Desmond's Hip City is a 1997 album by Skydiggers

Skydiggers

Skydiggers are a Canadian roots rock band from Toronto, Ontario.-Biography:Formed in 1987 by singer Andy Maize and lead guitarist Josh Finlayson, the band soon added rhythm guitarist Peter Cash, drummer Wayne Stokes and bassist Ron Macey to their lineup...

. The album differs from the band's conventional roots rock

Roots rock

Roots rock is a term now used to describe rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid sub-genres from the later 1960s including country rock and Southern rock, which have been seen as responses to the...

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

Hard rock

Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

 sound and the title track incorporating electronic keyboards and Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth

Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...

-style guitar feedback.

Desmond's Hip City refers to a record

Gramophone record

A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 shop in Brixton

Brixton

Brixton is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It is south south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....

, England. 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

Haysi Fantayzee were a British New Wave band of the early 1980s. Allmusic journalist Andy Kellman notes "Haysi Fantayzee was a quirky pop group, known most for its colourful thrift shop image and successful debut single, "John Wayne Is Big Leggy", which was released in 1982.-Career:Haysi Fantayzee...

 video,"Sister Friction", where it is called Desmond Hip City.

Guest musicians on the album include Sarah Harmer

Sarah Harmer

Sarah Harmer is a Canadian singer-songwriter and activist.-Biography:Born and raised in Burlington, Ontario, Harmer gained her first exposure to the musician's lifestyle as a teenager, when her older sister Mary started taking her to concerts by the well-known Tragically Hip. At the age of 17, she...

, Lewis Melville, Jim Cuddy

Jim Cuddy

Jim Cuddy is a Canadian singer-songwriter primarily associated with the band Blue Rodeo. He has also recorded three solo albums with the Jim Cuddy Band, which features musicians Bazil Donovan, Colin Cripps, Joel Anderson, Anne Lindsay and Gavin Brown...

 and Anne Bourne.

Track listing

All tracks written by Finlayson/Maize unless otherwise noted.

1. "Desmond's Hip City" – 3:51
2. "Only a Fool" – 3:09
3. "Jade Hops" – 3:57
4. "Truth About Us" – 5:17 (Garbe)
5. "Shape of Things to Come" – 3:30
6. "November in Ontario" – 5:08
7. "Dear Henry" – 4:04
8. "This New Country" – 3:30
9. "The Gift" – 4:15
10. "2,000 Years" – 3:43