Discovering Downie DEWVRE Podcasts and Such

This week on our Friday bonus episode the boys sit down with Josh Finlayson to pick his brain on working with Gord and creating the wonderful music they did together inside and outside the Country of Miracles.
Transcript:
Track 2:
[0:17] Hey, it's JD here, and we're back again for a special bonus episode here on Discovering Downey. This is a really exciting one to share this week. It is with Josh Finlayson, who you've got to admit was one of Gord's shadows during his solo career and really extended that friendship onward into just a wonderful partnership. Partnership i won't waste too much of your time going into details because the boys craig justin and kirk are sitting around the table right now with mr finlayson and they are amped to get this interview into your ear holes i will say one more thing though we are getting very excited about our event july 19th tickets are on sale at discovering downy.com get them while you can they are 30 $30 for a ticket or $50 for a pair or hey, if you've got a group of friends that want to come out, you can save big bucks and get 10 tickets for $200. That's $20 a ticket or $10 off the single price. We've got some fantastic prizes that we are getting ready to announce for the silent auction. And of course, you'll see the almost hip and our special interview with Patrick Downey on the finale of Discovering Downey. Before we get into the interview, I'm going to spin a special track for you. This is the Sky Diggers, of which Josh Finlayson is in, along with Andy Mays and several others. They are going to get into some Sky Diggers talk in this conversation, no doubt. So let's listen to their version or rendition of Depression Suite before we head into the interview with Mr. Finlayson. See you on the other side.

Track 7:
[5:27] Welcome everyone to a very special episode of Discovering Downey. My name is Kirk Lane and I'm going to be here with our good buddies Justin St. Louis and Craig out in Vancouver. We're really excited today to have a very special guest, Mr. Josh Van Laysen from, well, from the Sky Diggers, I think is well most of you will know him from. But in regards to this adventure, Josh was very involved with several of Gord's solo albums that we have been discussing here on the pod. And uh we're just really excited to have him on board and just really talk about the his musical journey and and then obviously how it relates with his experience with with gourd solo projects not only with the recorded albums but also from a live perspective so um we've got lots of uh interesting topics and things we want to talk about and we're really thankful that he took took some time to join us today so welcome josh.

Track 5:
[6:28] Thank you thanks for having me yeah.

Track 7:
[6:31] I mean i guess i want to start with something that was recent and you had a pretty uh looked like a pretty good bill recently in a gig in toronto with uh with with your band the sky diggers and the sadies and paul and was band so i i think the group would love to hear a little bit about how that that went and and some of the other shows that you guys have been able to do together.

Track 5:
[6:54] Well we uh we um we played at a venue in toronto called the concert hall which is which is a venue that it's a it's actually a masonic hall and was built i'm not sure when i'm i'm assuming probably, late 1800s early 1900s it's right it's very close to young young and bluer um it's right downtown but it was used as a venue uh in the 60s um it was uh it wasn't the concert hall at that point it was called uh something else it just escapes me right now but i know led zeppelin played there like early days one of their first uh shows in toronto and many other acts you know like it's a pretty storied venue I saw I saw the stray cats there I saw it admit like that would have been 1982 Wow I know the the English beat played there the jam REM like tons of bands played there in the in the 80s and into the 90s there was the the hi

Today on the podcast the gang takes a look at Gord's third solo release, The Grand Bounce.
Transcript:
Track 1:
[0:01] Hey, it's Justin. You know and love us on the Discovering Downey podcast, right? So come hang out with us in person for the finale. Join us for Long Slice Brewing Presents, a celebration of Gord Downey at The Rec Room in downtown Toronto on Friday, July 19th. Craig is coming from Vancouver. Kirk is coming from LA. I'm driving from Vermont. And JD is like walking down the street or wherever he lives in Toronto. Tickets are available now on our website at discovererndowney.com. And when you get your tickets, that means you can come hang out with us and our very special guest, Patrick Downey. And you can bid on some incredibly cool silent auction items, all while jamming along with tragically hip cover band The Almost Hip. And most importantly, helping us raise money for the Gord Downey Fund for Brain Cancer Research. Crack open a long slice, put on some Gord tunes, take a journey with us on Discovering Downey, and then crack open another long slice on July 19th and hang out with us in the 6th. I always wanted to sound cool and say that. For more information, follow us on all the socials and visit DiscoveringDowny.com. Cheers.

