Rheostatics
Encyclopedia
Rheostatics was a Genie Award
-winning Canadian indie rock
band, active from 1980 to 2007.
Although they had only one Top 40 hit, "Claire" in 1995, they were simultaneously one of Canada's most influential and unconventional rock bands, a band whose eclectic take on pop and rock music has been described both as iconic and iconoclastic. In particular, two of the band's albums, Whale Music
and Melville
, have been cited in numerous critical and listener polls as among the best Canadian albums ever recorded.
, the band played their first gig at a club called The Edge in February 1980. The band originally consisted of guitarist Dave Bidini
, bassist Tim Vesely
, drummer Rod Westlake and keyboard player Dave Crosby. Westlake left the band almost immediately, however, and was replaced by Dave Clark
. Crosby left the band in 1981. The band's early sound was more R&B
and funk-oriented than their later, more famous, music. A large horn section, known as The Trans-Canada Soul Patrol, accompanied the group from 1983 to 1985. After the departure of the horn section, Martin Tielli
was brought in. Tielli and Clark had previously been bandmates in the group Water Tower.
In the early 1980s the Rheostatics released a number of independent singles, and the three song demo Canadian Dream. The best-known of these early singles was "The Ballad of Wendel Clark, Parts 1 & 2", an ode to the Toronto Maple Leafs
player Wendel Clark
, which became the band's first hit on college radio and CFNY
. In 1987, these songs were collected as the band's debut album, Greatest Hits. Only 1,000 copies of this album were pressed and released originally, and quickly sold out. The album was eventually re-released in 1996. The band also played a role in drawing Canadian country music icon Stompin' Tom Connors
out of retirement, after Bidini and Vesely crashed Connors' birthday party in 1986 and wrote an article about it for a Toronto newspaper.
Martin Tielli left the band at the end of 1988, and shortly thereafter the Rheostatics broke up. However, by 1990, The Rheostatics had gotten back together again, with exactly the same line-up they had in mid-1988: Bidini, Clark, Tielli and Vesely.
, and released Melville
that year. The single "Record Body Count" garnered them significant airplay on radio and MuchMusic
. The album also featured a cover of Gordon Lightfoot
's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
".
The following year, the band signed to Sire Records
and released Whale Music
, which was inspired by Paul Quarrington
's award-winning novel Whale Music
. Quarrington himself was so impressed by Whale Music' s quirky pop—which was perfectly suited to a novel about a quirky, reclusive pop genius liberally based on Brian Wilson
—that he chose the band to compose the soundtrack to the film version of his novel. Music from the Motion Picture Whale Music
was released in 1994, putting the band in the odd position of having two almost identically-titled albums in its catalogue.
The centrepiece of the soundtrack was "Claire", a love song from the main character in the movie to a woman who'd moved into his house, which became Rheostatics' first and only Top 40 hit and earned the band a Genie Award
for "Best Original Song" in 1994. "Claire" was also featured on the band's album Introducing Happiness
, released the same year. That album proved to be the end of the Rheostatics' association with Sire, however, as the label found the band difficult to market.
It was also Clark's last album with the band, as he left to concentrate on his own band, The Dinner Is Ruined
. The resignation came very shortly before a cross-Canada tour. Clark has stated in interviews that he left because he was uncomfortable with the chart success of "Claire" and feared that the rest of the band would be persuaded to evolve in a mainstream direction. Tielli's perspective on "Claire", however, was very different:
Clark was replaced by Don Kerr
, whose first performance with the Rheostatics was an unannounced show at the Horseshoe Tavern
in the spring of 1995.
Later in 1995, the band attracted the attention of the National Gallery of Canada
, who commissioned the band to write music to accompany a retrospective celebrating the 75th anniversary of another group of artists whose distinctive-yet-accessible artistic outlook had redefined Canadian art, the Group of Seven
. That year, working with pianist Kevin Hearn
(later of the Barenaked Ladies
) and the experimental hip hop
group Farm Fresh
, they released Music Inspired by the Group of Seven
on the independent label DROG Records. Bob Wiseman
would sit in for Hearn at the Art Gallery of Ontario
show due to Hearn's illness.
The band also attracted the attention of The Tragically Hip
, who invited the Rheostatics to open for them on tour; this tour culminated in the release of the Tragically Hip’s live album Live Between Us
in May 1997, wherein front man Gordon Downie opens the album – and show – by saying, over the beginning of the first track “Grace Too”, “This is for the Rheostatics – we are all richer for having seen them tonight”.
The Rheostatics thus returned to the studio, and released The Blue Hysteria
in 1996. This album garnered airplay for the single "Bad Time to Be Poor," a scathing indictment of life in Ontario during the government of Mike Harris
.
In 1997, the band released Double Live
, a live album documenting the band in a variety of settings, from small in-store sessions to the large arenas of their tour with The Tragically Hip. The album was very successful on the campus radio charts and is amongst fans' favorites discs.
, a music show on CBC Radio Two
. Performances from this session were released on 1998's The Nightlines Sessions
.
