Alex Lifeson's Envy of None project with Andy Curran, guitarist Alfio Annibalini and vocalist Maiah Wynne officially released their second album Stygian Wavz this past Friday via Kscope Records. The album is available in many formats, including the LE Deluxe box set, colored vinyl, standard black vinyl, CD, Blu-ray, and digitally. For more details on the various album formats and what they include, visit the official Envy of None store and watch the video trailer. The band is also running a contest where the winner will get a signed, Stygian Wavz custom Epiphone Les Paul Special II guitar. You can enter to win for free with a free download of The Story, or simply just purchase the new record in any format on the EON website. The winner will be chosen at random on Friday, April 18th. More reviews of the album continue to roll in as well, including this one from Echoes and Dust, this from CrypticRock.com, and another from The Sleeping Shaman:

... Stygian Waves shows that as he enters his 70s, Lifeson remains - along with his Envy of None bandmates - endlessly creative. A decade after the passing of Neil Peart finally freed him from the expectations that came with Rush, his ability to craft evocative, immersive music has seemingly only deepened.

The entire tracklist is as follows:

Envy Of None - Stygian Wavz

1. Not Dead Yet [03:29]
2. The Story [04:41]
3. Under The Stars [04:32]
4. Thrill Of The Chase [03:40]
5. Handle With Care [04:14]
6. That Was Then [03:46]
7. Raindrops [03:33]
8. New Trip [03:55]
9. Clouds [04:02]
10. The End [03:58]
11. Stygian Waves [03:37]

Alex Lifeson has been all over the place the past few weeks giving interviews to promote the album's release. This past week he did interviews with Appetite for Distortion, Ultimate Classic Rock, Gibson Guitars (also with Maiah Wynne and Alfio Annibalini), Classic Rock magazine, Forbes magazine, Q104.3, the Takin' a Walk podcast, Sonic Perspectives, the Toronto Sun, and Talkin' Rock with Meltdown. The subject matter for all the interviews was very similar - with most of the discussions centering around Envy of None and the new album. But Rush naturally came up a lot in all of the discussions. Here's Alex talking about Rush's final show, August 1, 2015 at the LA Forum from his Toronto Sun interview:

... It was the saddest [Rush concert] that's for sure. I thought we played really well that night, but we were soaking in every second of it. I kept looking around at faces that I recognized over the years, over the decade. Fans who came to all the shows who'd grown up with us. They were teenagers at one time and now they're adults with families. And I looked at the clock on that wall at the Forum in LA where we've played - I think we've played 23 times at the Forum. And I looked at that clock. And I've always stared at that clock every time we played there. It's on the back wall up high. Every second was being cataloged in my brain. When Neil came out - that was the one and only time he came out from behind his part of the stage and caught both of us off guard. But it was a very sad moment for us personally ...

Rush's Rush 50 career-spanning compilation anthology in celebration of the band's 50th anniversary released back on March 21st. Rush 50 is available in five distinct configurations, including the (1) Super Deluxe Edition ($374.98), (2) Rush Store Exclusive Super Deluxe Edition, (3) 7-LP Deluxe Edition ($249.98), (4) 4-CD Deluxe Edition ($99.98), and (5) Digital Edition ($26.49). The Rush Backstage Store exclusive edition includes an additional four bonus lithos showcasing Rush through time, newly illustrated by FANTOONS from the characters created for the graphic novel depicting the band in the '70s, '80s, '90s and 2000s. John at Cygnus-X1.net has transcribed and scanned all the artwork from the box set and made it available online here, along with the liner notes. You can secure your copy of Rush 50 via Amazon and other retailers, and get all the details regarding the different configurations and what they include, along with the full tracklist at Rush.com.

