The Tragically Hip

[CANUCK ROCK] Ontario's the Tragically Hip couldn't be more Canadian if the band dressed like mounties and sang about socialized medicine and tapping maple trees for syrup—meaning, they sound like an American band, just slightly more congenial, and a bit paler. Basically the R.E.M. of the Great White North, the band has been kicking around since the early ’80s, performing anthemic, vaguely rootsy rock ’n’ roll with an undercurrent of college-rock jangle. Fourteen albums into their career, the Hip are legends up there and well-regarded cult figures down here, but the band continues to produce strong albums—the latest being this year's Now for Plan A—that play well on both sides of the border.