Although Rush has been on hiatus so far this year, Alex Lifeson has been keeping himself very busy with a number of side projects. He appeared on John Wesley's Disconnect album where he played a guitar solo on the track Once a Warrior, he executive produced and played guitar on Keram Malicki-Sanchez's Come to Life album, and he's been working with the David Barrett Trio on their 2nd full length CD. And that's not all! Earlier this week we learned that Lifeson also makes a guest appearance on The Wilderness of Manitoba's upcoming Between Colours album. From Exclaim.ca:
... Between Colours will be out on September 16 on Pheromone Recordings. The album was laid down at Revolution Recording in Toronto with producer Joe Dunphy (Skydiggers, By Divine Right, Elliott Brood). Guests include Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson (who plays a guitar solo) and Rheostatics member Michael Phillip Wojewoda (who contributes theremin), plus a handful of drummers. The album is split into two distinct sides, with the first five songs representing "day" and back half representing "night." It's apparently an evolution from the band's past work, and a press release describes it like this: "The expanding instrumentation and layered guitar and synth effects combine to create one-listen pop hooks and adventurous sonic exploration." ...
The article includes the album art along with a track listing, but doesn't indicate what song Alex's guitar solo appears on. There's also a preview of the track Leave Someone over at SoundCloud.
A couple of weeks ago the Rush Backstage Club released two special limited edition Rush photo sets; a Kings Live Set and a Cygnus Live Set. Each is limited to 50 sets and include 3 iconic photographs of the band from rock photographer Fin Costello, and unfortunately it looks like both sets are now sold out. For all the details, visit the Rush Backstage Club (Live Kings Photo Set, Cygnus Photo Set). On a related note, the Andrew MacNaughtan Photographic Arts site recently sent out a newsletter regarding some recently discovered rare Rush prints from the late Andrew MacNaughtan's photo archive. You can get all the details in this post or at www.andrewmacnaughtan.net
Audio Fidelity's SACD version of Rush's Presto became available for purchase via the Audio Fidelity website earlier this month, and is now also available from other online retailers such as Amazon as of July 15th. If you purchase it directly from Audio Fidelity you can use the code SCARS20 at checkout to get 20% off of your order. Presto is the 3rd Rush SACD release from Audio Fidelity; they've already released versions of both Counterparts and Hemispheres. Like these 2 previous releases, the Presto SACD was mastered by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio.
Guitar World recently published a feature where they interview Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci to talk about Rush's 2112 - the album that changed his life. From the interview:
If I had to pick a favorite band of all time, it would be Rush. ... 2112 was the first time I heard something where, lyrically, it didn't have to just be about the typical rock and roll topics, that it could be about something more heady or esoteric, something that makes you think. That really influenced me as a lyricist. I was also blown away by how a three-piece band could sound so majestic and huge and play in a style that's inherently rock and roll yet still pushes the boundaries of what they're doing musically-this idea of being experimental, using different time signatures and not really being concerned about song length and traditional constraints. I can't tell you how huge of an impact that had on me. 2112 basically set the course for my musical career and how I approached Dream Theater.
Rush showed up on a couple more Music Times lists over the past week. In the first, they threw together 8 Bands Where Every Member Writes Songs and Rush made the cut at #6:
Though Rush drummer Neil Peart rarely contributes musical composition to the band's songs, which are mostly written by bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson, he's been the band's primary lyricist since he joined back in 1974, which means all three members of Rush are consistently collaborating.
And Rush'a All the World's a Stage made their list of 8 Album Titles Inspired By Literature, coming in at #2:
The title of Rush's 1976 live album All The World's A Stage is taken from a famous line from William Shakespeare's As You Like It, which lyricist Neil Peart would reuse in 1981 for the song "Limelight," about the alienating life of a famous musician.
Speaking of All the World's a Stage, the August 2014 issue of Modern Drummer magazine contains a feature titled Great Drum Covers where they profile some classic LP artwork with a drum-centric attitude. Rush's live album All the World's a Stage is one of the albums featured as seen here (thanks Asif K).
Today is the 40th anniversary of original Rush drummer John Rutsey's last show playing with Rush which took place at Centennial Hall in London, Ontario on July 25, 1974. In recognition of this anniversary, Ultimate Classic Rock posted an article earlier today where they look at the history of Rush with Rutsey, focusing on how he helped form the band, why he eventually left and how he was snubbed at Rush's Rock Hall induction last year. 4 days after Rutsey left the band on Geddy Lee's 21st birthday, Rutsey's replacement Neil Peart joined the band. So this coming Tuesday, July 29th is not only Geddy Lee's 61st birthday, it's also the 40th anniversary of this important day in the annals of Rush history. Neil's first show with the band took place a couple of weeks after he joined the band on August 14, 1974 at the Pittsburgh Civic Center Arena opening for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann. Here's a bootleg audio recording of Finding My Way, the song they opened their set with:
That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!
