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Archive for the ‘Rheostatics’ Category

C.E. Morgan–”Twins” (New Yorker, June 14 & 21, 2010)

Posted in 20 Under 40, C.E. Morgan, Canadian Music, Dave Bidini music, New Yorker, Racism, Rheostatics, Short Story, The Tragically Hip, tagged on August 4, 2010| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Record Runner, Ottawa ON, November 29, 1996 – In Store Acoustic (1996).

In Dave Bidini’s book On a Cold Road (which I am reading now), he writes how bad in store record appearances really are.  You don’t play your own equipment, typically (no room), you have to play stripped down versions of the songs. People are shopping around you.  And, the punch line (see end of the review).

Despite that, this set (a pit stop after opening for the Tragically Hip the night before (and later the same night, too)) is really fun.  Martin Tielli says that they’re usually not up so early (it’s 2PM).  They play a couple of acoustic numbers and then invite someone in the crowd to sing “The Ballad of Wendell Clark Pts 1 & 2,” and a young lady does an admirable job.  They also throw in “Bud the Spud.”

Then the take some more requests, and tell the crowd that they have a new shirt out (with Chickadees on it).  But they tell them not to buy it at the HIP show, because they had to sell the shirts for $40 (what the HIP charge).  They’ll be back in a couple of months and they’ll sell them cheaper.

The punchline at the end of the show is when they say that their albums are available at the store.  And when they ask someone if that’s true, it turns out that they have one copy of their new album and one copy of an old one.  (“enough for everyone,” quips Tielli).

You can download it here.

[READ: July 29, 2010] “Twins”

I didn’t like this story in the beginning.  In fact, if I hadn’t promised myself I’d read all 20 of the 20 under 40 authors, I probably wouldn’t have finished it.  The exposition felt too long, too detailed, and without a lot of focus.  In fact, it wasn’t until about four pages into the story that it really caught my interest.

The story is about twins, born to a single black mother from a white father.  One of the babies, Mickey (named after his father Mike) is white, while the other boy, Allmon, is black.  But other than that they look alike.

And the interesting part for me came when the mother (Mike is long out of the picture at this point) is walking with the kids and they see a yard sale.  The host of the sale can’t help but comment about the two kids.  And she asks one question after another until she goes too far.  The way this scene played out was very emotional, very powerful, and it really brought the story to life. (more…)

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Robert Coover–“The War Between Sylvania and Freedonia” (Harper’s, July 2010)

Posted in Canadian Music, Duck Soup, Harper's, Marx Brothers, Rheostatics, Robert Coover, Short Story, War, tagged on August 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS–Bathurst Street Theatre Toronto ON October 7 1994 (1994).

I have been listening to a bunch of the Rheostatics live downloads as of late.

This is one of the first concerts they have available on the Rheostatics Live website (there’s a 1991 show as well).  But what’s especially nice about this one is that it was broadcast (and taped) on the radio, so the sound quality is quite good.

The show is from just before the release of Introducing Happiness, so the band is trying out some of those tracks.

I’ve never seen the band live (and of course, now I never will) but these recordings show how much fun they had live.  They were never afraid to experiment or to make jokes in their chatty sections (original drummer Dave Clark was also a lunatic–it often seemed like he wasn’t taking things seriously at all, and yet he never missed a beat).

The shows from 1996 & 1997 also showcase a lot of these songs too, but having the crisp recording of the radio (and the reasonably short set) makes this a good place to start if you want to hear some Rheostatics live.  Some of those other early shows are recorded in the audience, so the fidelity isn’t always 100%.

All of the shows are available at the Rhesoatics Live site (thanks all contributors).  This show is available here.

[READ: July 27, 2010] “The War Between Sylvania and Freedonia”

Your enjoyment of this story depend a lot on whether or not you have watched (and enjoyed) the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup.  The reason is that this is a retelling of Duck Soup–sort of from the perspective of the mayor of Sylvania and sort of from an impartial observer who is on the side of Sylvania, or more specifically, anti-Firefly.

