falling, and all the cool stuff that only live music can bring. Rock and roll aint supposed to be perfect, baby. Everything here is just as it happened that night, right down to audience noise in between encores. This is a very cool approach and hats off to whoever decided on it. The band obviously wanted a 'being there' atmosphere to be purveyed to the viewer, and it works.

The band itself, as most always, burns on this particluar night. They saunter on stage with no fanfare looking more like roadies than a 'rock band,' and that in itself is one of the most endearing things about the Hip - their refusal to get caught up in any of that rock star trip crap.

The 'Hip Pocket' - the rhythm section of Sinclair, Fay and Langlois - is as tight and perfectly timed as ever. In fact, this is probably the tightest pocket in rock; Sinclair is (and always has been) a walking metronome on bass. Baker adds his own flourishes as he always does whether it's with this cool sounding sorta pedal steel thing he uses on 'Vaccination Scar' or it's his bluesy licks on 'New Orleans Is Sinking. '

That said, I have some issues with Sir Gordon Downie as of late.

Now Downie has always been one of the most, ahhh, peculiar frontmen in rock. He's a twisting, gyrating sweating maniac lost in his own world and has always been absolutely riveting to watch.

HOWEVER.

Number one, what's with the guitar?? You cant hear it anyway, so it appears to be more of a prop. Downie is at his manic best when he is not tied down holding a guitar, as he proves indisputedly on the second song, 'Fully Completely. ' The guitar, for me, takes away from the overall Hip experience.

My second issue is Gordie's habit of changing vocal melodies so far off the original that he veers out of pitch from time to time, and he also seems to want to sometimes change his vocal timing/phrasing as to be out of sync with the music sometimes. I dont know what he does that for. Boredom of singing it the same way for so long?

Lastly, and most importantly, is Gord's 'ranting. ' I enjoy a good Gord 'rant' as much as anybody, but does he have to talk over every guitar solo ??? Over most every instrumental break?? I think Gordo should perhaps consider limiting the ranting a bit - so as to allow the audience to actually be able to hear the musical interaction going on behind him during parts of the songs where in the original versions there was no singing. I WANT to hear Baker's licks at the end of 'Grace Too,' or at the end of 'Three Pistols' and I want to hear Langlois' super cool riffing on the coda to 'Nautical Disaster,' but it is difficult to do so when you have to try to listen to it through Downie's non-stop blabbering about God knows what and who cares anyway.

This is my only criticism.

All in all it's a great DVD but I am thinking the boys gotta maybe rein Gordie in a bit. It seems like it's getting to be a bit too much the 'Gord Downie Show,' at least that's my humble opinion, folks, and no doubt I'll get mugged for it, but that's rock and roll!

.

You can see a complete list of all The Tragically Hip discography, or go back to the The Tragically Hip tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.