In 1999, the band released The Story of Harmelodia
, an album based on a children's story written by Bidini. The album, which featured the band's songs interspersed with narration by Bidini's wife, Janet Morassutti, detailed the adventures of Dot and Bug, two children from the land of Harmelodia who fell through a hole into the land of Popopolis. The album was packaged with a book featuring Tielli's illustrated text of Bidini's story. Hearn and the band's frequent producer, Michael Phillip Wojewoda
, contributed significantly to the recording and are listed as members of the band.
In 2001, Rheostatics released Night of the Shooting Stars
on Perimeter Records. Though Kerr plays on the album, it was announced prior to its release that he would be departing from the band. The reasons given were his desire to focus on his work at Gas Station Recording Studios in Toronto, as well as his role in Ron Sexsmith
's group. Kerr was replaced by Wojewoda.
In late 2001, the band revived their tradition of a week's club residency, formerly known as "Green Sprouts Music Week", and played 11 straight evenings at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern
. Performances from these shows were included on their sole DVD release, 2003's Maple Serum: Rheostatics Live at the Horseshoe Tavern. The event was dubbed the "Fall Nationals" and was repeated for the next three years. Performances from the 2004 Fall Nationals make up the album Calling Out the Chords, Vol. 1
, released in 2005.
Their tenth and final studio album, 2067
, was released in the fall of 2004. Their final studio release was an eponymous, digital-format track of the song "Pornography", released in late 2004. Both were put out by True North Records
.
Two live albums followed in 2005, The Whale Music Concert, 1992
and the aforementioned Calling Out the Chords, Vol. 1, the latter being released in digital format only.
. However, Bidini has indicated that Vesely made his intentions to leave known to the band in January 2006, after they had played a series of concerts in Calgary
.
Bidini and Tielli explored the possibility of continuing the band with Wojewoda and collaborating keyboardist Ford Pier
, but these plans collapsed after Wojewoda declared he did not want to commit to the band. Subsequent press indicated that the band would not continue following Vesely's exit.
After it was revealed that Vesely would be leaving, Bidini embarked on a solo tour and chronicled his experience in the 2007 book Around the World in 57½ Gigs.
On March 16, 2007, Canadian web label Zunior released a Rheostatics tribute album, The Secret Sessions
, which had not been publicized in advance so that it would be a surprise for the band.
A farewell concert was planned and on March 30, 2007, the Rheostatics played Toronto's Massey Hall
, the largest venue that they had played as headliners. The concert was recorded for later broadcast on CBC Radio Two's Canada Live
, which aired the show on April 7 and again on December 6. Ford Pier substituted for Vesely in some live performances between Vesely's announcement and the final show.
Bidini and Tielli have continued working together after the Massey Hall show. The first of such projects was a musical-theatre piece entitled Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica, produced in collaboration with One Yellow Rabbit
. Music from the production was recorded by Bidini, Tielli, Pier, Selina Martin and Barry Mirochnick, and released on the album Music from Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica in February 2009 on Zunior. Vesely and Wojewoda contribute to two tracks.
, shortly after the late author had publicized his diagnosis with inoperable lung cancer.
The former members who had performed were Bidini, Clark, Hearn, Kerr, Tielli and Vesely. They performed two songs: "Claire" followed by "Dope Fiends and Boozehounds". Bidini also hosted the entire event.
The reunion was for this occasion only and the group remains defunct.
, Bidini brought quirky humour and New Wave
influences, Vesely pursued a relatively mainstream pop-rock orientation which meant that his songs garnered nearly all of the band's radio airplay, and Clark's songs were punk
-flavoured.
While this eclecticism appealed to the band's fans, it also made them difficult for a major label to market – some of their later albums, especially Introducing Happiness
, were described by critics as playing more like compilation albums than the work of a single band with a coherent and unified vision. As Bobby Baker of The Tragically Hip remarked in 1997, "I think maybe they're a little too good for their own good."
to determine the 100 best Canadian albums, Whale Music placed fifth, behind only Neil Young
, Joni Mitchell
, The Tragically Hip
and Sloan
. Their album Melville placed sixteenth. When the magazine conducted a follow up poll in 2000, Whale Music placed fourth and Melville placed fifth. In the 2005 poll, Whale Music placed tenth, becoming one of six albums to place in the top ten all three times, and Melville placed 44th. In all of the magazine's three polls to date, Neil Young
is the only other artist to have achieved the distinction of placing two albums in the top five in the same year.
In Bob Mersereau
's 2007 book The Top 100 Canadian Albums
, Whale Music ranked nineteenth and Melville was ranked 38th.
In June 2009, Rheostatics and Eric's Trip
were the first artists to be inducted into Zunior's Independent Music Hall of Fame. The official illustration of the group, by Trevor Waurechen, depicts Bidini, Clark, Hearn, Kerr, Tielli, Vesely and Wojewoda.
Of the band's fourteen albums, five (Melville, Whale Music, Music from the Motion Picture Whale Music, 2067 and The Whale Music Concert, 1992) depict whales on the album covers.