What Coover does is simply present the audacity and insanity of Groucho’s character, Rufus T. Firefly, as if it were a historical account.  Any reasonable person could see what a terrible mayor he would make.  And this accounts for the amusement in the story. (more…)

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Fredy Perlman–[Week 7] Letters of Insurgents (1976)

Posted in Anarchy, Big Books, Canadian Music, Dave Bidini music, Epistolary Novel, Fredy Perlman, Funny (strange), Insurgent Summer, Marriage Trouble, Neurotics, Religion, Rheostatics, Sex, Supernatural, Technology, Violence on July 23, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-“Horses” (1991).

I have mentioned the Rheostatics a lot.  I’ve even talked about this song in Melville.  And yet it works so well as a companion to this book.

It starts slowly enough, a simple acoustic guitar with the lyrics:

Word came down and it crashed through my door
From the twenty-first floor
I was thinkin’ about leavin’ early for lunch
When he told me to shut off my press
His face turned green and his white shirt was wet
Like he’d just seen an accident
We threw our masks into a pile, the trucks pulled away for good

The band kicks in a slow beat  as the song builds:

A bus pulled in and I waved at it
Before I knew what it was
We ran in its tracks chasing its tires
But the gates had been riveted shut
I looked for the foreman; his number was empty
Up to Red Deer to stay
We gathered some signs and we sparked up a fire
Gordie got burned on the high-voltage wire

A quick intense bridge:

The first thing she’ll ask me is: “How did it go today?”And I’ll tell her.

The song builds in intensity with some wild screaming guitars until finally settling down to the quiet beginning

I thought there was strength in a union
I thought there was strength in a mob
I thought the company was bluffing
When they threatened to chop us off
Ah, these guns will wilt the winter will seize
And all the bonfires will go out
The company knows when they can afford to be bold
I wish I could, I wish I could, I wish I could

All along the ringing repeated chorus: “Holy mackinaw Joe! (Holy mackinaw).”

I’m not sure if this references a specific event or not.  (Surely someone can tell me that).  But you can listen to it here.  Or, find any of the live renditions on youtube.

There’s an interview with Dave Bidini of the Rheos who tells the interviewer that he also used to do music interviews.  And once he interviewed Neil Peart who, after much chatter, asked Dave if he knew the song “Horses” by the Rheos.  Dave humbly said that he wrote it.  And Neil said that on their last tour he used to come off stage and listen to “Horses” at full blast.  (And that’s how they got Neil to play on the Rheos’ subsequent album).  Neat, huh?

[READ: Week of July 16, 2010] Letters of Insurgents [Sixth Letters]

Insurgent Summer is till moving along, but the insurgents have been quiet lately.  I hope the insanity of these letters and invocations of the devil will bring up the chatter.

Yarostan opens his letter with the most heartfelt emotions.  And yet, anyone who thought (as I did) that there might be some kind of rekindling of romance between the two will be sorely disappointed: (more…)

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Herman Melville–Moby-Dick [Week 4] (1851)

Posted in 19th Century, Adventure, Barenaked Ladies, Big Books, Canadian Music, Death, Demons, Fishing, Herman Melville, Infinite Zombies, Moby, Neil Peart, Paul Quarrington, Rheostatics, The Beatles, The Replacements, Violence, Whale Music, Whales, Yuck! on June 14, 2010| 7 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Whale Music (1992).

The Rheostatics are from Etobicoke Canada.  Their second album was called Melville (named after a town in Saskatchewan, but it has a whale on the cover so…).  Their third album (this one) is called Whale Music (inspired by the novel by Paul Quarrington).  When they made a film of Whale Music, the Rheostatics were asked to make the soundtrack for it, which they released as Whale Music.  So, the band have 2 albums called Whale Music and one called Melville.  Perfect soundtrack to Moby-Dick.

The album is chock full of all kinds of music: country tracks, folky tracks, metal tracks, and hooks galore.  And it’s all wrapped up in the oddity that is the Rheostatics.  This album features guest spots by the Barenaked Ladies and Neil Peart as well as horns, strings, spoken word parts, and “power tools”.

