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 16, 2012@12:25PM | comments removed/disabled

Earlier this week we received our first somewhat credible rumor regarding the release of a single from Rush's upcoming Clockwork Angels album when Sniglets over at Counterparts put up a post that corroborated a rumor that I'd first heard a couple of weeks ago:

Roadrunner Records is inviting 120 industry executives and promoters on Tuesday March 27th at 11 AM for a "Lunch and Listen" to the new Rush record. I saw an invite to this through a good friend of mine who is attending it and works for the NY Post. He also told me a single is going to be coming that following Friday so that puts us at the 30th for a new song. ...

I'm fairly confident that the listening party is happening, but whether a full single will also be released that week remains to be seen. For some perspective, the first single from Snakes & Arrows (Far Cry in case you forgot) was released 5 years ago this past Monday on March 12th, 2007 - about 8 weeks before the release of the album on May 1st. Assuming Clockwork Angels does get released on May 29th and the single's release follows the same timeline as Far Cry, then 8 weeks prior to that would put it either in the last week of March or first week of April - so a March 30th date certainly seems plausible. Regarding the May 29th release date that was first revealed via Amazon.com a couple of weeks ago, exclaim.ca is now backing up that date in this article highlighting upcoming Canadian release dates (thanks Tim S). The other rumor that I'd first mentioned in my last Friday Rush updates post was that a 5.1 mix of the album will be made available in addition to the regular CD mix. Regarding the tour, last week Neil Peart confirmed what we had already known - that Rush would be touring in the Fall. As it stands right now, the band is still in the process of routing the tour but dates are finally starting to firm up. Generally speaking, I've been hearing that the band will be hitting dates in the Midwest and Eastern Canada in September-October, and the Southeastern US in October-November. So far I've only heard of 3 firm dates though; one in Bristow, VA on Sunday, September 9th, one planned date at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, PA on Tuesday, September 11th, and another at the Klipsch Music Center in Noblesville, IN planned for Thursday, September 13th. Remember that nothing is official until it's announced by Rush.com though, so don't start booking any flights just yet. :) Now that some of the shows are firming up, I'm hoping to get some more dates in the near future too. Stay tuned.

Just yesterday we received the news that Neil Peart has been confirmed as one of the panelists for LA Music Academy's 3rd Drummer Reality Camp. Neil will be part of a roundtable discussion taking place on Friday, June 29th which will also include Doane Perry and other special guests. The camp runs from June 27th-30th and is $495 for the entire week. For more information view the announcement at this link, and click here to sign up.

Details regarding the fourth annual hard rock and heavy metal award show the Revolver Golden Gods were revealed earlier this week, and Rush was announced as the recipient of the Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award. From the Revolver magazine website:

... RUSH's Neil Peart commented, "We are honored and delighted to receive this honor — especially because it will be presented by Jack and Kyle. Our 'lifetimes' are not over yet, and we dearly hope our 'achievements' are not either, so I suppose you could say that to us this is the 'So Far, So Good' award." Of presenting the award, Black commented, "RUSH was the most impressive band, musically, when I was just learning about rock. Weirdly, they got your body moving in interpretive-dancing ways, but it was still aggressive. Their stuff was just so complex and so tasty!" ...

The event will take place Wednesday, April 11th at Club Nokia in Downtown Los Angeles. Tickets can be purchased via this link, and it will also be broadcast live in its entirety on XBOX LIVE, as well as on the XBOX and Revolver Facebook pages at 9PM EDT (6 PM PDT).

This past Tuesday Geddy Lee was announced as a celebrity judge for RAW! The Great Toronto Tartare-Off which will take place on Thursday, March 29th, at Toronto's Fairmont Royal York from 6-8:30PM. The event is sponsored by Grapes for Humanity where Geddy Lee is a member of the board. Tickets to the event are $125 and can be purchased online or reserved by calling Annette at 416-445-9920. Proceeds will go towards a child's education by constructing a needed school in Guatemala and $0.95 of every dollar raised will be donated to the project. Other judges include Corey Mintz, Josh Josephson and Amy Rosen of The National Post.

