The big news of the past week was the Geddy and Alex surprise appearance on the final episode of CBC News: Sunday over the weekend (video here). Geddy was also spotted at an exclusive dinner celebration of the 150th anniversary of the French Burgundy winemaker Maison Louis Jadot at Barberian's Steakhouse in downtown Toronto.
Earlier this week we learned that Activision will be releasing the latest addition to their Guitar Hero video game series - Guitar Hero Smash Hits - this coming Tuesday, June 16th. The game will feature 48 songs taken from five previous Guitar Hero releases, expanding them to be based on master track recordings and including support for full band play (first introduced in Guitar Hero World Tour). Rush's YYZ (first included on Guitar Hero 2) will be one of the 48 featured tracks. For more information on the game you can visit the website at this link, and to pre-order your copy go here.
It also was recently announced that Rush will also be one of the featured artists on Guitar Hero 5 which is due out in September, although the specific song has not been revealed.
On a related note, the Classic Rock Track Pack version of the Rock Band video game was released last week and includes 2 Rush songs; Closer to the Heart and Red Barchetta. And this coming Tuesday, June 9th Rock Band Unplugged will be released which features The Trees (also featured on Rock Band 2).
The June 2009 issue of Classic Rock's new quarterly magazine Prog features an article titled The Top 50 Prog Albums Of All Time and the list includes 4 Rush albums. Also in the issue is an 8-page feature on Rush album art written by Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers. You can check out scans of both articles in this post.
Guitar World magazine posted an old interview with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson to the GW Archive section of their website yesterday where the two list some of the songs that are closest to their hearts and say a few words about them. The article was also included in the Rush Guitar Legends special edition that was published back in December of 2007.
Reader Chad let me know that there is an interview with Rush in the March/April 2009 issue of Fireworks magazine.
The latest issue of Rolling Stone (June 11th issue with Lady Gaga on the cover) contains an interview with Blink 182. On page 20 towards the end of the article they discuss their next album and Tom DeLonge states the following:
... One of our new songs sounds like we mixed Rush and post hardcore with some drums and bass beats....
Thanks to artmac for the heads up.
The 2009 Rush East Coast TabCon will take place this weekend at Pope John Paul II Elementary School in West Brandywine, PA. For more information be sure to visit the Rush TabCon website and to view videos of past performances, check out the Rush TabCon page on YouTube.
The student speaker at the Berklee College of Music's 2009 graduation ceremony (Sarah Noe) used a quote from Rush in her commencement speech. Here's the excerpt with the Rush quote:
... The Canadian rock band Rush had a song on its 1981 release Moving Pictures entitled 'Limelight.' It incorporates this idea of esse quam videri:
Living in the limelight
The universal dream
For those who wish to seem
Those who wish to be
Must put aside the alienation
Get on with the fascination
The real relation
The underlying themeSome of us may find our futures in the 'limelight' or high-profile positions that demand compromise and exude pressure. And some of us may spend our days in more reserved situations. Either way we still have immense control over our destiny—we have the choice to be the best you or me that we can be. ...
Well said. You can read the entire speech at this link. Thanks to circumstantial tree at The Rush Forum for the heads up.
Doug Walters of the Charleston City Paper has been writing a series of articles on life-changing albums. Album #6 in the series is Rush's 2112. Here's an excerpt:
...Giant monstrous humbucker guitar blasting away with all that trippy delay. Big bold bass snaking everywhere but still holding everything together confidently. And the drums? 2112 is one of the albums that set the bar for rock drumming on planet Earth. Percussion you could have never even imagined in your wildest dreams. So clean. So tight. And yet so effortlessly fluid at the same time. ...
You can read the whole thing at this link.
This Washington City Paper article by sportswriter Dave McKenna includes the following Rush reference that I think most Rush fans - especially those into sports - can relate to:
... Washington is now 13-31 on the season. Whenever I see a reversed number pair like that, I think about 2112, the Rush album from 1976 that was just huge in my neighborhood when I was a kid.
I can’t think of anything that would link that Rush record with the Nats’ record. But I bet I’m going to go listen to “Temples of Sphyrinx” as soon as I finish typing this. ...
Apparently Tony Award winning actor J. Robert Spencer is a Rush fan as shown in this exchange from a recent Playbill interview:
Playbill: It's a fact that one of your two children is named for Geddy Lee of the rock band Rush. Was Rush instrumental in getting you to the stage?
Spencer: Their song "Tom Sawyer" really started it for me. I was in fourth grade living in Texas, my mom was driving me to the swimming pool, and I heard that song on the radio. I was just like, "What is this?" We heard the drum solo, and I pretty much said to my mom, "Mom, I want to play drums." I mowed a hell of a lot of lawns, and had a garage sale and sold all my "Star Wars" stuff and bought a drum set, and I see that moment as the beginning of the artistic journey for me. There's no way I would have gotten the shows I've done if I hadn't gotten my start in music at such a young age. ...
Thanks to Rushguy for the heads up.
Jeremy Taggart of Canadian band Our Lady Peace was recently a guest on the CBC's The Hour. In this hilarious outtakes video that was posted to their website Taggart gives an unforgettable drum lesson (including a Neil Peart reference) to the writers of the show. Thanks to RushFanForever for the link.
You may recognize a couple of the sampled guitar licks in the song Spirit by Duosseudo which is used as the soundtrack to this video at vimeo.com. Thanks to Eric Meyer for the heads up.
Supergroup Chickenfoot were interviewed on Boston's WAAF with DJ Mistress Carrie prior to the band's May 26, 2009 concert at the Middle East club in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The band were asked questions pertaining to which period of a band's career they preferred based on a characteristic of the band or one of its members. One of the questions that came up was Which Rush is better - Neil Peart with or without the moustache?. You can watch their responses at this YouTube link. A couple of weekends ago Alex Lifeson took Chickenfoot members Sammy Hagar and Chad Smith out on the town in Toronto the night before Chickenfoot's show at The Mod Club Theatre in Toronto, for which Alex was in attendance. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.
Reader unique43 let me know that The Paul Green School of Rock Hollywood will be performing two Rush tribute shows this weekend in Los Angeles. They'll be playing Saturday night at the Dakota Lounge and Sunday night at The Knitting Factory. For details go here.
I leave you this week with this video of the Western Branch High School Bruin Sinfonia performing their rendition of Red Barchetta (thanks Sean).
Have a great weekend everybody!
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