Rheostatics
Origin	{{{origin}}}
Country	Etobicoke, Ontario Canada
Years active	Early 1980s – present
Genre(s)	"Cultish Canadian Shield Art-Rock"
Label(s)	Six Shooter Records
Members	Dave Bidini Martin Tielli Tim Vesely Michael Phillip Wojewoda
Past members	{{{past_members}}}
Website(s)	{{{website}}}

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. Image File history File links Rheostatics. ... Etobicoke (pronounced ) is the western portion of the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that has a population of about 350,000. ... Genres of Cuban music and other popular music A music genre is a category (or genre) of pieces of music that share a certain style or basic musical language (van der Merwe 1989, p. ... A record label is a brand created by companies that specialize in manufacturing, distributing and promoting audio and video recordings, on various formats including compact discs, LPs, DVD-Audio, SACDs, and cassettes. ... Dave Bidini is a Canadian musician and writer. ... Martin Tielli Martin Tielli, born in 1967 in Italy, is a Canadian singer-songwriter. ... Tim Vesely is a Canadian musician and songwriter. ... Michael Phillip Wojewoda is a Canadian record producer and musician. ... Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music often used to refer to bands that are on small independent record labels or that arent on labels at all. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive, the last decade of the 20th Century. ... For the 1979 song by M, see Pop Muzik. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ...

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. The 1980s decade refers to the years from 1980 to 1989, inclusive. ... Etobicoke (pronounced ) is the western portion of the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that has a population of about 350,000. ... Dave Bidini is a Canadian musician and writer. ... Tim Vesely is a Canadian musician and songwriter. ... Martin Tielli Martin Tielli, born in 1967 in Italy, is a Canadian singer-songwriter. ...

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.) The Toronto Maple Leafs are a National Hockey League (NHL) team based in Toronto, Ontario. ... Wendel Clark (born October 25, 1966 in Kelvington, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a former professional ice hockey player. ... College radio (also known as university radio, campus radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college or university. ... CFNY is a radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Greatest Hits is the first Rheostatics album. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

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". 1991 (MCMXCI) is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... MuchMusic (often called Much) is a 24-hour Canadian cable music and variety television channel based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which debuted on August 31, 1984 as one of the first Canadian cable specialty channels on the air. ... Gordon Lightfoot, Gords Gold Gordon Meredith Lightfoot, CC , O.Ont , LL.D (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian folk singer, composer, lyricist and poet. ...

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 followup poll in 2000, both albums placed in the top five.) American record label, Sire Records Company was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer. ... Paul Lewis Quarrington (born July 22, 1953) is a Canadian novelist who lives in Toronto, Ontario. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Chart is a monthly Canadian music magazine. ... Neil Young with guitar (from the 1991 Weld tour) Neil Percival Kenneth Robert Ragland Young, better known as Neil Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who has become one of the most respected and influential musicians of his generation. ... Joni Mitchell, CC (born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta), is a legendary Canadian musician and painter. ... The Tragically Hip are a Canadian rock band from Kingston, Ontario, consisting of Gordon Downie (lead vocals), Paul Langlois (guitar), Rob Baker (guitar), Gord Sinclair (bass) and Johnny Fay (drums). ... Sloan is a power pop quartet from Halifax, Nova Scotia. ... This article is about the year 2000. ...

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 identically-titled albums in its catalogue. Brian Wilson, 1988 Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942, in Hawthorne, California) is an American pop musician, best known as a founding member of and the main producer, composer, and arranger for The Beach Boys. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ...

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. Introducing Happiness is a 1994 album by Rheostatics. ...

It was also Clark's last album with the band, as he left to concentrate on his own band, the dinner is ruined. He was replaced by Don Kerr. the dinner is ruined (normally lowercase) are a Canadian indie rock band. ... Don Kerr is a Canadian drummer and record producer. ...

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. 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... National Gallery of Canada on Canada Day. ... The Group of Seven was a group of Canadian landscape painters in the 1920s, originally consisting of Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley. ... Kevin Hearn is the keyboardist for Barenaked Ladies and also has his own band, Kevin Hearn and Thin Buckle. ... Barenaked Ladies, circa 2000. ... Daves Records of Guelph, or DROG, is a Canadian independent record label. ...

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 significant airplay for the single "Bad Time to be Poor", a scathing indictment of life in Ontario during the government of Mike Harris. 1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945, in Toronto, Ontario) was the twenty-second Premier of Ontario from June 26, 1995 to April 15, 2002. ...

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. 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. 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nightlines was a Canadian radio series, which aired on CBC Stereo from 1982 to 1997. ... CBC Radio Two is an FM radio network in Canada, operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

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. 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Janet Morassutti is the wife of Dave Bidini, a member of the Canadian indie rock band Rheostatics. ...

In 2001, the Rheostatics released Night of the Shooting Stars on Perimeter Records. To promote the album, the band played 11 nights in a row at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern. This became an annual event, dubbed the Fall Nationals, with the band playing 12 nights in 2002 and 13 nights in 2003. 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... The Horseshoe Tavern The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern, more typically simply The Shoe, is a popular concert venue, located at 370 Queen Street West (Northeast corner of Queen at Spadina) in downtown Toronto, which has been in operation since 1947. ... 2002 (MMII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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. Michael Phillip Wojewoda is a Canadian record producer and musician. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Discography

• Greatest Hits - 1987
• Melville - 1991
• Whale Music - 1992
• Music from The Motion Picture Whale Music - 1994
• Introducing Happiness - 1994
• Music Inspired by the Group of Seven - 1995
• The Blue Hysteria - 1996
• Double Live - 1997
• The Nightlines Sessions - 1998
• The Story of Harmelodia - 1999
• Night of the Shooting Stars - 2001
• 2067 - 2004
• The Whale Music Concert, 1992 - 2005
• Calling Out The Chords, Vol. 1, - 2005