Genie Award
Genie Awards are given out to recognize the best of Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. From 1949-1979, the awards were named the Canadian Film Awards...
-winning Canadian indie rock
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
band, active from 1980 to 2007.
Although they had only one Top 40 hit, "Claire" in 1995, they were simultaneously one of Canada's most influential and unconventional rock bands, a band whose eclectic take on pop and rock music has been described both as iconic and iconoclastic. In particular, two of the band's albums, Whale Music
Whale Music (album)
Whale Music is a 1992 album by Canadian rock band Rheostatics. It should not be confused with the soundtrack to the film Whale Music, which was also composed by the band and released in 1994....
and Melville
Melville (album)
Melville is the 1991 second album by the Canadian rock band Rheostatics. This album garnered wide airplay across Canada. The single "Record Body Count" was a significant hit for the band on Canadian alternative rock stations and MuchMusic in 1991....
, have been cited in numerous critical and listener polls as among the best Canadian albums ever recorded.
Early years
Formed in Etobicoke, OntarioEtobicoke, Ontario
Etobicoke is a dissolved municipality located within the current city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the western section of the current city, it had an official population of 338,117 as measured by the 2001 Census and 334,491 people as of the 2006 Census. While it only contains 13% of...
, the band played their first gig at a club called The Edge in February 1980. The band originally consisted of guitarist Dave Bidini
Dave Bidini
Dave Bidini is a Canadian musician, journalist and author originating from Etobicoke, Ontario. He is a founding member of the acclaimed rock band Rheostatics, and has published several books about music and sports. He currently performs with his band, aptly named BidiniBand. The group's first...
, bassist Tim Vesely
Tim Vesely
Tim Vesely is a Canadian musician and songwriter. He is best known as the bassist for the indie rock band Rheostatics, in which he shared lead vocal duties with bandmates Dave Bidini and Martin Tielli...
, drummer Rod Westlake and keyboard player Dave Crosby. Westlake left the band almost immediately, however, and was replaced by Dave Clark
Dave Clark (Canadian musician)
-Biography:Clark is a respected studio musician and live performer, and has collaborated with such artists as Charles Spearin, Gord Downie, The Inbreds, Jane Siberry, Julie Doiron, and the Sun Ra Arkestra. He is perhaps best known for playing drums in the indie rock band Rheostatics from 1980–1995...
. Crosby left the band in 1981. The band's early sound was more R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
and funk-oriented than their later, more famous, music. A large horn section, known as The Trans-Canada Soul Patrol, accompanied the group from 1983 to 1985. After the departure of the horn section, Martin Tielli
Martin Tielli
Martin Tielli is a Canadian singer-songwriter. He was a member of the Rheostatics, and has also released material as a solo artist and with the side project Nick Buzz. As well, he has appeared as a guest musician on albums by Barenaked Ladies, Kevin Hearn, The Waltons, Jane Siberry, Ashley...
was brought in. Tielli and Clark had previously been bandmates in the group Water Tower.
In the early 1980s the Rheostatics released a number of independent singles, and the three song demo Canadian Dream. The best-known of these early singles was "The Ballad of Wendel Clark, Parts 1 & 2", an ode to the Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
player Wendel Clark
Wendel Clark
Wendel L. Clark is a retired Canadian professional ice hockey player. He is perhaps best known for being a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League , captaining the team from 1991 to 1994...
, which became the band's first hit on college radio and CFNY
CFNY-FM
CFNY-FM, promoted under the branding 102.1 The Edge, is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 102.1 FM. The station rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s due to its freestyle DJing format and unique choice to play alternative music...
. In 1987, these songs were collected as the band's debut album, Greatest Hits. Only 1,000 copies of this album were pressed and released originally, and quickly sold out. The album was eventually re-released in 1996. The band also played a role in drawing Canadian country music icon Stompin' Tom Connors
Stompin' Tom Connors
Charles Thomas "Stompin' Tom" Connors, OC is one of Canada's most prolific and well-known country and folk singers.He lives in Wellington County, Ontario.- Early life :...
out of retirement, after Bidini and Vesely crashed Connors' birthday party in 1986 and wrote an article about it for a Toronto newspaper.
Martin Tielli left the band at the end of 1988, and shortly thereafter the Rheostatics broke up. However, by 1990, The Rheostatics had gotten back together again, with exactly the same line-up they had in mid-1988: Bidini, Clark, Tielli and Vesely.
Classic era
In 1991, the band signed to the independent label Intrepid RecordsIntrepid Records (Canada)
Intrepid Records was a Canadian independent record label in the late 1980s and early 1990s. People associated with the label included founder Stuart Ravenhill and A&R rep Graham Stairs....
, and released Melville
Melville (album)
Melville is the 1991 second album by the Canadian rock band Rheostatics. This album garnered wide airplay across Canada. The single "Record Body Count" was a significant hit for the band on Canadian alternative rock stations and MuchMusic in 1991....
that year. The single "Record Body Count" garnered them significant airplay on radio and MuchMusic
MuchMusic
MuchMusic is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media. MuchMusic is dedicated to music-related programs, pop and youth culture.-History:...
