The Rheostatics

Rheostatics
Rheostatics (2007) L–R: Tim Vesely, Michael Phillip Wojewoda, Dave Bidini, Martin Tielli
Background information
Origin	Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Indie rock
Years active	1978 (1978)–2007, 2009, 2015-present
Labels	Intrepid, Sire, DROG, Perimeter, True North, Zunior, Six Shooter
Associated acts	The Five Hole Band, The Trans-Canada Soul Patrol, The Dinner Is Ruined, Water Tower
Website	rheostatics.ca
Members	Dave Bidini Tim Vesely Dave Clark Martin Tielli
Past members	Dave Crosby Rod Westlake Don Kerr Michael Phillip Wojewoda Kevin Hearn

Rheostatics are a Genie Award-winning Canadian indie rock band. They were formed in 1978, and actively performed and recorded for 27 years, from 1980 until officially disbanding in 2007. Since then they have given a number of reunion performances at special events, and as of late 2016 are writing new material and performing again.

Although they had only one Top 40 hit, "Claire" in 1995, they were simultaneously one of Canada's most influential and unconventional rock bands, a band whose eclectic take on pop and rock music has been described both as iconic and iconoclastic. In particular, two of the band's albums, Whale Music and Melville, have been cited in numerous critical and listener polls as among the best Canadian albums ever recorded.

Formed in Etobicoke, Ontario in 1978, the band played their first gig at a club called The Edge in February 1980. The band originally consisted of guitarist Dave Bidini, bassist Tim Vesely, drummer Rod Westlake and keyboard player Dave Crosby. Westlake left the band almost immediately, however, and was replaced by Dave Clark. Crosby left the band in 1981. In their earliest years, the band members were all still teenagers, and required special permits to play in most music venues.

The band's early sound was more R&B and funk-oriented than their later, more famous, music. A large horn section, known as The Trans-Canada Soul Patrol, accompanied the group from 1983 to 1985; Clark had met the horn players while taking a jazz class at a summer music school. After the departure of the horn section, Martin Tielli was brought in. Tielli and Clark had previously been bandmates in the group Water Tower.

In the early 1980s the Rheostatics 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 college 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. The album was eventually re-released in 1996. The band also played a role in drawing Canadian country music icon Stompin' Tom Connors out of retirement, after Bidini and Vesely crashed Connors' birthday party in 1986 and wrote an article about it for a Toronto newspaper.