O Canada: Rheostatics Edition

Rheostatics: Legal Age Life at Variety Store

[purchase]

This song comes from the Whale Music album, which I've expressed my love for already. This is perhaps the most catchy number on the album. I dare you to listen to it and not sing along!


Rheostatics: Saskatchewan

[purchase]

A sailor paralyzed by battle can only think of his Saskatchewan home as his ship splits apart around him. Is this a post-mortem message or the reminiscings of a convelescing survivor? The song doesn't say.

Originally released on their 1991 album Melville, this version is from their cleverly titled double live album, Double Live from 1997.


Rheostatics/Bourbon Tabernacle Choir: Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

[purchase]

There have been several Neil Young tributes released over the years. In 1994, Sony Music Canada released a two-CD set of covers by Canadian artists called Borrowed Tunes. One of my favorite tracks on the set is this collaboration between Rheoststics and the Bourbon Tabernacle Choir. It's fresh, unique, and it rocks.


Rheostatics: O Canada

[commercially unavailable]

On October 26, 1992, Rheostatics sang the Canadian National Anthem before a hockey game at Maple Leaf Gardens. I can't think of a more Canadian way of ending my last post of the week.

This track comes from a mammoth 197-song labor of love called Static Journey, posted in nine parts at the blog Northern Wish a few years ago. Full of unreleased live tracks, radio broadcasts, demo, and more, it is a Rheostatics fan's dream come true.