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Rheostatics
2067
For any band to move into mega-stardom territory, the members must make some compromises — probably in their image as well as in their music. It also helps if they have some epic public freak-outs or precipitous career ups and downs that will make
a memorable "Behind The Music" episode. (Lead singer in rehab, again! Drummer loses arm in car wreck! Bloated singer/guitarist impregnates Melissa Ethridge!) Like it or not, that's just how it is in this age of reality TV. We've got a general public with the attention span of a
swarm of gnats that will only slow down and focus on the sensational and unsavory.
Luckily for us, not all acts care to live in this headline-grabbing world. There have always been musicians behind the scenes who were consistently brilliant in their output with very little personal drama or face-paint needed to draw attention to their music. As you're well aware,
true brilliance isn't reflected in the charts. But it IS reflected in the record collections of the acts that sit atop the charts. They secretly pilfer small slivers of the brilliance of those behind-the-scenesters and sugar coat their renditions for a wider audience. The results
are usually less than palatable.
In America, someone like Frank Zappa is a good example. If you're a fan of decent music, you hear this guy's name dropped all the time. But when was the last time you heard his music on the radio? Never, that's
when. If you haven't made the effort to get to know his music and actually listen to a song, then you don't know it. Period.
In Canada, that band is the Rheostatics. Simply put, they are iconic in their country to the point where in a recent CBC Radio survey, their 1992 album "Whale
Music" was named the album that "every Canadian should be familiar with" and "the best Canadian rock album ever." These guys are friends with fellow countrymen The Tragically Hip, Barenaked Ladies, and The Weakerthans,
and revered by virtually every other decent artist from up north (heck, even Neil Peart is a fan), but even with this respect, recognition is scarce below the border.
And that's okay with this guy because the Rheos haven't changed their style one bit to gain a larger following in the US and have maintained their indie cred by sweating it out at every show, playing on stages just inches away from their rabid fans in legendary DIY joints all across
Canada like Toronto's Horeshoe Tavern (sort of the Torontonian equivalent of CBGBs).
Their latest album, 2067 (their 12th official release) is another slice of astounding northern songcraft, though I believe this album will hit home for more Americans
than some of their previous work due to the subject matter and the timing.
The disc's most eclectic moment comes right at the start in the form of "Shack in the Cornfields", a 7-minute atmospheric epic that puts you up in a sprawling field somewhere in Ontario and ends with a striking musical simulation of rain against a tin roof. Next comes the pretty
folk of "Little Bird, Little Bird," complete with boxcar beatboxing by longtime Rheos producer and now full-time drummer Michael Phillip Wojewoda and a wicked shout-along breakdown in the middle.
"Marginalized" is the obvious single, dark in its content but with a funky backbeat and ever-threatening distorted guitar bursts knocking at the door. The Americana then starts to seep in, first with the nod to WKRP's Herb
Tarlek in the jumpy "The Tarleks", which guitarist and singer Martin Tielli says is about "the infiltration of tacky salesmen into our everyday, private lives." What follows is "Power Ballad for Ozzy Osbourne" — back to that reality TV phenomenon, but more compellingly,
about singer/guiarist Dave Bidini's mixed emotions about watching a once potent rock star degenerate to a point where "the only thing that's rockin' is your chair."
"I Dig Music" is a successful attempt at suturing about 8 different styles of music into one song, sort of a retaliation to those who think liking music as much as some of us do is just a tad unbalanced. The song is colored with horns and fabulous female backing vocals that pop
in and out of the mayhem. The album then moves through the gorgeous and pondering "Here Comes The Image", the mellow instrumental shuffle of "Who is that Man, and Why is he Laughing?," the relatively straightforward but very tongue-in-cheek "The Latest Attempt On Your Life",
and another classically Canadian Bidini tune called "Polar Bears and Trees."
All of this has been building up to what are the two most powerful and poignant songs I've heard this year. The first is the profoundly moving "We Are Making Progress" written by the third singer/guitarist in the Rheos, Tim Vesley. The combination of the simple and beautiful
sentiments, great acoustic guitar work and rich harmonies, and Vesley's disarming vocal style was enough to practically bring me to tears when this song happened to come on as I was driving through my hometown last week after the last of my family members moved away. On the night
of November 2nd I couldn't get this song out of my head. I thought it was an omen, a weary yet optimistic look toward the future. But a stronger omen was the song that followed.
The eerily prophetic "Try to Praise this Mutilated World" closes out the CD. It's a prayer for a sick and abused environment that is being smothered by a "pavemented wave." Thankfully it's not all doom and gloom, there's an inspiring optimism that surfaces in the uplifting
chorus, and that's what I'm focusing on in the days ahead despite all of the Tarleks, Osbournes, and you-know-whos that saturate our world.
Check out what our neighbors form up north are digging and take a chance on the Rheos. I promise you, it's like nothing else you've heard, and right about now when we're feeling like we've heard it all, what could be better?
Russ Starke
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