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, Oct 23, 2009@10:21AM | comments removed/disabled

The Bubba's Bar -n- Grill section of Neil Peart's website received a major overhaul this past week. First and foremost Bubba's has a new manager; Neil's longtime friend and riding partner Brutus. You can read all about Brutus's management philosophy, email Brutus and sign up to receive updates at this link (just click on Talk to the Manager). You can also now purchase official Bubba's Bar -n- Grill merchandise via BubbaWares.com including a men's t-shirt, women's t-shirt, a tote bag, an apron and a baseball hat. There are also several new recipes and a new Bubba-Q section which is completely devoted to barbecue. So if you haven't checked it out yet, head on over to Bubba's and grab yourself a bite to eat!

Earlier this week we found out that Alex Lifeson will appear on the Rick Mercer Report this coming Tuesday October 27th at 8PM on the CBC. The episode also will be posted on YouTube and at cbc.ca the following morning. This Niagara Falls Review article that we learned about last week described how Alex and Rick Mercer were spotted last Wednesday filming a segment for the show at Niagara Freefall Indoor Skydiving. Wednesday evening a gallery of photos from the filming of the segment were posted to the Rick Mercer Report Facebook page. You can check those out at this link.

Blue Cheer bass player and frontman Dickie Peterson died this past October 12th at the age of 61 after a battle with cancer. Blue Cheer fan and our favorite drummer Neil Peart wrote a short piece for RollingStone.com earlier this week in remembrance of Peterson titled Louder Than God: Rush's Neil Peart Remembers Blue Cheer's Dickie Peterson.

Neil Peart's original Slingerland drum kit (which he used from Fly By Night through 2112) was put up for auction on eBay by owners Main Drag Music in Brooklyn, New York a couple of months ago and the kit ended up being sold for $25,100! Michael of NeilPeartDrumsticks.com knows the new owner of the kit and has been working with them to help restore the kit to a playable condition. Their plan was to put it on a special display sometime next month where folks would actually be able to play the kit themselves, and there are some exciting new details on this front. Just check out Michael's site for all the details.

For their August 2009 issue Classic Rock's quarterly Prog magazine featured 4 separate collectible Rush covers covering different eras of the band along with a 9-page feature story on Rush titled Making Waves where Alex Lifeson was interviewed. I'd featured a few scans and several excerpts from the article back in August and have referenced it several times since. John at Cygnus-X1.net recently transcribed the entire article including the side article on the Rush documentary and posted it to his website along with all the images and covers from the feature. You can check it out at this link. It's a great article and while much of the information in it is now outdated, it's well worth taking the time to read.

Rush's upcoming Working Men compilation will release this coming November 17th and is now available for pre-order on both CD and DVD. Since we first learned the tracklist a couple of weeks ago, several of us were wondering which DVD each track would be sourced from. snaker over at Counterparts claims to have obtained this information. From Rush in Rio: 2112, Closer to the Heart and YYZ. From R30: The Spirit of Radio, Dreamline, Subdivisions, One Little Victory (previously unreleased) and Working Men. From Snakes & Arrows Live: Limelight, Freewill, Far Cry and Tom Sawyer.

Back in August I let you know about the upcoming book Rush, Rock Music, and the Middle Class: Dreaming in Middletown by musicologist Chris McDonald. The book is now in stock at several retailers including Amazon.com and can also be purchased directly from the publisher. You can order your copy at this link.

We have a Geddy spotting! Reader grazza saw Geddy with his nose in a glass of red at Splendido Restaurant on Harbor Street in Toronto Tuesday night. It's nice to see that Geddy is enjoying himself. Now start work on that new album Geddy! ;)

The film Adventures of Power - which features many a Rush reference along with an appearance from Neil himself - made its theatrical debut a couple of weeks ago in New York City. This week it gets released in Salt Lake City, UT and Austin, TX. For a complete list of theaters and show times, check out the official site at this link.

The 2009 Rush Mid-West TabCon will take place all this weekend at St. Francis High School in St. Francis, WI. Load-in and gear setup will start today at around 4PM. Spectators coming to the gig are welcome to hang out and join the performers for dinner after setup, but other than a possible
sound check, no music will be performed. The music starts at 9AM on both Saturday and Sunday and ends around 7PM on Saturday and 2PM on Sunday. 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.

