Although there was no major Rush news this past week, there were a whole bunch of minor items to report. On Saturday we learned about a new Rush and Philosophy book that's in the works, and on Monday I let you know about yet another Rush-themed t-shirt from Saltyrockz.com that will be released today. On Tuesday the Japanese Rush Mini-LP SHM-CDs of the band's first 12 albums were released, and we got a video preview of the Drum Channel's Neil Peart Master Class. On Wednesday we learned of a new feature called Bubba's Bar 'n' Grill which is coming soon to NeilPeart.net, we were alerted that Sirius/XM radio's The Boneyard will be conducting a Rush Interactive Weekend starting today at 6PM EST, and we found out about the latest contest at the Rush Backstage Club. And last but not least, the 2009 International Digital Media Alliance Excellence Awards took place Wednesday night at the Luxe Hotel in Beverly Hills and Rush's Snakes & Arrows Live took home the Excellence in Disc Audio (Blu Ray Disc) award.

As I'd mentioned above, Sirius/XM's The Boneyard will be featuring a Rush Interactive Countdown Weekend starting this evening at 6PM EST and running through the weekend. You can vote for your favorite Rush song by dropping them an email at Boneyard@siriusxm.com, then the Boneyard air staff will count down the top Rush songs all weekend.

It seems that Geddy Lee is currently taking a much-deserved vacation in Africa right now according to this article in the Toronto Star on Larry Walker's induction into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Earlier this week Warner Music Japan reissued Rush's first 12 studio albums along with Retrospective 1 and Retrospective 2 as Mini-LP Super High Material CDs (SHM-CDs). Although these are not remastered recordings, the SHM-CDs supposedly improve the original audio quality through the use of a special polycarbonate plastic and will play in any CD player. SHM-CDs feature improved transparency on the data side of the disc allowing for more accurate reading of CD data by the CD player laser head. The CDs are packaged as mini-lps in cardboard sleeves, faithfully reproducing the original LP's style and artwork. You can check out some closeup images of all the mini-lp artwork compared to the original LPs at this link.

The song A Nightmare to Remember off of the new Dream Theater album Black Clouds & Silver Linings contains the lyric the air is thick and still. Dream Theater are huge Rush fans so this is likely a nod to Rush's Witch Hunt. Thanks to Power Windows for the heads up.

The makers of Rock Band are teaming up with Pepsi and MTV for a promotion involving Rock Band giveaways along with a contest for the best fan-made Rock Band video. Readers rushmixtape5 and TheHonestMan both noticed a commercial for the contest running on VH1 and MTV which uses Rush's Limelight. I've so far been unable to find a video of the commercial online, although RushFanForever located this Limelight video entrant in the contest.

The 2008 novel Primeval: Shadow Of The Jaguar by author Steven Seville contains several Rush references. The character Connor has 2112 on his mp3 player's playlist (page 43). In one part of the book the characters split up and are told to tune their radios to channel 2112 (pages 106,206). And in the acknowledgments the author states Nothing can survive in a vacuum, and as the song goes, no-one can exist all alone; he's obviously a Rush fan. Thanks to Power Windows for the info.

American pop-punk rockers Blink 182 will kick off their reunion tour on July 23rd in Las Vegas. They will be releasing one new song before the tour called Up All Night which guitarist Tom DeLonge described to Billboard as follows:

... got a little bit of (Pink) Floyd, a little bit of Rush, a little bit of blink in there. It's crazy, but it somehow sounds exactly like where we left off (in 2005). It's an amazing song...

DeLonge also recently told Rolling Stone (June 11th issue with Lady Gaga on the cover) the following regarding the song:

... One of our new songs sounds like we mixed Rush and post hardcore with some drums and bass beats....

There's a quick Neil Peart reference in the second episode of season two of the Japanese anime series K-On! which aired April 9th, 2009. When one of the characters goes to the music store to buy a Les Paul guitar, a Pearl Drums banner on the wall has been reworked to read Peart, the best reason to play drums. Check out a screenshot here. Thanks to Power Windows for the info and the screenshot.

