VANCOUVER -- There's certainly nothing wrong with one Canadian band helping another Canadian band get some stadium exposure.

In this case, the biggest one in the land is helping one less commercially successful, although still highly respected.

But Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip insists that's not the reason his Kingston, Ont., group chose underground giants Rheostatics as the backup act for their cross-Canada tour.

"No, I want to see them every night," says Downie, on the eve of the Hip's tour launch at the Pacific Coliseum last month. "It's selfish."

And apparently habit-forming. The two bands -- who pull into Maple Leaf Gardens tomorrow and Friday night -- have toured together before in the U.S. and on the Hip's Another Roadside Attraction summer treks.

This time, both have new albums to flog. Rheostatics are promoting their recently released seventh album, The Blue Hysteria, which follows the self-explanatory Music Inspired By The Group Of Seven, commissioned by the National Gallery Of Canada earlier this year.

"We were working pretty slowly on Hysteria on our own schedule, thinking maybe we'd get it out sometime next year," explains bassist-vocalist Tim Vesely, seated in the Coliseum stands. "And then a few months ago, we were offered this tour." So they released the album more quickly.

Vesely says the band is pleased to be on the road with the Hip again but have no pie-in-the-sky aspirations about whether it will mean a huge increase in record sales.

"It's always the same. We make a few fans each time, like just a handful, so you can't complain about that. Maybe we started off having great expectations, like playing to thousands of people, but we've done it so many times that we know what to expect. Making a connection with a few people and that's great."

The Blue Hysteria is the second release on the Toronto group's own label, Raise A Little Elf, after the Group of Seven project.

The band's 1994 album, Introducing Happiness, was recorded on the major label, Sire, after the success of their 1992 soundtrack for the Canadian film Whale Music, which spawned the Genie Award-winning radio hit Claire. But the group was eventually let out of its Sire contract.

"A lot of people will know the song Claire and have heard it," says Vesely. "If they hear us do it, they'll say, 'Oh, you're the band that does that.' We're kind of faceless."

But apparently not helpless.

"They don't need our help," reiterates Downie. "I mean look at the stuff they do. They get the most interesting things to do. I think they're the envy of a lot of bands, ourselves included. They get to do interesting things and it's because they're good. So maybe they don't get that recognition on the street, Vancouver or something, but they don't need anybody's help."

Vesely says the band -- who have sold about 75,000 albums in Canada since 1991's well-received Melville (although the group actually formed 17 years ago!!! in Etobicoke) -- are happy with their lot.

"Especially now, having done this last record on our own. We did it in our drummer Don Kerr's studio, called The Gas Station, in Toronto," he says. "We did this one by financing it ourselves and producing it ourselves. So it's like another little step we've taken in our own evolution. They're all really kind of tiny steps but each one has been in the right direction."