Friday, February 17, 2012

Updates and other random Rush stuff

UPDATE - 2/18@9:04AM: David Barrett posted the following to his Facebook page last night:

Big Al needs the Gibson double neck back for summer rehearsals and the upcoming Rush tour in September, anyone else want to give me one, maybe Gibson?

This seems to confirm what we already knew - that Rush will tour in the Fall. And I hope he's not teasing about Al needing his double-neck for Summer rehearsals!!

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Last week we learned that sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson would be writing a novelization of Rush's upcoming Clockwork Angels album. Anderson posted the news to his Facebook page last Thursday:

... I worked together with Neil to flesh out the epic story told over the course of the music, as well as the artist Hugh Syme whose paintings fill the CD booklet. In a young man's quest to follow his dreams, he is caught between the grandiose forces of order and chaos. He travels across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy, with lost cities, pirates, anarchists, exotic carnivals, and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life. To whet your appetite, Rush released the first two tracks, "Caravan" and "BU2B"-listen to those songs to get an idea of the story's beginning.

I'm writing the chapters now, incorporating the lyrics into the narrative, and having a fantastic time. More details to come, but for now-to quote a line from Caravan: "I can't stop thinking big."

Earlier this week we received the news that Neil Peart's current publisher ECW Press will be releasing the book sometime this coming Fall. From the official ECW Press Twitter feed:

Exciting news: This fall, we'll be publishing a collaboration between Neil Peart of Rush and @thekja! http://bit.ly/yBat18

So it looks like the book release won't coincide with the album release this Spring, assuming they still are planning on a late April release for the album (I'm not hearing any evidence to the contrary). In any case, routing for a Fall tour in support of the album is underway and all signs point to a September kick-off.

Geddy Lee made a cameo appearance in the CBC's film adaptation of Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town this past Sunday. Geddy's character appears throughout the film but is always shown sitting in a barber chair with a towel over his head and a disguised voice. He only reveals himself at the end of the movie during the credits as pictured here. The entire film is now online at the CBC website and there's also this behind the scenes video where you can see Geddy at about the 2:35 mark.

Speaking of Geddy, last month Moog Music posted the first of a 3-part video interview with Geddy Lee where he talks about Moog Taurus Pedals. The interview was conducted late last year from the recording studio where the band was working on Clockwork Angels. In the first installment Geddy spoke about his first introduction to the Taurus sound, how it influenced Rush's song construction back in the '70s, and the new Moog Minitaur. Geddy also mentions how much of a fan of the Taurus pedals their producer Nick Raskulinecz is and revealed that they used them on a few of the tracks on the new album. You can check out part 1 of the video on YouTube. Parts 2 and 3 of the interview have since been posted to the Moog Music website (part 2, part 3). Part 2 is nearly 5 minutes long and Geddy talks about learning to play with his feet and attempting to get MIDI-like capabilities out of his Taurus 1. Part 3 is about 3 minutes long and Geddy talks about the reintroduction of the Moog Taurus Pedals, performing with them live, and relays a funny story involving the Moog Taurus Pedals and a pregnant friend; the taurus pedals makes babies come faster! You can check out the videos at the Moog Music website (part 2, part 3).

Nearly four years ago I posted an inspiring story about Samantha Dyar - a then 16-year-old Rush fan who had been diagnosed with cancer back in August of 2007. 3 months into her treatment she was approached by the Make-A-Wish Foundation and asked how they could help to make her wish come true. Samantha's wish was to meet her favorite band - Rush. This marked the first time Rush had ever been approached for a Make-A-Wish request, and the guys enthusiastically agreed. Samantha relayed to me her incredible story of meeting the band and hanging out backstage at Rush's Charlotte, NC stop on the Snakes & Arrows tour, which I shared with everyone in this post. Four years later, Samantha is a happy and healthy International Affairs and Political Science major at the University of Georgia. She is currently involved with UGA Miracle - a non-profit organization that raises money to donate to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta - a local Children's Miracle Network hospital. Samantha is currently asking for donations to help her raise money for UGA Miracle, and with the help of several Rush fans from this site, The Rush Forum and others, Samantha was able to far surpass her original goal of raising $1,000. As of this post her new goal is $3,500 and she's very close to making it. Please help out if you can. You can donate at Samantha's personal donation page here. Make sure to read Samantha's make-a-wish Rush story if you haven't already. And here's a bootleg video of Rush's July 20, 2008 Charlotte performance of Mission - which Geddy dedicated to Samm. Samm can be seen backstage on Geddy's side at about the 1-minute mark. Note her reaction when Geddy dedicates the song to her! :)

The latest edition of Classic Rock's Prog magazine went on sale this past Wednesday. The issue includes exclusive interviews with the hottest acts in prog today including Rush, and also contains the results of their 2011 Readers' Poll. Geddy Lee won for Best Bassist, and Rush's Time Machine video took top honors in the Best DVD category. The cover is a collage of prog-rock artists and includes a small photo of Geddy Lee.

