UPDATE - 2/24@1:07PM: Here's a late addition to the updates. The death this past week of Canadian film and broadcast executive Pierre Juneau sparked a debate at the National Post's Full Comment forum on the merits of CanCon (Juneau was a key proponent of the regulations) which centers around Rush. It's titled Without CanCon, would there still be Rush?.

We received another bit of news regarding the release date of Clockwork Angels this past week. The latest edition of Classic Rock's Prog magazine includes a short, one-page feature on Rush, and at the end of the article they mention that Clockwork Angels is out in May via Roadrunner. This is consistent with the late April/early May rumors that I've been hearing for some time now, but it's always nice to see it in print. Many have been speculating that the album might be delayed since both the Clockwork Angels tour and the release of Kevin J. Anderson's novelization of the album won't happen until this Fall. But if the Prog article is correct this doesn't seem to be the case. The feature itself is just an extension of older interviews with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. They re-use pieces from those interviews but also include some new bits such as these comments from Geddy on the band's new Roadrunner label:

... There was something about the people at Roadrunner, they were so into rock, into what we're all about as opposed to some of the Atlantic guys. ... Frankly, we were very unhappy with the way we were treated at Atlantic UK, I don't think they really got us, so it was good to go somewhere that did. ...

The issue also contains the results of Prog's 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. You can read the entire piece by clicking on the thumbnail.

As I've been mentioning for a few weeks now, routing for a Fall tour in support of the Clockwork Angels album is underway and all signs point to a September kick-off. Although there hasn't been any official announcement yet, word of the Fall tour is slowly leaking out. Guitarist David Barrett of the Alex Lifeson-produced David Barrett Trio posted the following to his Facebook page last week:

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? ... kicker is he's using it for a new Rush song, not Xanadu!

This seems to confirm the news of a Fall tour and - better yet - that Big Al will be resurrecting his Gibson double neck for one of the new Rush tunes! Maybe Lerxst will pull out Xanadu too while he's at it. And speaking of the David Barrett Trio, the band just finished up demos of 11 tracks and have shipped them off to big Al to check out. From David's Facebook page:

Pre-production this week, 11 tunes recorded, mixed, and delivered to Big Al. Thanks to the fearless rhythm section of Alexander 'Sascha' Tukatsch and Jason Farrar. Great sounds, mixing and engineering courtesy of BAHM, thank you Sascha.

Back in November Rush released remastered versions of their first 15 albums in three Sector box sets. The mastering duties were handled by Masterdisk chief engineer Andy VanDette, who has been working with Rush sound engineer Rich Chycki on handling most of the mastering duties for Rush since Snakes & Arrows Live, having worked on that album along with Retrospective 3, the R30 Blu-ray and the Moving Pictures deluxe edition last year. VanDette spoke about his approach to remastering Rush's catalog in this article/interview for the Masterdisk website back in November. He was also recently interviewed for Ars Technica about the challenges of mastering music for iTunes in the digital age and repeatedly cited Rush's back catalog as an example. The article mentions that the iTunes mastering work for Rush's catalog is finished, and VanDette is waiting on final record label approval before the new remasters will be available; the versions currently available are converted from the 1997 remasters. You can read the entire article at this link. While on the subject 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 a couple of weeks back. I've already received the replacement disks myself as have several other fans and all the issues have been resolved.

Back in August of last year UK multimedia publisher Abstract Sounds Books released a 116-page hardcover book and 4-DVD set titled Rush: Changing Hemispheres in the UK. The set was not an official Rush release nor was it ever sanctioned by the band. It was later also released in the US as an import in November. Earlier this week John at Cygnus-X1.net posted a transcription of the book along with scans of the images to his website here. The book is simply a biography of the band containing information already available online, and is chock full of errors - both factual and typographical. From all that I've heard about the DVDs accompanying the book, they make the text look good in comparison. Needless to say, this is probably one purchase any Rush fan can easily skip. On the flip side, John's Cygnus-X1.net site also contains a transcription of Bryan Harrigan's 1984 Rush biography - the first Rush biography ever published - along with a transcription of Steve Gett's 1985 Rush biography Success Under Pressure. Just this past week John added scans of the photos from both books to the transcription pages which you can check out here (Rush biography) and here (Success Under Pressure). Thanks John!

