Bidini's New Band Celebrates Starting Over

06/05/09 4:25pm

by Evan Dickson (CHARTattack)

What do you do when your band breaks up?

If you're Dave Bidini, first you write a book about it, then you write sexy hockey book, do some charity work and after that, you get another band. Or, in this case, the band gets you.

Despite their name, Dave Bidini's new outfit, Bidiniband, were a band before they were Bidini. That's according to man in the fedora himself.

"[Guitarist] Paul Linklater and [bassist] Doug Friesen and [drummer] Don Kerr were in this band called The Scribbled Out Man," Bidini says. "They had recorded their debut album at The Gas Station Studios when it was on [Toronto] Island, so they were sort of a self-contained unit anyway and it was their idea to get me in the studio."

Once his friends twisted his rubber arm, Bidini came to the studio with songs like title track "This Land Is Wild," which is about a dead, alcoholic teenage hockey player. And if you've ever wondered who would have eaten whom if the Rheostatics were ever stranded in a plane crash, listen to "Desert Island Poem." (Hint: the drummer gets it first, in spite of being the best cook.)

Starting fresh with a new band reminds Bidini of the days when the Rheostatics were still a young group trying to make a reputation.

"What the band's doing now brings me back to those days, because you sort of have to prove yourself all over again," he says. "You get that same kind of nervous and anxious sense of excitement. There's nothing like the first time with anything you do."

Maybe that nostalgia inspired Bidini to launch his new record with a four-hour walking tour of downtown Toronto. The Hoser March won't be able to visit The Edge, the short-lived new wave club where the Rheostatics got their start in an otherwise dull city, but it will incorporate a number of prominent musical landmarks.

It will begin on College Street with a performance at the independent record dealer, Soundscapes. Bidini and his mob will follow Kerr's giant drum through Kensington Market and down Spadina Avenue toward the Horseshoe Tavern, where the Bidiniband will play their album release show with Tres Bien Ensemble and Laura Barrett.

Bidini says Toronto was "all cover bands and bad hard rock bands" back in 1979 when he was just beginning his career as a Canadian weird music icon. So he considers The Hoser March to be "a celebration of the simple fact that you can do this kind of thing now. You never could have done it 30 years ago."

You can see the BidiniBand here:

June 5 Waterloo, ON @ Maxwell's Music House
June 6 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern w/Tres Bien Ensemble and Laura Barrett
June 11 Hamilton, ON @ The Casbah
June 12 London, ON @ The Music Club
June 17 Peterborough, ON @ The Montreal House
June 18 Wakefield, QC @ The Black Sheep Inn
July 24-26 Guelph, ON @ Guelph Lake Island (Hillside Festival)