The Tragically Hip Podcast Series

Fully & Completely: Redux
"In Between Evolution"
Hosts: jD & Greg LeGros | Guest: Toronto Mike | Fully & Completely: Redux

The Episode
There are records you fall into immediately - and then there are the ones that sneak up on you. "In Between Evolution" is absolutely the second kind. The Tragically Hip's 2004 record is one of their most slept-on, most politically charged, and - depending on who you ask - one of their very best. jD and Greg LeGros dig in track by track, joined by Toronto's favourite podcast man, Toronto Mike.
It's feisty. It's got punk energy. And for a record that got passed over in 2004, it holds up like an absolute bruiser. So there's that.

Guest Spotlight
Toronto Mike from Toronto, Ontario
Toronto Mike is the podcaster and blogger behind torontomic.com and Toronto Miked - a fiercely independent Toronto-centric podcast that's been going longer than most people can remember. He's a passionate Hip fan who - full disclosure - once had serious plans to launch his own Tragically Hip album-by-album podcast series. He abandoned those plans specifically because jD and Greg were doing it too well. That's not spin. That's what he said on mic.
"I went into the podcast kind of tiny bit hoping it would suck."
- Toronto Mike, on hearing Fully & Completely for the first time

What's In This One
A full track-by-track of "In Between Evolution" plus the cultural context of June 2004 - which, as it turns out, is a lot. Here's some of what you're getting into:

Why this is probably The Tragically Hip's most overtly political record - and why it had no choice but to be (they recorded it in Seattle, surrounded by American media, one year after the U.S. went into Iraq)
'Heaven Is a Better Place Today' - a tribute to Dan Snyder built on funeral clichés and sports colloquialisms that somehow makes you cry. Every time.
'Summer's Killing Us' - the song Greg would play for anyone who's never heard of this band. Not even officially released as a single. Absolutely should have been.
'Gus the Polar Bear from Central Park' - a slow burn. Toronto Mike did not like it at first. He's come around. We dig into why.
'Vaccination Scar' - the actual lead single, and a song that gets a bit more complicated the more you think about it
'It Can't Be Nashville Every Night' - the one with the la-la-oos in the chorus that should not work, and absolutely does. Possibly a Toby Keith thing. Possibly a Dixie Chicks thing. Definitely a great song.
'One Night in Copenhagen' - band turmoil, Gord's solo career pulling on the seams, and that one line about a payphone in the snow that Greg still talks about
'Goodnight Josephine' - the closer that sounds like late-period Springsteen and contains some of the most beautiful lyrics Gord ever put down on tape
The Stanley Cup Final, the Grey Cup halftime show (yes, The Hip played it), a commemorative Tragically Hip CD, and how the 2004 Leafs playoff run ended a sketch troupe's road trip to LA

The Cultural Climate: June 2004
Greg always brings the goods on context, and June 2004 is a rich one. "In Between Evolution" landed in the middle of a musical year that included American Idiot, College Dropout, Funeral, Hot Fuss, and Songs for the Deaf. Commercially, the charts were a very different story - Usher, Evanescence, Josh Groban, and a lot of stuff these three would rather forget. It's a great time to be a music fan if you knew where to look. This was a record that knew exactly where it was looking.

Pocket Songs
At the end of every record, we each pull one track to carry forward to the playlist.

jD: 'Goodnight Josephine'
Greg: 'It Can't Be Nashville Every Night'
Toronto Mike: 'Are We Family'

Why This Record Matters
Because it got slept on. Even in the band's own documentary, this one gets two seconds. And that's bananas - because it is a deep, huge favourite, and it is one of their very best. It's a hard rocker. It's a protest record. It's a record about loss, and change, and what happens when the things you love don't get to stay the same. It's the most guitar-forward record they ever made, and it has the audacity to rhyme its chorus with la-la-oos.
Spend time with this album. This album is waiting for you.

About Fully & Completely: Redux
Fully & Completely: Redux is the reunion of the original Fully & Completely podcast - the show that started it all in 2018. jD and Greg LeGros go back through The Tragically Hip's full catalogue, album by album, track by track. Same DNA. Same chemistry. Not a sequel - a reunion.
Part of The Tragically Hip Podcast Series, a network raising funds for the Downie Wenjack Fund, The Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research, and CAMH. Over $35,000 raised and counting.

Find Us
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#TheTragicallyHip #InBetweenEvolution #GordDownie #FullyCompletely #TragicallyHip #CanadianRockPodcast

Meta Description (for podcast platforms)
jD, Greg LeGros & Toronto Mike go track by track on The Tragically Hip's "In Between Evolution." Hipstories, fandom, and Canadian rock - TTH Podcast Series.

