UPDATE - 7/23@1:54PM: Eric at Power Windows let me know that the ICON series as reported by MusicTap.net is yet another series of compilations similar to the GOLD series. So we can expect another Rush compilation in the near future.

Rush takes the Time Machine Tour to the state of New York this weekend playing back-to-back shows at the SPAC tonight and Jones Beach tomorrow before taking a much-deserved break. When they crank up the Time Machine again they'll be transported a couple of weeks into the future and 2000 miles to the west, playing the USANA Amphitheatre outside Salt Lake City on August 5th. This past week Rush closed out the Canadian leg of the tour at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto last weekend, then played the Mohegan Sun Arena Monday and the Susquehanna Bank Center on Wednesday. For those of you who ordered VIP ticket packages for the tour, it looks like the packages have finally started shipping.

Last week I'd mentioned that the Rush Time Machine Tourbook had been transcribed and made available online at both Cygnus-X1.net and Power Windows. John at Cygnus-X1.net has also now scanned all of the images from the tourbook which you can check out at this link. You can purchase your own copy of the tourbook on tour or at the Rush Backstage Club.

Last weekend when Rush played Toronto, Alex Lifeson called into Toronto's Q107 and chatted with Joanne Wilder about a wide range of subjects including the tour, the upcoming album, their Hollywood Walk of Fame Star, the Rush documentary, and the new iPhone app. The entire interview was posted to the Q107 website and you can listen to it at this link. Alex also did an interview with St. Catherines' HTZ-FM which you can listen to at this link.

Earlier this week we learned that Rush's 2112 would be the centerpiece for the new Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock video game. The game includes a Quest Mode where heroes must play all 7 parts of Rush's 2112. This portion of the game roughly follows the storyline of 2112 and is narrated by Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. You can check out all the details along with a video preview which includes interview snippets from Alex and Geddy in this post. The game is slated for a September 28th release and can be pre-ordered at this link. Speaking of 2112, the album is featured in this recent Spinner article titled Getting Geeky With It: 20 Albums Inspired by the Dork Life.

The CD version of the Caravan/BU2B single is no longer available at the Rush Backstage Club. The release was a limited run and the Backstage Club does not currently plan on releasing any more copies for sale. However, you can still purchase digital copies of both Caravan and BU2B at this link. The Caravan single has been getting increasingly more airplay on rock radio stations of late and has broken into the top 5 on the Mediabase Rock Chart. At the time of this posting it's #4.

For the fourth year in a row Neil Peart has won Drummer of the Year in
DRUM! Magazine's Drummies Reader's Poll. Apparently Neil beat out Travis Barker by a mere 6 votes according to this article at All About Jazz covering the Drummies. The article also contains the following quote from yours truly:

... Another industry veteran, Ed Stenger, who runs a Rush fan website, Rushisaband.com, shed some stroke perspective as well. "It's no surprise to me that Neil Peart has won Drummer of the Year 3 years running. The man has become synonymous with drumming over his 40+ year career. Every drummer knows who he is and wishes they were half as skilled. "...

Industry veteran? I'm flattered but I hardly fit that description. :)

While on the subject of Neil Peart, earlier this week TSN announced that Neil Peart's custom NHL Hockey kit would be making its way to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto this fall. Here's the video news story from TSN which includes a recent short interview with Neil Peart. We also found out on Wednesday that the official Neil Peart Time Machine Tour retail model drumsticks from Pro-Mark are now hitting store shelves. Then there's this interview with Neil Peart from Quebec newspaper Le Soleil (thanks maxbeckmann). In the interview Neil admits that he had been in error when he wrote in the Time Machine Tourbook that Rush had never played "The Camera Eye" live. Here's the English google translation of the article.

After a successful appearance at RushCon this past weekend, Neil Peart's Chromey drum kit was made available for the public to view at Lakeside Park in Port Dalhousie yesterday. It will also be appearing tomorrow, July 24th from noon to 10PM. Fans can visit the park that was immortalized in the Rush song Lakeside Park and have their photos taken with the kit and even play the kit to raise money for the Friends of the Carousel.

We found out earlier this week that golfer and friend of Alex Lifeson Rocco Mediate would be wearing a Rush cap at the Canadian Open this weekend in Toronto, as he mentions in this Toronto Star article. There's also this Canadian Music Scene interview with Mediate from yesterday where he talks about his love of Rush and friendship with Alex Lifeson. True to his word, several photos of him sporting his Rush cap have popped up online over the past few days as shown in the above thumbnails.

The Rush documentary Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage was released to DVD/Blu-ray a few weeks ago. The DVD/Blu-ray of the documentary contains over an hour of bonus footage including extended footage of Rush's hunting lodge dinner that closed out the film. Observant reader mtb2112 identified the lodge as the Saddle Peak Lodge in Calabasas, CA based on the decor and what the guys ordered to eat. Looks like a nice place! Reader RushFanForever located this New York Post article discussing the documentary and how it may have increased Rush's popularity with female fans. Rush and the documentary also get mentioned in this Guardian article on the resurgence of prog rock (thanks Jon P):

... Meanwhile, Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary about the deathless Canadian prog trio Rush, deservedly won the audience award at this years' Tribeca film festival. If it can't make a non-believer like their music, it does a brilliant job of explaining why people do. Rather surprisingly, drummer Neal Peart emerges from the film as a kind of Morrissey for the Dungeons and Dragons set: aloof, mysterious, considered a poet by his fans and a rightwing crank by his detractors (he's famously a fan of the conservative's novelist of choice, Ayn Rand), he is given to writing songs about misfits getting a rough time from the cool kids in school. ...

