The Tragically Hip's infectious songs, catchy melodies, inspired lyrics, an… Read Full Bio ↴The Tragically Hip's infectious songs, catchy melodies, inspired lyrics, and solid musicianship have secured their place as the kings of rock in Canada. Formed in the early '80s in Kingston, Ontario, they are a five-piece group of friends: Gordon Downie (primary lyricist and lead vocalist (February 6, 1963-October 17,2017), Paul Langlois and Rob Baker (guitars), Gord Sinclair (bass) and Johnny Fay (drums). For thirty years, The Tragically Hip has been at the heart of the Canadian music scene and has been recognized for its Canadian storytelling and references, and for evoking a strong emotional connection between their music and their fans that remains unrivaled throughout the country. The Hip has achieved the enviable status of a band that enjoys both mass popularity with over 8 million albums sold worldwide, as well as peer recognition through eleven (11) Juno Awards from more than a dozen recordings.

The group met while in high school at Kingston Collegiate Vocational Institute (KCVI) and all attended Queen's University in Kingston. They started as a cover band playing Rolling Stones and Doors covers, and were first represented by a local Kingston agent named Bernie Dobson.

They were first signed in 1987 after Bruce Dickinson, the then VP of A&R at MCA Records saw them perform live at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, Ontario. Later that year they released their debut EP The Tragically Hip, though they were largely unrecognized until 1989's Up To Here. Up To Here established them as one of the best and most influential bands in Canada. In 1992, they created the Another Roadside Attraction festival, which tours Canada to promote smaller, unknown emerging bands.

The band is immensely popular in Canada. Although they have never achieved great success in the United States, they have never specifically sought it and have enjoyed their warm Canadian reception. When touring in Canada they typically play to sold-out arenas; when touring in the United States they play smaller venues and clubs. Performances abroad are usually attended by Canadian expatriates. In Europe, The Hip perhaps have their greatest following in the Netherlands.

The band permits recordings of their performances, so an active trading community thrives. The tone and content of much of their music is a paean to the Canadian experience and touches on such themes as small-town life, geography, and hockey.

The Tragically Hip received a star on the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2002, and they were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the 2005 Juno Awards. They have performed at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and played a three-song set at the worldwide broadcast Live 8 benefit concert on July 2nd, 2005 to help make poverty history for the poor African nations.

On April 7th, 2009, the band's twelfth album We Are The Same was being released in North America, and it immediately rose to Number 1 on the Canadian charts. The album features twelve diverse new recordings produced by Bob Rock who had produced 2007's World Container and is perhaps best known for his work with Metallica, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, The Offspring, Michael Bublé and Simple Plan. This album features songs that range from "levity and light to melancholy and anger" according to the band's website. Recorded primarily at The Bathouse Studio, band's recording studio located in a historical coach house west of their hometown, Kingston, Ontario, and its first single was "Love Is A First", which features the ironical addictive hook, 'love is a curse'.

Despite some side solo projects in the past couple of years, the band has completed a new studio album at The Bathouse Studio and in Toronto with Gavin Brown, who is perhaps best known for his work producing Metric, Three Days Grace, Barenaked Ladies and Billy Talent. The album is entitled Now For Plan A and it was released on October 2nd, 2012. This album's first singles were "At Transformation" and "Streets Ahead" and they are available on iTunes and through the band's website.

Man Machine Poem is the fourteenth studio album which is scheduled to be released June 17th, 2016. The album takes its name from a track on their Gold-selling 2012 release, Now For Plan A, and it was recorded at The Hip’s home studio The Bathouse, produced by Kevin Drew, founding member and producer of Broken Social Scene, Andy Kim (singer, songwriter and Arts & Crafts label co-founder) and Dave Hamelin, songwriter and producer from The Stills and Eight and a Half. Album pre-orders are currently available on either CD or Vinyl through the band's "Gift Shop" on their official website: www.TheHip.com or digitally through iTunes. “In A World Possessed By The Human Mind” and “Tired As Fuck" were its first singles, and both were made immediately available for digital download with the album's pre-order.

Early on May 24, 2016, The Tragically Hip announced via a post on their official website and through e-mail subscribers that its lead singer and primary lyricist, Gord Downie, is suffering from aggressive terminal brain cancer, and that the band will do one final national Canadian tour "For Gord". Concert dates for this final tour were available on-line through Ticketmaster, but sold out in minutes. There was a national outcry from devoted fans who claimed that scalpers had scooped up most of the tour's tickets using "bots". Petitions were filed to successfully encourage Canada's national television network, the CBC, to produce and air Live the final August 20, 2016 concert. Broadcast live from the band's hometown, at Kingston's Rogers K-Rock Centre, a national audience viewed The Tragically Hip's final tour show, The concert opened with "50 Mission Cap" and ended almost two hours later, after a third encore, with "Ahead By A Century". All proceeds from the tour were donated to The Gord Downie Fund, at the Sunnybrook Foundation for Brain Cancer Research. Donations can be sent to: http://sunnybrook.ca/foundation.