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The Tragically Hip On Shuffle - Live Stream: 'We Want To Be It'
Hey, it's jD here.
Every once in a while, the shuffle lands on a song that feels like it found you on purpose. This was one of those weeks.
'We Want To Be It' - track four off "Now For Plan A" - doesn't get talked about the way
'Bobcaygeon' does. It doesn't get the bar rock reverence of the early records. But spend a week with it, really spend a week with it, and something starts to happen. Layers. Lots of them.
This week, jD is joined by Steph from Winnipeg, Andrew from Tampa, and Tyler from Etobicoke for what turned into one of the more surprising discussions the show has had. The song is three minutes and twenty-nine seconds. The conversation ran nearly an hour. That ratio should tell you everything.
We dig into what "Now For Plan A" actually is as a record - the shortest album in The Hip's catalog, a band quietly fracturing while somehow still playing out of their minds, produced by Gavin Brown under conditions that, as Tyler points out, sound a lot like band therapy.
Andrew came in with ten shows under his belt from that tour. Tyler revisited the record for the first time in years and kept finding new things. Steph brought the kind of insight that makes you stop mid-sentence and say yes, exactly that.
And then there's the drip, drip, drip.
Is the song about Laura Downie? About the band itself? About wanting to dissolve into the music instead of having to manufacture it over and over? Tyler brings a genuinely hot take - sourced from an Alan Gregg interview on Toronto Mike's podcast and Michael Barclay's book - that reframes the whole thing. Andrew adds the Alan Arkin connection Gord himself referenced in early live intros of the song. And jD talks about the three layers of crust this song has developed for him personally over the years.
It's a choose your own adventure lyric written by a guy who never gave you the map. That's the feature. Big thanks to Steph, Andrew, and Tyler for bringing the goods on this one. Next week, we hit shuffle again - no idea what's coming, and that's exactly the point.
From Our Guests"I'm in season three of Pocket Full of Mojo - wherever you enjoy your podcasts. I help recovering people pleasers like me remember how to get out of our own way and figure out that there's way fewer rules in this life than we're told."
- Steph from Winnipeg | Pocket Full of Mojo Podcast
"If you can't make it out to the event, get on the page and get into the GoFundMe for Sarah. And you don't have to be in Toronto - you can always fly in."
- Andrew from Tampa
"I'll be appearing on Toronto Mike's podcast in early April to do a Q1 recap. Other than that, just keeping my head down and trying to stay out of trouble."
- Tyler from Etobicoke | Toronto Mike'd Podcast


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FULLY & COMPLETELY: REDUX
"In Violet Light" - The Tragically Hip
Episode Show Notes
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Fully & Completely: Redux | "In Violet Light" - The Tragically Hip (2002)

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Hey, it's jD here.

Some albums don't just meet you where you are - they find you exactly when you need them. **"In Violet Light" is that record.** Released in June 2002, it's the one that pulled jD hard back into The Tragically Hip after a stretch of distance. And if you listen closely, it makes total sense why. This isn't a band trying to hold on - it's a band that has let go of every obligation and is just making music for themselves. **The result is one of the most quietly assured records of The Hip's entire career.**

This week on Fully & Completely: redux, jD and Greg LeGros go track by track through "In Violet Light" - the eighth studio album from The Tragically Hip, recorded in the Bahamas with legendary producer Hugh Padham - and make the case that this record has no business being this good, this far into a career.

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EPISODE OVERVIEW

"In Violet Light" landed in a 2002 music landscape that included Coldplay's "A Rush of Blood to the Head," Queens of the Stone Age's "Songs for the Deaf," Beck's "Sea Change," and Broken Social Scene's "You Forgot It in People." The indie pop explosion was just beginning to blow the roof off Canadian music. The Hip were eight albums deep, the mainstream had largely written them off, and **they responded by making one of their best records.** No fat. No filler. Eleven tracks of lean, confident, beautiful rock and roll.

The album was recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas - the same studio where AC/DC recorded "Back in Black" and Bob Marley cut some of his most enduring work - with Hugh Padham, the producer behind the gated drum sound that defined the 1980s (Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight," Sting's solo catalogue, The Police's "Synchronicity"). **jD and Greg break down why that combination - this band, this producer, this place - produced something genuinely special.**

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TRACK BY TRACK HIGHLIGHTS

**'Are You Ready to Love'** - The opener sets the whole album's thesis. jD hears the first verse as a direct response to the critics and mainstream fans who had written The Hip off. **"They're pulling the plug. They've got our whole dug." And then - the chorus arrives like a shrug and a fist at the same time: are you ready for love?** A great rock and roll song that doubles as a mission statement.

**'Use It Up'** - Built on a lyric attributed to the booklet of a Raymond Carver collection, this is a track about seizing everything, wasting nothing, and making music for the love of it. Greg hears Radiohead's "OK Computer" in the verses and the Georgia Satellites in the chorus - **and somehow The Tragically Hip pull both of those things off in the same song.** A slow burn that rewards headphones.