Track 2:
[1:23] Thanksgiving. Victims and their victim-ears sit down to Turkey hungry for punishment full of mercury fullimate, serene after the screaming. Grace makes the mouth make shapes it's never made before. We give thanks for the poetry we read and write all day. For freeing us to drink with impunity a toast to no punishment replaces Amen. The prayer is swallowed away for the silence and the quiet carving serene after the was screaming, a little violent, but turkey nevertheless.

Track 1:
[2:08] Welcome, music lovers. Long Slice Brewery presents Discovering Downey.

Track 2:
[2:16] Hey, it's J.D. here and welcome back to Discovering Downey. This is an 11-part opus with a focus on Mr. Gord Downey, the late frontman of the Tragically Hip, but somebody who also gave to the world an extensive solo discography. Eight records in total. But have you heard them? That was what I sought out when I enlisted my friends Craig, Justin, and Kirk to discover Downey. These three are giant Tragically Hip fans, but they had little to no exposure with Gord's solo oeuvre. So every week, we get together and listen to one of the records in chronological order and see what we think. Did we miss out? Or did we make the right choice? We're going to find out on Discovering Downey. This week, we're going to dive into Gord's third solo release. This, with The Country of Miracles, it is the grand bounce. Now let's go to the team.

Track 1:
[3:27] Justin St. Louis, how are you doing this week? Week i'm worn out man and uh i'm ready for this thing to to take over my life tonight and just be back in the normal and enjoy the music and enjoy talking about it with you guys love it yeah kirk where are you headed off to next yeah actually heading off to the big apple nyc i'm uh going to be chaperoning my uh my youngest and they're going to be performing at carnegie so very proud pops Pops. And, uh, we just got back from a really cool trip in Memphis and Nashville and they did really, you know, they did fantastic there. So I've been surrounded by music and, um, that's inspired me, but I'm gonna, you know, concur with Justin and say, I'm definitely looking forward to a discussion about this album. I mean, uh, it's been a pretty cool journey so far, but this, I think this is gonna, this album is going to spark a pretty good conversation in my opinion. So, but doing well and looking forward to traveling again. It'll be interesting for sure. Craig, how are things on the left coast, motherfucker?

Track 1:
[4:36] Not too bad. Just got back from a family trip to Disneyland that was six years in the making. We tried it, you know, in 2020 and it didn't work out. And so we finally made it down with the kids and spent a few da

This week on the pod, the gang settles in to the project and describes their experience with Gord's 3rd solo release, The Grand Bounce.
Transcript:
Track 1:
[0:01] Hey, it's Justin. You know and love us on the Discovering Downey podcast, right? So come hang out with us in person for the finale. Join us for Long Slice Brewing Presents, a celebration of Gord Downey at The Rec Room in downtown Toronto on Friday, July 19th. Craig is coming from Vancouver. Kirk is coming from LA. I'm driving from Vermont. And JD is like walking down the street or wherever he lives in Toronto. Tickets are available now on our website at discovererndowney.com. And when you get your tickets, that means you can come hang out with us and our very special guest, Patrick Downey. And you can bid on some incredibly cool silent auction items, all while jamming along with tragically hip cover band The Almost Hip. And most importantly, helping us raise money for the Gord Downey Fund for Brain Cancer Research. Crack open a long slice, put on some Gord tunes, take a journey with us on Discovering Downey, and then crack open another long slice on July 19th and hang out with us in the 6th. I always wanted to sound cool and say that. For more information, follow us on all the socials and visit DiscoveringDowny.com. Cheers.

Track 2:
[1:23] Thanksgiving. Victims and their victim-ears sit down to Turkey hungry for punishment full of mercury fullimate, serene after the screaming. Grace makes the mouth make shapes it's never made before. We give thanks for the poetry we read and write all day. For freeing us to drink with impunity a toast to no punishment replaces Amen. The prayer is swallowed away for the silence and the quiet carving serene after the was screaming, a little violent, but turkey nevertheless.

Track 1:
[2:08] Welcome, music lovers. Long Slice Brewery presents Discovering Downey.