Online music magazine Consequence of Sound recently compiled their list of The Top Ten Songs About Writing. Coming in at #10 is Rush's Losing It. Here's what they have to say:

We're starting things off with a classic. Rush is the true music nerd's band. With complex, often strange arrangements and lyrical content, Rush is for serious enthusiasts only. Here, Rush makes a stand against some of that and try to paint a truly poetic picture to break anyone's heart. They compare the life of a washed up ballerina looking for her lost fame, who finds only "the echoes of old applause" as "she limps across the floor", to a washed up writer in the midst of heavy writer's block. Geddy Lee and company eschew the old logic of, "better to have loved and lost than ever loved it all." instead they proclaim "sadder still to watch it die/than never to have known it". For a band as grandiose as Rush, this song tends to swing toward the corny side. And ending it with a Hemingway title (For Whom The Bell Tolls) surely doesn't help. But as for as metaphors go, being compared to a dancer isn't so bad for writers.

The new Vertical Horizon album Burning The Days, which features Neil Peart on 3 songs, released last month. Neil plays drums on the tracks Save Me From Myself, Even Now (which he also wrote the lyrics for) and Welcome to the Bottom. In last week's Friday Updates Post I pointed you to this video interview with Vertical Horizon frontman and founder Matt Scannell where Matt spoke about Neil's involvement with the album. Scannell was also recently interviewed for an article in Thursday's Worcester Telegram and Gazette. Matt is a Worcester native and talks about his childhood memories of Rush:

... When he thinks of Rush, Scannell can't help but think of his "childhood buddy" and "best friend on the planet" James Levine, who lived next door to him (and played in bands together) growing up.

"We would get the new Rush record and go over to his dad's turntable and we start spinning and looking through the artwork and obsessing over every little moment. We had the tour books. We had the posters. He had a huge poster of Neil Peart's drum set up on his wall. They were it. That was the band." ...

He then goes on to describe the series of events leading up to Neil's guest appearance on the album and how he reconnected with his childhood friend. Thanks to mystress aynn at Counterparts for the link.

Back in May I informed you that recently reunited Canadian thrash metal band Sacrifice would include a cover of Rush's Anthem on the bonus edition of their upcoming album The Ones I Condemn. Then just a couple of weeks after that BW&BN reported that the band had pulled the song from the album for an undisclosed reason. Now they are reporting that the album will be released in Canada by Sonic Unyon Records this coming Tuesday, October 27th and that the Canadian release will contain the Anthem cover. Thanks to Power Windows for the heads up.

Reader Ken (aka The Clansman 2112) wanted me to give everyone the final standings of his rushisaband fantasy baseball league that I'd first mentioned back in this post from the Spring.

1) Team Corporate
2) Bytor and The Clansman
3) Cygnus X1

A big thanks from Ken for everyone who participated.

Rush roadie Tony Geranios (aka Jack Secret) recently posted a great gallery of pics from the R30 rehearsals to his Facebook page. You can check it out at this link.

You may recall that back in the summer I was a guest on the weekly internet radio talk show Used Bin Radio. Our own RushFanForever (aka Darren) recently called into the show and spoke at length with hosts Brad and Joe about Rush and The Larger Bowl, rushisaband.com, Manic Street Preachers and many other topics. You can listen to the podcast at this link. Darren's part starts at about the 1:30 mark.

Reader Dan in Tulsa, OK sent me some really cool pics of the Rush-themed 40th birthday cake his wife made for him. I'm digging the Inukshuk. Speaking of which, RushFanForever pointed me to this neat little Inukshuk ice mold. :)

DigitalMan745 found this bootleg video on YouTube of a Poison soundcheck from over the summer where guitarist C.C. DeVille plays a minute or so of Rush's La Villa Strangiato.

Rush friend and former Max Webster frontman Kim Mitchell is currently a DJ at Toronto's Q107 Classic Rock radio. Kim periodically posts a short guitar lesson to the Q107 YouTube channel and for his latest lesson (#23) Kim teaches the opening to Rush's Fly By Night (thanks RushFanForever).

There's also this older lesson (#3 from March, 2008) where he teaches In The Mood.

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

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