Today Was Yesterday are a music duo consisting of drummer, percussionist and programmer Ty Dennis and lead vocalist, primary songwriter, bassist, guitarist, pianist and programmer Angelo Barbera. Last Friday the duo officially released their self-titled debut album, and it is of interest to Rush fans because Alex Lifeson makes guest appearances on most of the album's 10 tracks, two of which were released to streaming over the past few months in the lead-up to the album's release. In December they released the track Grace and last month they posted the official lyric video for A Louder Silence. Grace and A Louder Silence are just two of the six tracks on the album that feature Lerxst; he's also included on the tracks On My Own, My Dog Is My God, Faceless Faraway Song, and My New Low.

To commemorate the 4th anniversary of the passing of Neil Peart back in January, Rush tribute band YYNOT hosted their 2nd annual Bubba Bash in celebration of The Professor at the Keswick Theatre outside Philly (Glenside, PA) on Saturday, January 6th. The show was "In Celebration of Neil Peart", and featured YYNOT along with special guests Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, etc.), Frank Bello (Anthrax), Jason Bittner (Shadows Fall, Overkill, etc.), Jon Dinklage (Clockwork Angels string ensemble), Joe Bergamini (drum instructor, author, etc.), John Wesley (Porcupine Tree), Seven Antonopoulos (Opiate for the Masses), and more. All proceeds from the show go to benefit Cedars Sinai Hospital, and you can send along your donation here. The show was professionally filmed, and the band began posting pro-shot video from the event last month including a performance of YYZ with special guest Mike Portnoy which you can watch here, a performance of Hemispheres: Prelude featuring Ed Toth, Afterimage featuring Jason Bittner and John Wesley, and Anthem with Frank Bello. Their latest offering is a video of Different Strings featuring Jonathan Dinklage which you can check out on YouTube here. Be sure to follow YYNOT on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for all the latest updates.

The annual RUSHfest Scotland Rush fan gathering will take place in Glasgow the weekend of May 10-12. The event will feature games, performances from multiple Rush tribute bands, special guest appearances from Jonathan Dinklage, Adele Stein, Entcho Todorov, and more. Note that the original venue has changed due to the closure of the Hard Rock Glasgow. For all the details and to purchase tickets, visit RUSHfestScotland.co.uk.

Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau released an album back in 2022 called Jacob's Ladder, where he pays tribute to some of the prog rock Mehldau loved as a young adolescent, which was his gateway to the fusion that eventually led to his discovery of jazz. The album featured a track called maybe as his skies are wide, which builds off an interpretation of one portion of Rush's Tom Sawyer. It also includes a full cover version of the Rush classic which can be heard on YouTube here. In addition to the Rush cover, Jacob's Ladder includes covers of songs by Gentle Giant and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Mehldau was a recent guest on Rick Beato's popular YouTube show and spoke a bit about the album and his love of Rush at around the 58-minute mark (thanks Matt K).

Speaking of Rick Beato, Police drummer Steward Copeland was a guest on the show this past week and spoke a bit about Neil Peart and air-drumming around the 35-minute mark (thanks Thomas P).

Actor Keanu Reeves' band Dogstar was recently featured on an episode of Amoeba Music's What's In My Bag?, where the band goes on a vinyl shopping spree and reveals what they bought. Dogstar guitarist Bret Domrose selected Rush's Moving Pictures and chats a bit about the importance of that album to him in this video around the 14-minute mark (thanks Jason Z).

Reviews of Geddy Lee's memoir My Effin' Life continue to trickle in, including this one from The Runner.

Premier Guitar posted a video review of Alex Lifeson's new signature LERXST Chi amplifier this past week. You can check that out online here.

On the latest episode of Rush Roundtable (#219) on the Rushfans YouTube channel, the panel continues their Test for Echo album discussion series with Virtuality.

That's it for this week. Have a great weekend!!