Happy New Year Rush fans! As I'd mentioned in last week's 2010 wrap-up post, 2011 looks to be yet another epic year for Rush. The Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage is nominated for a Grammy Award and the band kicks off their 2011 Time Machine Tour in late March where they'll be filming their April 15th show in Cleveland for their next live DVD - the first ever full-length US Rush show to be filmed for video release. So it's likely we'll see a live DVD release later in the year along with the potential release of the band's Clockwork Angels album and another re-issue of the Rush catalog. Now that 2011 has arrived, it's the perfect time to purchase a copy of the Rush 2011 Wall Calendar which celebrates the upcoming 30th anniversary of the release of Moving Pictures. If you don't have one yet, you can order your copy at this link. This first week of 2011 has been quiet as far as official Rush news goes, but there were still several interesting Rush-related news nuggets to share. So let's get right to it.
We learned on Wednesday that Alex Lifeson will be appearing in yet another feature film. Toronto filmmaker Rob Heydon recently completed shooting for his feature film adaptation of Scottish author Irvine Welsh's book Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance. According to the film's Facebook page, Alex Lifeson is among the cast of the film and can be seen pictured with the filmmaker on the set at this link.
We learned earlier this week that the 2008 indie film Adventures of Power will be released to DVD on January 25th and is now available for pre-order. The movie chronicles the adventures of air-drummer extraordinaire Power (played by filmmaker Ari Gold) and contains a cameo from Neil Peart along with a slew of Rush references including a Tom Sawyer air drum-off. It first hit the film festival circuit back in early 2008 and made its theatrical debut last fall. Back in 2009 Neil Peart and Ari Gold paid a visit to the Drum Channel studios to film an air drum-off video which you can check out here. To celebrate the DVD release, Ari Gold will be running a fundraiser/auction to support music education via VH1 Save the Music which will feature drums from Ringo Starr, Neil Peart, Lars Ulrich, Marky Ramone, Ween, Weezer, Judas Priest, Dresden Dolls, and many more. For more info visit adventuresofpower.com. Here's the film's official trailer.
Rush's 1981 classic Moving Pictures is the subject of an hour-long In The Studio with Redbeard rockumentary radio show which aired all this past week celebrating the 30th anniversary of the February 12, 1981 release of the album. The show features interview segments with all three members of Rush where they discuss the album. It's not obvious whether any of these segments are new, although it's clear that several are taken from past In The Studio interviews. The interview segments from the special have been posted online to the In The Studio website in the player on the home page.
The Rush Petition website was just revamped this past week in preparation for the upcoming 2011 leg of Rush's Time Machine Tour. To vote for the songs you'd like Rush to play, go to this link.
Rush's upcoming 19th full-length studio album Clockwork Angels made the A.V. Club's list of the 48 most anticipated entertainments of 2011 coming in at #26. Here's what they said:
26. Rush, Clockwork Angels (TBD, spring)
Kicking off with an ominous clank of machinery, "Caravan"-the first single from Rush's upcoming full-length, Clockwork Angels-telegraphs its intent: As drummer and chief lyricist Neil Peart explained, Clockwork will be a concept album with a strong steampunk motif. Rush couldn't have picked a more ideal subgenre of science fiction to appropriate. The band has always spliced old-fashioned ideas like infectious melody and rock bombast with progressive arrangements, intellectual heft, and a highly advanced sense of futurism. Not to mention that, like steampunk, a potentially great new Rush album circa 2011 is a welcome, thrilling anachronism.
In an interview Alex Lifeson gave in late August with Allentown's The Morning Call, he had the following to say regarding the new album:
... "There is the epic song, 'Clockwork Angels,' which is really taking shape. It's a multi-parted piece, very dynamic," Lifeson says. "Then there's some stuff that's very melodic and on the softer side, on acoustic, with a strong melody. So there's great diversity there. ...
