Rush is a Band

A blog devoted to RUSH:
Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Updates and other random Rush stuff

Fri, Mar 14, 2008@9:29AM | comments removed/disabled

There was not much in the way of Rush news this past week. The band is hunkered down in rehearsals for the upcoming tour which kicks off in Puerto Rico 4 weeks from today! However, there was a good bit of Neil Peart news to report. Last Friday I let you know that the Buddy Rich Drum Company's MySpace page announced that there will be another Buddy Rich Memorial Concert. This one will take place at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on October 18th, 2008. The event will feature Nick Rich with the Buddy Rich Band, John Blackwell, Neil Peart and others. More details will be announced in DRUM! and Traps magazine in early April.

There's also an updated Neil Peart page at Sabian.com with a lot of neat new features like this cool wallpaper depicting Neil Peart with fellow Sabian artists Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Jose Pasillas (Incubus) standing with their motorcycles outdoors.

And last but not least, Neil Peart updated his website's News page earlier this week. Titled The Best February Ever, this installment describes his February vacation in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec where he did a lot of cross country skiing and played host to his wife Carrie Nuttall and friends Matt Scannell and the infamous Brutus. He also confirms that the band is now in rehearsals for the 2008 tour.

Speaking of rehearsals, in last week's poll I asked you which of Rush's never-played-live 80's-era songs would you most like to hear on the 2008 leg. It was a close race but the winner with 17% of the vote was Losing It off of Signals. Rounding out the top 5 were Presto (16%), Available Light (15%), Emotion Detector (11%) and Chain Lightning (11%). You can see the complete results here. For this week I'm asking the same question but shifting our focus to 90s-era Rush which includes their Roll the Bones, Counterparts and Test For Echo albums. So which of Rush's never-played-live 90's-era songs would you most like to hear on the 2008 leg? Take the poll and let us know what you think.

Rush's new live single of Workin' Them Angels from their upcoming Snakes & Arrows Live album officially impacted radio this past Monday. It's not in the top 30 yet but is showing up on both the MediaBase 7-day Jump! Chart and the Radio and Records Most Added Rock chart. Call your local stations to request the single if you get a chance.

The Rush is a Band pre-sale t-shirt contest sponsored by Music Today came to a close last Friday and the winners were announced earlier this week. Congrats to the winners and thanks to everybody who participated.

And now for a little horn-tooting... It seems that RushIsABand.com is almost in the top 100 music blogs according to the recently-launched Wikio Blogs site (it's currently number 103). The Wikio site uses an algorithm to rank blogs based on the number and value of links to that site from other blogs. The value of these links depends on the ranking of the blog publishing them. So the value of a link published on a highly ranked blog is more important than a posted link on a blog with a lower ranking. Very cool.

The Rush Is A Band store at Zazzle.com has been up and running for over a week now. I now have a design for dark fabrics and I've added some more items for women and children. Check it out and let me know what you think.

This past Wednesday March 12th was Alex Lifeson and his wife Charlene's 33rd wedding anniversary! They were married a third of a century ago back in 1975 - quite a milestone. Congratulations to the both of them.

This coming Sunday, March 16th marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Rush's first compilation album Archives. Now out of print, the album was nothing more than a repackaging of the band's first three albums. It was certified both Gold and Platinum back in 1995.

Brazilian reader Vagner pointed me to this really cool slideshow gallery of pictures from last October's Rush shows in Rotterdam. It serves as a nice little preview of what we might expect to see on the upcoming live DVD.

It's that time of year; time for radio stations to run their annual Battle of the Bands competitions in celebration of March Madness. Rush is just about always included in the voting and usually does very well. Mark sent me this link to 106.9 The Fox's Bracket of the Bands competition. Rush is seeded in the 14th position and going up against Fleetwood Mac in the first round. So go vote for Rush!

Glide Magazine's Hidden Tracks blog compiled their list of 10 Bands That Should Be In The HOF. Rush made the list at number 4. Thanks to Sean for the heads up.

Reader Patti sent me this list from The List Universe. It compiles the top 15 power trios. If ever there was a list made for Rush, this is it. Rush came in at #1 of course. Here's what they said:

Rush redefined the term Power Trio by making more music that anyone ever thought possible with just 3 people onstage. All musical virtuosi on their respective instruments, yet somehow still managing to get together and turn into a whole greater than the sum of it’s parts. Hands down, the Mac Daddy of all power trios.

With St. Patty's Day right around the corner, I thought I'd include this video link to a live performance of Tom Sawyer by Celtic Rock Band Carbon Leaf. The video is from a New Year's Eve 2007 show at Toad's Place in Richmond, VA. The song starts about a minute or two into the video. Thanks to reader nat sci for the link.

And you may or may not want to watch this YouTube video from a Japanese fan. It's flagged as inappropriate but there's no nudity - just a lot of bad dancing. Thanks to Sean for the link.

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

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