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

Skydiggers Skydiggers is 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 contemporary folk music, folk, blues, and country music. First emerging in the late 1960s, it is seen as a response to the perceived excesses of the then dominant psychedel ...

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 heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

sound and the title track incorporating electronic keyboards and

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

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

Brixton Brixton is an area of 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 century ...

, 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 Canada, Canadian literary magazine named ''Essays on Canadian Writing''. They started publishing trade and scholar ...

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

Sarah Harmer Sarah Lois 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 musical lifestyle as a teenager, when her older s ...

Lewis Melville Lewis Saul Benjamin (pen name, Lewis Melville; 1874–1932) was an English author, born into a Jewish familyWilliam D. Rubinstein, Michael Jolles, Hilary L. Rubinstein, ''The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History'', Palgrave Macmillan (201 ...

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 P ...

and Anne Bourne.

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