Reader RushFanForever continues to dig up a number of cool Rush items from the archives for us. He found this video interview with Canadian musician and record producer David Foster. Foster was inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall Of Fame in 2007 along with Rush's manager Ray Danniels and the video includes a short clip of Alex and Geddy from the award ceremony talking about Foster (at about the 2:20 mark). Geddy mentions working with Foster on the 1985 charity single Tears Are Not Enough. RushFanForever also dug through the web archives (literally) and found a couple of old flash animations that were on the old Rush.com site circa 2004. There's this flash animation for Nocturne and this humorous animation of The Facts About Rush.

RushFanForever also dug up a copy of a 1983 book titled Heart Of Gold - 30 Years Of Canadian Pop Music by Martin Melhuish. It contains an entire chapter on Rush which you can check out by clicking on the thumbnails above.

Here are a couple of 2112 movie sightings courtesy Power Windows. In the trailer for the 2008 film Who's Your Monkey one of the characters is wearing a 2112 t-shirt. And in the 2008 film What Just Happened there's a scene late in the film where Robert DeNiro's character is trying to catch a plane home from Cannes and the plane's ID number is CS2112F.

Power Windows also reported on a Rush reference from Rifftrax.com, a website produced by the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 which creates downloadable audio commentaries to play over movies. During the Rifftrax for the horror film Saw, released May 13th, 2008, when investigators find the doctor's pen light at the scene of a victim of the jigsaw killer, Danny Glover states Get a rush on these prints. Bill Colbert quips Geddy Lee preferably.

Reader Andy S located this article in the UK's Guardian where several music artists were asked to name the best working band or singer in the world today. One of the artists was Rush's Geddy Lee and here's what he had to say:

Geddy Lee of Rush on Radiohead

Describing someone as "the best" is something you do at school in grade 5, but Radiohead are the most interesting of the big groups. In terms of communication and reach, it has to be U2, but I like Radiohead's intricacy and melodic content. They've got a willingness to experiment with melody and texture that a lot of bands don't have. Plus, they manage to stay fresh. It's more about attitude than technology. I've often thought Radiohead carry on what began as progressive rock nearly 40 years ago. There's a similar spirit and willingness to explore.

Back in January the NAMM show took place in Anaheim, CA and I'd mentioned in an updates post from January 23rd that Ludwig drums, which Neil Peart played in the late 80s and early 90s, was celebrating their 100th anniversary by creating several replica sets of famous Ludwig drum kits over the years. One of these was a very detailed replica of Neil Peart's Presto kit complete with gold-plated hardware, orchestra bells and a xylophone. Reader Dale C pointed me to this detailed writeup at the Ludwig Drums website on the background story behind the replica kit (which they dubbed the Ro Sham Bo kit).

B-Man pointed me to this list of Gibson Guitars favorite Canadian artists. Not surprisingly Rush tops their list:

It's literally impossible to talk about Canadian music and musicians without mentioning the genre’s poster child, Rush. For over 35 years the trio of Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart has pioneered new ground with just about every release, consistently displaying the band’s technical prowess without sacrificing commercial appeal. The band’s musical creativity has influenced countless younger acts to learn how to play their own respective instruments. And by the looks of it, the Rush machine doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. The band just wrapped up the final leg of its Snakes & Arrows tour, and are reportedly headed back into the studio again sometime this fall.

Are you a Rush fan who likes to play poker while smoking, drinking coffee and sniffing incense? Then you'll need to check out these new items at RushSwag.com. There's a deck of official Rush poker cards, a Fly By Night ashtray, a 2112 ashtray, a 2112 coffee mug and a Rush 2112 incense pack. You can purchase these items along with a bunch of other cool Rush swag at RushSwag.com.

In case you missed it earlier this week, here's the video preview of the Neil Peart Drum Channel master class:

Have a safe and happy weekend everybody!

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