A couple of years back Sonic Reality released their Neil Peart series drum sample instrument library Neil Peart Drums Volume 1: The Kit. It features drum samples from Neil Peart himself and was produced with the help of Rush producer Nick Raskulinecz. Over the last several months Sonic Reality's Dave Kerzner has been working with a number of artists on a prog-rock project called Sonic Elements which utilizes the drum samples from Neil Peart Drums Volume 1 to create cover versions of several Rush tracks and tracks from other prog-rock artists. The project announced via their Facebook page this past weekend that they'll be releasing a 5-song EP of these Rush covers called XYZ: A Tribute To Rush on April 21, 2012 (4.21.12) digitally and as a limited-edition CD. The featured tracks will be Tom Sawyer, Red Barchetta, YYZ, Limelight and a bonus track titled Trifecta. The performers include Rik Emmett (Triumph), John Wesley (Porcupine Tree), Billy Sherwood (Yes), Randy McStine, Matt Dorsey, Dave Kerzner and Neil Peart Drums from Sonic Reality. Trifecta is an original track written by Billy Sherwood and Dave Kerzner that uses the drum track from YYZ. You can listen to samples from the project on SoundCloud, and to keep up on their progress follow them on Facebook.

Rush continued its partnership with Jammit! earlier this week, adding Tom Sawyer to the list of Rush tracks already available for the Jammit! app; 2112, Limelight and YYZ are also available. The app is now also available for Mac desktops and will soon be available on Windows too. For more information and to listen to some demo tracks, visit the Rush page at the Jammit website. The Jammit app is available for both the iPhone and iPad, as well as Mac Desktops.

In my Friday Rush updates post a couple of weeks back I'd mentioned that there was a Rush Starman reference in the the upcoming Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg comedy film That's my Boy. In the red band trailer for the movie Sandler's character is seen driving a beat-up, red Pontiac Fiero with the Rush Starman logo on the front hood. Thanks to Eric at Power Windows I now have a much better screenshot of the car than the one I had posted originally. The film releases on June 15th and you can watch the trailer at this link.

The Kidney Foundation of Canada's A Brush of Hope charity auction took place back in October and Alex Lifeson's 8" X 16", acrylic on stretched canvas Sun Dance painting ended up being sold for an astonishing $7,000. The 2011 Brush of Hope charity auction was a huge success and ended up raising a total of $24,000. Back in November The Kidney Foundation of Canada produced 250 limited edition prints of Alex's 2007 painting for A Brush of Hope that they are currently selling to raise money for the charity. Get yours today at this link.

We learned couple of weeks ago that Neil Peart is one of several drummers featured in Jay Bulger's documentary on legendary drummer Ginger Baker, Beware of Mr. Baker. The documentary premiered at the SXSW film festival in Austin this past weekend and ended up winning the Documentary Grand Jury prize (thanks RushFanForever). Last week the Hollywood Reporter posted a 3-minute preview clip in which Neil Peart appears a couple of times. You can check it out at this link with Neil making an appearance at the 1:50 and 2:15 marks. You can watch the trailer for the film at this link although Neil Peart does not appear in it.

Reader The Clansman 2112 wanted me to let you all know spots are open for his annual rushisaband Fantasy Baseball League. It's a 20 team Roto league and they'll have a live online draft on the evening of Sunday March 25th. It's free to join but only serious managers need apply! To join up go to this link and use the League ID 2389 with Password atmsite.

John at Cygnus-X1.net let me know that according to the next issue segment of the May, 2012 issue of High Times Magazine, Alex Lifeson will be interviewed for their June issue. :)

Speaking of Lerxst, back in September we learned via a blog post from producer Michael Phillip Wojewoda that Alex Lifeson had contributed some guitar tracks to Canadian singer-songwriter Jason Plumb for his solo project Jason Plumb and The Willing. The blog post features a behind-the-scenes recording session video from last May with Alex wailing away on a solo over a track. This track was officially released via YouTube earlier this week. It's titled LOSIN' and you can listen to it below or on YouTube or SoundCloud. The complete album is titled All is More Than Both and releases on March 27th. It also features appearances from Ed Robertson and Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies along with several other Canadian musicians. On a related note, Jason Plumb and the Willing bass player Gord Smith has a side project called Creosote, and on their debut album they are including a cover of Rush's Mystic Rhythms. The album is titled Area Man and will release via Soccer Mom Records on March 27th.

That's all for this week. Exciting times are ahead for Rush fans! Have a great weekend and a happy St. Patrick's Day!!

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