Tragically Hip coming to Estevan

OK, so the music and twitter posts I tried to start doing every week kinda bombed. It turns out I don't have the discipline to do anything regularly on here. So instead I'll just try to throw up a music post every now and then, whenever I think of it or whenever a song hits me as something that should be shared.

The Hip are playing in Estevan on July 8, so in honour of that I thought I'd throw out a few songs that don't quite get the attention or airplay of some of their big hits.

Small Town Bringdown (Tragically Hip - self-titled)

My favourite song from a tremendous debut album that often gets overlooked. And the chorus is, I think, some of their best lyrics ever: 

It's a sad thing

Bourbons all around

To stop that feeling when you're living in a small town

You're long and lean
Things don't get you down
You're a top ten kingpin in the borders of your hometown

Boots or Hearts (Up to Here)

Twist My Arm (Road Apples)

Always been one of my favourite Hip songs...

Three Pistols (Road Apples)

Pigeon Camera (Fully Completely)

Never really discovered this until a few years ago, but it's just a great track. Plus, the background (both the reference to pigeon cameras used in war, and how the song came to be) makes it that much better.

Lionized (Fully Completely)

Great lyrics, simple as that.

Nautical Disaster (Day for Night)

Great song, for a lot of the same reasons I like Pigeon Camera. It's been disputed what the story refers to, but I always think of it being about Dieppe.

I could also list about 10 songs off World Container and We Are the Same. I thought both those albums were grossly underrated. Sure, they're both kind of a departure from earlier Hip, but they both had a lot of great tracks. 

From World Container, I actually really didn't like In View. But others, like The Lonely End of the Rink, Yer Not the Ocean, Family Band, and World Container, were simply great.

We Are the Same is definitely more of a mellow album... but it turns out the Hip do mellow pretty well too (as seen in the title track on Now For Plan A). Songs like Country Day, Morning Moon, Speed River and Coffee Girl are good for certain moods, and at least for me, it's hard not to feel optimistic in general listening to them. I dunno, they just have that effect on me. That's not to mention Love Is a First, which is a great, great song if you ask me.

While I'm here I may as well say that I cannot STAND Ahead By A Century. I never understood why it was so popular. I just don't like it, never have, and it's the only Hip song I will ever skip on a CD.