Longtime Rush friend and photographer Andrew MacNaughtan passes away from a heart attack in Los Angeles. Details here.
Rush wraps up Clockwork Angels recording, begins mixing. Neil Peart update on the recording at NeilPeart.net. Plans on track for Spring 2012 release. Geddy talks about Taurus pedals on the album in this video interview with Moog Music.
RushCon and Rush Radio teaming up to sponsor a 2112 listening party on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 at 9:12PM - 2/1/12 21:12. Details here.
New Neil Peart news update at NeilPeart.net! Neil updates us on what he's been up to over the last several months, including some details on the Clockwork Angels recording sessions. Read the update here.
Rush Sector box sets NOW AVAILABLE. Details & preview video here. Interview with Masterdisk chief engineer Andy VanDette here. In the Studio Sectors special here. Message from Rush.com on technical flaws here.
Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland DVD/BD/CD/Vinyl now available. Video debuts at #1 in US & Canada, #2 in UK. CD debuts at #54 in US, #59 in Canada, #70 in UK. Details here. Neil Peart essay here.
It was a very sad week for the Rush community, as longtime Rush friend and photographer Andrew MacNaughtan passed away Wednesday of a heart attack in Los Angeles at age 47 where he was shooting photos of the band for their upcoming Clockwork Angels album. The news was confirmed yesterday afternoon via the Rush Facebook page:
We're deeply shocked and heartbroken to learn of the sudden passing of our close friend and long-time photographer, Andrew MacNaughtan. He was a sweet person and a very talented artist. Words cannot describe how much he will be missed. - Geddy, Alex & Neil
Toronto photographer Andrew MacNaughtan, longtime documenter of Rush's exploits and the man behind dozens of iconic portraits of Canadian celebrities, passed away suddenly in Los Angeles on Wednesday. MacNaughtan, in his mid-40s, reportedly suffered a heart attack while in California shooting his old friends, Rush. A member of the band's local management staff told the Star the office was "heartbroken over here," ...
Andrew had worked with Rush as a photographer and videographer for several of the band's projects since the 1980s. The Power Windows website has a great 1991 interview with Andrew from The Spirit of Rush newsletter where he talks at length about how he became involved with the band. It all started in 1980 when a 16-year-old Andrew started the Rush Backstage Club of Toronto:
... I tried to do something like you guys, I was your typical Rush fan, fanatic, but I always tried to apply a positive thing. Instead of just being a fan that would hang out at hotel doors. It is fine to be fanatical about a band believe me, everyone wants an idol, everyone wants things to look up to and follow but, I put it to a more practical use, ... I had these photo's of Rush, I called up Howard (Ungerleider), I knew him through the fan club and met him occasionally, he got me tickets and things. I gave him a whole bunch of my photo's, just to take down to Anthem to give to the person in charge of photo's and stuff. I said that I hadn't a use of them can you use them? It was at this point that they were doing their tour book for Power Windows. The band loved the photos and they had nothing for the tour book, as they had used them up, they bought about 12 shots of mine, and used them in the Power Windows tour book. Which was really great. a great honor. That led me to shoot on the Power Windows tour. They sent me down to Binghampton, Troy and Syracuse in New York, I shot all that and then onto Buffalo and some in Toronto. They used a lot of those photos as well, they were used for magazine articles as well as the Hold Your Fire tour book, which was great. I started to get my way in there, working with Rush in a different way, other than the now folded fan club. It was getting too large. So, I passed it all onto the Las Vegas fan club. ...
His latest endeavor was a unique art book showcasing the beauty of Africa through a series of stunning black and white photographs called GRACE: Africa in Photographs. Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee contributed captions for two of the photos in the book, and Andrew had been selling copies via his website along with prints of the photographs to help support his charity ArtGivesHope. Andrew spoke about the project in this November interview with Global News which you can view at here. Andrew was an integral part of the Rush family and will be sorely missed. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all of Andrew's friends and family.
On Wednesday I'd reported the rumor that Rush had abruptly changed their 2012 tour plans and now plan on touring in the Fall rather than the Spring. Since then I've had these rumors corroborated by a few other reliable sources so I definitely believe it to be true, although it has yet to be officially announced. Note that these plans had been made sometime last month and can in no way be related to Andrew MacNaughtan's untimely death on Wednesday as has been inferred by some. The reasoning behind the change in plans remains unclear as of now. It's also not clear if or how Andrew's passing will affect progress on the upcoming album. Knowing Rush, there's no doubt that their priority right now is to support eachother and Andrew's family/friends through this difficult time; completing the album is likely the furthest thing from their minds at the moment - just as it should be. That said, the latest rumors had placed the Clockwork Angels release at the end of April, with the possibility of seeing a single by later next month. More information as I learn it.
