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Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Fri, Mar 29, 2024

Updates and other random Rush stuff

Fri, Sep 23, 2011@12:08PM | comments removed/disabled

Earlier this week Rush revealed via a press release that a 2-CD audio companion to their upcoming Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland concert video would be released on November 8th - the same day as the DVD/Blu-ray, along with a package containing only the live tracks from the Moving Pictures album titled Moving Pictures: Live 2011, available only in vinyl or digital formats. The press release also contained details regarding the DVD/Blu-ray bonus features, and announced that the film would be getting a theatrical release beginning October 26th. In addition to that, VH1 Classic will be premiering an edited, 2-hour version of the concert as part of their Rush Hashanah celebration next Wednesday, September 28th. In light of this news I thought I'd launch a new poll asking everyone how they plan to watch the Time Machine concert video; on VH1 Classic, on DVD, on Blu-ray, in theaters, or all of the above. Take the poll and let us know. In my last poll I asked everyone what was their favorite tour since the band's return to touring after their 5-year hiatus from 1997-2002. The Time Machine tour was the big winner with over 43% of the vote. You can view all the results at this link.

Rush producer Nick Raskulinecz was recently interviewed for UltimateGuitar.com and gave a brief update regarding how work on Rush's upcoming Clockwork Angels album is progressing:

It is coming along fantastic, we have recorded two songs already and we released them last year and then the band went on tour. But we are currently in preproduction right now so that we can finish the rest of the record which we will start recording again in mid October.

You can read the entire interview at this link. The band will release the album on their new label Roadrunner Records sometime in the first of half of 2012 with a supporting tour to follow.

We learned earlier this week that the release date for Neil Peart's Taking Center Stage instructional DVD has been pushed back from October 14th to Tuesday, November 8th or possibly even November 15th. Amazon's listing for the DVD gives a November 8th release date but some folks who have already pre-ordered the DVD received an email from Amazon saying that they should expect to receive the item sometime the week of November 15th - which would imply a November 15th release. Suffice it to say that we'll need to wait at least a few more weeks, but should still have it in plenty of time for the Holidays. In the meantime you can check out TakingCenterStage.net for preview videos, a large photo gallery of behind-the-scenes pictures from the DVD filming, an informational page, and a four-part series of articles on the making of the DVD from lead editor and co-producer Joe Bergamini.

Yesterday I gave a brief update regarding the status of plans for re-releasing Rush's back catalog in 5.1. Back in May of last year, Classic Rock's Prog magazine ran a feature on Rush and mentioned that Rush's back catalogue will be the subject of a major reissues campaign in 2011. We didn't hear much more about this until earlier this year when it was revealed that Rush would be re-issuing a 5.1 version of their classic Moving Pictures album, and were also working on a re-mix of 2002's Vapor Trails. Around that same time MusicTap reiterated the band's plans for re-releasing their entire Universal catalog but did not provide any further details. The Moving Pictures 5.1 released this past Spring and was a huge success. Then a few days ago sharkshark at the AVS forum posted the following to a thread on Rush 5.1 re-releases after having a run-in with Geddy Lee at the Toronto International Film Festival:

... ran into Geddy last week at TIFF - we chatted 5.1, and he said they've locked their Engineer [Rich Chycki] in with the tapes ("he's got no life"), and that they plan on doing the same treatment for all their records. ... I specifically asked about multitracks for 2112 and he said they were in decent shape. ...

Assuming this information can be trusted, we may be getting 5.1 versions of Rush's entire back catalog - not just the Universal-era stuff. This news really isn't all that surprising given the huge success of the Moving Pictures 5.1 re-mix, but it's nice to hear regardless. More information as I learn it.

We learned earlier this year of Alex Lifeson's involvement with the film score for a new spy thriller starring Topher Grace and Richard Gere titled The Double. The film was co-written by Derek Haas and director Michael Brandt and features original music by film composer John Debney with a little help from Alex Lifeson. Alex plays guitar on the score throughout the movie and also wrote the outro track which is titled Don't Look Back according to movie co-writer Derek Haas, who posted the information to The Rush Forum back in August. Also performing on the track are Scarlet Sins vocalist Sylvya NuVynska and Skinny Puppy founding member cEvin Key, and Rush sound engineer Richard Chycki handled the mixing duties. You can listen to a 2-minute audio clip of Don't Look Back on YouTube at this link. The US release date for the film had originally been scheduled for today but has been pushed back to October 28th. You can watch the trailer for the The Double at this link.

Speaking of Alex, he was featured in an article for issue #217 of Total Guitar magazine. The magazine caught up with Alex backstage on the Time Machine Tour and got a personal tour of his entire live setup from Lerxst himself. Today MusicRadar.com posted a photo gallery from the article along with some excerpts from the interview. You can check it out at this link.

The Grapes for Humanity charity auction which Rush participated in last week ended up raising more than $50,000 for the charity! Up for bidding were a Geddy Lee Signed Fender Jazz Bass used on the 2010 Time Machine Tour, an Alex Lifeson Signed Gibson Les Paul Axcess used on the 2011 Time Machine Tour, and a Neil Peart Signed Sabian 20" Chinese Cymbal from the 2011 Time Machine Tour. Geddy Lee posted the following thank you message earlier this week:

I would like to take a moment to thank all those fans and friends who participated in the GRAPES UNDER PRESSURE eBay auction to benefit GRAPES FOR HUMANITY CANADA. With your help we managed to raise over $50,000 dollars! When combined with monies raised in our other G.U.P. events we will be able to significantly improve the lives of disadvantaged and injured people around the globe and more immediately will aid THE HALO TRUST in establishing a pilot project in Savannakhet Province, Laos, to address the urgent problem of casualties caused by cluster bombs.