While on the subject of Rush transcriptions, both John at Cygnus-X1.net and Eric at Power Windows have been working very hard over the past year transcribing and scanning any Rush magazine article/interview they can get their hands on. This past summer the Power Windows site added an extensive Rush Transcription Archive containing hundreds of transcripts of Rush related magazine and newspaper articles, radio programs, concert reviews, tour books and more, dating back as far as 1974 and listed in chronological order. And the Cygnus-X1.net site has a similar section devoted to transcriptions of anything and everything Rush-related including his ongoing Rush: A Brief History of Time series containing article/interview transcriptions. Both John and Eric do an incredible job with this stuff and are continually updating their archives and adding new material - so much so that it's hard to keep up with it all! The best way to follow all of their updates to these sections of their sites is to follow them on Twitter (Power Windows, Cygnus-X1.net) or Facebook (Power Windows, Cygnus-X1.net). I also try to re-tweet or share these on the RIAB Facebook page and Twitter Feed whenever I come across them. Speaking of which, the RIAB Facebook page just recently topped 4000 likes and the Twitter Feed is closing in on 6000 followers!

Back on March 28, 2010 Rush was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. The ceremony aired on CBC Radio but wasn't televised, and an audio version was posted online shortly thereafter. However, there wasn't any video available until just this past week when the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame website added video of the ceremony to Rush's page in their Virtual Hall of Fame. Included are the 15-minute video of Dave Bidini's introduction of the band where he reads from his book For Those About the Rock, along with Rush's acceptance of the award and Neil Peart's speech. There's also Jacob Moon's performance of Subdivisions, Les Claypool's performance of The Spirit of Radio and Alexis on Fire's performance of Tom Sawyer. It should be noted that Alexis on Fire's performance had not been included in the original CBC broadcast due to technical issues, so this is the first time it's seen the light of day.

The Rush Backstage Club is running a new contest where you could win a 1000-piece Moving Pictures jigsaw puzzle:

Win this rare Moving Pictures Puzzle! Previously sold in the Rush Backstage Club store, this puzzle is no longer available, so the only way to get your hands on this item is by winning this contest.

For all the details and to enter just go to this link. They are also currently running a big sale on a number of items.

Reader Hal S let me know that Chicago-based independent comic artist Seamus Patrick Burke has finished his second print collection of his Oh Goodie! online comic. It's entitled Working Man and is very Rush-influenced, as demonstrated by the cover. He's taking pre-orders (with personalization options) through kickstarter at this link. For more details you can check out Burke's blog and OhGoodie.net.

LA Weekly compiled their list of the Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time and Rush made their list at #9 (thanks Erik R). Here's what LA Weekly's Kai Flanders had to say about Rush:

You realize that Jason Segel's character's obsession with Rush in I Love You Man is tongue in cheek, right? It's often said that people either love Rush or hate them, but a more accurate statement is that most people hate Rush, while a scattered few really love them. Sort of like anchovies; in fact, it's quite fair to call Rush the anchovies of rock music. Then there's the fact that "drummer Neil Peart generally consents only to speak to the drum press," a pantheon that includes in its entirety Modern Drummer and Not So Modern Drummer, if we're not mistaken. -Kai Flanders

Whatever. I've seen worse - amateurs. :)

Noisecreep.com posted thier list of 10 Heavy Metal Concept Albums That Should Be Made Into Movies yesterday and Rush's 2112 makes the cut:

2112, Rush (1976)
Sacred as this song is, it's surely cinematic enough to have movie adaptation potential. A man, one of many under the thumb of a super-oppressive regime, unearths a musical instrument (forbidden in this fictional world), discovers beauty, and realizes all that he and his fellow citizens are being robbed of. If Ayn Rand were still alive, she'd be a great consultant; if Stanley Kubrick were alive, there's your director.

And Guyspeed.com posted their list of 10 Badass Fictional Characters In Popular Music and Rush's Tom Sawyer made the list at #7 (thanks John at Cygnus-X1.net):

It's Rush's iconic anthem to Mark Twain's character of the same name. Tom Sawyer is basically about a guy who won't bend to society's wants and needs and does what he wants. A nonconformist if you will. Neil Pert describes him has modern day rebel with a purpose. Sounds good to us.

Apparently Geddy Lee has a side job working for Google according to this recent article on Google Affiliate programs at the Publishers Weekly website:

... at least two booksellers in New England who recently tried to sign up were unable to submit their applications. On February 9 on a Google site intended to help affiliates, Geddy Lee answered questions about how to set up an affiliate site by stating, "The Google eBooks program is currently not accepting new applications at this time." He also noted that the directions to become an affiliate will be updated soon. Contacted by PW, a Google rep said the company was not prepared to talk about new plans for the program at this point. ...