Speaking of the new album, Eric over at Power Windows dug up this article at about.com from around the time of the release of Caravan which discusses the obvious occult symbols in the Caravan artwork:
The band Rush is releasing a new single today called Caravan, and the album cover consists of a clock face with 12 blatant occult symbols. My question is... were they being clever in their choice, or are they random selections (or at least selections based on appearance rather than meaning)?
Tune into RushRadio.org on Wednesday February 1, 2012, at 9:12pm (in your time zone) for the world's largest streaming Rush listening party! Simultaneously, join fans across the world in an online chat (tinychat.com/rushcon) as we crank this epic album and fill the world with our music. This is the closest we will get to the year 2112 in our lifetime, so celebrate and assume control!
The party will repeat 4 times, starting at 9:12pm EST, then at 9:12pm Central, Mountain, and Pacific timezones. So everyone will have a chance to join! Or heck, come for all 4 hours! The more Rush fans the better!
Here is another chance to win autographed RUSH swag from Rush Backstage. This time we are giving away this pristine autographed RUSH Snakes and Arrows tourbook. Enter today for your chance to win!
For all the details and to enter just go to this link.
For this past week's RollingStone.com's reader's poll they posed the question of what singer has the most unique voice. Geddy Lee made the final cut at #10:
Stephen Malkmus said it best: "What about the voice of Geddy Lee? How did it get so high? I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy?" I'll answer the last question first: Yes, Geddy speaks with an ordinary voice. In fact, his speaking voice is, if anything, a little on the deep side. You'd never know from talking to him that he's capable of hitting such amazing high notes. Lee's unconventional voice sometimes makes it tougher for Rush to appeal to a first-time listener, but it's hard to imagine the group with any other singer at the helm.
Gregorian is a German band headed by Frank Peterson that performs Gregorian chant-inspired versions of modern pop and rock songs. The band features both vocal harmony and instrumental accompaniment. Their most recent album in their Masters of Chant series - Masters of Chant Chapter VIII - was released this past September 30th and contains a cover of Rush's Bravado which you can listen to on YouTube at this link. The album can be purchased as an import at this link.
The Canadian Music blog recently compiled a list of which Canadian artists had the most Facebook likes and Twitter followers. As of December 31st of last month Rush was #13 on their list with 43,962 Twitter followers and 1,320,909 Facebook likes.
The winners of the Sabian Player's Choice contest were announced at the Winter NAMM show earlier this month. Back in October Sabian launched a website at www.cymbalvote.com and invited people to pick from 12 new cymbal models. The site featured videos of Neil Peart, Terry Bozzio, Mike Portnoy and several other well-known drummers playing the cymbals and giving their opinions on what they liked about them. One cymbal was then eliminated each week until only four remained.
Members of Swedish heavy metal band Meshuggah were recently interviewed for the Nuclear Blast Records website to discuss their upcoming album KOLOSS. At one point drummer Tomas Haake was asked about his favorite prog drummers and went on to talk about Neil Peart and Rush. You can listen to what he had to say in this YouTube video at about the 1:45 mark. Thanks to Marco V for the heads up.
Toronto photographer Andrew MacNaughtan, longtime documenter of Rush's exploits and the man behind dozens of iconic portraits of Canadian celebrities, passed away suddenly in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
MacNaughtan, in his mid-40s, reportedly suffered a heart attack while in California shooting his old friends, Rush.
A member of the band's local management staff told the Star the office was "heartbroken over here," ...
We're deeply shocked and heartbroken to learn of the sudden passing of our close friend and long-time photographer, Andrew MacNaughtan. He was a sweet person and a very talented artist. Words cannot describe how much he will be missed. - Geddy, Alex & Neil
Apparently Andrew died of a heart attack while on assignment with the band in Los Angeles. Andrew had worked with Rush as a photographer and videographer for many of the band's projects since back in the '80s. His latest project was a unique art book showcasing the beauty of Africa through a series of stunning black and white photographs called GRACE: Africa in Photographs. Proceeds from sales of the book and prints of the photographs go to support Andrew's charity ArtGivesHope. Andrew spoke about the project in this November interview with Global News which you can view below or at this link (thanks RushFanForever). Thanks to Paul Beaulieu for the great photo of Andrew. Andrew was an integral part of the Rush family and will be sorely missed. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all of Andrew's friends and family.