. The album also featured a cover of Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...
's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a song written, composed and performed by Canadian Gordon Lightfoot to commemorate the sinking of the bulk carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior on November 10, 1975. It was inspired by the Newsweek article on the event, "The Cruelest Month", which...
".
The following year, the band signed to Sire Records
Sire Records
Sire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a...
and released Whale Music
Whale Music (album)
Whale Music is a 1992 album by Canadian rock band Rheostatics. It should not be confused with the soundtrack to the film Whale Music, which was also composed by the band and released in 1994....
, which was inspired by Paul Quarrington
Paul Quarrington
Paul Lewis Quarrington was a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator.-Background:...
's award-winning novel Whale Music
Whale Music
Whale Music is a novel by Canadian writer Paul Quarrington. It was first published by Doubleday Canada in 1989.The novel's central character is Desmond Howl, a reclusive former rock star who has lived in virtual seclusion from the world since the death of his brother Danny in a car accident...
. Quarrington himself was so impressed by Whale Music
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
—that he chose the band to compose the soundtrack to the film version of his novel. Music from the Motion Picture Whale Music
Music from the Motion Picture Whale Music
Music from The Motion Picture Whale Music is a 1994 album by Rheostatics. It is the soundtrack to the film version of Paul Quarrington's novel Whale Music, and should not be confused with the band's 1992 album Whale Music....
was released in 1994, putting the band in the odd position of having two almost identically-titled albums in its catalogue.
The centrepiece of the soundtrack was "Claire", a love song from the main character in the movie to a woman who'd moved into his house, which became Rheostatics' first and only Top 40 hit and earned the band a Genie Award
Genie Award
Genie Awards are given out to recognize the best of Canadian cinema by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. From 1949-1979, the awards were named the Canadian Film Awards...
for "Best Original Song" in 1994. "Claire" was also featured on the band's album Introducing Happiness
Introducing Happiness
Introducing Happiness is a 1994 album by Rheostatics.The album includes "Claire", the band's only Top 40 hit. That song is also featured on the Whale Music soundtrack album....
, released the same year. That album proved to be the end of the Rheostatics' association with Sire, however, as the label found the band difficult to market.
It was also Clark's last album with the band, as he left to concentrate on his own band, The Dinner Is Ruined
The dinner is ruined
The Dinner Is Ruined is a Canadian indie rock band. Formed in 1991 by Dale Morningstar, the band plays an experimental and improvisational brand of blues rock.The band members are Dale Morningstar, Dave Clark and Dr. Johnny Pee...
. The resignation came very shortly before a cross-Canada tour. Clark has stated in interviews that he left because he was uncomfortable with the chart success of "Claire" and feared that the rest of the band would be persuaded to evolve in a mainstream direction. Tielli's perspective on "Claire", however, was very different:
Clark was replaced by Don Kerr
Don Kerr
Don Kerr is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist and record producer.He was a member of Rheostatics from 1995 to May 2001. He plays in Ron Sexsmith's band, and sometimes with The Kelele Brothers. He and Sexsmith released an album together, Destination Unknown, in 2005...
, whose first performance with the Rheostatics was an unannounced show at the Horseshoe Tavern
Horseshoe Tavern
The Horseshoe Tavern is a concert venue located at 370 Queen Street West in downtown Toronto, and has been in operation since 1947. Owned by "JC", Ken Sprackman, Craig Laskey and Naomi Montpetit, the venue is a significant part of Canadian musical lore...
in the spring of 1995.
Later in 1995, the band attracted the attention of the National Gallery of Canada
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
, who commissioned the band to write music to accompany a retrospective celebrating the 75th anniversary of another group of artists whose distinctive-yet-accessible artistic outlook had redefined Canadian art, the Group of Seven
Group of Seven (artists)
The Group of Seven, sometimes known as the Algonquin school, were a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920-1933, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael , Lawren Harris , A. Y. Jackson , Franz Johnston , Arthur Lismer , J. E. H. MacDonald , and Frederick Varley...
. That year, working with pianist Kevin Hearn
Kevin Hearn
Kevin Neil Hearn is a Canadian musician who is currently the keyboardist of Barenaked Ladies and his own group, Kevin Hearn and Thin Buckle. He is also a former member of Rheostatics.-Early life:...
(later of the Barenaked Ladies
Barenaked Ladies
Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian alternative rock band. The band is currently composed of Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Ed Robertson, and Tyler Stewart. Barenaked Ladies formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario, then a suburban municipality outside the City of Toronto...
) and the experimental hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
group Farm Fresh
Farm Fresh
Farm Fresh is a hip hop group from Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. Made up of mcenroe, Pip Skid and DJ Hunnicutt, they released their first recording The Space EP in 1994 followed by a full length album named Crazy Friction in 1995....
