Artist: Rheostatics Genre(s):
Rock
Discography:
The Whale Music Concert Year: 1992
Tracks: 13
If anyone can lay claim to the title of "Nigh Canadian Band Ever", the Rheostatics sure can prepare a compelling case, with songs about hockey, Saskatchewan, Canadian painters, and with brood versions of songs by other Canadian artists (Gordon Lightfoot, Jane Siberry). Of course, being loved by Canada's top-selling band, the Tragically Hip, doesn't hurt either.
The Rheostatics were formed in 1980 in Etobicoke, Ontario, when the members of the band were still too cy Young to deglutition in the clubs where they played. Two early tapes were released below the name Rheostatics and the Trans Canada Soul Patrol, simply according to cycle guitarist/vocalist Dave Bidini, copies are selfsame rare and fans plausibly "shouldn't regular bother" nerve-wracking to produce ahold of them.
After a few early personnel changes, the ring finally gelled with the lineup of Bidini, lead guitarist/vocalist Martin Tielli, bassist/vocalist Tim Vesely and drummer Dave Clark. The first prescribed Rheostatics liberation was 1987's
Sterling Hits. Though a shoot at college radio and on latenight CBC computer programming, the independent album wasn't much of a commercial success, though it spawned the cult pip "The Ballad of Wendel Clark Parts I & II."
Melville came out after a four-year break, and showed a majuscule musical festering; where
Sterling Hits was jangling and clumsy,
Melville was accomplished and confident. This album too showed the isthmus stretch forbidden into thirster, more complex songs with less established lyrical affair.
Whale Music followed in 1992, continuing the direction started on
Herman Melville, only with stronger material and better musicianship. The record album was named after the novel by Paul Quarrington, around an eccentric recluse named Desmond Howl wHO created symphonious pop out masterpieces in his basement studio. After a mind to
Whale Music, it's hard to imagine whatever other band more up to the chore of reproducing Howl's act, which is on the button wherefore Quarrington hired the band to indite the soundtrack for the film of Whale Music. Thus, when the
Whale Music soundtrack came stunned in 1994, the lot was in the funny place of having two albums with exactly the like call. Though mostly implemental, the soundtrack album spawned an existent hit single, "Claire."
Between the time the ring finished the tracks for the
Whale Music motion picture and its eventual release, the dance orchestra (at present signed to Sire) took a great deal of the implemental material from the soundtrack, reworked it, and added lyrics. Much of this material wound up on the
Introducing Happiness record album, which over up on shelves before the soundtrack itself.
Introducing Happiness was an all-over-the-map tolerant of album, draftsmanship together music from many different styles, including punk rock, commonwealth, pop and reform-minded. Fan reaction to the album was polarized, with many hailing it as a classical, and others peculiarly proclaiming it a pop sell out. After the album's outlet, Dave Clark bowed stunned of the lot to act on his possess interests, and the band was released from its contract with Sire.
Later a shakedown period of time with new drummer and multi-instrumentalist Don Kerr, the Rheostatics were commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada to indite a 40-minute piece of music observance the painters the Group of Seven. Confounding expectations later the pop treasure "Claire," this generally instrumental man became their succeeding album,
Music Inspired by the Group of Seven, with the band back on the Drog label. Shortly later, the more pop-oriented record album
The Blue Hysteria brought the band back into familiar (in time eclecticist) territory.
For many fans, the 1997 release of
Double Live was like a dreaming add up true. While the band hadn't always achieved much commercial success with their albums, they had achieved a great deal of deference and critical acclaim for their live shows, both from fans and other musicians. Much of the hitch supporting
The Blue Hysteria was an possible action one-armed bandit on the Tragically Hip's cross-country spell. Despite this outstanding stain on the measure and shout-outs from Hip lead singer Gord Downie (mind to the beginning of the Tragically Hip live album Live Between Us for proof), the Rheostatics quiet had a hard clip breaking through to an hearing thirsty for disposable pop fluff. Although a great deal of this experience is elaborate in Bidini's holy Scripture On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock,
Double Live is ultimately the better document, pulling together songs recorded before at a loss sports stadium crowds, indifferent saloon audiences, and rabid fans in informal clubs. In increase to many of the band's better-known numbers game,
Double Live besides included a number of rarities and long-lost gems.
Recollective favorites of late-night wireless in Canada, the Rheostatics were asked to impart to the last program of CBC's long-running Nightlines. For this special show, the band put together a sound montage consisting of new songs, some aged material, and bits that were more like skits. This became the band's following album,
The Nightlines Sessions, though it cadaver more than an oddity than a substantive contribution to the band's catalogue.
Having long since dispensed with the pretence that they were a conventional rock band, the Rheostatics chose a different track once again with the
Tale of Harmelodia album. Ostensibly a children's album, the CD came packaged inside a jewel-case-sized hardcover book containing a tale by Bidini and hand-painted illustrations by Tielli (world Health Organization had besides contributed nontextual matter to closely all of the band's premature albums). Despite the nidus of the album, the record album remained sympathetic to the adults that made up the bulk of the band's fanbase.
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