**'The Darkest One'** - jD turns up whatever he's listening to every single time this song starts. **"The wild are strong and the strong are the darkest ones - and you're the darkest one."** Greg calls it a safe place. A song about freedom of expression, comfort, and the strange intimacy of being fully understood. Don't let the Trailer Park Boys video fool you - this song could have broken them wide open.

**'It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken'** - The centrepiece. The lead single. **Both jD and Greg pick this as their track of the record - the first time in the history of Fully & Completely that hosts have landed on the same song.** Named for a Canadian graphic novel by Seth and a phrase used by band staffer Molly Lorimer to describe life on the road, it's a song about mortality, aging, and the strange grace that comes when you stop fighting. Death is swirling all around it - and it's still one of the most uplifting things The Tragically Hip ever made.

**'Silver Jet'** - The one that changes gears just right. Greg connects this song personally to the empty skies over the Danforth in the days after 9/11, and the feeling of the first plane cutting back through the silence. **A song about hope, fear, and the things that pull your gaze forward.** The wolves of Northumberland. An archipelago. A green star. Only Gord.

**'Throwing Off Glass'** - Companion piece to 'Trick Rider' from "Phantom Power" - if that song is about his son, this one is about his daughter. A slow builder that rewards patience. **A soundscape that would fit comfortably on "Coke Machine Glow."**

**'All Tore Up'** - A great drinking rock and roll song. Dottie the bluegrass singer. Open concept. Getting a little happening with old friends. **No one else writes a lyric like this and makes it fit inside a song this well.** Turn it up.

**'Leave'** - A waltz in 3/4 time. Beautiful backup vocals. A late-night phone call at three in the morning. **"You better be dying." And they were.** An emotional gut-punch that doubles as a permission slip - to leave a job, a relationship, a place that no longer fits.

**'The Dire Wolf'** - A pseudo-history lesson disguised as a rock song. Tallulah Bankhead and Canada Lee, stars of Hitchcock's "The Lifeboat." Ann Harvey of Isle of Morts, Newfoundland, who rescued 163 shipwrecked souls in 1828. A poem called "Sea Surface Full of Clouds" by Wallace Stevens. **Greg pulls all of this from memory. It's an entire university lecture wrapped in six minutes of music that absolutely slaps.**

**'The Dark Canuck'** - The closer. Possibly the longest Tragically Hip song ever recorded at six and a half minutes. A time signature change halfway through. **Canadian soldiers as peacekeepers. Apple, Zippo, and Metronome as record labels. Jaws at the drive-in. The Dark Canuck playing second on the double bill.** Nobody at the drive-in is staying for it. And that's sort of the whole point.

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WHY THIS EPISODE MATTERS

This is the album that brought jD back to The Hip in earnest - **the record that cracked open the second half of his relationship with this band.** It's also the episode where he and Greg pick the same song for the first time. And it's the one where jD, partway through discussing 'Leave,' pauses to talk about his mother. **Listen for that moment. It's what this podcast is for.**

"In Violet Light" is a masterpiece with no business being this good eight albums in. And this episode earns every minute of its runtime.

So there's that.

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SOURCES & CREDITS

• HipMuseum.com
• This Is Our Life: The Tragically Hip in the 1990s (Michael Barclay)
• "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken" - graphic novel by Seth
• "Sea Surface Full of Clouds" - poem by Wallace Stevens
• Ann Harvey of Isle of Morts, Newfoundland - historical record
• Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas - production history
• Raymond Carver - attributed quote in "Use It Up"

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Honey, Please — Deep Cut or Hidden Gem?

Sometimes the Shuffle Gods reach deep into the catalogue.

And sometimes what they pull out sparks a conversation you didn’t see coming.

This week on The Tragically Hip On Shuffle, we landed on “Honey, Please”, the second track from We Are the Same — The Tragically Hip’s 2009 album produced by Bob Rock. Clocking in at four minutes even, it’s one of those songs that quietly sits in the album’s early stretch and doesn’t always get the spotlight when people talk about the band’s catalogue. 

But that’s exactly the point of this show.

Because when you put a few fans in a room and really dig into a track — the lyrics, the production choices, the album context, the cultural references — sometimes a song that felt like a bridge suddenly starts revealing its layers.

And “Honey, Please” might just be one of those songs.

On paper, the track finished #162 in the fan-voted Road to the Top 40, placing it surprisingly close to the bottom of the list of Tragically Hip songs ranked by listeners. Yet when fans were polled again ahead of the episode, many described it as an “underrated gem.” 

So what gives?

That’s the question we explore in this episode.