“Self Serve Gas Station” is a great opening.  It begins with swirling guitars and a beautiful solo (Rheostatics guitar lines sound so elemental as to seem like they’ve always been around).  But just as the vocals begin, the song becomes a sort of country track: a folkie song about adolescnece.  But it returns to a good rocking (and falsetto fueled) rock track.

“California Dreamline” is a wonderfully weird track, with more gorgeous guitar melodies.  It also has a disjointed section with squealing guitars.   While “Rain, Rain, Rain” opens with a lengthy percussion section (played by Neil Peart of Rush) with a weird time signature.  It’s a fun singalong.  “Queer” meanwhile has some great chugga guitars that turn into a rocking tale of an ostracized brother (and features the great line: “But I wish you were there to see it/When I scored a hat-trick on the team/That called you a fucking queer.”

“King of the Past” is another great track, with a wondrous string sound near the end.  It’s a gorgeous song with (again) different sections conveying shanties and jigs (and you can dance to it).  Like Moby from last week, Rheostatics, also bust out a fast metal track, but this one works well: “RDA (Rock Death America)” has a major hook and name checks everyone from The Beatles to The Replacements.

“Legal Age Life at Variety Store” is a great folky singalong (and features the piercing harmonies of Martin Tielli).  “What’s Going On Around Here?” is the most traditional song of the bunch, a poppy little ditty which avoids complacency with a rocking coda.

“Shaved Head” is a moody piece, wonderful for its roller coaster sensibilities, which is followed by the beautiful Tim Vesely sung ballad “Palomar.”  This track is followed by the humorous (but serious) shouted-word piece “Guns” which also features Neil Peart.

“Sickening Song” is an accordion based shanty song.  Followed by another pretty, poppy-sounding track, “Soul Glue.”  Drummer Dave Clark sings “Beerbash,” an upbeat song.  And tye final track is the epic, “Dope Fiends and Boozehounds.”  It opens with a beautiful acoustic intro and a wonderfully catchy wheedling guitar solo.  It ends delightfully: “Where the dope fiends laugh And say it’s too soon, They all go home and listen to
The Dark Side of the Moon.”

I had been listening to the band live a lot recently, and they play these songs a lot.  So it was quite a treat to go back and hear the original with all its full instrumentation.

[READ: Week of June 14, 2010] Moby-Dick [Chapters 62-86]

I never thought I’d ever say this, but I really enjoyed Moby-Dick this week.  So far, these twentysome chapters have been my favorite (even the gruesome whale sections), there weren’t any chapters that I thought really dragged.  So, good for me!

This week’s read begins with Ishmael stating that harpooners should not have to paddle and then be expected to harpoon as well.  They should save their strength for that last, all important act.  And that seems logical to me, although one also expects that the harpooners would feel kind of bad while everyone else is paddling. (more…)

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Scott Teplin, Mac Barnett & Eli Horowitz–The Clock Without a Face: A Gus Twintig Mystery (2010)

Posted in Adam Rex, Adventure, Art, Children's Books, Chuck BB, Collecting, Contests, Eli Horowitz, Mac Barnett, McSweeney's, Mystery, Puzzles, Rheostatics, Scott Teplin, Short Books, Smarty Pants, The Beatles, Travel, YA Books on May 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: My Volkwagen Jetta hates The Beatles.

Lately, I have been playing some Beatles discs in my car.  And my Jetta clearly hates them.

First it was Please Please Me, when the entire CD player shut off mid-song.  It had lost all power.  I had to bang on it for about 5 minutes before it came back on.

The player played other discs fine after that.  Then, last night I played A Hard Day’s Night and half way through the disc it shut itself off again.  This time I was able to power it back on, but it wouldn’t play the disc anymore.  I ejected it and put in a new disc which worked fine.  When I put A Hard Day’s Night back in, same spot on the disc (“Can’t Buy Me Love”), and the player was totally off: no power at all.

A bit more pounding on the face and it came back on, and today played a Rheostatics disc with no trouble.  I guess I’ll not be listening to The Beatles in the car again.  Is it because the Beatles recorded versions of their songs in German but they weren’t included on the disc?

