UPDATE - 3/21@8:56PM: FYI: VH1 Classic changed the air time on the Retrospective 3 Box Set special. Instead of from 3-4PM EST they'll be running it at 10PM tonight - 1 hour from the time of this post.
Rush's movie career launched today with the release of I Love You Man to theaters nationwide. Geddy Lee and Neil Peart attended the Hollywood premier of the movie Tuesday night (pictures and video in this post). The movie is filled with Rush references and music along with a cameo from the band. It has received rave reviews from critics and in just about every interview with the 2 co-stars Paul Rudd and Jason Segal the most talked about subject has been Rush; how they are both big fans and how it was to work with the band. You can check out pictures/video from the premier, movie reviews and details in this post from earlier today. So what do you think about Rush's involvement with the movie? Take the Poll and let us know.
Geddy Lee also continued hitting the interview circuit this past week to promote Retrospective 3 as well as talk about Rush's involvement with I Love You Man. You can check out a couple of radio interviews in this post and read his recent Entertainment Weekly feature interview here.
The April 2009 issue of Blender magazine features Geddy Lee in their Dear Superstar column where readers submitted a series of bizarre questions for Geddy. The interview is now online at this link. I should note that the online version of the interview has a few extra bonus questions that did not appear in the print edition.
After debuting at #47, Retrospective 3 dropped off the US charts in its second week of release. It debuted at #37 in Canada and did not chart in the UK. VH1 Classic will begin airing a 1-hour Rush: Retrospective 3 Box Set special starting Saturday from 3 to 4 PM EST. It will be re-broadcast several times throughout the week. Check your local TV listings for air times. The special will feature new interviews from the band along with several videos from the Retrospective 3 DVD.
In my last poll I asked everyone which of the 11 un-remastered songs on Vapor Trails could most benefit from a remaster. The results are in and the winner with 23% of the vote was Secret Touch. Following in a close 2nd and 3rd were Ceiling Unlimited (19%) and Freeze (17%). You can view the complete results here.
Reader lerxstcire let me know that Geddy Lee is featured in the April issue of Spin magazine for their In My Room feature. It's a two-page story with Geddy in his den at home in Toronto where he describes some of the more notable items in the room such as his Order of Canada medal, his dog, etc.
Rush has also made the March 30th edition of People magazine in the Music section on page 47. It reads:
HOT CLASSIC ROCKERS RUSH
"They've got a new to-decade complilation, Retrospective III (1989-2008), and appear in the new comedy "I Love You Man". Clearly Rush is still getting plenty of love."
- Chuck Arnold
Thanks to Kozmo4Rush for the heads up.
Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters was a guest at the Greg Proops monthly chat show at Hollywood's Largo Theater Wednesday night and shared some stories of his youth with the audience including this one about Rush which is described in this article at RollingStone.com:
... Grohl also went on a confessional tear about his fondness for Rush back in his high school days. Hearing “2112″ for the first time, he said, was an epiphany. “It was, like, woah - drums! You could be, like, the leader, then take over the world.” But Grohl admitted he had to keep his fandom secret due to the band’s “questionable” cover art. “On the back [of the album], they’re all in white silk, one dude is in a kimono, and the other has these gnarly Cameron Diaz disco pants where the seam is perfectly [lined] in the middle of both of his balls,” he explained. “I didn’t tell anybody that I liked this band because of that dude’s fuckin’ nuts! I was afraid my friends would beat me up.” ...
Thanks to Chuck for the heads up.
Two weeks ago on Wednesday, March 11th Rush manager Ray Danniels was the recipient of the 3rd annual Music Managers Forum Canada (MMF Canada) Honour Roll Award. The Canadian Music Scene recently posted several pictures from the event on their website. According to drew2112 at Counterparts, Ray and his family were at one of the head tables along with Alex, Geddy and their wives. Rush paid tribute to Ray via video, where the three jokingly stated that they are still with Ray because he owes them money. Canadian music industry insider Denise Donlon introduced Ray and then Canadian jazz artist Molly Johnson (who is signed to Anthem) presented Ray with his award.
Rush Radio is undergoing a site redesign and I'm happy to say are using rushisaband for their official news feed. If you've never checked out the site before, they are the only 128kbps internet station on the planet that plays nothing but Rush. What more do you need to know? Check it out here.
