UPDATE - 7/31@4:25PM: Vote for Geddy in NME's Greatest Bass Player Poll!
The 9th annual RushCon took place last weekend and is now in the books. From all accounts it was a resounding success. The charity auction raised over $4500 CND for the Daily Bread Food Bank of Toronto, the guest speakers (Michael Mosbach and Martin Popoff) were a big hit and Rush tribute band Limelight put on a great show as always. You can check out all the details at the RushCon website, Twitter page, Facebook Group, YouTube page and MySpace page. There are nearly 300 photos uploaded on the RushCon Facebook page too. Let's hope that next year's RushCon will coincide with a Rush tour!
Speaking of a Rush tour, I've been hearing rumblings (that's one level below rumors, so beware) that Rush may be entering the studio this fall. And if that's true, it would not be out of the question that we could see a new Rush album by Spring and a tour next Summer. One piece of information that would support this is regarding the band being awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this year. We've all been wondering when the ceremony will take place and I can say for sure that it won't occur this year. But a source close to the band recently told Eric at the Power Windows site that ...the ceremony will likely take place the next time the band plays Los Angeles. Maybe they know something we don't? I've also been hearing rumors since back in late 2007 that the guys have been working on new material both on and off the road. So it's certainly plausible that they have enough material to start studio work sooner than later. One thing that might affect all of this is the fact that Neil Peart is expecting a baby sometime in the next month or so. It's not clear at this time whether he plans to take any significant length of time off from Rush or not. Like I said, these are merely rumblings and speculation at this point and should be taken with a substantial grain of salt. We should hopefully get some more concrete information come this fall. We shall see.
Earlier this week the new Vertical Horizon album Burning The Days, which features Neil Peart on 3 songs, became available for pre-order. The album will be released on September 22nd and Neil plays drums on the tracks Save Me From Myself, Even Now (which he also wrote the lyrics for) and Welcome to the Bottom. You can listen to Save Me From Myself at the band's MySpace page and 30-second clips of all the songs at this Amazon link. The band has also jazzed up their official website in preparation for the release. So what do you think about Neil's involvement with this project? Take the Poll and let us know. Here are the results of the last poll where I asked everyone what their favorite song from Feedback was.
This past Tuesday we learned that Neil Peart's original Slingerland drum kit will be put for auction through Sotheby's Auction House sometime in the near future. Yesterday marked the 35th anniversary of Neil originally purchasing this kit for Rush's first tour at Long and McQuade Music in Toronto back in 1974. Just 2 weeks later on August 14, 1974 Rush would play their first show with Neil Peart at the Civic Center Arena in Pittsburgh. Also around this time period (the exact date is a bit fuzzy) was the Mercury/Polygram release of Rush's debut album.
Classic Rock presents ... Prog - Classic Rock magazine's new quarterly magazine dedicated completely to progressive rock - will be releasing its third issue this August 5th and it will be a special edition featuring Rush. The issue's feature story is titled Everything's Fun Again Now! Alex Lifeson on RUSH & the story of Prog Metal and it will feature 4 separate collectible Rush covers. Starting with this issue, you will now be able to purchase the magazine online via this link; good news for US customers who have had difficulty getting their hands on this magazine.
On Wednesday we celebrated Geddy Lee's 56th birthday. Rocker Tom Morello (Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine) gave Geddy a birthday shout-out on his Twitter Page:
Birthday shout out to Geddy Lee! Rush's All The World's A Stage and Moving Pictures were huge records for me. Geddy's talent is mindblowing
Thanks to Drodham for the heads up.
CNET News ran an article earlier this week titled The top 10 songs the Web brought back which features 10 songs that have been resurrected as a result of websites such as YouTube. Coming in at number 5 was Rush's YYZ:
This instrumental track, originally released in 1981, is one of the most difficult songs to play in "Guitar Hero" and now "Rock Band," so it's become a sort of a geek milestone. That was only enhanced when a video of a really, really, really enthusiastic guy nailing the song in "expert" mode became a huge hit on YouTube.
Called "How Guitar Hero Was Meant To Be Played," the video has chalked up more than 6 million views and features a guy named "Freddie" getting off a motorcycle, stripping off a leather jacket, introducing himself with "What's up, Internet?" and having a friend equip him with the guitar console. If that's how "Guitar Hero" was meant to be played, I know lots of people who are doing it wrong.
YYZ was also one of the featured tracks on Guitar Hero Smash Hits which was released last month. Thanks to The Mighty Dudad for the heads up.
Reader Jamie M pointed me to an article in last Sunday's Scotland on Sunday titled A Rush of blood to the head where writer Hardeep Singh Kohli reminisces about how he first heard 2112 when he was 10 and 30 years later rediscovered the album in a record store.
In a recent examiner.com interview with Queensryche drummer Scott Rockenfield talks about being a huge Rush fan:
... Examiner.com: Bands that have been around for a while, like Metallica, who’s still kicking around, face an absolute flurry of criticism. Do you find that that happens Queensryche the longer you guys stay around?
Scott R: Well, you totally get the ‘Mindcrime' is still my favorite and you haven’t made the same type of record since, but I still like what you do. There’s always these people that, for some reason, you touched them at some point in their lives. There’s new people that go Listen, your new record is touching me, or My 15-year-old only listens to your new record because that’s really all he knows right now, but then he checks out the old stuff. To answer your question, we do. You keep going.
I’m a huge Rush fan, they’re one of the reasons I even started playing drums, but my favorite CD is 'Moving Pictures' or 'Hemispheres.' Back in those days, you know. I enjoy they’re new stuff, but it’s not my favorite. But they’re still going, still doing their thing. They go out and they play great shows, and they just carry on. You can only, I guess, top yourself. You’re always just making music, and people are either going to enjoy it or are going to enjoy it less than some of the others, I suppose. It’s hard to kind of think about it. You just kind of do what you do and move on. ...
Queensryche has often cited Rush as an influence. Singer Geoff Tate was the featured guest on an April episode of VH1 Classic's That Metal Showand paid homage to Rush as he was introduced having several kind words to say about the boys. Thanks to B-Man for the heads up.
Reader joyw sent me this impressive video of 4-year-old Jonah performing Tom Sawyer on the drums.
Actor/filmmaker Jon Heder (Napolean Dynamite) mentions Rush in this recent New York Times interview:
... It's [the 1970s] definitely my favorite era.. I love Led Zeppelin, Rush, all that stuff. If only I had a time machine, I'd go back there. Wouldn't you?
Thanks to brentmeister for the link.
For many years Rush have used an Austrian based tourbus company for their European tours called Beat The Street. The company recently revamped their website and are using a song that you may be familiar with as the site's background music. Thanks to New Digital Man at Counterparts for the heads up.
A couple of weeks ago I'd mentioned how pop singer Katy Perry has been closing out her shows on her current tour with her hit song I Kissed a Girl, and towards the end of the song the band plays the ending of Rush's Cygnus X-1! Reader Andrew W saw Perry's show in Toronto this past weekend and grabbed this short video clip of the Cygnus ending.
Do you need to update your Rush vinyl collection? You can buy new, used and collectible copies of Rush's catalog on vinyl at RushSwag.com or .
And I'll leave you this week with this video of the Durham Regional Police Pipe Band performing their rendition of Rush's Tom Sawyer on the bagpipes at a competition last summer (thanks Teevan). Yikes!
Have a great weekend everyone!
NOTE: Posts over 10 years old are partially archived. All comments, images and other embedded media have been removed.