[READ: May 8, 2010] The Clock Without a Face

This review is about my first read of this book.  When I get to the end you’ll realize why there will have to be a second read and updated review.

This is an amusing tale.  And also a confounding (and evidently very real–see the bottom paragraph!–) mystery. (more…)

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Matthew Loux–Salt Water Taffy 3: The Seaside Adventures of Jack and Benny: The Truth About Dr. True (2009)

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Adventure, Barenaked Ladies, Boredom, Canadian Music, Children's Books, Death, Funny (ha ha), Geddy Lee, Ghosts, Gord Downie, Gordon Lightfoot, Graphic Novel, Lyle Lovett, Martin Tielli, Matthew Loux, Mystery, Ongoing, Rheostatics, Rush, Short Books, Summer, Supernatural, Trilogy on March 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BARENAKED LADIES-Snacktime (2008).

The Barenaked Ladies have always been like naughty kids.  So, it seems almost too obvious for them to make a kids’ album.  But almost as if they want to continue being naughty, this kids album is quite smart, not just a collection of cute kids songs.

There’s a wild mix of very specifically kiddie-aimed tracks and other amusing pop cultural commentary (or jokes from kiddies past).  For instance, the opening track “789” plays on the wonderful joke of why was 6 afraid of 7.

There’s also a lot of the more delicate sounding BNL songs that came to dominate their later albums: “Pollywog in a Bog” is a cute upbeat little ditty, “Here Come the Geese” is a pretty typical Kevin Hearn track (even his adult songs sound like children’s songs).

But I think the highlight comes from when Ed Robertson and Steven Page join forces.  Robertson is the king of the goofy guys and Steven Page’s songs are always wonderful, but typically less silly.  So “I Don’t Like” is a serious look at things we don’t like (salmon, heights), while the fantastic “Crazy ABCs” is a funny and clever look at words that start with silent letters: “D is for djinn E is for Euphrates F is for Fohn etc.”

I also enjoy Roberston’s solo songs like “There’s a Word for That.”  Robertson is clearly a fan of wordplay, and this song highlights that: “There’s a word for that…little dented skin between my upper lip and nose.”

My favorite song of the disc is “The Canadian Snacktime Trilogy.”  All kinds of famous (and non famous) people tell us what their favorite snacks are.  The contributors are listed here, and they include: Geddy Lee, barbecue potato chips; Lyle Lovett, watermelon; Martin Tielli, olives; Gordon Downie, peanut butter & crackers; “Weird Al” Yankovic, honey roasted peanuts and Gordon Lightfoot, pasta.  What fun!

It’s an overall enjoyable album for kids, full of mostly hyper songs and sounds quite a lot like a typical BNL effort.

[READ:February 27, 2010] Salt Water Taffy: The Truth About Dr. True

I have yet to mention the website for this series.  So, now I’m mentioning it, and I’m also mentioning Matt Loux’s page too.  It’s a great resource for all of the books and has many sample images and pages.

I adore this children’s graphic novel series.  Each story adds amazing depth to this seemingly quaint seaside town.  Eleven year-old Jack and 8-year-old Benny are on vacation at a boring seaside town.  But mysterious things are always coming up when the kids go snooping.

In this case Benny uncovers an ancient (empty) bottle of Dr. True’s magic elixir.  (I love that Jack sneers at Benny for digging in a garbage pile, when he would have really loved to be digging in it, too).  Dr True is the ancestor of True’s Taffy shop.

While this history of the island is unfolding, we also hear the history of another famous island resident: Captain Holister.  The captain is Chowder Bay’s real hero, with a statue of him erected in the town square and everything.  The boys’ favorite new friend, fisherman Angus is directly related to him.  (more…)

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Douglas Coupland–Generation A (2009)

Posted in Books about writers, Boredom, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Culture Shock, Dave Bidini music, Death, Douglas Coupland, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, Dystopia, Funny (strange), JPod, Kurt Vonnegut, Natural Disasters, Nature, Research, Rheostatics, Technology, The Future, Video Games, Violence, Yuck!, tagged on January 14, 2010| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Static Box (complete) (2008).

