Geddy Lee's long-anticipated memoir My Effin' Life released last month, and is now available for purchase in hardback, as an audiobook (or MP3 Audio CD), and for Kindle. The book debuted at an impressive #3 on the New York Times Bestseller list in the Hardcover Nonfiction category, and #4 in the Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction category. It also made the Washington Post's top 10 bestseller list at #8 in the nonfiction category, and topped both the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail's bestseller list in Canada, along with a #5 showing in the UK's Sunday Times. Geddy has been promoting the book with an In Conversation spoken word book tour, which he's brought to 11 cities across the US and Canada thus far, with another 8 dates to come over the next few weeks. Geddy kicked off the tour in New York City back on Monday, November 13th. He then headed to Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Boston, Cleveland, Montreal, Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Denver last night. Ged will be wrapping up the North American leg this coming week with stops in Chicago, Detroit and Toronto. Then it's off across the pond to the UK for 5 dates from December 10-18.You can get all the details and learn how to get tickets at Rush.com (North America, UK). RushCon will be hosting pre-show events in both Chicago and Toronto, but tickets are going fast so secure yours now. Rush has set up an online form where attendees can submit questions for Geddy prior to the show at this link. Each show thus far has featured a wide variety of surprise guest interviewers, ranging from famous actors and musicians, to not-so-famous music writers, to radio DJs, and more. Some of the bigger names included Paul Rudd in NYC, actor Eric McCormack at both the Washington D.C. and Boston appearances, actor Jay Baruchel in Montreal, Krist Novoselic in Seattle, drummer Matt Cameron in San Franciso, Matt Stone in Denver, and Jack Black in LA. Other interviewers included showrunner/producer Brian Koppelman (Philly), DJ Pierre Robert (Philly), singer/songwriter Jann Arden, journalist Geoff Edgers (Boston), journalist Rob Tannenbaum (Cleveland), Donna Halper (Cleveland), and Jann Arden (Vancouver). Fans in attendance all receive a hardback edition of My Effin' Life along with a 16-page program. There is also a merch table set up where fans can purchase souvenirs t-shirts, posters and more. All the shows have followed essentially the same format, where it begins with a 15-minute slideshow before the secret guest interviewer is revealed. Ged is then interviewed for about 40 minutes, before closing out the 1st part by reading a book excerpt. The trailer for Geddy's upcoming docu-series on Paramount Plus Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too? is then shown before the intermission. Ged returns after intermission and reads another book excerpt before the fan Q&A. Several of the shows thus far have featured another, different guest running the Q&A session. Otherwise, the original interviewer also runs this portion. After the Q&A, Ged has been taking audience selfies that are then made available for download after the show at Rush.com. The entire program lasts about 2 hours. Also of note, the 2 new, unreleased tracks from the My Favorite Headache sessions that Geddy released with the audiobook (Gone and I Am ... You Are) were played during the intermission and at the end of the show. Geddy spoke a bit about the songs in this recent interview, and mentioned in Denver last night that the 2 tracks will be released for radio/streaming soon. John at Cygnus-X1.net has already transcribed the lyrics for both songs and made them available here.
There was also some good news for any Rush fans that are unable to attend any of the shows on Geddy's book tour due to location, expense, etc. Geddy Lee and his publisher Harper Collins announced last week that they'll be hosting A Virtual Evening with Geddy Lee this coming Tuesday, December 5th at 7PM EST. To attend the event, you just need to purchase a copy of the book from one of the following booksellers - so the book purchase acts as your ticket: POLITICS & PROSE, LEFT BANK BOOKS, BOOKS & BOOKS, BOOK PEOPLE, or WARWICK'S. The event is slated for 1 hour, and space is limited, so get your tickets now. Just like with the live book tour, fans can submit questions for Geddy via Rush.com at this location. Although it's a US-only event, international fans can still attend by contacting either Left Hand Books or Book People via email to work out shipping costs (more details here).
Geddy continued hitting the interview circuit this past week to promote the book, his spoken word tour, and all his other many projects. Included among these are his full 30-minute interview with Q104.3 in NYC from a couple of weeks ago, which you can watch below or on YouTube. There were also print interviews from The Day, EverythingZoomer.com (thanks RushFanForever), The Jewish News, and North Shore News. There's also this short "on set" video interview with Geddy from prior to the Vancouver show, and this video interview with Brazil's VEJA (thanks RushFanForever).
As if Geddy didn't have enough on his plate already, he'll also be launching a new docu-series on Paramount Plus titled Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too? which will premiere this coming Tuesday on December 5th. The four-part series will feature in-depth conversations between Geddy Lee and Nirvana's Krist Novoselic, Metallica's Rob Trujillo, Primus' Les Claypool, and Hole/Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, as seen in the show's trailer. As mentioned above, Geddy has been showing the trailer prior to the intermission on his spoken word book tour.
Last month, Christie's and Hunt Auctions announced that Geddy Lee would be auctioning off some of his extensive baseball memorabilia collection as part of an online auction which began last week, and a live auction this coming week. Selections from the Geddy Lee Collection and Important Baseball Memorabilia auction is currently underway and will run through December 7th, along with a live auction on Wednesday, December 6th. From the announcement:
... From baseballs signed by some of the most famous (and infamous) players, including the White Sox's "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and the Negro Leagues' Josh Gibson, to baseballs that boast signatures from epoch-defining leaders like JFK and FDR-this collection sits right at the intersection of the history of America and its national pastime. The Gladstone Collection, which holds iconic works like the 'The Base Ball Player' bronze sculpture, will complement the Geddy Lee Collection, in addition to never-before-seen items from the personal collection of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson. Other items brought to market for the first time include uniforms and caps worn by the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. ...