Track 2:
[2:16] Hey, it's J.D. here and welcome back to Discovering Downey. This is an 11-part opus with a focus on Mr. Gord Downey, the late frontman of the Tragically Hip, but somebody who also gave to the world an extensive solo discography. Eight records in total. But have you heard them? That was what I sought out when I enlisted my friends Craig, Justin, and Kirk to discover Downey. These three are giant Tragically Hip fans, but they had little to no exposure with Gord's solo oeuvre. So every week, we get together and listen to one of the records in chronological order and see what we think. Did we miss out? Or did we make the right choice? We're going to find out on Discovering Downey. This week, we're going to dive into Gord's third solo release. This, with The Country of Miracles, it is the grand bounce. Now let's go to the team.

Track 1:
[3:27] Justin St. Louis, how are you doing this week? Week i'm worn out man and uh i'm ready for this thing to to take over my life tonight and just be back in the normal and enjoy the music and enjoy talking about it with you guys love it yeah kirk where are you headed off to next yeah actually heading off to the big apple nyc i'm uh going to be chaperoning my uh my youngest and they're going to be performing at carnegie so very proud pops Pops. And, uh, we just got back from a really cool trip in Memphis and Nashville and they did really, you know, they did fantastic there. So I've been surrounded by music and, um, that's inspired me, but I'm gonna, you know, concur with Justin and say, I'm definitely looking forward to a discussion about this album. I mean, uh, it's been a pretty cool journey so far, but this, I think this is gonna, this album is going to spark a pretty good conversation in my opinion. So, but doing well and looking forward to traveling again. It'll be interesting for sure. Craig, how are things on the left coast, motherfucker?

Track 1:
[4:36] Not too bad. Just got back from a family trip to Disneyland that was six years in the making. We tried it, you know, in 2020 and it didn't work out. And so we finally m

It's a bonus episode! Join Craig as he sits down to talk with Dale Robertson a 30-year veteran of the Canadian Music Industry.
Transcript:
Track 2:
[1:06] Hey there listeners, this is Craig and today on Discovering Downey I am joined by Dale Robertson. Dale is a 30-year veteran of the Canadian music industry and he is here to share a few stories about Gord and the Hip. Welcome Dale, how's it going?

Track 2:
[1:22] Thank you Craig, it's going very well, I'm happy to be here. This is, you know what, my first podcast participation ever. Oh wow, Wow. Okay. Well, I'm pretty new to this too. So we'll just see how it goes. But I have you on today to talk a little hip because I know you're a big fan and that's how I met you is talking about the hip. And your name was a name that would come up over and over through our mutual friend, Matt Pinch. And I thought I'd just share a quick story about how I met Matt that you probably don't know. So it was grade seven for me and Matt was a year younger in grade six, but we were in a class together and my good friend had moved out of town that summer and so I was without a close friend at school and one day we were seated next to each other and Matt started talking to me about WWF wrestlers and he was very enthusiastic and I didn't know too much but I went home and made sure to watch that you know Saturday night and came back to school the next week with a little bit more knowledge about wrestling and and we would spend our days drawing wrestlers on on blank pieces of paper and then we would take our compass and one at a time drop the compass on each of the wrestlers and if it hit we would make a little tally and after 10.

Track 2:
[2:46] Hits that that wrestler would be eliminated from the the battle royale and so that's how that's how we met and then we ended up you know matt was the first person i ever met who played guitar he He got a guitar for his birthday, I believe, and I would pick it up and I just fell in love right away. And so I, you know, started playing shortly after that. And we ended up actually starting our first band together and, you know, started playing cover music. And within a year we were playing all original. And yeah, that was my first band experience with along with our buddy Blair, who you know, and our friend Bob on drums. And yeah, how about you? How did you get to know Matt?

Track 2:
[3:23] So i met matt when he joined bmg while i was working there um here in vancouver and he came on board as a street team member i think it was around 1998 or so um he then became our street team leader uh which you know the really cool thing about the street team pro programs that the labels were utilizing was that it was a great sort of starting ground for uh somebody getting into the music industry and to get hired from there because typically as a street team member you're volunteering you were out there you know putting stickers on bathroom walls or um putting posters up on either walls where you're allowed to or in street corner you've seen those you know uh let's say uh the new trouble charger album at that time coming soon blah blah blah so So Matt was part of that. And then he ended up moving into the radio promotions department within BMG until 2004 when he was an unfortunate victim of the Sony BMG merger. Right. And that was phase one. You know, it's very typical for these mergers where, you know.