Reader hemisphire found this interesting article at PopDose.com which is part of a series titled The Producers. In this chapter - the third installment in the series - Epic Records producer Tom Werman describes some frustrating times at Epic in the early 70s including this story about how Rush was courted by the label:
... In another frustrating case, I received a cassette by a Canadian band from a young Toronto manager. It sounded very good to me — unusually musical and a little unorthodox. It was an FM-sounding band in the midst of a lot of AM-sounding tape submissions, and the guitar playing was particularly good. I traveled to Toronto to see this band, and had dinner with their manager, Ray Danniels, who had been a band booker in the Toronto area. Ray drove us out to a high school in nearby suburban Mississauga, where I saw Rush perform a brilliant set in the school auditorium, with original drummer John Rutsey. We met afterward, and I told the band and Ray that I was very impressed, and would like sign them to Epic.
When I returned to New York, I wrote up a memo recommending that we sign the band, and waited a couple of weeks while our business affairs department negotiated with Ray. When the A&R department wanted to sign a band, the practice was to supply the business affairs department with pertinent information; this would typically be the degree of excitement we felt for the band, the nature of the deal the band was seeking, and the names and numbers of their management and attorneys. After the initial meeting, business affairs got back to Don, informing him that the $75,000 advance the band wanted for a two-album deal was simply out of the question. Don didn’t question their decision, so eventually Cliff Burnstein, who was then in A&R, signed Rush to Mercury Records, whose offices were just across Sixth Avenue from us, and naturally the rest is history. This kind of thing was becoming difficult for me to take. ...
While on the topic of Rush's early days, John over at Cygnus-x1.net recently posted scans of the legendary December, 1974 edition of Beetle Magazine which features a Rush article along with a bunch of goofy pics of the trio clowning around. You can check out the scans at this link.
Back in late January, Alex Lifeson made a guest appearance at the Trailer Park Boys Community Service Variety Show at Massey Hall in Toronto. He came out towards the end of the show to perform Closer to the Heart with the boys playing a Gibson Les Paul. It turns out the particular guitar he used was loaned out to him by Cosmo Music Store in Toronto. After the show Alex signed the guitar and gave it back to the shop. Reader Andrew is now the proud owner and wanted me to share some pics of the guitar along with this video of him playing it.
The Flat Earth Brewery of Minnesota - makers of the Rush-inspired Cygnus X-1 Porter - now have t-shirts available. You can check out the Cygnus X-1 Porter tees at this link. Thanks to glortiz for the heads up.
All next week Sirius/XM Classic Rewind will be rebroadcasting Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson's appearance on XM's "Artist Confidential" from back in 2004. The one hour performance was recorded on August 3, 2004 and includes a Q&A with Geddy and Alex along with acoustic renditions of "Heart Full of Soul" and "Resist". The episode will air Monday, March 23rd at 9PM EST on Channel 15/Classic Rewind, and repeat Tues 3/24 12:00 pm ET; Wed 3/25 12:00 am ET; Thurs 3/26 2:00 pm ET; and Sat 3/28 9:00 am ET. Thanks to Power Windows for the news.
Reader/surfer RUSH2SURF let me know about this really cool trailer for the surf documentary One California Day which features Rush's Finding My Way as the background music.
It's that time of year again, time for classic rock stations across the nation to conduct their annual March Madness battle of the bands competitions. Reader Scott P sent me this link to WDVE's Greatest Band Ever bracket. Rush is up against Jethro Tull in round one. You know what to do. If you know of any more of these contests, let me know about them so we can use the power of riab readers to bring victory for Rush.
Reader The Clansman 2112 wanted me to give everyone a reminder regarding his 2nd annual rushisaband Fantasy Baseball League. There are a couple of spots left if you want to join up and Draft Day is this Sunday so people have to get in quickly and set their pre-draft rankings. It's free to join and he's offering up prizes again for the top 3 spots with stripped down categories to make it simpler than the one last year and to reward the people who actually play throughout the year. Only serious managers need apply! To join up go to this link and use the League ID 150315 with Password atmsite.
15 years ago today Rush was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Here's the video from the Juno Awards ceremony where they were presented with the award.
Have a great weekend everybody!
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