... While Alex and Geddy were finishing the writing and arranging in one smaller room of the studio, over in the big room I was working with The Mighty Booujzhe, recording my drum parts. As we prepare to start mixing in the New Year, it is too early to say anything about the results. (I once described mixing as "the end of waiting," while Geddy calls it, "the death of hope.") About the process, though, I can't resist spilling a little. ...
It looks as if the band is working on the mixing in Los Angeles as several Twitter users have reported spotting the band there recently. In interviews over the last year or so the band has consistently mentioned that they were shooting for a Spring release for the album with a tour to follow. Alex Lifeson said as much in his Planet Rock interview back in November along with saying that the band hopes to be out on tour in May or June. Since before the Holidays the band has not given any new interviews, so we've been relying solely on rumors for information ever since. In my latest Friday updates post I relayed the latest credible rumors I had heard regarding both the album and tour. These rumors came from a source close to their record label and jibed with what the band had been saying up until late last year; namely that they are aiming to release Clockwork Angels in late April and kick-off the tour shortly after in May/June. But it turns out that this information may have been a little outdated. In just the past few days I'd heard that in the last month or so the band's plans have switched direction and they have now pushed the tour to September. Indeed, Rush Forum member yyzyyhad reported late last month that he ran into Rush lighting director Howard Ungerleider at a Trans-siberian Orchestra show and was told by him that the tour would start in September. I didn't put much stock in that report until just recently when this was corroborated by another source who let me know that up until last month the band had been on track for a May/June tour start, but then abruptly changed plans and will instead tour in the Fall. I haven't heard anything regarding the reasoning behind this decision or whether it would affect the release of the album, but there you have it. As always with rumors, take this all with a big grain of salt. My policy is and always has been to report any credible rumor I hear and let my readers make of it what they will. Hopefully we'll get some official information from interviews or a press release in the near future. More as I learn it.
Tune into RushRadio.org on Wednesday February 1, 2012, at 9:12pm (in your time zone) for the world's largest streaming Rush listening party! Simultaneously, join fans across the world in an online chat (tinychat.com/rushcon) as we crank this epic album and fill the world with our music. This is the closest we will get to the year 2112 in our lifetime, so celebrate and assume control!
The party will repeat 4 times, starting at 9:12pm EST, then at 9:12pm Central, Mountain, and Pacific timezones. So everyone will have a chance to join! Or heck, come for all 4 hours! The more Rush fans the better!
Here is another chance to win autographed RUSH swag from Rush Backstage. This time we are giving away this pristine autographed RUSH Snakes and Arrows tourbook. Enter today for your chance to win!
For all the details and to enter just go to this link.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Gregorian Masters of Chant cover of Rush's Bravado
Gregorian is a German band headed by Frank Peterson that performs Gregorian chant-inspired versions of modern pop and rock songs. The band features both vocal harmony and instrumental accompaniment. Their most recent album in their Masters of Chant series - Masters of Chant Chapter VIII - was released this past September 30th and contains a cover of Rush's Bravado which you can listen to on YouTube below or at this link. The album can be purchased as an import at this link. Thanks to Power Windows for the heads up.
This past week was severely lacking in the way of any solid Rush news; no new interviews, product releases or any kind of official album/tour update. That said, the rumor mill is starting to crank up as I've started to here some rumblings about release dates and such. From what my sources are telling me, it sounds as if the band is aiming to release Clockwork Angels in late April and kick-off the tour in late May somewhere in the Southwest. We can also expect a single to be released as early as late February. Hopefully more information will be forthcoming in the next several weeks. So the big official news of late remains Neil Peart's news update at NeilPeart.net from last Wednesday, which received a lot of coverage in the music press over the past week. Blabbermouth.net, Ultimate-Guitar.com, BW&BK, UltimateClassicRock.com and Examiner.com were just a few of the sites to pick up the story which contained some updates from Neil on the progress being made on the new Clockwork Angels album:
... While Alex and Geddy were finishing the writing and arranging in one smaller room of the studio, over in the big room I was working with The Mighty Booujzhe [producer Nick Raskulinecz], recording my drum parts. As we prepare to start mixing in the New Year, it is too early to say anything about the results. (I once described mixing as "the end of waiting," while Geddy calls it, "the death of hope.") About the process, though, I can't resist spilling a little. ...