Along the way we talk about:

where the song fits within the We Are the Same album flow
whether “Honey, Please” functions as a bridge track between songs
the role of keys and arrangement compared to other Hip songs
lyrical interpretations and what Gord Downie might be reaching for
possible cultural references in the title and phrasing
and how deep-cut Hip songs often reveal more when fans start connecting the dots together

At one point the conversation turns to the phrase itself — “Honey, Please” — and how it echoes similar titles across music history, from soul influences like Barry White to indie and punk songs with the same name. 

Because with Gord Downie’s writing, nothing ever lives in a vacuum.

And that’s where the fun begins.

As we talk through the track, one idea keeps coming up: even songs that seem modest on first listen can open up when fans start doing the homework — digging into the lyrics, the context, and the emotional throughline of the album.

Sometimes what sounds simple is anything but.

Or as we discover here, a deep cut can still be a gem once you look under the hood. 

Pull Quote

“Even a song that feels like a deep cut can turn out to be a gem once you start digging into it.”

In This Episode

A closer look at “Honey, Please” from We Are the Same (2009)
How the track fits within the album’s narrative flow
Lyrics, references, and fan interpretations
Production touches from Bob Rock
Why some Tragically Hip songs reveal themselves slowly over time

About 
The Tragically Hip On Shuffle

Hosted by jD, The Tragically Hip On Shuffle randomly selects a song from the band’s catalogue and explores it in conversation with fellow fans.

No scripts.
No predetermined rankings.
Just a deep dive into whatever the Shuffle Gods decide we’re listening to that night.

The result is part conversation, part discovery — and a reminder that the music of The Tragically Hip always has more to uncover.

Get Involved

Want to join a future episode?

Follow along in the community and keep an eye out for opportunities to participate in upcoming recordings of:

The Tragically Hip On Shuffle
The Tragically Hip Top Forty Countdown
Discovering Downie

Follow + Listen

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Fully & Completely: redux – Music @ Work

Guest: Rob Johannes
🎧 Episode Overview

In Episode 9 of Fully & Completely: redux, we dive headfirst into Music @ Work, The Tragically Hip’s 2000 studio album — a record often misunderstood, occasionally maligned, but undeniably pivotal.
Joined by musician and longtime Hip devotee Rob Johannes, we unpack why this album may represent the band’s second great unshackling — their “Kid A moment,” as Rob puts it.
From John Cage references and Indigenous commentary to experimental production textures and some of the strongest background vocals in the band’s catalog, Music @ Work emerges as a bold, transitional, and deeply layered record.
Is this the Hip’s most cohesive album of the 2000s?
Is it their quiet revolution?
Is it better than its reputation?
Let’s get into it.

🔍 What We Explore in This Episode

🎙 The Context of 2000
Radiohead’s Kid A and artistic reinvention
Outkast’s Stankonia
U2’s return to form
Cultural tension at the turn of the millennium
Where The Tragically Hip fit in that landscape

🎸 The Production Shift
Steve Berlin’s return
Recording at the Bathhouse
The abandoned train-recording concept
Electronic textures meeting organic instrumentation

🔥 Key Track Deep Dives
“My Music @ Work” – deceptively upbeat with dark undercurrents
“Tiger the Lion” – John Cage, experimental art, and Mission Statement 2.0
“Lake Fever” – cholera, young love, and Algonquin mythmaking
“Put It Down” – subtle political commentary and ricochet culture
“Stay” – desperation, longing, and balance
“The Bastard” – Billy Sunday, theology, swagger

🎤 Gord Downie’s Evolution
Phraseology and rhythmic tension
Consonant holds and vocal elasticity
Serving the song vs. serving expectation
The politics that simmer beneath the poetry

💬 Pull Quote

“This is the Hip’s Kid A moment. The unshackling. The second time they tore it down to rebuild it.” – Rob Johannes

🎶 Why Music @ Work Matters

This isn’t just the follow-up to Phantom Power.
This is a pivot point.

Where Fully Completely led to Day for Night,
where Trouble at the Henhouse recalibrated,
where Phantom Power reasserted control —

Music @ Work quietly breaks the machinery open again.

It’s experimental without announcing itself as experimental.
It’s political without sermonizing.
It’s cohesive in ways that only reveal themselves years later.

This episode reframes the album not as a stumble —
but as a deliberate recalibration of The Tragically Hip’s creative identity.

👤 About Our Guest – Rob Johannes

Rob Johannes is a Toronto-based musician and longtime Hip champion whose deep appreciation for the band’s experimental and arts-driven eras makes him the perfect guide for this conversation. His perspective — shaped by both West Coast and Ontario Hip culture — brings fresh nuance to how Music @ Work was received and how it should be reconsidered.

📢 Join the Conversation

What’s your relationship with Music @ Work?
Underrated gem? Transitional record? Personal favorite?

Join the discussion inside the Tragically Hip Podcast Series Facebook Group and tell us where this album ranks for you.

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Next week: In Violet Light.

And the evolution continues.

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