''Desmond's Hip City'' is a 1997 album by

Skydiggers Skydiggers are a Canadian roots rock band from Toronto formed by Andy Maize and Josh Finlayson. Since 1990, they have released 19 albums/EPs and have had a number of singles that have appeared on the Canadian charts. Their most successful album i ...

. The album differs from the band's conventional

roots rock Roots rock is a genre of rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid subgenres from the later 1960s, including blues rock, country rock, Southern rock, ...

sound somewhat, with several songs (notably "Shape of Things to Come" and "November in Ontario") adopting more of a

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

sound and the title track incorporating electronic keyboards and

Sonic Youth Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...

-style guitar feedback. ''Desmond's Hip City'' refers to a

record A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

shop in

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...

, England; band member Josh Finlayson had lived above the store for a time in the early 1980s.Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, '' Have Not Been the Same: The Can-Rock Renaissance 1985-1995''.

ECW Press ECW Press is a Canadian book publisher located in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded by Jack David and Robert Lecker in 1974 as a Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholarly book ...

. . Desmond's Hip City was the first Black record shop in Brixton, south of London, England. Photographs of the storefront show it named Desmond's Hip City in the early 1970s. A later view of the storefront can be seen in the 1983

Haysi Fantayzee Haysi Fantayzee were a short lived British pop band of the early 1980s. Their best known songs are "John Wayne Is Big Leggy", released in 1982 and " Shiny Shiny", released in 1983. Career Haysi Fantayzee was an avant-garde, new wave pop proj ...

video, "Sister Friction", where it is called Desmond Hip City. Guest musicians on the album include

Sarah Harmer Sarah Harmer (born November 12, 1970) is a Canadian singer, songwriter and environmental activist. Early life Born and raised in Burlington, Ontario, Harmer gained her first exposure to the musician's lifestyle as a teenager, when her older sist ...

, Lewis Melville,

Jim Cuddy James Gordon Cuddy, (born December 2, 1955) is a Canadian singer-songwriter primarily associated with the band Blue Rodeo. Early life and education Cuddy was born in Toronto, Ontario. His Mother Jean Cuddy was an English teacher at Monarch Pa ...

and

Anne Bourne Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

Track listing

All tracks written by Finlayson/Maize unless otherwise noted. # "Desmond's Hip City" – 3:51 # "Only a Fool" – 3:09 # "Jade Hops" – 3:57 # "Truth About Us" – 5:17 (Garbe) # "Shape of Things to Come" – 3:30 # "November in Ontario" – 5:08 # "Dear Henry" – 4:04 # "This New Country" – 3:30 # "The Gift" – 4:15 # "2,000 Years" – 3:43

References

1997 albums Skydiggers albums {{1990s-indie-rock-album-stub