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Useless Nights by Gord Downie

First up we’ve got something I can only describe as incredibly special. 

On August 20, 2016 11.5 million people tuned in to a live performance from the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston Ontario as the Canadian band The Tragically Hip played their final show, under the weight of knowing this would be their friend and frontman, Gord Downie’s last performance. The show would go down as part of modern Canadian history. 

In 2017 at the Tragically Hip studios in Bath, Ontario Downie recorded what would be his final album. Away is Mine is a 20-track collection of songs that “highlights Gord’s poetic mastery with vibrant yet haunting production by Nyles Spencer that casts each song in different otherworldly light.” According to a statement from Arts & Crafts the label releasing Downie’s Away is Mine.

Away is Mine will be out October 16, 2020 – in the meantime two tracks have been released and are available on all the places you get your music. You can also pre-order the double LP vinyl and the double CD pack at GordDownie.com. 

This is Useless Nights by the late and great Gord Downie. 

Downie was truly one of the coolest people in Canadian music and he is greatly missed. Downie spent a great deal of time in the later part of his life fighting for the rights of indigenous Canadians. In one of his final performances with The Hip on August 16, 2016 at FirstOntario Centre in Hamelton, ON the artist mentioned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by name as the leader to move the needle forward on the matter of Indigenous reconciliation in Canada.

Downie also released Secret Path in 2016 an album and art project created in memoriam for Chanie Wenjack. Chanie was a young boy who died on October 22, 1966, walking the railroad tracks, trying to escape from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School to walk home, to the home he was taken from. Chanie’s home was 400 miles away. He didn’t know that. He didn’t know where it was, nor know how to find it, but, like so many kids – more than anyone will be able to imagine – he tried. 

Downie has this to say on the website for the secret path project,

“Chanie haunts me. His story is Canada’s story. This is about Canada. We are not the country we thought we were. History will be re-written. We are all accountable, but this begins in the late 1800s and goes to 1996. “White” Canada knew – on somebody’s purpose – nothing about this. We weren’t taught it; it was hardly ever mentioned.”

I’m going to play a track from Secret Path and I highly-highly encourage you to check out Chanie’s story and Downie’s secret path project online at secretpath.ca. 

For more information on Gord Downie’s music visit: https://gorddownie.com

I’m Beggin by Queens & Kings

Queens and Kings is a post-punk garage rock duo from Toronto, Canada. The team is a relentless powerhouse on stage so when live music does come back I recommend checking these two out as soon as possible. Safety first, of course. The two have known each other for almost a decade but didn’t begin their musical journey together until just a few years ago. I spoke to Alissa and Branden from Queens and Kings about their new track I’m Beggin.

For more information on Queens & Kings visit: https://queensandkingsmusic.com

Doom Boy by The Diry Nil

The Dirty Nil is an indie-alt-rock band from Hamilton, Ontario, who won the Juno Award for Breakthrough Group of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2017. The band consists of singer and guitarist Luke Bentham, bassist Ross Miller and drummer Kyle Fisher. The band is revving up for the release of their new album Fuck Art due out this January. This is the first single by the band from their new album it’s called Doom Boy. 

That was Doom Boy by the Dirty Nil. That album comes with a pretty fantastic video in which the band performs in, then actively destroys. As a hilarious side-note, that’s apparently the band’s front man’s Luke’s Moms car. So for any moms out there, with creative kids. Check your insurance. Nah I’m sure she was cool I’m with it. I’ve got the kind of mom that would let me distort her car for art, I’d probably have to get her a new car though. 

For more info on The Dirty Nil visit https://thedirtynil.com

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