Rheostatics

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Rheostatics

Background information
Also known as	Rheostatics and the Trans-Canada Soul Patrol
Origin	Etobicoke, Ontario Canada
Genre(s)	"Cultish Canadian Shield Art-Rock" Indie rock
Years active	1980 – March 30, 2007
Label(s)	Intrepid Sire DROG Perimeter True North Zunior Six Shooter
Associated acts	Violet Archers
Website	www.rheostatics.ca
Former members
Dave Crosby Dave Clark Don Kerr Tim Vesely Michael Phillip Wojewoda Dave Bidini Martin Tielli Rod Westlake

Rheostatics were a 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 most unconventional rock bands, a band whose defiantly quirky, yet compelling, take on pop and rock music has been described both as iconic and iconoclastic.

Formed in Etobicoke, Ontario, the band played their first gig at a club called The Edge in February of 1980. Originally called Rheostatics and the Trans-Canada Soul Patrol, the band consisted of guitarist Dave Bidini, bassist Tim Vesely, drummer Dave Clark, keyboard player Dave Crosby, and a large horn section. However, when Crosby left the band in 1981 and the horn section soon proved too unwieldy, guitarist Martin Tielli was brought in to replace them.

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 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 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. The 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 only Top 40 hit. The song earned the Rheos a Gemini 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 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 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. 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.

Vesely and Tielli live in 2005

Tim Vesely announced his departure from the band on September 8, 2006, citing his desire to concentrate on his side project The Violet Archers. Subsequent press indicated that the band would not continue following Vesely's exit. A farewell concert was planned, and on March 30, 2007, the Rheostatics played Toronto's Massey Hall; the largest venue that they have played as headliners. The concert was recorded for later broadcast on CBC Radio 3. [1] On March 16, 2007, Canadian web label Zunior released an unpublicized Rheostatics tribute album, The Secret Sessions, to commemorate the break-up of the band.

Bidini and Tielli have stated that they plan to continue collaborating after the Massey Hall show. No official word on what that would be but, in a Toronto CBC Radio One interview, Bidini stated a tour of their collaboration with One Yellow Rabbit is upcoming and Ford Pier has substituted for Vesely in some performances.