The first print biography of one of Canada's most famous and impactful bands, The Tragically Hip, explores how the group has helped define today's cultural conversations, including Gord Downie's inspirational story and his role in reconciliation with Indigenous people.

Gordon Downie, lead singer and lyricist for the popular Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, released his first solo record, Coke Machine Glow in Spring 2001. Alongside the album, his first book of poetry and prose under the same title was published, including the lyrics to the sixteen songs on the record. Now, on the 20th anniversary year of Coke Machine Glow, fans have more to delight in: an audiobook of Coke Machine Glow and a brand new album by Downie, released posthumously. Coke Machine Glow is a rich, haunting collection that reveals both the public and private selves of one of Canada's most enigmatic musicians. In poetry that is urban, gritty and political, as well as romantic, nostalgic and whimsical, Downie allows us a glimpse inside his world. With his acute and observing eye, he gives us snapshots of his life, both on the road and at home; he writes of loneliness and isolation; of longing and desire; of the present and the past; of dreams and nightmares; love lost and love of family. Ultimately, this book is about the distances that bridge and separate us. Layered and deceptively simple, imbued with Downie's wit, insight, anger, compassion and rock'n'roll edge, Coke Machine Glow is a remarkable debut from a remarkable creator.

A deeply affecting new novel by the award-winning author of Flip! When a family holiday ends in the tragic death of their young son, the grieving parents struggle to cope, and Shiv, their fifteen-year-old daughter, must come to terms with what happened . . . and her part in it. Off the rails and tormented by guilt, she is sent away to an exclusive clinic that claims to "cure" people like her. But this is no ordinary psychiatric institution, and Shiv discovers that her release--from her demons, and from the clinic itself--will come at a bizarre and terrible price.

The long-awaited, first-ever print biography of “Canada’s band” “A clever, touching, and very informative book that may well be the definitive work on an important piece of Canadian pop culture.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review In the summer of 2016, more than a third of Canadians tuned in to watch the Tragically Hip’s final performance. Why? Partially because Gord Downie’s terminal brain cancer made the event much bigger than merely a musical occasion. But also because these five men were always more than just a chart-topping band. They defined a generation of Canadian rock music. They were a tabula rasa onto which fans could project their own ideas: of performance, of poetry, of history, of Canada itself. Acclaimed music journalist Michael Barclay talks to dozens of the band’s peers and friends about not just the Hip’s music but about the opening bands, dealing with disease through art, Gord Downie’s role in reconciliation with Indigenous people, and the Hip’s role in Canadian culture. It’s a book for those who have always loved the Hip, and for everyone else. As Downie said at that final show watched by millions, “Everyone is invited. Everyone is involved.”

Neoliberalism's war against democracy and how to resist it How do we explain the strange survival of the forces responsible for the 2008 economic crisis, one of the worst since 1929? How do we explain the fact that neoliberalism has emerged from the crisis strengthened? When it broke, a number of the most prominent economists hastened to announce the 'death' of neoliberalism. They regarded the pursuit of neoliberal policy as the fruit of dogmatism. For Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval, neoliberalism is no mere dogma. Supported by powerful oligarchies, it is a veritable politico-institutional system that obeys a logic of self-reinforcement. Far from representing a break, crisis has become a formidably effective mode of government. In showing how this system crystallized and solidified, the book explains that the neoliberal straitjacket has succeeded in preventing any course correction by progressively deactivating democracy. Increasing the disarray and demobilization, the so-called 'governmental' Left has actively helped strengthen this oligarchical logic. The latter could lead to a definitive exit from democracy in favour of expertocratic governance, free of any control. However, nothing has been decided yet. The revival of democratic activity, which we see emerging in the political movements and experiments of recent years, is a sign that the political confrontation with the neoliberal system and the oligarchical bloc has already begun.

Bob Dylan’s contribution to popular music is immeasurable. Venerated as rock’s one true genius, Dylan is considered responsible for introducing a new range of topics and new lyrical complexity into popular music. Without Bob Dylan, rock critic Dave Marsh once claimed, there would be no popular music as we understand it today. As such an exalted figure, Dylan has been the subject of countless books and intricate scholarship considering various dimensions of both the man and his music. This book places new emphasis on Dylan as a rock star. Whatever else Dylan is, he is a star – iconic, charismatic, legendary, enigmatic. No one else in popular music has maintained such star status for so long a period of time. Showing how theories of stardom can help us understand both Bob Dylan and the history of rock music, Lee Marshall provides new insight into how Dylan’s songs acquire meaning and affects his relationship with his fans, his critics and the recording industry. Marshall discusses Dylan’s emergence as a star in the folk revival (the “spokesman for a generation”) and the formative role that Dylan plays in creating a new type of music – rock – and a new type of star. Bringing the book right up to date, he also sheds new light on how Dylan’s later career has been shaped by his earlier star image and how Dylan repeatedly tried to throw off the limitations and responsibilities of his stardom. The book concludes by considering the revival of Dylan over the past ten years and how Dylan’s stardom has developed in a way that contains, but is not overshadowed by, his achievements in the 1960s.

A semi-autobiographical hallucinatory tour that follows a group of friends through a summer filled with uncertainty and confusion.

The Never Ending Life is an exploration of the twist between the brutal realities of life along with the fictitious happy ever afters that we all long for. A real story about all the different ingredients that when mixed together create the unique blend which is what we call...life. Each chapter in this book is one that we go through at the different stages and stops in our journey. Each chapter in our lives adds to our story and contributes towards the individual we turn into. Each story explores the powerful emotions that human beings have the ability to experience and analyses them in a way that touches the heart and brain.

Gord Downie creates a concept album that tells the true story of Chanie Wenjack, an Indigenous boy who died in 1996, trying to escape one of Canada's residential schools.

Feast! Throughout human history, and in all parts of the world, feasts have been at the heart of life. The great museums of the world are full of the remains of countless ghostly feasts – dishes that once bore rich meats, pitchers used to pour choice wines, tall jars that held beer sipped through long straws of gold and lapis, immense cauldrons from which hundreds of people could be served. Why were feasts so important, and is there more to feasting than abundance and enjoyment? The Never-Ending Feast is a pioneering work that draws on anthropology, archaeology and history to look at the dynamics of feasting among the great societies of antiquity renowned for their magnificence and might. Reflecting new directions in academic study, the focus shifts beyond the medieval and early modern periods in Western Europe, eastwards to Mesopotamia, Assyria and Achaemenid Persia, early Greece, the Mongol Empire, Shang China and Heian Japan. The past speaks through texts and artefacts. We see how feasts were the primary arena for displays of hierarchy, status and power; a stage upon which loyalties and alliances were negotiated; the occasion for the mobilization and distribution of resources, a means of pleasing the gods, and the place where identities were created, consolidated – and destroyed. The Never-Ending Feast transforms our understanding of feasting past and present, revitalising the fields of anthropology, archaeology, history, museum studies, material culture and food studies, for all of which it is essential reading.