Rheostatics

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Rheostatics

Country	Etobicoke, Ontario Canada
Years active	Early 1980s – present
Genres	"Cultish Canadian Shield Art-Rock"
Labels	Six Shooter Records
Members	Dave Bidini Martin Tielli Tim Vesely Michael Phillip Wojewoda

Rheostatics are a Canadian indie rock band. Although they have had only one Top 40 hit ("Claire" in 1995), they were simultaneously one of Canada's most influential and most unconventional rock bands in the 1990s, a band whose defiantly quirky, yet compelling, take on pop and rock music has been described both as iconic and iconoclastic.

Formed in the early 1980s in Etobicoke, Ontario, Rheostatics and the Trans-Canada Soul Patrol consisted of guitarist Dave Bidini, bassist Tim Vesely, drummer Dave Clark and a large horn section. However, the horn section soon proved too unwieldy, and guitarist Martin Tielli was brought in to replace them.

They 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 campus 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. However, the album was rereleased in 1996.)

In 1991, the band signed to the independent label Intrepid Records, 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 comic novel of the same name. Whale Music was later named one of the five best Canadian albums ever recorded in a 1996 reader poll published by Chart, behind only Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, The Tragically Hip and Sloan. (Melville placed in the top 20 in that poll. When the magazine conducted a follow up poll in 2000, both albums placed in the top five.)

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. That soundtrack 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, to this date, only -- Top 40 hit. "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 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), they released Music Inspired by the Group of Seven on the independent label DROG. 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. 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.

Later that year, they were invited to perform a live session on the last episode of Nightlines, a music show on CBC Radio Two. This performance was released on CD in 1998 as 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 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.

In 2001, the Rheostatics released Night of the Shooting Stars on Perimeter Records. Reviving their tradition of a week's club residency (formerly known as "Green Sprouts Music Week"), to promote the album the band played 11 nights in a row at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern. This event was dubbed the Fall Nationals, and was repeated with the band playing 12 nights in 2002 and 13 nights in 2003.

Following that album, Kerr departed the band, and was replaced by the band's frequent producer, Michael Phillip Wojewoda. Their tenth studio album, 2067, was released in the fall of 2004.

On March 30, 2007, Rheostatics are scheduled to headline at Toronto's Massey Hall. This is the largest venue that they will have played as headliners, but will also be their last show with their current lineup. According to the band's official website, it will be the last show with Tim Vesely and Michael Philip Wojewoda. Vesely reportedly announced his departure from the band on September 8, 2006.

Based on commentary on the active Fish Mailin' discussion Yahoo! Groups, many fans are considering the Massey Hall show as a farewell concert. As of late October 2006, five months prior to the concert, the show is almost sold out — indicative of the band's loyal following. Bidini and Tielli have stated that they plan to continue collaborating after the Massey Hall show, although they have not to date confirmed whether they will do so as Rheostatics or in a new project. No official replacements for Vesely or Wojewoda have been announced, although Ford Pier will substitute for Vesely in some interim performances, including a January 2007 musical theatre collaboration with One Yellow Rabbit.

Bidini has also recently collaborated on music with Dave Merritt of The Golden Seals. On his website, he has released a song from these sessions entitled "Desert Island Poems", which presents a narrative in which the Rheostatics survive a plane crash in Drumheller, Alberta, but are forced to "eat the drummer" in order to survive. (The lyrics do not specify whether the drummer being eaten is Wojewoda, Clark or Kerr, although both Tielli and Vesely are mentioned by name later in the song.) [1]