This past October, longtime Primus drummer Tim "Herb" Alexander quit the band, leaving Primus looking for a new sticks man. They decided to run a contest of sorts to find the new drummer, documented the entire process, and created a 12-part YouTube show called the Primus Interstellar Drum Derby with the first installment airing on February 20th of this year, about a month after they announced that the winner was Louisiana-based drummer John Hoffman (Hoffman is featured in the May issue of Modern Drummer). Hoffman beat out co-finalist Gergo Borlai to win as documented in the 12th and final episode of the series, with Borlai possibly losing because he didn't like Rush (blasphemy!). Well Hoffman sure as hell has no problem with Rush, and he along with his new bandmates Les Claypool and Larry LaLonde hung out with Geddy Lee earlier this week in Toronto as Hoffman details in this Instagram post:
About last night...
I shared a meal with rock LEGEND, Mr. @geddyimages Geddy Lee. The wine was flowing, the stories were epic, the food was incredible. Another monumental experience. I'm still in awe..and a little hungover😆
Much love, y'all!!
A mysterious new project spearheaded by the Rheostatics' Dave Bidini and involving Rush's Alex Lifeson will be seeing the light of day this coming November. According to some social media posts from Bidini and others involved, the project held a listening party this past Wednesday at Toronto's Noble Street Studios. The project was first introduced via an Instagram post back in early March teasing a project called The Great Lakes Suite, and depicting an image of the Great Lakes region with some ethereal backing music, and a list of the people involved; Dave Bidini, Dave Clark, Hugh Marsh, and Martin Tielli of the Rheostatics, along with BNL's Kevin Hearn (also a member of the Rheostatics), Don Kerr and Alex Lifeson. Alex also spoke a little about the project in a few of his interviews promoting Envy of None's Stygian Wavz back in March/April. In a March AllMusic.com interview, Alex said the following:
... I'm still working on a documentary on the Great Lakes with a bunch of people - some guys from Barenaked Ladies, from the Rheostatics. We've been working on this for a while. It's an interesting project, because we get together and we jam, and then we start pulling stuff out of those jams and then building from those. And a lot of the jams, as we progress, get better and better and better, and stand alone as parts." ...
So Alex refers to the project as a documentary, despite the fact that it sounds more like a musical project. Bidini also suggests that they might do a few lift-off shows in this FB post:
Great listening session for the new album. Thanks to @noblestreetstudios for hosting. A few tweaks and we're ready to get this out for some late fall magic + a few lift-off shows. Music is the best.
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, although the original date of June 16th has been pushed to this coming Fall, with it now having a slated release date of September 30th. You can pre-order the standard edition here. And if you missed out on the special edition last year, they will be making it available again, and are now taking pre-orders with an expected ship date of June 24. 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.
Rush's Alex Lifeson and his Envy of None bandmates are a few of the many artists included on an upcoming star-studded tribute to Canadian rockers Triumph. Magic Power: All Star Tribute to Triumph is due out in 2 weeks on June 6th with pre-orders available here. In addition to Alex Lifeson, some other artists performing on the album are Heart's Nancy Wilson, Slash, Sebastian Bach, Twisted Sister's Dee Snider, Anthrax's Joey Belladonna, Mickey Thomas of Starship, Styx keyboardist/singer Lawrence Gowan, Journey drummer/vocalist Deen Castronovo, Tesla's Jeff Keith, former Chicago bassist/singer Jason Scheff, Night Ranger's Jack Blades, and Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X. Alex Lifeson along with Envy of None's Andy Curran and Maiah Wynne contribute a rendition of Triumph's Blinding Light Show off Triumph's self-titled 1976 debut album. The album will be available Friday, June 6th on CD, Double vinyl and on digital streaming.
501 Essential Albums of the '80s: The Music Fan's Definitive Guide is a new book from author Gary Graff which examines 501 albums from one of the most pivotal decades in music - the 1980s - including Rush's Moving Pictures. Graff was recently interviewed for the Booked on Rock podcast, and spoke a good bit about Rush's breakthrough album:
... "'Moving Pictures,' I think, was an album where everything 'Rush: Phase II' was trying to do with what they started with 'A Farewell to Kings,' I think, really coalesced on 'Moving Pictures,'" Graff said. "There was both the great sonics and musicianship that are the hallmarks of Rush, but a kind of songcraft that came in that didn't take them as far as they get with something like 'New World Man' later. Like, 'Tom Sawyer' is a perfect example, 'Limelight' - these were great songs, as well as great tracks." Graff also pointed out that Rush's recording career can be neatly classified into different phases: "I really felt like this was where everything kind of fell together that Rush was trying to do, in what I consider 'Rush: Phase II.' It's nice: they usually divide them by live albums, so you can see what the band is thinking." ...
Cathy Rankin, who hosted this past January's Bubba Bash 2025, released her debut single Now You've Gone back on October 29th. The emotional track features David Ellefson (formerly of Megadeth) and Ken Mary (formerly of Alice Cooper), and is a tribute to legendary drummer Neil Peart, and her nephew, Christian. You can learn more about the track and pre-order it at this location. Rankin was recently interviewed for Phoenix.org and spoke at length about her Rush fandom and how the song came about, which started with a poem she wrote in the wake of Neil Peart's death:
... "I'm a huge Rush fan, one of these really nerdy Rush fans," Rankin said. "I was at his very last show. When he came out from behind the drum set, I knew it was over. I knew we weren't going to see those three guys together ever again. I didn't know he had brain cancer." Rankin said Peart was an inspiration. "There was a very interesting connection. He had written a book called 'Ghost Rider' after his first daughter died, and she died in a very similar car accident to how I lost my nephew," Rankin said. "When that happens, when you lose a child - my brother lost his son - it's just a whole different kind of grief. Neil wrote that book about how he healed...I gave it to my brother as a way to help him through it and also for me to understand how to even talk to him about it" Fast forward to years later and Peart was diagnosed with brain cancer during the pandemic. Rankin cried when she heard the news of his death. "A few months later, I sat down and wrote that poem," Rankin said. "It was a 10-minute thing. I wrote it and set it aside. I didn't think anybody would ever see it." ...
The latest edition of Record Collector magazine includes a feature on Toronto record collector John Hynes. Hynes talks about one particular album in his collection that is of interest to Rush fans:
... I also have a copy of the first Rush album on their old label, Moon Records, which was before they signed with Mercury. They only printed about 3,000 copies and Geddy Lee's mom used to sell it out of her variety store in Willowdale. I found it at Vortex Records. ...
The article mentions that the record is probably worth around $1000. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.
Peter Santenello has a YouTube channel where he visits remote and obscure areas of America, and interacts with the locals. In a recent episode, he visits one of the most remote islands on the East Coast -Ocracoke, in North Carolina's Outer Banks. At one point in the episode, he visits a teenager's bro's music room on the first floor of an elevated house, which has several homemade Rush posters. The kid then proceeds to play Rush's The Spirit of Radio on his drumset as seen in this video at about the 39:45 mark (thanks Hannu P).
On this past week's episode of Rush Roundtable on the Rushfans YouTube channel (episode #275), the panel continues their Snakes & Arrows discussion with Good News First.
Reader Ed B alerted me to a new commercial from Real Canadian Superstore that features Rush's The Spirit of Radio:
That's all for this week. For all my US fans, have a great Memorial Day weekend!
