Bob And Doug McKenzie's 24 Anniversary

Last Sunday night, the CBC aired "Bob And Doug McKenzie's 24 Anniversary" prime time special, celebrating the 24th anniversary of the film Strange Brew. Geddy Lee made a guest appearance which can be seen here. Geddy Lee and Rick Moranis (Doug McKenzie) grew up together, and Geddy sang on their top 40 hit, "Take Off" from their 1981 comedy album, The Great White North.

Jazz Covers of "Tom Sawyer"

Two jazz covers of "Tom Sawyer" have been recently released.  Last Day In Paradise by the Alex Skolnick Trio, was released March 18th. Known for its inventive jazz take on hard rock and heavy metal standards, the album contains seven originals and three covers, including "Tom Sawyer", which can be heard on the band's MySpace page. This is not Alex Skolnick's first released Rush cover; the guitarist for the band "Testament", he also is credited with the guitar solo on the Subdivisions tribute album.

The second jazz cover of "Tom Sawyer" is included on the new album titled Prog by jazz band "The Bad Plus" released May 8th.

"...their florid take on Rush's 'Tom Sawyer,' may be likely to get the most attention of anything on the album. But they rely too much on irony, on people's previous perceptions of the music, and do not seem quite as enamored of the original. They're jokes that are funny the first time but not so much the second or third."

Geddy Lee ESPN Commercial

On April 12th, Geddy Lee appeared on ESPN's "Cold Pizza" and discussed the commercial, the comentator/musicians, and of course, baseball. The commercial is a music-video advertising fantasy baseball on ESPN, featuring the ESPN crew including John Kruk, Peter Gammons and others. The band, "Iron Diamond", has a MySpace page which offers some great photos as well as the full commercial. The full band complement is: John Kruk: lead vocals, ESPN Baseball Tonight Cohost; Peter Gammons: vocals, (home-plate shaped) guitar, ESPN Baseball Tonight Cohost, writer; Bronson Arroyo: vocals, guitar, 2006 MLB All-Star Pitcher; Geddy Lee: vocals, bass, Rush frontman, fantasy baseball genius; Gary Sheffield: drums, MLB slugger with 455 career HR's and counting; Joe Borowski: keytar, closer, 2006 Comeback Player of the Year Finalist; Jennie Finch: vocals, ESPN Fantasy Analyst, Olympic Gold Medalist; Matthew Berry: vocals, Senior Director of Fantasy for ESPN.com; Eric Karabell: vocals, ESPN Fantasy Analyst, ESPN Radio Host; Buster Olney: vocals, ESPN the Magazine Senior Writer, NY Times.

Snakes & Arrows

Snakes & Arrows was released on CD May 1st 2007, as a double album on June 19th, as well as the new MVI (Music Video Interactive) format on June 26th. In the UK, a "Special UK Tour Edition" was released September 3rd, essentially as a 2 disk counterpart to the MVI; both include 96kHz/24 bit hi-resolution stereo as well as 5.1 surround sound; "Rush: The Game of Snakes and Arrows" 45-minute documentary on the making of the album; digital extras including wallpapers, buddy icons, screensavers, and more. Click here for complete Snakes & Arrows news archive.

Run For Cover: A Tribute To Rush

Another release hitting the shelves on May 1st is a new Rush tribute album, Run For Cover, A Tribute To Rush. This is the fourth Rush tribute album released in the past decade or so (discounting the classical tributes), but what makes this one stand out is the fact that the members of the band "Run For Cover" are key members of three different premier Rush Tribute bands: Archives, Hemispheres and Limelight. Accordingly, the songs are very well performed, nearly note perfect, as you would expect from musicians who have literally performed them countless times. In addition, they are also performed using the same instrumentation as the originals, down to the Minimoog, Rickenbacker 4003 bass, Gibson ES335 and Gibson Les Paul guitars; the end result is a that unlike most of the performances on the previous tribute albums, they are very faithful to the originals. One downside to this tribute album, like all of its predecessors, is the lack of anything from the Rush catalog newer than 1984. One wonders if venturing into the 90's and beyond is not safe territory for Rush tribute bands, or are those songs simply not as marketable for a tribute album?

Single DVD Video Reissues

Coinciding with the release of Snakes & Arrows, Mercury/UME is following through with their plan of releasing the individual DVD's of Exit…Stage Left, Grace Under Pressure and A Show Of Hands, which were first released together in the Replay X 3 box. Each DVD features 5.1 surround sound and stereo mixes created for the DVD releases by Alex Lifeson and Mike Fraser from the original concert multi-tracks as well as digitally transferred and remastered visuals. These individual DVD versions are identical to those previously included in the in the Replay X 3 boxed set, which also includes the Grace Under Pressure CD soundtrack.