For the latest band details, please visit their official website: www.TheHip.com.

Family Band
The Tragically Hip Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I can smell a rat when it's all rat
I can't find one in an elevator
My mind doesn't work so bad
But I am a poor exterminator
That's right
I can't destroy entirely
Or annihilate a little later
I can't see the entire city

But I'm not a bad exterminator
I'm just a shade shy of true wickedness
I'm a shade shy of truly loving it, yea
There are other things I'd rather be doing
Even nothing
Even nothing
Even nothing with you

One day I'll make some honest rock n' roll Full of handclaps and gang vocals
We'll be a shade shy of true wickedness
We'll be a shade shy of truly loving this, yea
There are other things we'll rather be doing, sure even nothing
Even nothing
Even nothing with you

We'll load out through the snow
Through small groups of people smoking
Hey! Get that kick drum loaded!
Into the backseat folded down!
We'll go virtually unnoticed
What's gripping the city ain't hitting the town
We'll be a shade shy of true wickedness
We'll be a shade shy of truly loving it, yea
There are other things we'll surely miss
We'll load out through the snow
Through small groups of people smoking
Hey! Get that kick drum loaded!
Into the backseat folded down!

We'll go perfectly unnoticed
Whats gripping the city ain't hitting the town

Overall Meaning

The Tragically Hip's "Family Band" is a song about the ups and downs of being in a band. The opening verse, "I can smell a rat when it's all rat, I can't find one in an elevator," seems to suggest that the singer has a good sense of when something is not quite right but isn't always able to fix it. The line "I'm a poor exterminator" reinforces this idea, as if the singer is aware that he might not always be able to solve all the problems that arise within the band.

In the second verse, the singer expresses a desire to create "honest rock 'n' roll," but acknowledges that he and his band might fall a bit short of being truly great. However, despite any struggles or shortcomings, they will stick together through thick and thin. The final verse speaks to the hard work and effort required to make it as a band, with the group loading out their gear through the snow while unnoticed by the rest of the city.

Overall, "Family Band" is a tribute to the dedication and resilience it takes to make music as a group, even when it's not always easy.

Line by Line Meaning

I can smell a rat when it's all rat
I have an intuition for detecting deception

I can't find one in an elevator
But I am not skilled enough to uncover all deceit

My mind doesn't work so bad
However, my mental abilities are not entirely lacking

But I am a poor exterminator
Yet I am not an effective eliminator of deception

That's right
Indeed, that is the case

I can't destroy entirely
I am unable to completely eliminate the problem

Or annihilate a little later
Nor can I effectively reduce the problem over time

I can't see the entire city
I have limited perspective and cannot see everything

But I'm not a bad exterminator
Despite my limitations, I am still a somewhat competent eliminator of deception

I'm just a shade shy of true wickedness
I am not completely wicked, but not entirely innocent either

I'm a shade shy of truly loving it, yea
Although I enjoy my work, there is still much room for improvement

There are other things I'd rather be doing
I have other interests I find more enjoyable

Even nothing
Sometimes I prefer to do nothing at all

Even nothing with you
I enjoy spending time with you, even if we do nothing

One day I'll make some honest rock n' roll Full of handclaps and gang vocals
Eventually, I will make authentic rock music with lively, group participation

We'll be a shade shy of true wickedness
Our music will be good, but not perfect

We'll be a shade shy of truly loving this, yea
We will enjoy making music, but there is still room for improvement and growth

There are other things we'll rather be doing, sure even nothing
We have other interests besides music, sometimes even preferring to do nothing at all

We'll load out through the snow
We will pack up our equipment and leave in the snowy weather

Through small groups of people smoking
As we leave, we will pass by small groups of people smoking cigarettes

Hey! Get that kick drum loaded!
We will be busy loading our instruments, specifically the kick drum

Into the backseat folded down!
We will load the kick drum into the backseat of our car

We'll go virtually unnoticed
As we leave, we will go unnoticed by most people

What's gripping the city ain't hitting the town
Although there may be problems in the city, they do not directly affect our small town

Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: GORDON DOWNIE, GORDON SINCLAIR, JOHNNY FAY, PAUL LANGLOIS, ROBERT BAKER

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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