Geddy Lee announced via Instagram Wednesday that he'll be making an appearance at Toronto record store Dine Alone Store on April 12th for Record Store Day to promote the vinyl release of his Lost Demos. Geddy will be in store from 12PM to 1PM to sign copies of the release (purchase required for signing while quantities last, 1 title per person).⁠ Back in late 2023 in the lead up to his My Effin' Life book tour, Geddy Lee released 2 tracks from the My Favorite Headache sessions for streaming. The release was dubbed The Lost Demos and included the previously unreleased tracks Gone and I Am ... You Are. We then learned a couple of months ago that a vinyl release of The Lost Demos would be made available for Record Store Day on April 12. From the RSD website:

For Record Store Day 2025, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee and Rush lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist Geddy Lee releases The Lost Demos, two previously unreleased solo songs. Lee originally recorded this pair of demos, "Gone" and "I Am... You Are", during the writing sessions for his 2000 solo debut, My Favorite Headache. With the help of producer/engineer David Bottrill, he has unearthed them for the first time, properly mixed and mastered. Commenting on the project, Geddy said "I'm excited to see these two "lost demos" released - I loved the songs when they were written and in some ways they feel as fresh and perhaps more relevant all these years later." Both songs conjure the spirit of the classic My Favorite Headache, which originally arrived on November 14, 2000.

The release will be available at participating stores on Record Store Day 2025 on Saturday, April 12th. To find a store near you, visit recordstoreday.com.

Geddy Lee announced via Instagram back in October that he would be releasing a new baseball book in 2025 titled 72 Stories from the Collection of Geddy Lee. A special, limited-edition version of the book was briefly made available around Christmas at the Rush Backstage Club. That edition is autographed, and comes encased in a red cloth-bound slipcase which includes an exclusive, custom-made Geddy Lee baseball, created specifically for this project. A standard version of the book will also be made available this summer, with an expected release date of June 16th. And if you missed out on the special edition last year, they will be making it available again, and are now taking pre-orders. You can pre-order the standard edition here. Geddy had written the book itself over a year ago and presented it as part of a package given to the winning bidders in a baseball auction that included much of Ged's extensive collection. John at Cygnus-X1.net has posted an excerpt from the book's Introduction and made it available online here.

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. In the coming weeks the charity is hosting their 5th annual Fine Wine Auction with proceeds going to benefit the Nature Conservancy Canada, Tree Canada and local charities. The auction kicks off next Saturday, April 12th via Waddington's, and will run through April 22nd. The auction will include several items of interest for Rush fans including autographed bottles of wine from Geddy Lee's personal cellar, a very unique Gibson prototype guitar signed by all 3 members of Rush in 2010, and a Booze, Bubbles and the Boys from Rush dinner for 8 at Barberian's Steak House. Geddy Lee posted some more details about the specific lot numbers and other signed items that will be available in this Instagram post. For all the details and registration information, visit Waddington's at this location.

The Council of Thirteen is a musical project created by John Edwards, the President and founder of Renaissance Records, where he's gathered vocalists and musicians from around the world to record original music by Edwards plus creatively reworked covers of songs first recorded by Rush, Petula Clark, Peter Gabriel, the Electric Light Orchestra, The Tubes, INXS, The Korgis, The Moody Blues, and more. They've released 3 albums with over 100 songs in just the past few months already, with the Rush cover appearing on their debut In Between The Dark And The Light. The Rush cover is a pop-inspired, re-imagined version of Subdivisions which you can listen to below or on YouTube. Here's Edwards discussing the cover in a Goldmine magazine interview:

..."I tried to give 'Subdivisions' a little more of a modern feel, because I have twenty-somethings who work in the Renaissance Records office, and when I mention Rush to them, it is like a deer in the headlights. They probably don't know Rush unless their parents played their music. 'Subdivisions' was always my favorite Rush song because of the lyrical content, 'Nowhere is the misfit so alone.' The advent of social media, which was not there at that time, has exactly done that, creating a schism that Rush was already singing about in the '80s. ...

You can learn more about the project on their website at thecouncilofthirteen.com.

Canadian indie rockers The Great Balancing Act in collaboration with YouTuber Larry Graves have released a new song titled, You, Me and Geddy Lee.

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