Not to be outdone by all of Geddy's activities, Alex Lifeson has also been making headlines the past couple of weeks beginning with a surprise appearance sitting in with TOOL at their recent Toronto show. He then announced that he'll be participating in the annual Andy Kim Christmas show at Massey Hall in Toronto this coming Wednesday, December 6th. You can get more information and purchase tickets at this location. Then yesterday Alex Lifeson and Mojotone announced the launch of LERXST Amplifiers - a new family of amplifiers inspired by the Rush guitarist's five decades of musical exploration on the guitar. From the announcement:
Alex Lifeson has announced the launch of LERXST, a new family of amplifiers inspired by the Rush guitarist's five decades of musical exploration on the guitar while also offering modern players a versatile tonal platform upon which to build their own sonic identity.
LERXST amplifiers offer a diverse palette of sounds that range from crystal-clear cleans to raging arena rock sounds and everything in between, supplemented with key features like power-scaling and serial effects loops to suit the needs of the next generation of sonic explorers, all designed to Lifeson's exacting specifications and hand crafted in the USA by Mojotone.
The initial launch includes the OMEGA amplifier head, CHI amplifier head and combo, and an accompanying range of matching guitar cabinets.
You can get all the details, and learn how you can purchase the amps at the newly-launched website lerxstamps.com, or at AlexLifeson.com. Alex has also launched a new official merch store which you can check out here. And that's not all! Just this morning we learned that Alex is featured on the new album from Today Was Yesterday - a music duo consisting of drummer, percussionist and programmer Ty Dennis and lead vocalist, primary songwriter, bassist, guitarist, pianist and programmer Angelo Barbera. Earlier today they released the track Grace from their upcoming eponymous album due out for global release on February 23rd. The album features Lifeson (and The Doors' Robby Krieger) on several tracks, including Grace, which you can listen to below or on YouTube and other streaming services. Grace is just one of six on the album that features guitarist Alex Lifeson, and is a moody and imaginatively-arranged rocker that evokes 1970s prog-rock and Physical Graffiti-era Led Zeppelin. You can pre-order the album here. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Alex posted another update video from under his desk to his Instagram page last week celebrating the fact that he now has 1 MILLION followers (he doesn't). Towards the end of the video he realizes that it's actually just 100K, and says "never mind" and abruptly ends the video. :)
Season 5 of FX's quirky comedy/drama Fargo launched this past Tuesday with the release of the first 2 episodes, and episode 2 (Trials and Tribulations) prominently featured Rush's Working Man in one scene showing the character Roy Tillman (played by Jon Hamm) relaxing in an outdoor hot tub. The scene lasts about a minute and the song plays throughout as seen in this YouTube video.
Artovision is a Wisconsin-based company that creates 3-dimensional collectable artwork inspired by popular culture, video games, food and Americana. Over the past 3 years, they've released several sets 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), and Hemispheres. Their latest set of creations celebrate the 10th anniversary of Rush's Clockwork Angels last year, and this year's 30th anniversary of the release of Counterparts. There are 3 new Clockwork Angels pieces and SIX new Counterparts pieces to choose from. There are shadowbox art pieces for each of the 2 albums, which depict the iconic album art as seen here (Clockwork Angels) and here (Counterparts). These collectible shadowbox art pieces measures 14x14" x 2.5" and come ready to hang with an official Rush Certificate of Authenticity (COA). Each piece is printed on 1/8" thick optical-grade acrylic with vibrant UV cured inks and set in a high quality finished MDF wood frame. You can purchase these and all the other Rush shadowbox pieces at this location.
In addition to the shadowbox pieces, there are several different desktop art pieces to choose from. For Clockwork Angels, there's this piece depicting the album cover, and this one showing the airship over the ocean from the album art. For Counterparts there are a total of five desktop pieces, one depicting the album cover art, and another 4 with various images taken from the album's interior artwork including the Chimp, Slow Down (rabbit on turtle), Lock Stock & Barrel, and Bauhaus (colored shapes). All of the collectible desktop art pieces are printed on 3/4" thick optical-grade acrylic with vibrant UV cured inks and come with an official Rush Certificate of Authenticity (COA). You can purchase these and all the other Rush desktop pieces at this location. 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.
Rolling Stone magazine posted their list of The 200 Best Songs of The 1980s this past week, and Rush's The Spirit of Radio came in at #179:
Rush take on the radio, searching for signs of life amid all the glittering prizes and endless compromises. It's a typically ingenious study of how pop music works, tuned into the timeless wavelength of rhythm, with a reggae break at the end. One of Geddy's most indelible radio moments: "It's really just a question of your honesty! Yeah! Your honesty!"
Popular Australian pop singer-songwriter and actor Troye Sivan recently released a music video for his new song One of Your Girls, and Sivan is wearing a Rush Power Windows t-shirt throughout the video as seen here (thanks Will C). His wearing of the shirt might be a reference to his popular song Rush.
On the latest episode of Rush Roundtable (#208) on the Rushfans YouTube channel, the panel kicks off their Test For Echo album discussion with the title track:
That's it for this week. Have a great weekend!!
