I haven’t paid much mind to The Tragically Hip (Canada’s biggest rock band of the 90s) in a long long time, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the literate and unfettered front man Gordon Downie. Few staples of modern rock radio raise the intellectual bar of popular culture, but Downie sometimes has (a published poet who references John Cage in songs and has explicitly disclaimed the nationalism that plagues the band in interviews). I just stumbled onto this fresh interview with Downie talking about how his wife’s breast cancer affected him and the writing of the band’s latest album. It’s compelling regardless of the old rock band in question. Meanwhile, how distant from Nickleback or Green Day to begin a rock video with a reading of Stan Brakhage on visual perception.