, they released Music Inspired by the Group of Seven
Music Inspired by the Group of Seven
Music Inspired by the Group of Seven is a 1995 album by Rheostatics.The album was commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada to accompany its Group of Seven retrospective show. The album has twelve pieces, most of which are instrumental music...
on the independent label DROG Records. Bob Wiseman
Bob Wiseman
Bob Wiseman is a Juno winning Canadian musician, filmmaker, singer-songwriter, and actor. Wiseman was an original member of Blue Rodeo.-Career:Wiseman was raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He studied piano at York University...
would sit in for Hearn at the Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Gallery of Ontario
Under the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...
show due to Hearn's illness.
The band also attracted the attention of The Tragically Hip
The Tragically Hip
The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as The Hip, is a Canadian rock band from Kingston, Ontario, consisting of Gordon Downie , Paul Langlois , Rob Baker , Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay . Since their formation in 1983 they have released 12 studio albums, two live albums, and 46 singles...
, who invited the Rheostatics to open for them on tour; this tour culminated in the release of the Tragically Hip’s live album Live Between Us
Live Between Us
Live Between Us is the first full-length live album by Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. It was released in May 1997.The album was recorded in Detroit, Michigan in 1996, during the tour supporting Trouble at the Henhouse....
in May 1997, wherein front man Gordon Downie opens the album – and show – by saying, over the beginning of the first track “Grace Too”, “This is for the Rheostatics – we are all richer for having seen them tonight”.
The Rheostatics thus returned to the studio, and released The Blue Hysteria
The Blue Hysteria
The Blue Hysteria is a 1996 album by Rheostatics."Bad Time to Be Poor", a protest song about life in Ontario during the government of Mike Harris, was the album's first single...
in 1996. This album garnered airplay for the single "Bad Time to Be Poor," a scathing indictment of life in Ontario during the government of Mike Harris
Mike Harris
Michael Deane "Mike" Harris was the 22nd Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. He is most noted for the "Common Sense Revolution", his Progressive Conservative government's program of deficit reduction in combination with lower taxes and cuts to government...
.
In 1997, the band released Double Live
Double Live (Rheostatics album)
Double Live is a 1997 album by Rheostatics. It collects a variety of live performances by the band, ranging from intimate club settings to record store sessions to their arena tour with The Tragically Hip in 1996....
, a live album documenting the band in a variety of settings, from small in-store sessions to the large arenas of their tour with The Tragically Hip. The album was very successful on the campus radio charts and is amongst fans' favorites discs.
Later years
On August 31, 1997 the group performed a live session for the last episode of NightlinesNightlines
Nightlines was a Canadian radio series, which aired on CBC Stereo from 1982 to 1997. The show, which aired on Friday and Saturday nights, profiled independent and alternative music.The show's original host was Ron Robinson...
, a music show on CBC Radio Two
CBC Radio Two
CBC Radio 2 is a Canadian FM radio network operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Previously concentrating on classical music and jazz, during 2007 and 2008 the network transitioned towards a new "adult music" format with a variety of genres, with the previously dominant classical genre...
. Performances from this session were released on 1998's The Nightlines Sessions
The Nightlines Sessions
The Nightlines Sessions is a 1998 album by Rheostatics.The album was recorded as a live session for the final episode of CBC Stereo's late night music program Nightlines, hosted by David Wisdom. It is a largely tossed-off and improvised affair, showing the band indulging their silly sides...
.
In 1999, the band released The Story of Harmelodia
The Story of Harmelodia
The Story of Harmelodia is a 1999 album by Rheostatics.Billed as a children's album, the album is a narrative detailing the adventures of Dot and Bug, two children from the land of Harmelodia who fall through a hole into the land of Popopolis...
, an album based on a children's story written by Bidini. The album, which featured the band's songs interspersed with narration by Bidini's wife, Janet Morassutti, detailed the adventures of Dot and Bug, two children from the land of Harmelodia who fell through a hole into the land of Popopolis. The album was packaged with a book featuring Tielli's illustrated text of Bidini's story. Hearn and the band's frequent producer, Michael Phillip Wojewoda
Michael Phillip Wojewoda
-External links:*...
, contributed significantly to the recording and are listed as members of the band.
In 2001, Rheostatics released Night of the Shooting Stars
Night of the Shooting Stars
Night of the Shooting Stars is a 2001 album by Canadian rock band Rheostatics, released on Perimeter Records.It is the band's first traditional studio album since 1996's The Blue Hysteria. It is also Don Kerr's final album with the band....
on Perimeter Records. Though Kerr plays on the album, it was announced prior to its release that he would be departing from the band. The reasons given were his desire to focus on his work at Gas Station Recording Studios in Toronto, as well as his role in Ron Sexsmith
Ron Sexsmith
Ronald Eldon "Ron" Sexsmith is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario, currently based in Toronto. He started his own band when he was fourteen years old, and released the first recordings of his own material seven years later, in 1985...
's group. Kerr was replaced by Wojewoda.
In late 2001, the band revived their tradition of a week's club residency, formerly known as "Green Sprouts Music Week", and played 11 straight evenings at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern
Horseshoe Tavern
The Horseshoe Tavern is a concert venue located at 370 Queen Street West in downtown Toronto, and has been in operation since 1947. Owned by "JC", Ken Sprackman, Craig Laskey and Naomi Montpetit, the venue is a significant part of Canadian musical lore...
