Rush is a Band

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

Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Updates and other random Rush stuff

Fri, Dec 23, 2011@11:46AM | comments removed/disabled

UPDATE - 12/24@10:06AM: Here's some more Rush from the Sonic Elements Sonic Reality Progressive Rock Project; the outro to Between the Wheels:

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This past Wednesday we celebrated International Rush Day - the 21st day of the 12th month or 21/12 as written in many parts of the world. The occasion has become an unofficial Rush holiday in recent years, and is always a lot of fun to celebrate. The big news of this past week was Rush finally wrapping up the recording of their upcoming Clockwork Angels album. They've spent the last 2 months working with producer Nick Raskulinecz and sound engineer Rich Chycki at Revolution Studio in Toronto, and Rich Chycki posted the following tweet earlier this week:

2 months at Revolution Studio in Toronto. Thanks for the hospitality guys! #wrapped

Although he doesn't explicitly mention Rush in this tweet, it's apparent from other recent tweets and interviews that the Rush recording is what's being referred to here. The fact that the recording is finished has also been corroborated by other anonymous sources close to the band. Rush have mixing booked for after the New Year and should be on track for a Spring release. Guitar World readers recently voted Clockwork Angels as the most anticipated album of 2012.

Guitar World posted their list of the Top Ten DVDs of 2011 and Rush's Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland made the list at #2 (thanks RushFanForever). Antimusic.com recently reviewed the DVD and gave it a 3.5/5. The Time Machine Blu-ray was released back on November 8th, but was only available exclusively at Best Buy in the US until just this past Tuesday when all other US retailers began carrying it. If you haven't already, you can order your copy at this link. Now that the Time Machine concert video has been out for a while now, I thought I'd ask everybody how they think it stacks up against all of the other Rush DVDs/videos. Take the poll and let us know. For all the results from past rushisaband.com polls, view the poll archive.

Speaking of Rush live, Rush tour photographer/pyrotechnician John Arrowsmith let me know that he recently uploaded all of his 2008 photos from the Snakes & Arrows tour to the Rush tour photo website. You can check them out at this link. Thanks John!

Radio DJ and That Metal Show host Eddie Trunk interviewed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation CEO Joel Peresman for his Sirius XM radio show this past Monday evening. Eddie had an informative and respectful 2.5-hour talk with Peresman. It was a great discussion from an educational standpoint in that the nomination/induction process was discussed in painstaking detail, but nothing was really resolved. Eddie mentioned Rush several times during the interview as being one of the most egregious omissions from the Rock Hall along with KISS and Deep Purple, and Peresman mentioned Rush being the most talked about exclusion over the last couple of years. Probably the most interesting portion of the interview was when VH1 executive and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nomination Committee member Rick Krim called in. Krim is a big rock and metal fan and has been pushing for Rush's induction for all of the 3 years he's been a member of the committee, so it was great hearing his perspective and knowing that he's in there fighting for Rush and other hard rock acts. The entire interview is available for listening on YouTube at this link.

As part of his series of Rush road crew interviews this past summer, Paul at The Canadian Music Scene interviewed legendary Rush producer Terry Brown. Back in July he posted part 1 of the interview where Terry spoke about his beginnings in the music industry, who he worked with, where he worked, and what roles one plays while working their way up the ladder. Paul was finally been able to post part 2 of the interview earlier this week which you can check out at this link. This portion of the interview is particularly interesting in that Terry talks about his history working with Rush. In case you missed them, you can see all of Paul's other Rush road crew interviews at his website here.

The Ultimate Classic Rock website posted their list of the Top 10 Jewish Rock Stars earlier this week in celebration of Hanukkah (thanks rushrulez. Geddy Lee made the list at #9:

Rush bassist and vocalist Geddy Lee was born Gary Lee Weinrib on July 29, 1953. His parents were Jewish refugees from Poland who survived the Dachau and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps during World War II. In 2004, when Rob Tannenbaum of Maxim interviewed Lee he described the two most Jewish things about him as "My nose and my sense of humor. I'm kind of a Jewish atheist: I bathe in the racial beauty of Judaism, but I don't really see what that has to do with a belief in God. The only time I pray is on the tennis court."

Speaking of Ultimate Classic Rock, the first annual Ultimate Classic Rock Awards kicked off a few weeks ago and Rush is in the running for several of the awards; Tour of the Year, DVD of the Year, Live Album of the Year, Box Set of the Year. So go vote for Rush! And Alex Lifeson is up for the Guitar World Hall of Fame in the magazine's 2011 Reader's Poll (thanks John H). So go vote for Lerxst!

Mike Smith (aka Bubbles from The Trailer Park Boys) posted a great gallery of photos to Facebook from when he had the honor of touring/recording with Rush a few years back. You can check out the gallery at this link (thanks RushFanForever).

Comedian Patton Oswalt was a guest on Conan Tuesday night and made some observations about the insane logic problems inherent in the Christmas song The Little Drummer Boy. Referring specifically to how he essentially puts the baby Jesus to sleep with a drum solo, Oswalt remarked, Where were you when my baby had croup Neil Peart!? You can watch the video of the exchange online at this link at about the 3-minute mark. It even made TV Guide's Cheers & Jeers Wednesday morning along with The Huffington Post. Thanks to burma.girl and AHSBAND2112 for the heads up. On a related note, Alex Lifeson recorded an instrumental version of The Little Drummer Boy for the 1997 album Merry Axemas. Alex also talked about the song for a recent MusicRadar.com article where they had asked several rock stars to pick their favorite Christmas songs.

Reader RushFanForever located this website which lists all of the various K-Tel and other compilations that Rush songs have appeared on over the years. I remember owning a couple of these on cassette!

Reader WorkingmanDc noticed this sign for a $21.12 special outside of a Manhattan parking garage last week. I think a Rush fan might work there... :)

Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson was the guest DJ at the city's Biltmore Cabaret night club this past Saturday night and let his Rush fan colors show (thanks RushFanForever):

... all eyes turned to the deejay booth at the back of the dance floor. Robertson took to the turntables at 11 p.m. wearing an indigo polo shirt under a dark sport coat and sporting a pair of electric blue headphones. He opened with Geddy Lee's crack-ling first words from Rush's Tom Sawyer before sliding into the Black Keys' dancey Dead and Gone. ...

Reader Anthony G let me know that Rush was the answer to the $1000 question in the Canada Rocks category on Jeopardy! last Friday night. The question was:

This arena-rock trio hit it big in the '70s with the Ayn Rand-inspired album 2112

Rush was also the answer to a Jeopardy! question earlier this year. Thanks to Chip H for the screenshot.

Reader hermy had a slow week at work and made a couple of Rush-themed Christmas images utilizing his mad Photoshop skillz. You can check them out by clicking on the thumbnails. And Eric over at the Power Windows site put together this JibJab holiday greeting from the Rush elves:

Happy Holidays everybody!!

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