In a recent interview with Chile's Radio Futuro (loose English translation), Alex expands on these comments a bit when asked about the new material. Here's a rough English translation:
It's difficult to know until we are in the studio and record it, that's how it starts shaping up and acquires its own life because of the changes that are made while you record it. I think we need to write 2 or 3 more songs to be able to finish the composition of the new album. From the six we have written, there are a couple that are very long. One of them is Clockwork Angels, and it's very long in particular, with various parts and in an epic style of composition, maybe like the ones we did before, those long pieces, with a more extended format. But there are also various melodic pieces; one of them is in acoustic format, very friendly. It's a good blend of many things. Until we have everything ready and a more consummate idea of the album, it is difficult to know how it will be, but it will have a lot of energy for sure.
Geddy Lee stated in an interview with Brazil's TV UOL late last year that the album would not be ready for about a year, so it's anticipated that the release will be late this year or possibly early 2012. The band will instead be focusing on the second leg of the Time Machine Tour this Spring/Summer, and then hopefully finishing up the album this Fall.
Speaking of the tour, the official announcement of cities/dates for the summer portion of the 2011 Time Machine Tour should be happening sometime in the next few weeks. So far we know that the band will be hitting New Orleans, Austin, Los Angeles, Vancouver and several other cities in the West/Southwest but we don't have any specific dates/venues yet. Otherwise all we know regarding the band's upcoming activities is that they'll begin rehearsals in early March according to Neil Peart drum tech Lorne Wheaton via his MySpace page. Lorne also recently mentioned that he will be taking the Time Machine Tour kit to the 2011 NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA next weekend from January 13-16 (thanks hermy).
The 2011 Rock in Rio Festival will take place in its original home of Rio de Janeiro this Fall. According to this Argentinean website (loose English translation here) Rush is one of the bands the organizers are pursuing to perform at the concert alongside already confirmed acts Metallica, Slipknot, Motorhead, Coheed and Cambria and Sepultura. I somehow doubt this will happen but it would be quite a show if true. Thanks to Alejandro T for the heads up.
The Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage won Film of the Year in UK digital radio station Planet Rock's end-of-year poll (thanks Distant Early Warning). The film was also recently nominated for a Grammy Award. The Grammy Awards ceremony takes place on Febraury 13th, which coincidentally is one day after the 30th anniversary of Moving Pictures.
There's a new contest at the Rush Backstage Club where you could win a Time Machine Tourbook. For all the details and to enter go to this link. Thanks to hermy for the heads up.
Modern Drummer magazine has opened up online voting for their 2011 Readers Poll. To cast your ballot and vote for Neil Peart just go to this link. Voting is open through February 15th. Thanks to rushrulez for the heads up.
Last month Pro-mark offered up their Neil Peart mobile application for free download. Reader hermy let me know that they have updated the app with their final version of video of Rush live in Chile. For details check out this link.
Rush discoverer and all-around awesome lady Donna Halper was a recent guest on the Peter B. Collins radio show. Donna speaks with Collins on a wide range of subjects including her new book Boston Radio 1920-2010 and - of course - Rush. You can listen to the podcast at this link.
Reader Tim H pointed me to yet another Rush reference on Fox's Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld. While discussing the recent Huckleberry Finn censorship fiasco yesterday, Andy Levy mentions that next they'll be removing the keyboards from Tom Sawyer. You can listen to the reference at this link at about the 3:45 mark.
Here's a big dose of Rush cuteness to start off the new year. 6-year-old Nina has PDD NOS, a mild form of autism and she loves to read, draw pictures, listen to music and sing. Rush is her favorite band and The Spirit of Radio her favorite song. Her parents thought it would be a good idea to record the music to the song for her to sing along to, and they made an adorable video which you can check out on Youtube. For more information on autism visit Autism Speaks. Autism Speaks also happens to be one of the many charities that Alex Lifeson is involved with.
This coming Sunday, January 9th marks the 15th anniversary of the release of Alex Lifeson's one and only solo album Victor. The album had been long out of print but was reissued by Wounded Bird Records in late 2009. It was not a huge success and only topped out at position 99 on the Billboard Charts, but remains a favorite of many a Rush fan. Guest musicians on Victor included Edwin (I Mother Earth), Les Claypool (Primus), Bill Bell and several others. Two promotional singles were released for the album; Promise and I Am The Spirit. There also was a music video released for Promise which you can check out below or at this link:
That's it for this first week of 2011. Have a great weekend and a Happy New Year everybody!
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