Quintessential Canadian band The Rheostatics are calling it quits in three days time (March 30th) after 25 years. They’re one of those bands that a lot of people loved but I never really “got” them until much later in life. It must be an Ontario thing because they didn’t really say anything about my experiences growing up out East. But that all changed as I grew out of high-school and university. I remember a lot of people going on and on about how The Tragically Hip were the greatest contemporary Canadian band but they’re kind of like Tim Horton’s coffee – corporate crap. (I did really like their music at first but it just never grew all that much, while I did).
On the other hand, The Rheostatics have done nothing but grow and push their limits. They’ve used Canadiana to create their music and they’ve managed to contribute back to Canadiana in the process. They’re not just recording our history and culture but growing it and have made Canada uniquely, well, Canadian. Their Group of Seven album, inspired by the paintings by The Group of Seven is the album that rings in the Spring for me at this point in the year or around the long Easter weekend when my wife and I tend to rent a cottage just north of Ottawa. This album was basically commissioned by The National Gallery.
So anyway, here’s a suitably geeky video for The Tarleks with Frank Bonner reprising his role from WKRP, because he apparently liked the song so much. I bet you can’t find a song that puns Dr. Who villains. Now, if only I could find the video for The Ballad of Wendel Clark.
Group of Seven:
The Album by The Rheostatics
online gallery
Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery
Required Wikipedia entry for The Group of Seven
Required Wikipedia entry for The Rheostatics
8 comments:
Yes, I am saddened as well, they're my favorite band of all time. I've seen them live 4 times, and I'm really sorry that I won't be able to again.
They didn't come out East often enough for my tastes. Sigh.
Sucks! Rheostatics are the band whose shows I've stupidly missed the most!
Only stupidly missed one, but I still rue the day.
They played in an artty bar that was closing that week and naively believed that there would be tickets at the door. Except all the fans of said bar showed up in droves. I was in line with people going "I don't know who they are, whatever, I just want a drink" and then was denied access.
GRRRR
I'm saddened I only saw them live once and now, never again.
Oh, Siskoid, you have been blog-rolled. That is the fastest sidebar update in the history of me having free space on the weeb.
Wow, thanks Jon.
You're not Acadian by any chance?
Avec un nom comme Cormier...
How could you ever guess?!
Yeah, of course I am - by half.
check out http://www.goodgonedead.rheostaticslive.com for info, audio, and video from the last rheos show
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