Rush's Signals 40th anniversary box set officially releases today and is now available for purchase via this link, or via Amazon and other online retailers. The set is the latest in a string of 40th anniversary box sets offered up by the band over the past several years, beginning with a 2112 set back in 2016. It is available in three distinct configurations, including a Super Deluxe Edition, an LP Picture Disc Edition, and a Dolby Atmos Digital Edition. The band has been releasing visualizer videos from the box set over the past several weeks in the lead up to the release, the latest of which is a visualizer for Losing It which you can watch below or on YouTube here. There are also visualizers for New World Man, The Weapon, Digital Man, The Analog Kid, and Chemistry along with an unboxing video which you can watch here. The Rush Backstage Club is also running an online sweepstakes where the winner will receive a Super Deluxe Edition of the box set. The contest runs through the weekend, and you can get all the details on how to enter at rushbackstage.com.
Easy Star All-Stars is a reggae collective founded in 1997 by Michael Goldwasser, Eric Smith, Lem Oppenheimer and Remy Gerstein of New York City-based Easy Star Records. The band is known for its reinterpretations of classic albums in reggae style, and they just released their new album Ziggy Stardub, a reggae reinvention of Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars. The album features a reggae cover of David Bowie's Moonage Daydream which features Rush's Alex Lifeson which you can listen to via YouTube here. From Consequence of Sound:
... The mesmerizing rendition strips the gritty sound of the original, leaving a slick and sultry cover in its place. Lifeson closes out the track with an ethereal guitar solo, while Naomi Cowan's vocals flow through the chilled track, blending his celestial guitar stylings seamlessly. Perfectly balancing an aura of psychedelic and reggae, the essence of Bowie's classic sci-fi song finds a new purpose in this genre-crossing performance. ... Lifeson reveals he already had admiration for Bowie going into the recording of the track. "Bowie was such an incredible artiste and the reggae concept for the project was an interesting approach," he explains. "Naomi Cowan's vocals were inspiring to track to and the arrangement was fun to play to, as it should be." ...
Ziggy Stardub is now available to purchase at this location.
Guitarist Chris Herin of Detroit-based prog rockers Tiles has been working on a solo project over the last few years which will boast an impressive list of guest musicians as seen in this Facebook post update from last week. The update shows a photo of the album's track listing along with guest musicians, and lists Rush's Alex Lifeson as featured on a track titled Second Ending which also features vocalist Matthew Parmenter of Detroit-based band Discipline. Some other notable guests on the album will be Doane Perry, Michael Sadler, Peter Frampton, Kim Mitchell, and Crown Lands. Tiles has several connections with Rush, most notably their producer - former Rush producer Terry Brown. Brown introduced Lifeson to the band's work back in the 2000s and Lifeson ended up guesting on their 2008 Fly Paper album, adding guitar tracks to the song Sacred and Mundane. Rush album artist Hugh Syme will also be doing the album's cover, as he did for most of Tiles' previous albums. More information as we learn it.
The annual RUSHfest Scotland Rush fan gathering will take place in Glasgow next weekend beginning Friday, May 5 and wrapping up on Sunday, May 7. The event will feature games, performances from multiple Rush tribute bands, special guest appearances from Hugh Syme, Terry Brown, Judy and Nancy Peart, and more. For all the details and to purchase tickets, visit RUSHfestScotland.co.uk.
uDiscoverMusic.com posted their list of 8 Of The Most Bizarre Concept Albums Of All Time this past week, and Rush's Counterparts was included:
After the sci-fi epics and the later thematic albums, the only shocking thing Rush could do was issue an album about love and sex - subjects that, with few exceptions (notably "Entre Nous," on Permanent Waves) they'd avoided like the plague. On Counterparts you even had brainiac lyricist Neil Peart pulling a naughty double entendre, "Stick It Out." Coupled with the grunge-era power-trio sound, Counterparts was so normal for a Rush album that it was downright weird.
In this week's episode of Rush Roundtable (#178) on the Rush Fans YouTube channel, the panel starts up their Roll the Bones song discussion with the album's title track:
That's all for this week. Have a wonderful weekend everybody!!
