Rush is a Band

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

Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Updates and other random Rush stuff

Fri, Mar 27, 2009@11:50AM | comments removed/disabled

I Love You Man was released last weekend and ended up grossing an impressive $18 million and coming in 2nd just behind Knowing which grossed $25 million. The movie is filled with Rush references and music including a cameo from the band themselves. It looks like all the exposure that the movie has garnered Rush is paying off in album and DVD sales; The Spirit of Radio: Greatest Hits 1974-1987, Moving Pictures, 2112, the Snakes & Arrows DVD and Retrospective 3 all made significant jumps in their Amazon sales rankings over the last week.

This past Saturday evening at 10PM VH1 Classic began airing a 1-hour Rush: Retrospective 3 Box Set special. The special featured several Rush music videos from the Retrospective 3 DVD and many that were not on the DVD as well. Interspersed throughout were interview segments where Geddy Lee talks about the particular songs and their videos. The special was posted online earlier this week with the longer, uncut interview segments with Geddy and the complete videos that were discussed. Watch it online here.

Monday I let you know how Metallica's James Hetfield once again mentioned Rush in an interview while discussing Metallica's 2009 Rock Hall induction. He listed off several bands that deserve to be in the Rock Hall and Rush was third on his list.

In this past Monday's How I Met Your Mother on CBS there was a humorous Rush reference. You can check out the details in this post.

On Wednesday we learned some details regarding Alex Lifeson's upcoming cameo in a Canadian vampire horror/comedy film from writer/director Rob Stefaniuk called Suck. It turns out Lerxst will play a border officer. For all the details check out this post. You may remember that Alex played a cop in the Trailer Park Boys movie a couple of years ago. Speaking of which, reader Will C let me know that the Trailer Park Boys episode Closer to the Heart which features Alex Lifeson will be airing on DirectTV Channel 101 this upcoming week.

Alex Lifeson also has a one-page feature in the 30th anniversary issue of Canadian Musician. The piece is titled Solos and Alex discusses how he goes about developing and playing his guitar solos. The entire issue is posted on the Canadian Musician website at this link. You can read the complete Alex Lifeson article on page 24.

And since it's been a while since we've had a good Rush rumor, here's the latest. Apparently Rush has shown interest in adding music (instrumental most likely) to the upcoming Steven Spielberg film The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn based on The Adventures of Tintin comics. Geddy and Neil both had been seen wearing t-shirts celebrating the 60th anniversary back in 1989, most notably Neil who wears one in the Show Don't Tell video. Whether this will actually happen or not is still up in the air.

Reader ou812112 alerted me that former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani have created a new supergroup called Chickenfoot. When describing their sound for Rolling Stone Hagar had this to say:

... Kind of like who we are. Like kind of Zeppelin, Van Halen ­you know hard rock-y, Rush-y, kind of progressive a little bit. Hard rock. Hard sophisticated rock,” Hagar said, adding that “Joe Satriani, he’s the doctor man. He is the professor, this guy ­he’s awesome. ...

I'd mentioned in an updates post a few weeks ago that Canadian rocker Ian Thornley's recently released album Tiny Pictures was produced by Snakes & Arrows producer Nick Raskulinecz and partially recorded at Alex Lifeson's Lerxst Sound studios. It turns out there may be yet another Rush connection. According to this review of the album at Vue Weekly, Neil Peart contributed to the track Man Overboard. Exactly what his contribution was is not clear however. I also can't find any other reference to Neil Peart being involved with this project anywhere so this may be bogus information. If you know anything about this, please let us know. Thanks to Spindrifter for the heads up.

Last week we learned that DRUM! Magazine had received over 1000 questions from fans for their Email Neil Peart Editorial Campaign. Apparently at least two RIABers - Spindrifter and drummerdad2112 are among the lucky few whose questions will be answered by the Professor himself for a June 2009 cover feature. Cool!

