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Rush is a Band

A blog devoted to RUSH:
Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Fri, Apr 19, 2024

The Big Dirty Band and I Fought the Law: single to be released Sept. 12 with video shortly after and ... live dates!?

Sat, Sep 9, 2006@10:25AM | comments removed/disabled

UPDATE - 9/14@5:00PM: In case you missed this more recent post or got here via a search engine, The Big Dirty Band put up a MySpace page a couple days ago where you can listen to their version of I Fought the Law as well as a couple other songs from the soundtrack! There's also a "mugshot gallery" of all the band members.

UPDATE - 9/11@11:00AM: Counterparts board member Three Eyes was lucky enough to see an early screening of the film and had this to report:

Last week I saw a test screening of the TPB movie with Richard Carter here at the Burbank AMC. It was great! Alex has a cameo as a cop and there is a snippet of A Passage to Bangkok as Trevor and Cory drive up on a snowmobile with wheels.

No spoilers here but I will say the movie uses stuff from the series that many of us are already familiar with presumably to introduce the characters to a new, wider audience. This has me thinking it will see an American release. Just the fact that they screened it in the U.S. is a good sign. Then again if the film tests poorly here it might only get rolled out in Canada.

Alex cameo as a cop!?!? Fantastic.

-- snip --

UPDATE - 9/10@10:03AM: According to the Trailer Park Boys Movie website, the soundtrack for the film will be available through Anthem Records on October 3rd - the same day the movie will be released. No tracklist was given, but artists on the soundtrack include Alexisonfire, The Big Dirty Band, Rush, J-Roc and of course Ricky, Bubbles and Julian. There's also a contest to win a VIP trip to the world premier in Toronto on October 3rd:

You and a friend could party with the boys at the world premier screening and a rock-n-roll supergroup concert like no other!

This supergroup concert must be the "live dates" they mentioned- I doubt they'll perform beyond the premier, but you never know. The contest is also, unfortunately for us State-siders, only open to Canadians. I also sincerely doubt that this film will ever be released in the US. If anyone plans a roadtrip to the premier, let me know. I doubt I could go, but it'd be nice to be able to get some "live updates" to post here.

-- snip --

In his Summer Update blog entry from the end of last month, sound engineer Richard Chycki, who is rumored to be working on the next Rush album, mentioned how he got to record and mix a version of I Fought the Law for the upcoming Trailer Park Boys movie. The song will be featured in a "chase scene" from the film and was produced by Alex Lifeson and those involved include Alex and Geddy, Adam Gontier (Three Days Grace), Jeff Burrows (The Tea Party), Ian Thornley and Care (Die Mannequin). Jeff Burrows recently spoke out about the experience in The Windsor Star and divulged some new and exciting information:

... "When they called me about it, I was in Vancouver working on my new band," said Burrows, 38. "How could I say no?" ... "That was the band that convinced me I wanted to be a rock musician," he said.

The song they did was the often-covered I Fought The Law, by the Bobby Fuller Four. What could Burrows and two-thirds of Rush bring to it that others like The Clash and Green Day couldn't?

"It's got a real Rush feel to it because of Lifeson's guitar," he said.

Burrows was asked to play because Neil Peart was unavailable. ... The band calls itself The Big Dirty Band after the title of the movie, and there will be select live dates after the CD is released in October.

The single is coming out in the next week, said Burrows.

Peart is one of Burrows's idols, so filling in for him was a daunting task, he said.

"He's admired by a lot of drummers," said Burrows. "There's nothing flashy in what he does but it's very distinctive, very straightforward. He's called the professor, a mathematician on drums." ...

So the single comes out in the next week - September 12 to be exact if my sources are correct. And ... SELECT LIVE DATES!?!? I'd love some more details about this. Where? When? What songs would they play?! I've also learned via a Jeff Burrows fansite that on August 25 The Big Dirty Band recorded a video for the song that should be appearing on Canadian music channel MuchMusic in the near future. Pictures of Jeff in the studio and from the video shoot can be seen here. I'll keep you updated as I find out more.