There are only 11 agonizing days left until the June 12th release of Rush's Clockwork Angels album in North America. Some lucky fans in Europe will get their hands on it as early as next Friday though, and the Classic Rock Clockwork Angels fanpack will release in the UK on Monday, June 11th. Some fans in the US have already received notices that their fanpacks have shipped and that they'll receive them in 7-10 days, so they may be getting the album a few days early too. The fanpack will include the album plus a 132-page magazine with extensive and exclusive interviews with all 3 band members, along with a full track-by-track rundown by the band, interviews with producer Nick Raskulinecz and long time cover artist Hugh Syme, and more. Earlier this week Classic Rock released a 10-page e-zine sampler of the larger 132-page fanpack magazine. The sampler contains a few sample pages including photos and interview snippets with all 3 band members which you can check out online at this link. For more details on what's included in the fanpack along with order information, go to this link. To help whet our appetites until the June 12th release, yesterday Walmart.com posted 30-second sample clips of all 12 tracks from the album which you can listen to at this link. Rush Radio in partnership with RushCon will be sponsoring a Clockwork Angels listening party on the North American release date of June 12th beginning at 9PM EST. You can listen in online at RushRadio.org and join fans from around the world in an online chat. The party will get started in the chat room around 8:30PM EST with the music starting at 9PM. The album will play 2 times back to back. You can RSVP at this link and listen to the radio spot advertising the event here. Audio Times columnist and RIAB reader Rob Palladino has posted a track-by-track review of Clockwork Angels which you can check out at this link (thanks snowdog2113).
The official press release announcing the novelization of Rush's Clockwork Angels album by sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson was released earlier this week via Anderson's website. From the press release:
... "This is a dream project for me," Anderson says. "I have always envisioned epic stories when listening to Rush music, and now working with Neil, it's possible to translate those stories to the printed page. Clockwork Angels: The Novel turned out even better than we had hoped. I think it's one of my very best books."
"As my 38 years with Rush will attest, I very much enjoy collaboration with like-minded artists," Peart says. "Working up this story with Kevin was one of the easiest, yet most satisfying projects I have ever shared-easiest, because we almost always simply agreed with each other's ideas, and most satisfying because I am so proud of the result." ...
You can read the entire press release at this link. Clockwork Angels: The Novel will be 264 pages long and release via ECW Press this September to coincide with the launch of Rush's North America tour. The press release also reveals that the hardcover edition will contain full-color illustrations by Hugh Syme and that the audiobook will be narrated by Neil Peart himself.
Speaking of Neil Peart, yesterday Neil updated the news page on his website with a story titled Where Words Fail, Music Speaks. Neil talks about the recent Golden Gods Award show where he accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of the band; the Governor General Awards gala and meeting Pete Townshend; his collaboration with Vertical Horizon and a recent outing to see the Jack DeJohnette Trio perform at Catalina's jazz club in Hollywood, before ending with some musings on lifetime achievement:
... Well, great art never fails. And we can always try again-try to do better next time. There is always hope in the spirits of those who do try, in words, pictures, music, and everyday living.
"Lifetime achievement" is all about trying, really. The proper reward for any success is love and respect, and perhaps the only award for failure is the opportunity to try once more.
Even if it takes a desperate flight of 5,923 words and twelve photographs-only to fail again.
As Samuel Beckett said, "Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
There will be another time, another place, another story.
And there is always music.
Be sure to read the entire update at this link.
Terrorizer magazine will feature an interview with Geddy Lee in their next issue and posted a few excerpts online earlier this week here and here. Here's what Geddy had to say about the term progressive rock:
"For me, you look at a band like Radiohead, who I am always impressed with, I think they're enormously talented. To me, they're a progressive rock band. You don't have to sound a particular way to be a progressive rock band, and that's my view on it. We are a hard rock band, we are a progressive rock band, but our roots are in hard rock more than they are in ELP or something like that. It's different strokes for different folks. Radiohead are a kind of progressive alt band I guess, but the key is that they're trying to bring other things into their music, and that's what a progressive band does, tries to expand what they are by adding other influences without too much prerequisite."