I have another set of old Rush magazine scans for you courtesy reader Kevin B. This first one is from a February 1981 issue of Hit Parader with Cheap Trick on the cover. It's a one-page feature titled Rock Hotline which details what Rush was up to at that time.

This second one is from a November, 1982 edition of Guitar Heroes magazine with Jimmy Page on the cover. It contains an Alex Lifeson interview in two parts; a short one-page standard interview and another page titled Alex Lifeson: Why I Swopped this Gibson for a Fender which shows Alex holding his Gibson ES-369.

Canadian television journalist and announcer Mark Dailey recently celebrated his 30 year anniversary at CityTV. Dailey is widely credited with delivering the title line during the chorus of Subdivsions although he denies this in a recent CityNews article:

That's been an urban myth for years. It's not my voice on 'Subdivisions' by Rush but I continue to get credit. I've tried to dispel it but won't go away. Geddy Lee says he doesn't remember.

In last week's Updates post I let you know that Rush was mentioned in the March 30th edition of People magazine in the Music section on page 47. It reads:

HOT CLASSIC ROCKERS RUSH

"They've got a new to-decade complilation, Retrospective III (1989-2008), and appear in the new comedy "I Love You Man". Clearly Rush is still getting plenty of love."
- Chuck Arnold

Kozmo4Rush first alerted me regarding this and recently sent me a scan which you can view by clicking on the thumbnail above.

Reader Carugati recently turned 40 and sent me these pictures of his Rush-themed cake his fiance had made for him by The Atomic Cake Company. Very cool!

John Hood, a contributor to National Review Online's blog The Corner has been on a bit of a Rush kick over the past week. Each day he's made a Rush reference in the titles to his posts:

03/26 09:15 AM Beating Down the Multitude & Scoffing at the Wise
03/24 05:05 PM: Truth Is, After All, So Poorly Lit
03/24 09:01 AM: Big Money Pull a Million Strings
03/23 08:30 AM: No Need to Test for Echo
03/20 10:13 AM: Catch the Mystery, Catch the Drift
03/19 09:49 AM: Closer to the Heart of It
03/18 08:57 AM: Begin the Day with a Friendly Voice

The blog posts have nothing to do with Rush, but I'm curious as to how long he will keep this up!

Spike has assembled a list of the Top 10 Geekiest Rock Stars. Coming in at #2 just behind Buddy Holly is our own Geddy Lee. Here's what they have to say:

If Geddy grew up in the United States he probably would have got his ass kicked every single day of his young life. Lucky for him, he grew up in the quaint town of Willowdale, Toronto and ended up being the frontman in of the geekiest bands of all time.

Progressive arrangement aside, his lyrical content and extremely high vocal range give Mr. Lee the "geek" status with no questions asked. Even if you haven’t heard any of Rush’s music, being in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame should be enough of a red flag to let you know how deep this dork river flows. When Geddy and the guys dropped A Farewell to Kings back in 1977, Dungeons & Dragons fans were salivating in their parent’s basements just waiting for a new 10-minute Rush track that uses Greek mythology to explain the title’s double meaning.

I still can’t believe that they have a song called "Cygnus X-1."

Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.

mr soul found this RADD-sponsored Public Service Announcement from Geddy Lee. Geddy says Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk. You can download and listen to it at this link.

As I'd mentioned last week it's that time of year again, time for classic rock stations across the nation to conduct their annual March Madness battle of the bands competitions. Last week I let you know that Rush was up against Jethro Tull in round one of WDVE's Greatest Band Ever bracket. Well - they won that round and are now up against Neil Young. You know what to do.

Rush is also up against Deep Purple in Boise 96.9's Mad Marchness. You can vote for Rush at this link. Thanks to Gary S for the heads up. And they've made it to the Elite 8 in 94 WYSP's Rock Madness competition. Stay tuned to their website for an opportunity to vote for Rush. Their next opponent is Guns and Roses. Thanks to Drummerdad2112 for the heads up.

And I'll leave with this searing rendition of YYZ using Mario Paint Composer (thanks Kelly D).

Have a great weekend!

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