Speaking of Prog magazine, the December, 2011 issue contains a very short review from Jerry Ewing of the 3 recent Rush releases - Time Machine, ABC 1974 and Sectors. He has great things to say about Time Machine and likes ABC 1974 too, but argues that Sectors probably isn't worth the money:

... Which leaves us with Sectors: three volumes of back catalogue housed in "flight cases". In the face of the recent Pink Floyd Immersion extravaganzas, one can't help feeling Rush have missed a trick here. They look good, but despite being nicely recreated vinyl replicas and coming with booklets packed with photos, lyrics and juicy album information, only one album in each box - Fly By Night, A Farewell To Kings and Signals - is in 5.1, the rest just normal stereo. At £3O apiece, that's £90 for the set. Does that constitute value for money?

You can read the entire transcription of the review at the Power Windows site. Speaking of Sectors, information on obtaining replacements for the faulty Fly By Night and A Farewell to Kings discs was posted to Rush's Facebook page last week.

PopMatters posted their list of the 10 Best Progressive Rock Albums of the 2000s earlier this week. Rush did not make the list, but Porcupine Tree's 2007 album Fear of a Blank Planet topped the list at #1. You may recall that Alex Lifeson plays a solo on the album's 17-minute epic track Anesthetize. Thanks to John at Cygnus-X1.net for the heads up.

The Grammy Awards took place this past weekend and in the run-up to the ceremony the Digital Music News posted an article where they list 54 Artists That Somehow Never Won a Grammy (thanks William M). Rush makes their list at #19 and is in good company. Some other great rock acts who never received a Grammy are The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Queen!

Mike Ragogna of the Huffington Post recently interviewed James Young of Styx to discuss the band's new live DVD The Grand Illusion / Pieces of Eight - Live (thanks RushFanForever). He mentions Rush's playing of Moving Pictures in its entirety on their Time Machine tour as part of the inspiration for the DVD - although he gets his albums mixed up:

MR: Okay, let's chat about your new DVD, The Grand Illusion / Pieces Of Eight Live. What inspired you guys to celebrate this period with a live series of concerts and DVD release?

JY: Well, it was a concert promoter along with our manager that hatched up the idea of us doing this. Rush had just done a two-hour show where they put their 2112 album in the middle of it, so other people were doing it as well. ...

Toronto-based rock band Danko Jones has posted another installment (episode 16) of their official podcast online. The episode features singer/guitarist Patrick Pentland of Sloan and comedian/punk rock singer Nick Flanagan. Among the topics of discussion are tattoos, first impressions, celebrity reporting, stand-up comedians and drummers Max Weinberg and Neil Peart. It is available for free download via iTunes. Thanks to BW&BK for the heads up.

Reader Brian C is a student at the Texas Tech School of Law and one of his History of Oil & Gas Law II test essay questions - which happened to be released on 2.1.12 - was no doubt compiled by a Rush fan:

An operator, Lee Oil, circulates a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) to all working interest owners to cover the proposed drilling of wells to a "depth of 2,000 feet or the Clockwork formation, whichever is less." All parties assent and execute the JOA. One well, Well 1, is drilled under the "Initial Well" provision and is a success. Some time after the JOA is executed, Lee Oil circulates an Authorization for Expenditure (AFE) to cover costs to a second well, Well 2. This AFE is not executed. However, several non-operators contribute their proportionate share of the costs. Two non-operators who are signatories to the JOA, Peart Petroleum and Lifeson Gas, do not assent to the second AFE, do not sign the document, and do not contribute their proportionate share to cover the costs of Well 2. Lee Oil drills Well 2 to a depth of 2,112 feet and brings in a producing well. With respect to Well 2, Lee Oil now treats Peart and Lifeson as non-consent working interest owners under the terms of the JOA. A dispute arises over whether or not the terms of the JOA apply, particularly the non-consent penalty. The operator argues to the court that the AFE for Well 2 has modified the express terms of the JOA to cover a well drilled to 2,000 feet or more. The two non-operators argue that the AFE has not modified the JOA and that they are not subject to the non-consent penalty. Has the AFE modified the express terms of the JOA?

Continuing on the law theme, Rush fan and lawyer Sean Harrington managed to slip some Rush lyrics into a recent law review article he wrote on digital forensics. He begins the introduction with the Test for Echo lyric put your message in a modem and throw it in the Cyber Sea. You can check it out at this link.

In the wake of Madonna's Super Bowl XLVII halftime show appearance a couple of weeks back, Rolling Stone magazine asked its web readers who should play the halftime show next year. Rush made their list at #7 (thanks Silas):

Prog-rock legends Rush are a bit of a long shot for the Super Bowl, but if they had the chance, there's no doubt the Canadian rockers would deliver a full-on stadium spectacle with crowd pleasers like "Tom Sawyer" and "Spirit of the Radio."

Here's part 2 and part 3 of Geddy's Moog Music interview:

That's it for this week. Thanks to everyone who helped out Samantha by donating to UGA Miracle. Have a great weekend everyone!