Police drummer Stewart Copeland was recently interviewed for MusicRadar.com and discusses Rush and his friendship with Neil Peart. Both drummers appeared on Drum Solo Week on David Letterman last year and Neil had mentioned in another interview that Copeland was anti drum solo. Here's how Copeland reacted to that comment:
... Mmm... not so much. I pull Neil's chain on this at every possible opportunity, of course. You know, when I was a kid, I dreamed of playing a 17-hour drum solo. Then I grew up. ...
He was also asked about how Rush's early '80s music was somewhat influenced by The Police:
... "I had only heard of it. I didn't actually listen to Rush albums, and I couldn't tell you one from the other - although Neil is a good buddy. [laughs] We agreed to disagree on certain things, and it is a measure of his greatness as a human being that he is completely over whatever my feelings might be about Rush.
"This truly is the case: He's never heard me say a wonderful thing about his band. He's read a few comments that I wish he hadn't read. In unguarded moments, things tend to slip out. Musicians tend to be snippy about one another, and I'm generally not. I generally love all music and all players.
"There was a time when bands like Rush were the epitome of what The Police were theoretically against, which was an overemphasis on musicality. Our ethos in the early days was about the primal scream and that musical technique was a distraction from that mission. There may have been a few comments that I might have made regarding Rush's position on that debate, and it is really, really to Neil's credit that he's over that debate. And we get along great." ...
You can read the entire interview at this link.
Yesterday we learned that Rush's 2003 compilation The Spirit Of Radio: Greatest Hits 1974-1987 has re-entered the Billboard Top 200 album chart at #161 for the week of June 9th. It had peaked at #62 on the chart back in 2003 when it was released and remained in the top 200 for 7 weeks. My guess is that the surge in sales is likely due to a carry-over effect from pre-orders of the Clockwork Angels album, where people are ordering the compilation along with the new album. Whatever the reason, it's nice to see. Clockwork Angels releases a week from next Tuesday on June 12th in North America. It's expected that pre-orders of the album should propel it into at least the top 5 on the Billboard 200 for the week of its release, if not higher. Thanks to John at Cygnus-X1.net for the heads up.
Reader Ross from L.A. let me know that a photo of Geddy Lee with The Who's Pete Townshend from the Governor General's Awards Gala last month appears on page 39 of the June 7th edition (issue 1158) of Rolling Stone magazine. A shot of the whole band with Townshend has been floating around online since the night of the event which you can check out here. Townshend was at the gala to perform with award recipient Des McAnnuf's band. McAnnuf is the director who had put together a musical theatre version of Tommy back in 1993. Steve Gouveia is the guitarist for McAnnuf's band and he sent me this video of them performing Pinball Wizard with Townshend from the Gala.
Jammit! has added Subdivisions to the list of Rush tracks already available for the Jammit! app which includes Tom Sawyer, Closer to the Heart, 2112, Limelight and YYZ. 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. Thanks to Andy G for the heads up.
Paul at the Canadian Music Scene let me know that BNN's Headline show hosted by Howard Green often features Bloomberg senior writer Roben Farzad. Besides being a financial guru, Roben is a huge Rush fan and mentions every time that he is on the show that it is almost criminal that Rush is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. You can see Roben talk Rush in this clip around the 4:50 mark.
Inner Volition is the young Canadian band that was featured in a short Rush tribute film called Inner Rush that was produced by the National Film Board of Canada. The film was shown at last month's Governor General's Award ceremony at the National Arts Centre where Rush was presented with a Governor General's Performing Arts Award. Inner Volition was lucky enough to attend the ceremony and also meet Rush. The NAC website posted an article a couple of weeks ago where one of the members of Inner Volition described the experience:
omg honestly best night of my existence last night. As if going to the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards show wasn't enough, we got a bunch of pictures taken of us on the red carpet (awesome), got to watch an awesome awards show with lots of talented Canadian artists (amazing), and met & talked with RUSH (greatest Canadian band of all time)! Talked with Geddy Lee about bass playing for a while, talked with Alex Lifeson about guitar gear for a solid half an hour, and actually got to meet Neil Peart, the most reclusive man in rock!! :D soooo awesome! took a lot of pictures, and they were so great and nice to us, it was unreal! And after, when we went to a diner at 1:00 in the morning, I've never laughed so hard as when I was in the booth with the rest of the freaks (Inner Volition). I love my life.
In case you missed it the first time, the 6.5-minute Inner Rush video is now available on YouTube. You can check it out below or at this link.
That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!
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