Canadian indie rock outfit Rheostatics release first new song in over 15 years

Rheostatics became a staple of the Canadian indie music scene after forming in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke during the late 1970s. (File photo: Simon Law/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

TORONTO — Fifteen years after Rheostatics last released an album of new material, the Canadian indie rock band is back.

“Here Come the Wolves,” a six-minute song structured in three parts, landed Wednesday on digital music platforms ahead of a full-length album due later this year.

Vocalist Dave Bidini tweeted to fans saying he hopes the song “terrifies and makes you weep, not in an entirely bad way.”

Rheostatics became a staple of the Canadian indie music scene after forming in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke during the late 1970s.

They hit their peak popularity in the mid-1990s when their songs “Claire” and “Record Body Count” were regularly played on MuchMusic.

The band’s most recent album, titled “2067,” was a loosely themed project exploring the state of Canada 200 years after Confederation.

In the years after its 2004 release, the band disintegrated.

Bidini went on to become publisher of the West End Phoenix, a monthly broadsheet community newspaper for Toronto’s west end, while occasionally resurrecting parts of the Rheostatics line-up.

The 12-track album “Here Comes the Wolves” is slated for release on Sept.

6.