I’ve decided not to review all of the volumes of this fabulous free box set.  Rather, since I have now finished it, I’ll sum up and say that it is a fantastic collection from start to finish.

The final disc has a series of great cover tunes.  And of course, there’s the final songs from the final Massey Hall show which are quite emotional, even all these years later.

There’s one or two songs that I probably would have left off for sound quality reasons (although usually they’re pretty interesting/essential for what they are).  There’s one 8 minute song, “Monkeys Will Come” that has quite poor sound quality.  However, it is a recording of the song that the Canadian government asked them to record for Canada Day in 2000.  And I assume there are no better recordings of it, so it’s nice to have.

The best part of this collection is that it allowed me to see which concerts were worth downloading in their entirety (the site has a ton of concerts for downloading…a ton!).  It also got me to track down the two Violet Archers CDs, which I’m quite excited to be getting soon.

And, while I’m in a Rheos mood.  Martin Tielli’s final CDs in his subscription collection just made their way to my house and they are weird and wonderful.  And, I just learned that Dave Bidini put out a solo record a few months back, so that’s worth tracking down too.  Go Rheos!  You are all very star.

[READ: January 12, 2010] Generation A

I was quite excited when this book finally came out.  I had been dipping into the Douglas Coupland back catalog (including watching JPod the TVseries), so this book is a treat.

Strangely, when I started reading the book I realized I had no idea what it was about.  At all.  So, the first thing to note is that it is not in any way a sequel to Generation X.  None of the characters are the same, the setting is not the same, there’s no connection whatsoever (or if there is I didn’t see it).  The premise of the title comes from a Kurt Vonnegut address.  It is quoted on the book jacket and in the book itself, so I won’t quote it here, but the gist is that young people were dismissed unfairly when labelled “Generation X,” so they should insist that they be called “Generation A,” the beginning of the alphabet, and the start of it all.

But when the book starts, it’s hard to understand what that has to do with anything.  Because, as we learn right away, the book is all about bees (which explains the yellow and black cover design). (more…)

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A.J. Jacobs–The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment (2009)

Posted in A.J. Jacobs, Books about writers, Boredom, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, Funny (ha ha), Marriage (Happy), Memoirs, Morality, Political Humor, Rheostatics, Smarty Pants, Technology, tagged on January 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS–Static Journey Volume 2: Melville (2008).

At this stage, I realized just what the fine creator of this box set has set out to do: he is basically recreating the Rheos’ discs with live tracks, demos and other cool things.  Initially I assumed that everything would be chronological (live concerts only from that tour, for instance).  But he has gone beyond that simple task and is selecting the best version he can find.  So a concert from, say, 2007 which features an awesome recording of a track from Melville will follows a track from a show circa 2000.  It’s a very cool way to experience the disc.

And of course, if there isn’t an available live track, he plays the album track.

All of this cool stuff is supplemented with interviews, stage banter introducing tracks (even if the banter is not from the same show as the track).  The live versions on this disc are spectacularly smoking, and the songs sounds fantastic.  And, there’s enough jamming on these tracks so you can see the band really let loose.

Interestingly, I am finding this an excellent way to get reintroduced to the album.   There’s something about an amazing live track that really lets you appreciate the quality of the song.

I’m totally hooked on this box set.

[READ: January 4, 2009] The Guinea Pig Diaries

This was another surprise Christmas gift from Sarah and it was another great one.  I’ve enjoyed AJ’s (as he calls himself in the book) experiments in Esquire.  The book contains at least three experiments which I’d already read in Esquire.  There are some minor changes to the stories (most of which are designed to have them fit in with the general narrative of the book).  But even if you’ve read them (and one of them goes back to 2005!) there’s a Coda at the end of each one with a sort of follow up to the experiment that was not included in the article.

