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, Feb 19, 2010@1:48PM | comments removed/disabled

This past week some more information came trickling in regarding both the expected Rush 2010 tour as well as the upcoming Rush documentary. My sources have recently informed me that Rush plans to begin touring in the late Spring hitting South and North America in 2010 with an extensive Canadian leg including Atlantic Canada, and after taking a break follow this up with a European leg in 2011. Of course, all of this info is unofficial; we should have some kind of official announcement coming in the next couple of weeks. The Rush documentary is rumored to premier at the Tribeca Film Festival in late April and get a DVD release sometime later this year.

Rush of course did not perform at the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Vancouver last Friday, but there is still an outside chance we might see them at the closing ceremony. VANOC is being just as tight-lipped with the closing ceremony as with the opening, so I assume we won't really know for sure until the ceremony itself on Sunday, February 28th. While Rush hasn't appeared at the Olympics, a good bit of Rush music has. The Canadian hockey team burst onto the ice Tuesday to the riffs of Rush (thanks chutch15), part of Malignant Narcissism was played and Mix Master Mike spun a little Tom Sawyer during the Men's Halfpipe Qualifiers, and Anthem was played during the Ski Jump on Saturday (thanks Hakky). And although it's moot now, you can go vote for Geddy as the Canadian most deserving of lighting the Olympic torch (thanks robertkincaid96).

35 years ago this past Monday Rush released their 2nd studio album, 1975's Fly By Night. This was Rush's first album with drummer/lyricist Neil Peart and their first album produced by Terry Brown, who would go on to produce all of Rush's albums up through 1982's Signals. It peaked at #113 on the Billboard album charts and was certified both Gold and Platinum by the RIAA on December 1, 1993. In celebration of this momentous event, for the current poll I'm asking everyone what their favorite song off of Fly By Night is. Take the Poll and let us know if you haven't already.

The latest issue of Classic Rock's Prog magazine contains a short feature on Rush producer Terry Brown along with a review of the Working Men live compilation. You can check these out by clicking on the thumbnails. Thanks to MajorSkalle for the heads up and the scans.

Open Court Publishing will soon be releasing a Rush and Philosophy book as part of their popular Culture and Philosophy book series. One of the book's co-editors - Jim Berti - recently launched a blog to go along with the book release and to create a place for folks to discuss Rush and philosophy. You can check it out at this link. Thanks to Rush and Philosophy contributor and RIAB reader Steven Horowitz for the heads up.

Reader John H noted that the Getty Images database contains a ton of great Rush images. Unfortunately they are all watermarked, but they're still fun to browse through.

In the latest edition of online radio show The Used Bin, hosts Brad and Joe dedicate a good portion of the show to discussing Rush (something they do often), specifically the Olympics opening ceremony rumor. You can listen to the podcast at this link. The Olympics bit starts around the 25-minute mark and runs about 5 minutes. They also mention Rush a couple of other times later in the show. I was a guest on the show the week before last and also back in the summer. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.

The KnuckleBonz Rock Iconz Rush Starman statue was in attendance at the 2010 Toy Fair in New York this past week and gets featured in this woot.com article discussing rock and roll toys. Thanks to rosmakloma for the heads up.

In a Friday updates post from last month I mentioned that the popular iPhone game Tap Tap Revenge 3 (similar to Guitar Hero and Rock Band) was recently released. Several Rush songs are available to play with the game. Reader exit...stage left located this YouTube demonstration of the game which features Rush's YYZ. For more information check out the iTunes store.

Speaking of YYZ, UK-based symphonic progressive metal band Xerath have recorded a cover of Rush's YYZ and posted it to their MySpace page. You can give it a listen at this link. Thanks to BW&BK for the heads up.

Reader Pat R let me know that his wife is a jewelry artist based in Asheville, NC. She recently created a really neat Snakes & Arrows-inspired silver and leather necklace which you can check out at this link.

PhillyMike let me know that in the second hour of The Tony Kornheiser Show on Tuesday, February 16, Rush was discussed. Tony and a couple others on the show were teasing Washington Post sports reporter Liz Clarke about her avowed dislike of all things Canadian. Her longstanding position is that Canadians have not contributed anything of consequence to the arts and humanities. Gary Braun, who's also part of the show, mentioned twice in response that Rush was a Canadian cultural icon. You can listen to the conversation at this link. The Rush bit starts around the 40-minute mark.

Reader emajor7th located this IndyWeek.com article referencing how Clear Channel Raleigh was changing the format of WRDU-FM from country music to Rush Radio. The article is titled Rush Radio: Truth is false and logic lost:

When I first heard that Clear Channel Raleigh was changing the format of WRDU-FM, 106.1 from country music to something called "Rush Radio," I thought: Wouldn't it be cool, in a nerdy way, if the station was devoted solely to the music of Rush? It's a very "satellite radio" sort of concept, but why not? At least RDU would be getting back to its rock roots. No such luck. Instead, the San Antonio-based radio giant Clear Channel has reprogrammed WRDU as a talk station with a daylong cavalcade of conservative stars, headlined by that "talent on loan from God," the gaseous Rush Limbaugh. ...

Rush is a band! :)

Degrassi Junior High was a Canadian TV teen drama series that ran from 1987-1989 on the CBC. The show often used Rush as background music as listed on the Power Windows Rush in Pop Culture page. Reader Sean located YouTube clips to go along with a couple of the listed references:

During the episode "He Ain't Heavy", as Joey takes the demo tape from his band, the Zit Remedy, to the local radio station (C-RAZ) in hopes of that they will play it on the air, "Force 10" is reportedly heard playing 'on the air'. Then, as Joey is trying to give the DJ his demo tape, the very end drum fills of "Limelight" are head.

You can watch the Force 10 piece here (2:55) and the Limelight bit here (6:55).

During the episode "The Whole Truth", as Joey is going through records at the radio station (C-RAZ), after he gets fired and Dr. Sally comes and tells him his tape was good and to keep working, he is listening to his walkman and "Lock And Key" is playing through his headphones.

This one can be seen at this link (1:05).

Sean also located this 2-part interview with Rush sound engineer Rich Chycki which was conducted in December. Rich talks extensively about all of his many Rush-related projects. You can check out part 1 at this link and part 2 here.

Satirical online music news site The Umpteenth Times posted an article last week titled Rush to be Immortalized in Lego-form. From the article:

... According to Blokkermansson, children (or lonely middle-aged men) can now create Lego-realizations of many Rush fan favorites, such as the car chase scene in “Red Barchetta,” a collapsible “Temples of Syrinx,” and the “Bytor and the Snowdog” battle scene. There is also the Legoization of the popular live album, Exit Stage Left, featuring Neil Peart’s complete drum and percussion kit at 3,172 bricks. ...

Heck, I'd kill to get a By-tor and the Snow Dog battle scene lego set. All kidding aside, people have been making custom Rush lego sets/figures and selling them on eBay (see picture above) for a while now. Thanks to V for the link.

Speaking of By-tor - in celebration of the 35th anniversary of Fly by Night here's By-tor and the Snow Dog live from the Exit ... Stage Left video:

That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!

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