. Performances from these shows were included on their sole DVD release, 2003's Maple Serum: Rheostatics Live at the Horseshoe Tavern. The event was dubbed the "Fall Nationals" and was repeated for the next three years. Performances from the 2004 Fall Nationals make up the album Calling Out the Chords, Vol. 1
Calling Out the Chords, Vol. 1
Calling Out the Chords, Vol. 1 is a live album by Rheostatics, released on Zunior Records in 2005. It is a collection of live material recorded by soundman Steve Clarkson in 2004 at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, Ontario during the Rheos' Fall National concert series.-Track...
, released in 2005.
Their tenth and final studio album, 2067
2067 (album)
2067 is a 2004 album by Rheostatics. It was the band's first album with longtime producer Michael Phillip Wojewoda as an official member, as well as its final studio album...
, was released in the fall of 2004. Their final studio release was an eponymous, digital-format track of the song "Pornography", released in late 2004. Both were put out by True North Records
True North Records
True North Records is a Canadian independent record label. It was founded in Mississauga, Ontario in 1969 by Bernie Finkelstein. On December 17, 2007, True North was acquired by an investment group led by Linus Entertainment...
.
Two live albums followed in 2005, The Whale Music Concert, 1992
The Whale Music Concert, 1992
The Whale Music Concert, 1992 is a live album by Rheostatics, released on Zunior Records in 2005.The concert was recorded at Toronto, Ontario's Bathurst Street Theatre in 1992, as part of their promotional tour for the Whale Music album...
and the aforementioned Calling Out the Chords, Vol. 1, the latter being released in digital format only.
Final show
Tim Vesely publicly announced his departure from the band on September 8, 2006, citing his desire to concentrate on his side project The Violet ArchersThe Violet Archers
The Violet Archers is a Canadian indie pop band. Led by former Rheostatics bassist Tim Vesely, the band consists of Vesely on vocals, Yawd Sylvester on guitar, drummer Camille Giroux, bassist Scott Remila, Ida Nilsen on piano...
. However, Bidini has indicated that Vesely made his intentions to leave known to the band in January 2006, after they had played a series of concerts in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
.
Bidini and Tielli explored the possibility of continuing the band with Wojewoda and collaborating keyboardist Ford Pier
Ford Pier
,Ford Pier is a Canadian singer-songwriter. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He resides in Vancouver. In addition to his solo albums, he has been a member of Jr...
, but these plans collapsed after Wojewoda declared he did not want to commit to the band. Subsequent press indicated that the band would not continue following Vesely's exit.
After it was revealed that Vesely would be leaving, Bidini embarked on a solo tour and chronicled his experience in the 2007 book Around the World in 57½ Gigs.
On March 16, 2007, Canadian web label Zunior released a Rheostatics tribute album, The Secret Sessions
The Secret Sessions
The Secret Sessions is a tribute album to Canadian indie rock band Rheostatics, released March 16, 2007 through the web label Zunior. The album was released to coincide with the band's farewell show scheduled for March 30, and features Canadian indie rock artists performing Rheostatics songs...
, which had not been publicized in advance so that it would be a surprise for the band.
A farewell concert was planned and on March 30, 2007, the Rheostatics played Toronto's Massey Hall
Massey Hall
Massey Hall is a venerable performing arts theatre in the Garden District of downtown Toronto. The theatre originally was designed to seat 3,500 patrons but, after extensive renovations in the 1940s, now seats up to 2,765....
, the largest venue that they had played as headliners. The concert was recorded for later broadcast on CBC Radio Two's Canada Live
Canada Live
Canada Live is a Canadian radio program, which debuted on March 19, 2007 on CBC Radio 2, which airs concert performances in a variety of musical genres from locations across Canada. The program airs weekdays on Radio 2; one episode per week is repeated on CBC Radio One on Friday afternoons.The...
, which aired the show on April 7 and again on December 6. Ford Pier substituted for Vesely in some live performances between Vesely's announcement and the final show.
Bidini and Tielli have continued working together after the Massey Hall show. The first of such projects was a musical-theatre piece entitled Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica, produced in collaboration with One Yellow Rabbit
One Yellow Rabbit
One Yellow Rabbit is an adult-oriented contemporary theatre company based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.One Yellow Rabbit began as a small troupe in 1982 and has grown into one of Canada's best-known theatrical voices at home and abroad. Blending elements such as drama, dance, poetry and monologue,...
. Music from the production was recorded by Bidini, Tielli, Pier, Selina Martin and Barry Mirochnick, and released on the album Music from Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica in February 2009 on Zunior. Vesely and Wojewoda contribute to two tracks.
Reunion
On October 24, 2009, the band reunited to perform at an event put on by Toronto's International Festival of Authors and Humber College, produced by Judith Keenan of BookShorts, honouring Paul QuarringtonPaul Quarrington
Paul Lewis Quarrington was a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator.-Background:...
, shortly after the late author had publicized his diagnosis with inoperable lung cancer.