Neil also went into great detail about how he worked with producer Nick Raskulinecz to compose the drum parts, and tried out some new methods of recording and learning his parts. He even includes a three-line snippet of the lyrics from one of the new songs which was inspired by something his late friend and mentor Freddie Gruber had said:
... Over the years Freddie had become a close friend to Carrie [Neil's wife] as well ... When Carrie visited Freddie for the last time, she heard him say something I had heard, too. After telling one story or another from his long and active life, Freddie would nod and smile, and say, "I had quite a ride. I wish I could do it all again."
I was struck by that statement, because I had never felt that way myself. To the contrary-as much as I enjoy my life, I remain glad I don't have to do it all again. But I still appreciated that sentiment of Freddie's, and as a tribute, wove it into one of our new songs, with one character reflecting on his life in that fashion.
Some days were dark Some nights were bright I wish that I could live it all again
Another philosopher named Fred-Nietzsche-said something similar, "Was that life?" will I say to death. "Well! Once more!". ...
As is typical of Neil's writings, it's a great read chock full of beautiful photos and interesting stories, so make sure to read the whole thing if you haven't already.
Videographer and Rush fan Greg Nosek recently launched his website at GregNosek.com and included some great Rush-related video on his Video Clips page. Of particular note is a video interview Greg conducted a few years ago with Mike Dixon - one of the movers on the cover of Rush's Moving Pictures album. Mike appears in his mover overalls holding the Moving Pictures album and describes several details about the video shoot for the cover along with all the people involved. You can check out the nearly 3-minute interview at this link. Also included are a couple of experimental promo videos for RushCon 6 featuring Dixon at this link.
The BBC ran an article this past week where they counted down their top twenty predictions for what life will look like 100 years from now in the year 2112. You can check out their predictions at this link (thanks Andrew S). Surprisingly there is no mention of the Solar Federation or Megadon. Hmmm ... And along those same lines but with a satirical twist, this past weekend Saturday Night Live ran a sketch that took place 100 years in the future and involved a play which looked back on life in the year 2012. Although it's implied that the year is 2112 in the sketch, they never actually come out and say it, but they did title it 2112 when they posted it online. Thanks to your_pal_chris and chrxtopher for the heads up.
Last night was the mid-season premiere of FX's Archer and the show contained a Rush reference that was a follow-up of sorts to a Rush reference that occurred on the Season 2 finale (episode 23 - Double Trouble) last year on April 21st. In that episode Dr. Krieger is trying to impress Katya and mentions listening to Rush's Red Barchetta through his awesome van's stereo system and says to Katya, Please tell me you like Rush. Later in the episode we get a look at the actual van when the ISIS group pulls up in it. The van has a huge mural painted on the side which says Exit ... Van Left and depicts Doctor Kreiger peeking behind the curtain to a stage, mimicking the cover of Rush's Exit ... Stage Left (see the screenshot here). In last night's episode Dr. Krieger had updated the mural on his van to a Rush Hemispheres theme; the mural depicts Krieger as both the naked man and the man-in-the-hat from the Hemispheres cover with the text Krieger: Vanispheres on it (see the screenshot here).
Andrew Olson recently created a survey on Facebook and asked people to vote on their favorite from among 10 of Neil Peart's most well-known drum fills. After 102 votes, he posted the results over on his Neil Peart fan page at this link. The big winner with 30% of the vote was not surprisingly the Tom Sawyer fill although Natural Science came in a close second.
John at Cygnus-X1.net recently posted the eighth installment of his Rush: A Brief History of Time series where he compiles scans and transcriptions of old Rush articles. You can check this latest batch out at this link. Also be sure to check out his chronological listing of all the collected articles from the series at the bottom of the page. This batch contains 46 new articles; one from the 70's, thirty-one from the 80's, three from the 90's, two from the 2000's and seven from the current decade. The majority of the articles focus around the release of Moving Pictures and Rush's tour in support of that album. Thanks John!
The A.V. Club has opened up voting to determine the 25 songs to be featured in this year's Undercover 2012. From the A.V. Club website:
You wanted the best, you got the best: Undercover 2012 starts now, and we need your help. The series will once again launch in March, timed with our SXSW day party (details soon!), and will feature 25 bands covering 25 songs in our round room. You know the drill. We're looking for your help in picking which songs will make the master list, and to that end you'll find 12 categories below. ...
