Night of the Shooting Stars [EXPLICIT LYRICS] [IMPORT]

Rheostatics

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 23, 2001)
• Original Release Date: October 23, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics, Import
• Label: Import [Generic]
• ASIN: B00005UJ6Y
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #525,020 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
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

Product 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, October 21, 2004

By	Anglobotomy (Las Vegas, Nv United States) - See all my reviews

A great album for Rheostatic fans and those who've never heard them. I don't think this one is as good as Whale Music or Introducing Happiness, but it's at least as good as Blue Hysteria. I've been a fan of the Rheo's since Whale Music came out, and I've always liked them for their playfulness, their incredible musicianship and their ability to move me with songs I'd never thought would be moving. Even on a less experimental album like this one, they sound fresh. The guitar work on this album is amazing, and evocative. The Rheostatics have always been able to paint the most amazing pictures with their music. Buy this album. My favorite songs include PIN, Mumbletypeg, and the Reward. I'm eagerly awaiting the release of 2067.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars La Notte di Tielli e Bidini., July 1, 2002

By	Jason T. Treit "eskimonkey" (Edmonton, AB) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After 5 strong years with the Rheostatics, this record marks a fond farewell to drummer, cellist, studio owner and 4th string singer-songwriter Don Kerr. After the loss of not one but two longhaired percussion wunderkinds in their career, one has to ponder if it's maybe time to stop pouring bacon fat all over the kits, sending them out in the freezing hail to push the crosswalk button at red lights, etc.

As for this Night Of The Shooting Stars business: In keeping with the simple, stripped down nature of the album packaging, these 13 songs comprise some of the simplest bare-bones exercises in rock and pop these artsy Canadians have ever touched with a ten foot pole. Luckily, it's still a strange and thorougly enriching work, despite the reservations of some longtime fans to whom a lot of this is old material ("Song of the Garden" and "Junction Foil Ball" are remakes, so you know.)

Martin and Dave clock in with some of their most accomplished songwriting to date, coming to a head in their co-lead gem "The Fire." The saccharine sweet pop of "P.I.N." and "Mumbletypeg" juxtapose (do you like that word?) some of the disarming lyrics and disorienting mid-stride tempo shifts of the album's latter half. Every cut has that unmistakeable Rheos charm, that sense of wonderment and chemistry and zany half-imagined folklore, although it's easy to mistake Tim's more pedestrian cuts on this album as padding in between the more ambitious jaunts of Sirs Bidini and Tielli.

So yeah, enough already, it's great. I bet you the reader will like this here CD. Push the Add To Cart button ... wait for it ... waiiiitt forrr itttt ... NOW!

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars They Never Disappoint, February 26, 2002

By	Susan (Canada) - See all my reviews

One of Canadian Music's greatest accomplishments!
The Rheostatics have a reputation for making excellent music, and this is a prime example.
Very cleverly written, and complimented with Martin Tielli's guitar work, you can't go wrong.
An album that not Canadian or Rock fan should live without.