Tragically Hip - Grace, Too

The Kingston, Ontario CANADA-based Tragically Hip started playing together with the current, unchanged line-up, in 1983, comprising singer Gordon Downie, lead guitarist Bobby Baker, rhythm guitarist Paul Langlois, bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay.

After MCA signed them to a long-term record deal, the Alternative-Rock group made their debut in 1987, releasing their eponymous mini-album.
But only two years later the triple-platinum "Up To Here" firmly established The Tragically Hips presence on the Canadian music scene; this album contained their breakthrough singles, "Blow At High Dough" and the Billboard's Mainstream Rock top 30 hit, "New Orleans Is Sinking".

During 1991 the quintet released "Road Apples" and toured throughout Europe and Australia to support it.
Two years later they followed it up with "Fully Completely", which generated "Locked In The Trunk Of A Car", their first Canadian #1 single and "Courage", which reached the #16 spots on both The Mainstream and The Modern Rock Tracks charts.

"Day For Night" arrived in 1994, this album consolidated their status as Canadian skilled Rock band, it was released in the U.S. a few months later on Atlantic Records but failed to chart; The Hip appeared on Saturday Night Live singing the delicate "Grace, Too" which received some airplay on alt-Rock stations, they also toured Europe with The Rolling Stones.

Their sixth effort, "Trouble At The Henhouse", was released in mid-1996, it broke into the top 20 in their native homeland, hit #7 on Billboard Magazine's Top Heatseekers list and reached the #134 slot on the U.S. Top 200 Albums chart; during their tour for this album, they recorded their show at Cobo Hall Arena in Detroit, the result being the group's first live CD, "Live Between Us".
The set was issued in 1997 and shot to #1 on The Top Canadian Albums chart.

Wider success came the next year with "Phantom Power", The Hip's sixth studio effort hit #1 in Canada and rose to #3 on the Top Heatseekers Albums chart; the record included two singles, "Fireworks" and "Poets", the latter entered the top 40 of The Mainstream Rock chart.

In the summer of 2000 the quintet released "Music @ Work" which climbed to the top on the Canadian Albums chart and reached the #139 position on The Billboard Top 200 south of the border.

Two years later they released "In Violet Light", another sonically charged full-length disc which reached #2 in Canada and stalled in the lower reaches of The Billboard Top 200 Albums list.

With sales approaching 6 million albums sold in their homeland, The Tragically Hip, returned in the summer of 2004 with its tenth studio effort, "In Between Evolution", the record shot to #1 on Top Canadian Albums chart on the heels of the success of the lead single, "Vaccination Scar".

November 2005 saw the release of "Yer Favourites", a digitally remastered double-disc anthology of the recordings of the veteran Canadian rockers featuring 35 classic tracks that were chosen by over 150,000 fans online, at their official website and two new songs including the radio single "No Threat".

In October 2006 The Tragically Hip released a new album of all-new-material entitled "World Container", the disc was recorded and mixed with producer Bob Rock in various locations, including Maui, Vancouver and Toronto; the first single off the band's eleventh LP, "In View", peaked at #1 in Canada where the album fell just one place short of the peak position of its predecessor.

The quintet resurfaced two and a half years later with "We Are The Same", the group's eighth #1 album in Canada; the 12-song set, which integrated the singles "Morning Moon" and "Love Is A First", also charted in U.S. reaching #148 on The Billboard 200.

The Tragically Hip issued its next record, "And Now For Plan A", in the fall of 2012. The lead single, "At Transformation", was huge hit on the Canadian Active Rock chart while the album peaked at #3 in their homeland and reached #129 in the States.