Description:
Album Description
Recorded at Chemical Sound in Toronto, during the early months of 2001, Night of the Shooting Stars is the first guest-free Rheostatics album since ‘91’s Melville. Mixed by long-time friend, and occasional drummer Michael Philip Wojewoda and recorded by Alun Piggins and Ian Blurton, Night of the Shooting Stars finds the band in a rockier, melodic mode. Many of the 13 tracks have been road-tested and are familiar to dedicated fans. The album also includes a driving ‘rock’ version of ‘The Song of the Garden’. The first single is P.I.N., with a video to be produced by Justin Stephenson, who also prod
Album Description
Recorded at Chemical Sound in Toronto, during the early months of 2001, Night of the Shooting Stars is the first guest-free Rheostatics album since ‘91’s Melville. Mixed by long-time friend, and occasional drummer Michael Philip Wojewoda and recorded by Alun Piggins and Ian Blurton, Night of the Shooting Stars finds the band in a rockier, melodic mode. Many of the 13 tracks have been road-tested and are familiar to dedicated fans. The album also includes a driving ‘rock’ version of ‘The Song of the Garden’. The first single is P.I.N., with a video to be produced by Justin Stephenson, who also produced the ‘Stolen Car’ video.
Even though this qualifies as the Etobicoke, Ontario, band's first "rock" album in five years, Night of the Shooting Stars is still as loopy as the best of the Rheostatics' work. After 1996's The Blue Hysteria, the band released a bewildering variety of discs, including a kids' album (The Story of Harmelodia), a tribute to Canada's most famous painters (Music Inspired by the Group of Seven), a collection of CBC radio recordings (The Nightlines Sessions), and even a gargantuan live set (Double Live). That diversity is still in evidence in the relatively straightforward Night of the Shooting Stars, which opens with a typically bizarre triptych: "These Days Are Good for the Canadian Conservative Youth Party Alliance," a monstrous rocker that satirizes young politicos on the make "on the flat Edmonton streets"; a rocked-up version of the children's song "Song of the Garden," one of two songs that could have been on The Story of Harmelodia; and "Mumblety-peg," a jumble of surreal images and childhood reminisces by Dave Bidini (one of the band's three singer-songwriters). There are all sorts of strange stories and memories lurking around in here. In "The Junction Foil Ball," guitarist-singer Martin Tielli sings of "Canadian Club and Solitaire," before asking someone to "show me the drugs in your mom's room." In "We Went West," bassist-singer Tim Vesely describes their very first tour, a westward jaunt across Canada that apparently continued well past the B.C. coastline. And in "Satan Is the Whistler," a two-part song by Tielli, a mysterious ski hill is colonized by the likes of Nike and Evian. While the tales may be unsettling, the music on Night of the Shooting Stars is loud, infectiously melodic, and largely free of the fussiness and pretensions that can mar their recordings. Only the Rheostatics can turn a line like "I chipped my eyetooth on the back of a urinal" into a catchy refrain. --Jason Anderson
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Manufacturer: Import [Generic]
Release date: 23 October 2001
EAN: 0627915096425 UPC: 627915096425
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