Rush is a Band

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

Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Updates and other random Rush stuff

Fri, Mar 23, 2012@1:29PM | comments removed/disabled

UPDATE - 3/23@3:46PM: Here's that video of Neil Peart in the studio with Vertical Horizon that I mentioned below. It looks like Neil plays drums on 2 tracks; Instamatic and another unnamed track.

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Assuming the rumors are true, Rush's new label Roadrunner Records will be hosting a Lunch and Listen session this coming Tuesday, March 27th for 120 industry executives and promoters where they will be playing Rush's Clockwork Angels album. There's also a rumor that a single (or song sample) will then be released later in the week on Friday, March 30th. So let's hope the rumors are true! In other Clockwork Angels news, both Exclaim.ca and The Arizona Republic are backing up the May 29th release date that was first revealed via Amazon.com a couple of weeks ago in separate articles highlighting upcoming album release dates. Note that the Arizona Republic article is using a piece of fan-created artwork for the album's cover - it's not the official album cover. There's not much new to report since last week regarding the upcoming Clockwork Angels tour which will kick off this Fall. As it stands right now, the band is still in the process of routing the tour but dates are beginning to firm up. Generally speaking, it looks like Rush will be hitting dates in the Midwest and Eastern Canada in September-October, and the Southeastern US in October-November. So far I've only heard of 3 firm dates though; one in Bristow, VA on Sunday, September 9th, one planned date at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, PA on Tuesday, September 11th, and another at the Klipsch Music Center in Noblesville, IN planned for Thursday, September 13th. Since last week I've also heard that there will be dates in Tampa and Atlanta in November with a Ft. Lauderdale date also rumored along with a Cincinnati Riverbend date in September. Remember that nothing is official until it's announced by Rush.com. More as I learn it.

More details regarding the Kevin J. Anderson novelization of Clockwork Angels were revealed earlier this week when Amazon began listing the book for pre-order. The title is listed as Clockwork Angels: The Novel with a working release date of September 1st, 2012 via ECW Press. The listing also indicates that Anderson and Peart will be credited as co-authors and the book will be 264 pages long. Anderson first announced the collaboration last month via Facebook and his blog:

... 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."

Speaking of Neil, we learned last month that he would once again be working with Vertical Horizon on their new album, which they are currently working on at Studio City Sound in Los Angeles with sound engineer Tom Weir. We also learned that DW had made a custom kit for Neil for use in the recording sessions via this YouTube video from the January Winter NAMM show where Weir interviews John Good and Scott Donnell of Drum Workshop. We received our first glimpse of the kit and Neil in the studio with Vertical Horizon earlier this week when Sabian posted a series of photographs to Facebook from a March 19th recording session. Then last night Vertical Horizon posted another pic of the kit to their Facebook page and promised there would be some video posted later today. Neil had also made a guest appearance on Vertical Horizon's 2009 album Burning the Days, playing drums on three of the tracks along with penning the lyrics for one.

Geddy Lee will be participating as a celebrity judge for RAW! The Great Toronto Tartare-Off this coming Thursday, March 29th, at Toronto's Fairmont Royal York from 6-8:30PM. The event is sponsored by Grapes for Humanity where Geddy Lee is a member of the board. Tickets to the event are $125 and can be purchased online or reserved by calling Annette at 416-445-9920. Proceeds will go towards a child's education by constructing a needed school in Guatemala and $0.95 of every dollar raised will be donated to the project. Other judges include Corey Mintz, Josh Josephson and Amy Rosen of The National Post.

There was yet another Rush reference on FX's Archer during last night's Season 3 finale Space Race: Part 2. In this episode the mural on Krieger's van gets updated with a Caress of Steel-themed mural with the lettering reading Caress of Krieger (screenshot here). This makes the 3rd such Rush-themed mural that has appeared on his van; on the finale of season 2 the van had an Exit ... Stage Left-inspired mural which read Exit ... Van Left (screenshot here), and earlier in season 3 the mural had been updated to a Rush Hemispheres theme (screenshot here). There was also a major Rush reference on episode 8 of season 3 just a few weeks ago. In that episode Kreiger is trying to learn YYZ on his Neil Peart-inspired drumkit.