Nominated in the And Now You Find Yourself in '82 category is Rush's Subdivisions. You can vote for Subdivisions and all of your other favorites at this link (thanks Jake). Voting closes on January 25th.
Back in September we learned that legendary Canadian musician Tom Cochrane would be releasing a 4-song EP called Voices At 4 AM with the title track being a collaboration with several other artists including Alex Lifeson and Andrew Cole. Last month a limited run of the EPs were released online and you can purchase your copy at voicesat4am.com. You can also listen to a teaser of the title track on Cole's Facebook page. Cole was interviewed for the John Emms Music Review blog (thanks RushFanForever) last month and talked about how Alex Lifeson became involved with the project:
... [Alex] is friends with Tom but of course he is super busy. I honestly have to say I really pursued him to play because I thought his huge guitar sound along with Ken Greer's work would propel the track once we started to get it down. And my persistence paid off. ... It's funny [Chris Potter-mixing engineer] was a huge Alex Lifeson fan but I really had not got Lifeson to find the time. I was bummed out. But I did bring the bed tracks to England. Chris changed the whole vibe of the song, and it blew Tom Cochrane's mind. When we got the whole vocal thing about to go, I asked Tom to sing it, but he said no it's yours now. But once I got Alex to play and sing Tom went with the chorus and for me it was like watching two old friends create magic. That is basically the story of Voices at 4 AM. ...
Speaking of Alex, last year Alex Lifeson appeared in Toronto filmmaker Rob Heydon's indie film Irvine Welsh's Ecstasy playing the role of psychiatrist Dr. Michael Figg. The film is an adaptation of Scottish author Irvine Welsh's book Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance, and made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival last September. It has been making the film festival rounds since then and will be shown at the NXNE Film Festival (thanks RushFanForever) on June 14th. You can watch a short clip of Alex Lifeson as Dr. Figg at the film's YouTube channel here. The clip runs about 1 minute and features respected psychiatrist Dr. Michael Figg discussing his radical new treatment.
The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) took place last week in Las Vegas and every year DTS creates a Blu-ray demo disc to distribute at the show. This year's disc has already begun to pop up on eBay and the tracklisting indicates that Rush's Tom Sawyer - presumably from the Time Machine Blu-ray - is one of the selections contained on the disc. You can check out the eBay listing here (thanks rosmakloma).
The influential BBC television show The Old Grey Whistle Test - which ran from 1971 to 1987 - celebrated its 40th anniversary last year and commemorated the occasion with a special show at the Sage Hall in Gateshead, UK this past weekend. They had originally claimed that the highlight of the show would be some rare footage of Rush playing Xanadu. However, the rare footage in question that was aired on the show originally back in 1977 was the same in-studio video that was included as an extra on the R30 DVD and has been available online and to bootleggers in various forms for years. Rush actually never appeared live on the show itself. Reader Russell T attended the anniversary show last weekend and reports that no Rush footage was shown at all, so they must have dropped their plans altogether once they learned that the footage wasn't as rare as they'd originally thought.
Reader Paul from Eastern Township, Quebec sent me some scans from an old French-language black and white journal publication he dug up from 1982 called Rush Document Spécial. It contains some old photos of the band from shows they played in Montreal in the late '70s and early '80s. You can check it out by clicking on the scans above.
This past week's edition of the ProgScape Radio podcast featured Geddy Lee's one and only solo album My Favorite Headache. You can listen to the podcast at the ProgScape Radio website or on iTunes. ProgScape Radio's Michael Ostrich wrote a piece profiling the album for examiner.com in the lead-up to the show which you can check out at this link. My Favorite Headache released on November 14, 2000 and peaked at #52 on the Billboard 200. It featured Geddy's friend Ben Mink and Soundgarden's Matt Cameron. You can check out a grainy video of the album's electronic press kit at this link, and a 2000 talk show interview with Geddy where he discusses the album below or at this link.
That's all for this week. Have a great weekend and happy 1/21/12 tomorrow!