The experiments include (read more about them on his site, but only after you finish all of this!):

My Life as  Beautiful Woman
My Outsourced Life
I Think You’re Fat
240 Minutes of Fame
The Rationality Project
The Truth About Nakedness
What Would George Washington Do?
The Unitasker
Whipped

Jacobs is a very funny writer.  He is neurotic and constantly trying to improve himself.  And so, he undertakes these fairly absurd tasks is an attempt to make his life better/easier/less stressful/more awesome. (more…)

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T.C. Boyle–“My Pain is Worse Than Your Pain” (Harper’s, January 2010)

Posted in Boredom, Canadian Music, Drinking, Harper's, Marriage Trouble, Rheostatics, Short Story, T.C. Boyle, Threats, tagged on January 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Static Journey Volume 1: The Beginning (2009).

This is the first disc from the massive 9 volume set available for FREE here.  It features several different early incarnations of the Rheos. There’s a couple of very new wavey/discoy (those bass lines are very disco!) tracks.  There’s a totally bizarre new wave (skinny tie, as they call it) version of The Who’s “My Generation.”   And there’s several tracks with the Trans Canada Soul Patrol a horn-infused version of the line up that was dissolved around the time that Martin Tielli became a full time member.

There’s a few tracks from Greatest Hits, which work well in context, but the highlight is the tracks from the CBC Brave New Waves Show (“Good on the Uptake” and “Crystal Soup” which are unavailable elsewhere (well, the whole show from this radio broadcast is available at the more than complete Rheostaticslive.com).  In fact, just a little research shows how much music is available for free from the Rheos.  It is a pretty amazing collection of stuff that seems to go beyond tape trading trees of live shows, as the available material is rare and largely unavailable in any other format.

These early incarnations of the Rheos are pretty vastly different from the later quirky, wonderful band.  And, with the absence of Martin on vocals, sometimes its even surprising to realize they are the same guys.  But it’s their history and it’s rather fun.  Plus, there’s a number of interviews, most of which allow you to hear the word “Etobicoke” spoken aloud several times.

[READ: January 4, 2010] “My Pain is Worse Than Your Pain”

I’ve enjoyed T.C. Boyle for years now (back when he was called the preferable (if pretentious) T. Coraghessan Boyle). Although I haven’t really read much from him recently (I have a copy of his short story collection that I haven’t read yet).

So this was a nice re-introduction to the man.  I was surprised by the setting of this story (snow covered desolate mountain cabins) as I think of him as more of a desert/southwestern writer.

This story is about a fairly despicable character.  On a drunken bender one night, the narrator sneaks over to his recently widowed neighbor, Lily, to “surprise” her.  It’s pitch dark and freezing cold, so he’s in a ski mask slinking around on her roof.  Oh, and just to make it worse, he’s currently married. (more…)

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Jim Massey & Robbi Rodriguez–Maintenance: Volume 2 Fantastic Sewage & Other Stories (2007)

Posted in Adventure, Canadian Music, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Mad Scientists, Military, Oni Press, Research, Rheostatics, Robbi Rodriguez, Sci-fi, Short Books, Technology, Toilets, YA Books, Yuck!, tagged on January 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Static Journey 1980-2007 (2008).

I just stumbled upon this awesome site for Rheostatics fans.  Although I’m unclear who exactly runs this awesome repository of Rheostatics wonderment (oh wait, according to the Rheostatics own page, his name is Darrin Cappe).

The Static Box is a FREE 9-volume downloadable collection of all manner of Rheostatics audio: early recordings, interviews, live recordings, studio recordings, demos, everything.  I downloaded the whole shebang and it fit onto 11 CDs.

The site also has a ton of videos (including a downloadable concert from Massey Hall.

I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet (I think it clocks in around 14 hours).  But what I’ve heard is great.  The sound quality is very good (even from the older cassette demos), and the comprehensiveness of the undertaking is amazing.  If you’re a longtime fan or even just a causal listener, the amount of stuff here will be more than enough to keep you busy.

As I go through the discs I’ll post some comments about them all.

[READ: December 22, 2009] Maintenance Volume 2

Volume 2 of the series is not very different from Volume 1, and that’s a good thing.  TerroMax, Inc is still the world biggest evil think tank!  The jokes are still pop culturey (and often quite gross).  The art is very fun and conveys the action perfectly.  And, there’s still a lot of mad scientists on the loose!

(more…)

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