Legendary Guns 'N Roses guitarist Slash confirmed yesterday in an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail that he will be attending the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland next month where Guns 'N Roses will be getting inducted. In the interview Slash remarks on the exclusion of Rush and other bands from the Rock Hall:

... "It's sort of a bittersweet thing too because there's so many artists that aren't inducted, that came way before Guns did, that really actually almost deserve more to be in there and they're not in there, the guitarist said in an interview Wednesday, listing off Canadian band Rush, Deep Purple, Cheap Trick and Kiss as examples. "So it's really hard to sort of feel victorious ... that to me just doesn't seem right." ...

You can read the entire article at this link.

The VH1 heavy metal documentary series Metal Evolution will be released to DVD this coming Tuesday, March 27th and can be pre-ordered here. The 11-episode series was the brainchild of Rush documentary and Time Machine video filmmakers Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen and built on the mission first put forth in their groundbreaking Metal: A Headbanger's Journey documentary - in which Geddy Lee had appeared. The final episode in the series (episode 11) focuses on the Progressive Metal genre of heavy metal and heavily featured Rush, including interview segments with all 3 members along with former producer Terry Brown. You can watch that entire episode online at this link. Geddy had also appeared in episode 2 of the series to discuss the contributions of American garage rock band Blue Cheer to the origins of heavy metal. Geddy's brother Allan Weinrib is the production manager for the show and has been the Executive Producer and Head of Production and Development at Banger Films (Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen's film production company) since December of 2010.

John over at Cygnus-X1.net has transcribed the Sounds Fan Library special issue written by Steve Gett in 1983. Gett later edited and expanded the content for of this article for his book Success Under Pressure which you can read here. John found that there was additional content in the Sounds special issue that didn't make it into the later biography. You can check out his transcription along with all the photographs at this link.

The A.V. Club Toronto has recently been profiling past MuchMusic VJs for their VJ Re-search series. This past week they profiled Bradford How and for his Prime Slot they featured his 2002 Brad TV Christmas Special:

... With Toronto's Friendly Rich And The Lollipop People in tow, How goes caroling in Rosedale trying to find the home of Geddy Lee. When that doesn't succeed, he settles for chugging egg nog and humiliating a production assistant sitting with her head in her hands.

You can watch this excerpt from the Christmas Special on YouTube at this link.

Reader Lex Rushon recently came across this video news story covering the late Andrew MacNaughtan's Grace: Africa in Photographs project. The video was conducted around Christmas of last year and includes interview segments with Andrew along with Geddy and Alex from the art exhibit's opening gala. MacNaughtan passed away suddenly this past January of a heart attack.

NPR Music posted an article to their The Mix series earlier this week titled 50 Failed First Impressions where they feature 50 debut albums that they argue did not live up to the later successes of the band in question. Rush's debut album makes their list and you can check out the article at this link (thanks alparrot).

Reader rushrulez went to the Van Halen concert in Toronto this past weekend and took the 2112 GO train home from Toronto to Oakville. You can see a picture of the 2112 train here (thanks RushFanForever).

Reader The Clansman 2112 still has a couple of spots open for his annual rushisaband Fantasy Baseball League. It's a 20 team Roto league and they'll have a live online draft on the evening of Sunday March 25th. It's free to join but only serious managers need apply! To join up go to this link and use the League ID 2389 with Password atmsite.

This coming Thursday, March 29th marks the 10th anniversary of the release of the first single from Rush's 2002 Vapor Trails album - One Little Victory. The release marked the end of Rush's 5-year hiatus following the personal tragedies of Neil Peart in the late '90s. Here's the band performing the song live from the Rush in Rio DVD:

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

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