Alex, Neil, myself and the entire G.U.P. Team, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
~Geddy

Grapes for Humanity is an organization that helps to raise funds to benefit humanitarian causes around the world with the assistance of the international wine community and Geddy Lee is a member of the board of directors.

Andrew Olson noticed that the Drum Channel's Secrets From The Pros series will be posting some lessons from Neil Peart in the near future according to a short blurb on their website (towards the bottom of the page). And this past weekend as part of his continuing series of Rush road crew interviews Paul at The Canadian Music Scene posted his interview with Neil Peart drum tech Lorne Wheaton. Lorne walks us through a typical day on the road as Neil Peart's drum tech, complete with nearly 50 high-res photographs of Neil's drums and gear. You can check out the interview/photos at this link. And in case you missed them, you can see all of Paul's other Rush road crew interviews at his website here.

Speaking of Neil, yesterday Neil Peart, Mike Portnoy and Terry Bozzio were in Los Angeles to shoot some kind of video (likely promotional) for Sabian cymbals according to this tweet from Mike Portnoy that he posted yesterday.

Back to LA to spend the day w Neil Peart & Terry Bozzio shooting a new Sabian video...then the RedEye to Brazil for Rock in Rio w Stone Sour

Then late last night Portnoy tweeted the following accompanied by this photo:

Sabian photo session w MP, Neil Peart, Dave Weckl, Tony Braunagel & Terry Bozzio...a great day of drumming & hanging! http://twitpic.com/6p15wg

Speaking of Mike Portnoy, reader Nick let me know that Portnoy and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante recently participated in a drum battle at Metal Masters Clinic 2 which took place at the Best Buy Theater in NYC on September 13th. Since both guys are big Rush fans, it's no surprise that they played a little Rush. You can check out some video on YouTube at this link.

Guitar World magzine posted the latest in their series of photo galleries covering Guitar World covers over the years. This last installment covered 1988, which was the first year that the magazine experimented with a split cover:

...[1988] was also a first in cover experimentation. In April Guitar World had its first "split cover," where half the magazines that month had one cover and the other half had another cover. That month featured one cover of Dokken's George Lynch while the second featured Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee of Rush. Typical of split covers, one usually outsells the other by a significant margin. There are no copies of the Alex Lifeson/Geddy Lee issue in the Guitar World archives, perhaps a clue to that month's big seller? ...

You can read the entire article and check out the photo gallery at this link. You can also read the April, 1988 feature on Rush at this link.

Reader What-A-Rush let me know that the October, 2011 issue of Decibel magazine contains an article on the making of Queensryche's classic 1988 Operation: Mindcrime album, which they inducted into the Decibel Hall of Fame. In the last paragraph of the article drummer Scott Rockenfield describes a story involving Rush and Neil Peart:

... We had finished Mindcrime, and (manager) Cliff Burnstein was really good friends with the guys in Rush. I get a call from Cliff one day: "I just sent a copy to the guys over in Rush, just to see what they would think of it, and Neil called to tell me that if he ever quit Rush, you would be the only person he would ask to replace him" And I thought "Wow!" I was 23 years old when we made that record, and I was a big Rush fan, so that was very flattering. So,I guess I was very happy with what I had done on the record. ...

Ready Player One is a new, critically-acclaimed sci-fi book from author, self-described seventies/eighties protonerd and Rush fan Ernest Cline. Cline was recently featured on the cover of the Austin Chronicle sporting a Rush Time Machine Tour jersey and was the subject of an article titled The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth. Ready Player One makes reference to several bands/songs of the '70s/'80s including Rush, so many fans have been clamoring for an official soundtrack for the book. Cline obliged and posted his official Ready Player One soundtrack to his blog on Wednesday. The soundtrack contains 2 Rush songs; Temples of Syrinx and Subdivisions. Of course the soundtrack won't actually be available for purchase, but he did provide a Spotify playlist, YouTube links to the songs, and this nifty cassette tape image of the soundtrack.

Liberal documentarian Michael Moore has a new book out called Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life which opens with a quote from Rush's Subdivisions. Moore was on the CBC's Q with Jian Gomeshi on Wednesday to discuss the book and was asked about the quote. He spoke a little about his love for Rush and what the song Subdivisions meant to him growing up in Detroit. They then played the song. You can listen to the podcast at this link (the Michael Moore Uncut clip); the Rush discussion comes in at about the 25:50 mark. Thanks to Tough Soul for the heads up.

Anaheim Angels rookie infielder Mark Trumbo is a candidate for the American League Rookie of the Year award and was recently interviewed for MLB.com. Towards the end of the interview (about the 5:15 mark) he spoke about how he got to have lunch with Geddy Lee earlier this week. He also gives a stirring rendition of Tom Sawyer... :) Thanks to Power Windows for the heads up.

Here's Neil Peart's latest preview video for his upcoming Taking Center Stage instructional DVD. In this 3-minute video Neil goes over how he and his bandmates went about choosing the setlist for the Time Machine Tour. You can check it out below or at this link.

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

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