The former members who had performed were Bidini, Clark, Hearn, Kerr, Tielli and Vesely. They performed two songs: "Claire" followed by "Dope Fiends and Boozehounds". Bidini also hosted the entire event.
The reunion was for this occasion only and the group remains defunct.
Style
The band's style was highly eclectic, feeding off the creative cross-pollination of each member's distinct musical style, and was marked by a willingness to experiment with just about any musical idea. Tielli's material tended toward progressive rockProgressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
, Bidini brought quirky humour and New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
influences, Vesely pursued a relatively mainstream pop-rock orientation which meant that his songs garnered nearly all of the band's radio airplay, and Clark's songs were punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
-flavoured.
While this eclecticism appealed to the band's fans, it also made them difficult for a major label to market – some of their later albums, especially Introducing Happiness
Introducing Happiness
Introducing Happiness is a 1994 album by Rheostatics.The album includes "Claire", the band's only Top 40 hit. That song is also featured on the Whale Music soundtrack album....
, were described by critics as playing more like compilation albums than the work of a single band with a coherent and unified vision. As Bobby Baker of The Tragically Hip remarked in 1997, "I think maybe they're a little too good for their own good."
Critical reception
In a 1996 reader poll published by ChartChart (magazine)
ChartAttack is a Canadian online music publication. Formerly a monthly print magazine called Chart, which was published from 1991 to 2009, the web version continues operation....
to determine the 100 best Canadian albums, Whale Music placed fifth, behind only Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
, The Tragically Hip
The Tragically Hip
The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as The Hip, is a Canadian rock band from Kingston, Ontario, consisting of Gordon Downie , Paul Langlois , Rob Baker , Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay . Since their formation in 1983 they have released 12 studio albums, two live albums, and 46 singles...
and Sloan
Sloan (band)
Sloan is a Toronto-based alternative rock quartet from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Throughout their 20-year tenure Sloan has released 10 LPs , two EPs, a live album, a "best of" collection and no less than thirty singles...
. Their album Melville placed sixteenth. When the magazine conducted a follow up poll in 2000, Whale Music placed fourth and Melville placed fifth. In the 2005 poll, Whale Music placed tenth, becoming one of six albums to place in the top ten all three times, and Melville placed 44th. In all of the magazine's three polls to date, Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
is the only other artist to have achieved the distinction of placing two albums in the top five in the same year.
In Bob Mersereau
Bob Mersereau
Bob Mersereau is a Canadian arts journalist.Mersereau is a music columnist and longtime arts reporter for CBC Television in New Brunswick. Since 1982, he has been a reporter on the East Coast music scene for CBC Radio, CBC Television, and the Telegraph-Journal...
's 2007 book The Top 100 Canadian Albums
The Top 100 Canadian Albums
The Top 100 Canadian Albums is a book by Bob Mersereau, published in 2007 by Goose Lane Editions.Mersereau acknowledged that the list will cause heated debate among music fans across the country. "The important part is to talk about Canadian music and enjoy it", he said...
, Whale Music ranked nineteenth and Melville was ranked 38th.
In June 2009, Rheostatics and Eric's Trip
Eric's Trip
Eric's Trip is a Canadian indie rock band from Moncton, New Brunswick. Eric's Trip achieved prominence as the first Canadian band to be signed to Seattle's flagship grunge label Sub Pop in the early 1990s...
were the first artists to be inducted into Zunior's Independent Music Hall of Fame. The official illustration of the group, by Trevor Waurechen, depicts Bidini, Clark, Hearn, Kerr, Tielli, Vesely and Wojewoda.
Albums
- Greatest HitsGreatest Hits (Rheostatics album)Greatest Hits is the first album by Canadian rock band Rheostatics. Only 1,000 copies were released in 1987, and all sold out. The album was subsequently rereleased in 1996....
, 1987 - MelvilleMelville (album)Melville is the 1991 second album by the Canadian rock band Rheostatics. This album garnered wide airplay across Canada. The single "Record Body Count" was a significant hit for the band on Canadian alternative rock stations and MuchMusic in 1991....
, 1991 - Whale MusicWhale Music (album)Whale Music is a 1992 album by Canadian rock band Rheostatics. It should not be confused with the soundtrack to the film Whale Music, which was also composed by the band and released in 1994....
, 1992 - Music from The Motion Picture Whale MusicMusic from the Motion Picture Whale MusicMusic from The Motion Picture Whale Music is a 1994 album by Rheostatics. It is the soundtrack to the film version of Paul Quarrington's novel Whale Music, and should not be confused with the band's 1992 album Whale Music....
, 1994 - Introducing HappinessIntroducing HappinessIntroducing Happiness is a 1994 album by Rheostatics.The album includes "Claire", the band's only Top 40 hit. That song is also featured on the Whale Music soundtrack album....
, 1994 - Music Inspired by the Group of SevenMusic Inspired by the Group of SevenMusic Inspired by the Group of Seven is a 1995 album by Rheostatics.The album was commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada to accompany its Group of Seven retrospective show. The album has twelve pieces, most of which are instrumental music...