Last night was the mid-season premiere of FX's Archer and the show contained a Rush reference that was a follow-up of sorts to a Rush reference that occurred on the Season 2 finale (episode 23 - Double Trouble) last year on April 21st. In that episode Dr. Krieger is trying to impress Katya and mentions listening to Rush's Red Barchetta through his awesome van's stereo system and says to Katya, Please tell me you like Rush. Later in the episode we get a look at the actual van when the ISIS group pulls up in it. The van has a huge mural painted on the side which says Exit ... Van Left and depicts Doctor Kreiger peeking behind the curtain to a stage, mimicking the cover of Rush's Exit ... Stage Left (see the screenshot here). In last night's episode Dr. Krieger had updated the mural on his van to a Rush Hemispheres theme; the mural depicts Krieger as both the naked man and the man-in-the-hat from the Hemispheres cover with the text Krieger: Vanispheres on it (see the screenshot here). Thanks to Sweet Miracle Whip for the heads up and Patrick for the screenshot.
John at Cygnus-X1.net recently posted the eighth installment of his Rush: A Brief History of Time series where he compiles scans and transcriptions of old Rush articles. You can check this latest batch out at this link. Also be sure to check out his chronological listing of all the collected articles from the series at the bottom of the page. This batch contains 46 new articles; one from the 70's, thirty-one from the 80's, three from the 90's, two from the 2000's and seven from the current decade. The majority of the articles focus around the release of Moving Pictures and Rush's tour in support of that album. Thanks John!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Interview with Moving Pictures cover mover Mike Dixon at GregNosek.com
Videographer and Rush fan Greg Nosek recently launched his website at GregNosek.com and included some great Rush-related video on his Video Clips page. Of particular note is a video interview Greg conducted a few years ago with Mike Dixon - one of the movers on the cover of Rush's Moving Pictures album. Mike appears in his mover overalls holding the Moving Pictures album and describes several details about the video shoot for the cover along with all the people involved. You can check out the nearly 3-minute interview at this link. Also included are a couple of experimental promo videos for RushCon 6 featuring Dixon at this link.
It was a very sad week for the Rush community, as longtime Rush friend and photographer Andrew MacNaughtan passed away Wednesday of a heart attack in Los Angeles at age 47 where he was shooting photos of the band for their upcoming Clockwork Angels album. The news was confirmed yesterday afternoon via the Rush Facebook page:
On Wednesday I'd reported the rumor that Rush had abruptly changed their 2012 tour plans and now plan on touring in the Fall rather than the Spring. Since then I've had these rumors corroborated by a few other reliable sources so I definitely believe it to be true, although it has yet to be officially announced. Note that these plans had been made sometime last month and can in no way be related to Andrew MacNaughtan's untimely death on Wednesday as has been inferred by some. The reasoning behind the change in plans remains unclear as of now. It's also not clear if or how Andrew's passing will affect progress on the upcoming album. Knowing Rush, there's no doubt that their priority right now is to support eachother and Andrew's family/friends through this difficult time; completing the album is likely the furthest thing from their minds at the moment - just as it should be. That said, the latest rumors had placed the Clockwork Angels release at the end of April, with the possibility of seeing a single by later next month. More information as I learn it. 
We learned earlier this week that the folks at RushCon are teaming up with the Rush Radio website to sponsor a 2112 listening party this coming Wednesday, February 1st at 9:12PM - 2/1/12 21:12. From the RushCon newsletter:
The Rush Backstage Club is running a new contest where you could win an autographed Snakes & Arrows Tourbook:
Gregorian is a German band headed by Frank Peterson that performs Gregorian chant-inspired versions of modern pop and rock songs. The band features both vocal harmony and instrumental accompaniment. Their most recent album in their Masters of Chant series - Masters of Chant Chapter VIII - was released this past September 30th and contains a cover of Rush's Bravado which you can listen to on YouTube at this link. The album can be purchased as an import at this link. 
The winners of the Sabian Player's Choice contest were announced at the Winter NAMM show earlier this month. Back in October Sabian launched a website at www.cymbalvote.com and invited people to pick from 12 new cymbal models. The site featured videos of Neil Peart, Terry Bozzio, Mike Portnoy and several other well-known drummers playing the cymbals and giving their opinions on what they liked about them. One cymbal was then eliminated each week until only four remained. 
Members of Swedish heavy metal band Meshuggah were recently interviewed for the Nuclear Blast Records website to discuss their upcoming album KOLOSS. At one point drummer Tomas Haake was asked about his favorite prog drummers and went on to talk about Neil Peart and Rush. You can listen to what he had to say in this YouTube video at about the 1:45 mark. Thanks to Marco V for the heads up.
UPDATE - 1/27@9:27AM: Here's 
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