In this past week's Sports illustrated there's an article about LeBron James and his move to the Miami Heat. There's also a sidebar article on page 22 about great trios throughout history which makes mention of Rush concocting their album 2112 back in 1975 (the album was recorded in Toronto in 1975 and released in 1976). Here's what they say:

1975 - Canadian band Rush, also known as the Holy Triumvirate, concocts 2112, solidifying its place as chief dorks of the prog rock movement.

Thanks to analogkid_wk for the heads up and the scan.

Power Windows reported earlier this week that the interactive video game DarkStar will not be using any Rush music in its soundtrack. The game has been in development for over 10 years now and the plan since its inception was to use Rush's music extensively. Unfortunately negotiations with Universal hit a snag in recent months and the studio has been forced to pull all Rush music. You can check out the details in this July 1st press release.

Fresh off her appearance at RushCon this past weekend, Rush discoverer Donna Halper appeared on internet radio talk show
Used Bin Radio this past Tuesday night. In case you missed it, the show will soon be available via podcast at this link.

Quebec-based ukulele band Lucky Uke released an album of classic rock covers last month which includes a cover of Rush's The Spirit Of Radio. You can listen to the track on their website at LuckyUke.com using the player in the upper left on their home page, and you can purchase the track at this link. Thanks to Power Windows for the heads up.

Reader Pat let me know that MusicTap.net reported the following bit of Rush news last week:

On August 31, various labels will release artist CDs for a series called ICON. You can expect releases for ABBA, Barry White, Bryan Adams, Don Williams, Gary Allan, Gladys Knight, Neil Diamond, Nirvana, No Doubt, Patsy Cline, Rush, Stevie Wonder, Three Dog Night, and Trisha Yearwood.

I'm not really sure what this means, but there you have it.

Alex Lifeson made PopDose's list of the 50 greatest guitarists, coming in at #23 (thanks PhillyMike). Here's what they had to say:

It's understandable why critics loathe prog - the song almost never comes first. If anything, the song is just a vehicle to indulge in musical masturbation. How is everyone going to know how awesome I am if I don't show off my mad skills at every single opportunity? Come on, people, look at me! Alex Lifeson is not that kind of guitarist. One possible explanation for Lifeson's reserved approach in a genre ruled by excess is that he's in a band with a bassist and drummer that are among the world's finest, and the best way to stand out is by not trying to compete with them. We'd prefer, however, to believe that after a little youthful indiscretion, Lifeson learned that it's better to do what's best for the song and, as the band's only guitarist, he knew that he would get plenty of moments to shine, even when Geddy Lee was on that big keyboard kick. But that still doesn't highlight the greatest weapon in Lifeson's arsenal: his chords. Listen to the opening of "The Camera Eye," that gonzo C chord in "Double Agent," the D-tuned oddness in "Stick It Out," or the chorus to "Digital Man"; the fact that he can shred with the best of them is a plus, but it's his rhythm work that best demonstrates Lifeson's depth and personality as a guitarist. Balance and restraint: in a perfect world, they'd be the new black - David Medsker

Rush gets mentioned in this recent review of the new Porcupine Tree DVD Anesthetize:

... Because, yet being a great band, they seem to keep their feet on the ground, only living for their craft: music. In fact, Steven Wilson's brainchild could be the new Rush, in the sense that, as much as they're enormously successful and respected, they seem to remain largely out of the limelight; this allows the band to keep progressing and refining their art without paying too much attention to album charts and record sales. ...

Thanks to GedHed for the link.

In the latest installment of his music discovery podcast and blog Bands Like Rush, Ben Sommer talks to Keyboardist Steve Mauk from the west coast prog rock band Mars Hollow. Ben talks with Steve about a number of subjects including the differences between the prog music scenes in Los Angeles and Mexico along with the oddly traditional route they've taken with the band and - of course - Rush. To find out more about the band check out their website at this link. You can listen to the podcast at this link.

Reader Matt T sent me this interesting video of his stop-motion version of Rush's YYZ on guitar.

Reader Robert S noticed this less-than-flattering Rush analogy in a recent article by the Denver Post's Mark Kiszla. He discusses how Major League Soccer doesn't pay enough to attract real talent, and when it does bring in some big names it's long after the peak of their careers. Here is the analogy used:

... The MLS is still marketing itself as a soccer retirement home. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Hey, maybe Geddy Lee's guitar rocked the 1980s. But if he insists on strutting on stage in a cutoff T-shirt with over- the-hill members of Rush these days, then it's played strictly for laughs. ...

Marshall Ward of the Waterloo Chronicle talks at length about Rush's Subdivisions in this recent article (thanks RushFanForever). He rediscovered his love for the song while doing research on Jacob Moon for this article. You'll recall that Moon recorded a popular cover of the song and was chosen to perform live at Rush's induction into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame earlier this year. While on the subject, here is a video of another interesting cover of Rush's Subdivisions from Susanna And The Magical Orchestra which was recorded at Schubas' Tavern in Chicago last month. The cover can be found on the band's new album 3. Thanks to undernorthernlights for the heads up.

Here's one from the archives. Reader Kelly M sent me this scan of an article on Rush from the May 13, 1980 edition of the Philadelphia Journal.

Reader Gourdy Lee wanted me to let everyone know about his fantasy football league for Rush fans over at Yahoo! Sports. The ID is 115878 and the password is limelight1.

Here's the video preview of the new Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock video game featuring Rush's 2112:

That's all for this week. Have a great weekend everybody - especially those going to the Rush concerts at the SPAC and Jones Beach.

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