, 1995 - The Blue HysteriaThe Blue HysteriaThe Blue Hysteria is a 1996 album by Rheostatics."Bad Time to Be Poor", a protest song about life in Ontario during the government of Mike Harris, was the album's first single...
, 1996 - Double LiveDouble Live (Rheostatics album)Double Live is a 1997 album by Rheostatics. It collects a variety of live performances by the band, ranging from intimate club settings to record store sessions to their arena tour with The Tragically Hip in 1996....
, 1997 - The Nightlines SessionsThe Nightlines SessionsThe Nightlines Sessions is a 1998 album by Rheostatics.The album was recorded as a live session for the final episode of CBC Stereo's late night music program Nightlines, hosted by David Wisdom. It is a largely tossed-off and improvised affair, showing the band indulging their silly sides...
, 1998 - The Story of HarmelodiaThe Story of HarmelodiaThe Story of Harmelodia is a 1999 album by Rheostatics.Billed as a children's album, the album is a narrative detailing the adventures of Dot and Bug, two children from the land of Harmelodia who fall through a hole into the land of Popopolis...
, 1999 - Night of the Shooting StarsNight of the Shooting StarsNight of the Shooting Stars is a 2001 album by Canadian rock band Rheostatics, released on Perimeter Records.It is the band's first traditional studio album since 1996's The Blue Hysteria. It is also Don Kerr's final album with the band....
, 2001 - 20672067 (album)2067 is a 2004 album by Rheostatics. It was the band's first album with longtime producer Michael Phillip Wojewoda as an official member, as well as its final studio album...
, 2004 - The Whale Music Concert, 1992The Whale Music Concert, 1992The Whale Music Concert, 1992 is a live album by Rheostatics, released on Zunior Records in 2005.The concert was recorded at Toronto, Ontario's Bathurst Street Theatre in 1992, as part of their promotional tour for the Whale Music album...
, 2005 - Calling Out the Chords, Vol. 1Calling Out the Chords, Vol. 1Calling Out the Chords, Vol. 1 is a live album by Rheostatics, released on Zunior Records in 2005. It is a collection of live material recorded by soundman Steve Clarkson in 2004 at The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, Ontario during the Rheos' Fall National concert series.-Track...
, 2005
Of the band's fourteen albums, five (Melville, Whale Music, Music from the Motion Picture Whale Music, 2067 and The Whale Music Concert, 1992) depict whales on the album covers.
Other releases
- My Generation/Satellite Dancing, 1981, 7" vinylGramophone recordA 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...
- Rheostatics TV, Vol. 1, 1998, VHS
- Rheostatics TV, Vol. 2, 1998, VHS
- Maple Serum: Rheostatics Live at the Horseshoe Tavern, 2003, DVD
- Pornography, 2004, Digital audio
Compilation inclusions
- SMASH '83, 1983 ("Thank YouThank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"Thank You " is a 1969 hit single recorded by Sly and the Family Stone, recognized as one of the greatest and most influential funk songs of all time. The song, double a-sided with "Everybody Is a Star", reached number one on the soul single charts for five weeks, and reached number one on the...
") - Moose: The CompilationMoose: The CompilationMoose: The Compilation is a compilation album of Canadian alternative folk artists, released in 1991 on Vertigo Records.-Track listing:# Grievous Angels, "Saturday Night in a Laundromat"# Bob Snider, "Old Nova Scotian"...
, 1991 ("Woodstuck") - Borrowed Tunes, 1994 ("Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" (with The Bourbon Tabernacle ChoirBourbon Tabernacle ChoirThe Bourbon Tabernacle Choir were a Canadian alternative rock band that formed in 1985 in Toronto, Ontario. Their R&B-flavoured rock made them a mainstay on Canadian campus radio in the early 1990s, but the band never quite broke through to the mainstream....
)) - Truck Songs: Volume 1, 1995 ("Secret Red Canoe")
- CBC Radio 3 Sessions, Vol. 1CBC Radio 3 Sessions, Vol. 1CBC Radio 3 Sessions, Vol. 1 is a compilation album released in 2004, compiling tracks from live sessions performed on CBC Radio 3.- Track listing :# Sloan - "Losing California" # The New Pornographers - "The Fake Headlines"...
, 2004 ("Harmelodia (Easy to Be with You)")
External links
- Rheostatics official website
- The USA Rheostatics Page fan site
- FishMailin' discussion at Yahoo! GroupsYahoo! GroupsYahoo! Groups is one of the world’s largest collections of online discussion boards. The term Groups refers to Internet communication which is a hybrid between an electronic mailing list and a threaded Internet forum, in other words, Group messages can be read and posted by e-mail or on the Group's...
- Rheostatics Live music archive
- Rheostatics photo gallery at CBC.caCBC.caCBC.ca is the English-language online service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It was introduced in 1996. Under its previous names, the CBC's online service first went live in 1993....
- 9 part Rheos Box Set at Northern Wish Blog
- Rheostatics page at Zunior's Independent Music Hall of Fame