Interesting. Rush must not be paying Geddy enough. :)

Guitarist Paul Gilbert (Racer X, Mr. Big) recently penned an article for Premier Guitar magazine (thanks HighFidelityRob) discussing his hearing loss and how musicians can avoid damaging their ears. It's a fun read and very tongue-in-cheek at times. Gilbert creates a list of Don'ts including this one: Don't crank up your headphones to concert volume while air-drumming to Rush albums every night before you go to bed. Too late for me... :)

Speaking of Mr. Big, frontman Eric Martin was recently interviewed by Nikki Blakk for 107.7 The Bone. He talks a bit about touring with Rush back in the 90s at the 9-minute mark of the interview here (thanks RUSHHEAD666 at The Rush Forum).

What do you get when you cross the year 2012 with food expiration dates? Extremely well-preserved groceries of course; groceries that will last well into the 22nd century and very possibly be eaten by residents of MegaDon in 2112. Want proof? Just check out the photos readers Tim H and Richard S sent me. :)

The Israeli premiere of the Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage will take place this coming Sunday, February 26th at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque at 10 p.m. The debut will be followed by midnight screenings on March 2, 9, 23. and 30. You can read a Jerusalem Post article on the screening here and find the event on Facebook here.

The latest edition of Esquire magazine contains an interview with Mad Men's Jon Hamm, and there's a Rush Limelight reference towards the end of the article which you can read online here (thanks George):

... So, having failed in my duties as an investigator, having left myself without a scoop on so much as the comings and goings of January Jones in episode one, scene one, I'm forced to admit to Jon Hamm that I'd been listening to the radio, cranking it, really, pitching the lyrics of "Limelight" as high and hard as my throat would allow, wondering if by some miracle my working knowledge of the song might not provide me some particular window into Hamm's fame. Geddy Lee once said:

Living on a lighted stage
Approaches the unreal
For those who think and feel
In touch with some reality
Beyond the gilded cage...

Living in a fish-eye lens,
Caught in the camera eye.
I have no heart to lie,
I can't pretend a stranger
Is a long-awaited friend.

Just download it. The song fits Hamm. Hamm fits the song. ...

A city block in Kingston, ON will soon be named for hometown favorites The Tragically Hip. The news prompted The Toronto Standard to speculate on what other Canadian bands might also get streets/landmarks named after them - including Rush (thanks RushFanForever):

Geddy Lee and Rush; Willowdale, Rogers Centre's Premium Dugout
Possible Name: Rush Road, Geddy Lee Way
Odds: Very Likely. Rush and frontman Geddy Lee are so iconically Canadian, that it may be one of the reasons why the band was scandalously omitted from being inducted in this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In fact, Geddy Lee is such a devoted fan of the Toronto Blue Jays, that he can often be spotted sitting right behind home plate at most home games. Rush's near-40-year musical legacy may be enough to carry them to the streets, so to speak, but before that happens, expect the Jays to rename the Premium Dugout section, "the Lee-mium Dugout." Or something.

Back in August online drum magazine iDrum kicked off a contest where the winner would get a complete Neil Peart Evolution Snare Collection along with a set of Neil's Sabian Paragon cymbals and a brick of Neil's custom ProMark drumsticks. I'm happy to announce that RIAB reader Ed W was the lucky winner of the contest and sent along this photo of himself with all of his swag. Congrats Ed!

This past week Rush's A Show of Hands video celebrated the 23rd anniversary of its release back on February 21, 1989. It was recorded at the Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England on April 21, 23, and 24, 1988 on the Hold Your Fire tour. Reader and Rock Band Network member Michael recently created a custom Rock Band live cut of Territories off of A Show of Hands to celebrate the event and posted a video to YouTube here. Today is the 30th anniversary of Rush's YYZ losing the Rock Instrumental Grammy back in 1982 to The Police's Behind My Camel. And this coming Sunday, February 26th marks the 15th anniversary of Rush receiving the Order of Canada, the highest civilian award from the Canadian government, for significant achievement in important fields of human endeavor. You can watch the video of the induction ceremony below or at this link.

That's all for this week. Have a Rush-tastic weekend everybody!

NOTE: Posts over 10 years old are partially archived. All comments, images and other embedded media have been removed.