Track 2:
[4:38] You become a victim to the downsizing you know it affected me eventually in 2007 where we had an office of 11 and the next day there were only two left i was one of the nine wow um but yeah it's just you know that's the nature of the beast and and uh the music industry is volatile it's just that crazy you know you love it and you can also kind of despise it at the same time because of some of the um debris that it can leave in its wake but uh you know you're in it for the music you know it's um i would have to say that the hip were probably a major catalys

This week on the podcast Craig, Justin, and Kirk experience Gord's second record, the blistering, Battle of the Nudes.

This week on the show, jD, Craig, Justin, and Kirk wrap up Coke Machine Glow and pick their MVP tracks. Join us won't you?
Transcript:
Track 1:
[0:56] Minneapolis hotel room. Here I sit, cool as a garage, writing by lightning. I don't mean lightning as a metaphor for inspiration. I mean lighting. Intermittent lightning. By lightning really turning it on. A lightning-powered hotel room. It's the most lightning I've ever seen in one room.

Track 2:
[1:19] Welcome, music lovers. Long Slice Brewery presents Discovering Downey.

Track 3:
[1:28] Hey, it's J.D. here, and I'm joined, as I am every week, by my pals Craig, Justin, and Kirk from Chino. While our love for the hip unites us, it's Gord's solo ventures that remain uncharted for our trio. Hence, I've gathered this team of enthusiasts to delve into the musical repertoire of the enigmatic frontman of the tragically hip, the late Gord Downie. Come along with us on this exploration as we navigate through his albums one by one in chronological order, embarking on our quest of discovering Downey. This is the second of two parts of our gang covering Gord's first solo record, Coke Machine Glow. If you listened to part one, we discussed the album as a whole and then got into a song by song breakdown. Down on this episode we'll pick up where we left off with a song that has to be about cottage country doesn't it well in my head it is craig why don't you kick things off with your thoughts on black flies right.

Track 4:
[2:31] Away what hit me was the laminar flow line because i was at that show and i'm not sure if this was something that he did all through the the roadside attraction the first tour that I saw. But the Vancouver show or the Seabird Island show in 1993, I believe.

Track 4:
[2:50] Um maybe 94 93 um he goes off on this rant about the laminar flow and you can actually find it online too and uh and he's talking about you know it's the flow of liquid and he's sort of talking about the crowd and the movement of the crowd and this was my first hip show we're talking i'm not sure how many thousands of people there are 20 000 this wave of people and this is like the early hip fans right this is this is roadside a partying crowd yep and it was this it was in the In the middle of nowhere. That's your first hip show? Huge. Wow. Yeah, huge. Yeah, just in the middle of a forest, really. And, you know, just like you see on the videos with, like, Canadian flags and drunk, you know, jock types. And I was quite young. I think I was 18 at the time. And not really knowing how to take gourd. Like, I loved the hip at the time. Like, I think fully completely. I'd either just come out or was about to. Loved that album. Loved, you know, the band since up to here. And at one point, and you can actually see it in this video, he starts getting angry with someone in the crowd saying, don't look at them, look at me. Like, you know, referencing, you know, the other band members. And he was obviously joking, but at the time I had no clue. He just looked, I was like, this guy really is starved for attention because not only does he sing all the songs and he's talking in between all the songs, he's talking over top of the guitar solos. And at first I didn't know how to take that. I thought it was really...

Track 4:
[4:15] It was really jarring for me being a musician and, and I was kind of thinking, what are the other bandmates think of this? Like he's, um, of course over the years you get to, you come to appreciate that and, and know it's just a part of the act. Right. But, but yeah, that, um, don't look at, don't look at them. Look at me.

Track 4:
[4:32] You have to find the clip. It's so good. It's called laminar flow. Find it on YouTube. It's so funny. My friend, I went to the show with who I still am in contact with. He would always talk about the laminar flow and I didn't remember it really. And then he, He, a few years ago, pointed out the video to me and I'm like, oh yeah, I do remember th