The name, The Tragically Hip, was taken from a Michael Nesmith (yes the guy from The Monkeys) video called "Elephant Parts." The video contained a clip asking for contributions to The Foundation for The Tragically Hip "poor, afflicted people in need of Jacuzzis, Lamborghinis and cocaine." People either like the name, think it's clever and funny, or think it's a really pretentious. The first gig we ever had as TTH occurred at the KAA [Kingston Artist Association]. We were "the band" for some kind of party. It was a good first gig - no excessive booing and nothing thrown at us.

Individually we played in bands during high schools [The Rodents was one and is referenced in the Poets video] When we started TTH, we wanted to play tunes that we wished other bar bands would play. Our cover material was varied and obscure but most folks had probably heard these songs or knew the artists. The songs were not likely the band抯 biggest hits [The Rolling Stones?2000 Light Years From Home for instance]. Other covers we actually liked to play at the time included Gloria, Suzie Q, Baby Please Don抰 Go, Good Morning Little School Girl and Train Kept a Rollin'. From the very early days we were writing our own tunes and throwing them out just to see what the audience thought of them. Evelyn is probably the first original song we ever played live.

Early Touring
By the summer of 1986 we had decided to become a real rock and roll band. Now that we were free from our scholarly commitments we would be The Tragically Hip full-time. By this time Davis had left and our friend Paul joined. This is when The Hip as you may know it really got going. We were recording basement demos on 4 tracks and dumping them in the mail to various addresses in funky Toronto. That summer and fall [really since then] we抳e been out playing live shows. Our first tours consisted of stunningly long drives from one Ontario bar to the next. Playing six nights a week in a variety of bars is a good way to improve as musicians and negotiators. Many of the bar owners demanded you play nothing but covers or only two original songs a night. We got in the habit introducing some of our original songs as other artists?work "this a rare Doors song from an unreleased album."

  
1986-7? photocopy poster

EP Recording Info
By this time we had enough original material that our show shifted around and we played our material with a few covers thrown in now and again. That fall we met up with our current manager Jake Gold. Shortly thereafter we started to prepare to cut the traditional "better than a basement tape four song demo for the labels." Fortunately, the multi-talented Ken Greer [who was playing in Red Rider at the time] heard us, liked us, and ended up producing what became our 7 song EP. The five-day recording session at both Phase One Studio and Sounds Interchange in Toronto was the first of the many cool recording experiences we have been fortunate to have.

The EP was first released in Kingston in December of 1987. EP was distributed nationally in Canada in January of 1988. Throughout 1988 we toured as much of Canada was we could, doing around 200 shows between January and September. We played anywhere people wanted us clubs, bars, campus events and gyms. We managed to get some radio play and videos were shot for Small Town Bringdown and Last American Exit. At the very end of 1988 we signed the usual seven record contract with MCA. Our EP was remastered and "All Canadian Surf Club" was added. The new version would be available worldwide in March of 1989.

Before that in January 1989 we were going down to Ardent Studios in Memphis [home of 匽 Tennessee to work on what would become Up To Here, our first full record.