The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 2025 Induction Ceremony took place this past weekend in Los Angeles, where Seattle grunge rockers Soundgarden were included in this year's crop of inductees. The ceremony aired live on Disney+ this past Saturday night, with Jim Carrey having the honor of inducting the band. Carrey gave his heartfelt induction speech, and then introduced the band's induction video, which gave a brief history of Soundgarden in between band interview segments and glowing comments from other musicians singing their praises. One of those musicians was Rush's Geddy Lee, whose comments were sprinkled throughout the video:

On Soundgarden's sound: They could be heavy, they could be riff-oriented. Kim's guitar part evolved way beyond that, he had amazing range.

On Badmotorfinger: And then you get Badmoterfinger, and, Wow, there's a real step up in production value.

On drummer Matt Cameron: Matt Cameron. He's the most unobtrusive drummer in rock-n-roll. 'Hey look at me, look at me!' - he's not that kind of a drummer; he figures out exactly where he needs to be.

On Chris Cornell's voice: I can sing high, but man that guy [Chris Cornell] can sing really high, and then he can bring it down. He's got so much soul.

On their legacy: They created pieces of work that will live forever as great masterpieces of rock.

After the video, the surviving members of the band performed with guest musicians Taylor Momsen, Brandi Carlile, Jerry Cantrell, and Mike McCready, and then accepted the award, joined by Chris Cornell's daughter Lilly Cornell Silver. The video segments with Geddy Lee were taken from a longer session the Rock Hall did with Ged that they've been teasing here and there over the last few months. There's this video where Ged delves further into Soundgardens Badmotorfinger, and then this vid where Ged has more kind words for guitarist Kim Thayill.

The Rheostatics will be releasing their new album The Great Lakes Suite featuring Rush's Alex Lifeson 1 week from today on Friday, November 21st. That same weekend the band (including Alex) will be hosting a pair of SOLD OUT shows at TD Music Hall in Toronto where they'll be performing the album live. From the release announcement:

... The album celebrates the influential band's incredible 45-year anniversary, and features 18 tracks of primarily improvised music and spoken word, performed by longtime members Dave Bidini, Dave Clark, Don Kerr, and Tim Vesely, with newer additions Kevin Hearn and Hugh Marsh, alongside legendary guitarist Alex Lifeson. ... Recorded over two spontaneous sessions in Toronto, The Great Lakes Suite features an impressive roster of talented and award-winning collaborators: Inuk throat singer, songwriter, and novelist Tanya Tagaq; musician and filmmaker Laurie Anderson; poet and storyteller Chief Stacey LaForme; poet and essayist Anne Carson; poet Liz Howard, fiddler and singer Kendel Carson, singer-songwriter Maiah Wynne (Envy of None) and renowned singer-songwriter and activist, the late Gord Downie. ...

Artovision is a Wisconsin-based company that creates 3-dimensional collectable artwork inspired by popular culture, video games, food and Americana. Over the past several years, they've released a number of officially-licensed pieces based on Rush album art including Moving Pictures, Roll the Bones, Hold Your Fire, A Show of Hands, Signals (this desktop art piece too), Hemispheres, Clockwork Angels and Counterparts, Rush's debut album, Grace Under Pressure, Vapor Trails/Snakes & Arrows, and Caress of Steel/Fly by Night. There's also this desktop piece depicting the iconic Le Studio logo that they released this summer. For their latest offering, they are celebrating the anniversaries of the release of all 3 Rush P albums; namely Permanent Waves (45th anniversary this year), Power Windows (40th anniversary this year) and Presto (35th anniversary last year). There are 3-D Shadowbox pieces for all 3 albums depicting the iconic cover art (Permanent Waves, Power Windows, Presto), along with various desktop pieces for the 3 albums. There are desktop pieces depicting the album cover for Permanent Waves and Presto, along with a Power Windows piece showing the kid with binoculars from the album art, and a Presto rock paper scissors piece. The collectible shadowbox art pieces measure 14x14" x 2.5" and come ready to hang with an official Rush Certificate of Authenticity (COA), with each piece printed on 1/8" thick optical-grade acrylic with vibrant UV cured inks and set in a high quality finished MDF wood frame. The corresponding desktop pieces are printed on 3/4" thick optical-grade acrylic with vibrant UV cured inks and measure 6" x 6" (the rock paper scissors is 12.75"x6"). For more information on Artovision, and to see their complete line of officially-licensed Rush pieces, visit their website at artovision3d.com. You can also follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and watch a YouTube video demonstrating the 3-D effect of their Shadowbox art here.

Envy of None released their second album Stygian Wavz earlier this year via Kscope Records, and back in September the project released The Thrill - a 3-track single including an alternative version of Stygian Wavz's 4th track Thrill of the Chase, a demo version, and the album track itself. In addition to a digital release, earlier this month they released The Thrill as a 12" colored vinyl version with all proceeds donated to UNHCR's response to the Ukraine emergency - available exclusively from the band's merch store here. Vocalist Maiah Wynne was a recent guest on The Rock Is George Podcast to talk about her many projects, what it's like to work with Alex Lifeson, and what Rush's touring plans mean for Envy of None:

... I think there was that moment of panic, like, 'what does this mean for [EoN]?' but Alex has been so sweet and he's like, 'I love you guys and I love this music and we're going to keep working on it', and he's amazing. I don't know how he's going to have time in the middle of everything to do it but if there's anybody that can do it it's Alex. ...

Author Richard James will be following up last year's Rush 1973 to 1982: Every Album, Every Song book, with another volume as part of Sonicbond Publishing's On Track series, profiling the latter half of Rush's career. Rush 1984 to 2015: Every Album, Every Song will pick up where the last book left off, covering Rush's evolution from 1984's Grace Under Pressure on through 2015's Clockwork Angels album. From the product description:

This volume is the companion book to Rush On Track 1973 - 1982. Fans who hoped that 1982's keyboard heavy Signals had been a one off were to be disappointed. In line with their desire never to make the same album twice the infamous 'synth era' began. Albums including Power Windows, and Hold Your Fire split the fan base; the 'old guard' resenting the changes in both instrumentation and song-writing style. New followers joined the fold, however, and the band's popularity in album sales and concert receipts continued to grow. Rush were never ones for treading water, as subsequent releases into the 1990s showed a gradual but welcome return to the guitar-centric power-trio format. A double family tragedy for drummer Neil Peart seemed to signal the end of the band, with a sign-off triple live album, Different Stages appearing in 1997. But five years later a reformed Rush released a series of new albums, culminating in the magnificent concept record, Clockwork Angels. This book reviews all the band's studio and live releases from 1984's Grace Under Pressure to the final, farewell live album, R40, in 2015. Peart's subsequent retirement and tragically early death in 2020 finally closed the annals of this unique band.

The 160-page paperback book is slated to release on November 28th and can be pre-ordered here, while the first volume is currently available to purchase here.

The Something for Nothing Rush podcast celebrated it's 200th episode this past week, and marked the occasion by having on one of their favorite guests - Rush collector/historian Ray Wawrzyniak. Ray joins hosts Steve and Gerry to answer some of the toughest Rush trivia questions their listeners could muster. You can listen to the show below or wherever you get your podcasts:

Today is the 25th anniversary of Geddy Lee's first and only solo album My Favorite Headache. Here's Ged on Rockline shortly after the release to discuss the album:

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