"Rush Make 2112, 1976" - Mojo, March 2016 issue
Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson Visit WEBZ Chicago
Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson will join hosts Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot of WEBZ Chicago to discuss the band's remarkable 40-year career tomorrow, February 26th. For details and streaming click here. - Thanks to Ed at RushIsABand for the headsup!
Behind The Vinyl: Tom Sawyer - Alex Lifeson from Rush
Alex Lifeson dropped by Toronto's boom 97.3 to share a story about Rush's "Tom Sawyer". Alex talks about the connection with South Park and the key ingredients to making their “Moving Pictures” album: cognac & volley ball. Check it out here:
Rush Featured in Prog # 63, Celebrating 40 Years of 2112
UPDATE (Feb 19): All three features are now available here. - Thanks to John Patuto for sharing the transcript!
Geddy Lee's guest appearance on Wintersleep's "The Great Detachment"
When Canadian indie-rock band Wintersleep were recording their new album, The Great Detachment, they got sidetracked chatting about their love for one of their country's most famous musical exports. "We were talking about how amazing Rush was ... and how incredible Geddy Lee is," Paul Murphy, the band's lead singer, told Rolling Stone. "He can sing these incredibly complex melodies with complex lyrics, while playing perhaps even more incredibly complex bass parts, while also operating foot pedals. If there was an instrument he could play with his eyeballs, I'm sure he'd be able to!"
Coincidentally, later that same night, the band ran into trouble while fine-tuning the bass line on one of the tracks, "Territory." "It was cool but the song didn't feel as lively as it should in the end," Murphy explains. "Someone was like, 'What would Geddy Lee do?' jokingly, and Tony [Doogan, producer] was like, 'Oh, the best bass player in the world? He'd make it incredible. Why don't we just ask him?'"
They did, and Wintersleep's "what if ...?" fantasy quickly turned into reality.
"Wintersleep contacted me a while ago and asked me to play bass on this track," Lee told RS. "I had a listen and loved the song and the vibe of the band. I had a blast laying down a bunch of takes and sent them off to them. I'm happy to support a fellow Canadian band and wish them all the best with their new album."
The result is "Territory" — no relation to the 1985 Rush song "Territories" — a muscular, hard-driving track that builds to a bright, yearning chorus. Lee's trademark gritty tone and melodic inventiveness are easily identifiable, but there's nothing showy about the performance; his bass lines blend perfectly with Loel Campbell's drums and provide a firm anchor for the rest of the track.
"The bass line we originally had for 'Territory' was just kind of playing the roots of the song," Murphy explains of Lee's contribution. "There was a sort of hook-line melody in the choruses, but that melody sort of combated with Tim [D'eon]'s lead line in a weird way. It's kind of an odd time signature, so it sometimes is hard thinking more creatively when a riff is long and kind of odd like that. In the end, the song just felt a little sticky and maybe a bit too dark, lacking the energy it needed. With a relatively dark lyric and a generous amount of minor notes in the progression, you have to be careful because it can just feel a bit dark and a bit too stone-faced or something.
"Geddy's part was perfect because it had this great groove and locked into the vocal melody in the song from time to time, bringing more weight to the melody in important spots. It added a certain playful dimension to the equation because it's so dynamic. Also, Tony was able to strip the song down more in the mix in sections because the bass had such a neat character and fuller sound, which was huge for the song dynamically."
- Thanks to Ed at RushIsABand for the headsup!
Geddy Lee Talks 2112 Track-By-Track - MusicRadar.com
In The Studio with Moving Pictures 35th Anniversary Special
Sales alone do not convey the importance of their eighth studio album Moving Pictures to Rush’s long career, nor to rock music itself. “Music was changing,” Rush lead singer/composer Geddy Lee tells us in this InTheStudio episode, and without Lee, guitarist/composer Alex Lifeson and drummer/lyricist Neil Peart embracing the fresh musical ideas in the crosswinds of the early Eighties with songs “Tom Sawyer”, “Red Barchetta”, “Limelight”, “Vital Signs” and “Witch Hunt”, it is doubtful that a path to mainstream success would have been cleared for later major bands including Metallica, Queensryche, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan, Dave Grohl’s Foo Fighters, Tom Morello with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, and Dream Theater.
InTheStudio host Redbeard speaks to Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart about the significance of Moving Pictures to the Rush legacy.
“It (Moving Pictures) gave us a kind of acceptance and credibility that none of our previous records had previously done.” - Geddy LeeRUSH Moving Pictures @ 35/ InTheStudio interview is now available for STREAMING here. For a complete list of InTheStudio broadcast affiliate radio stations click here.
“It was very enjoyable making Moving Pictures. It flowed, everything sounded good. The vibe was good, everybody was in great spirits during the whole process.” - Alex Lifeson
“Being a trio is something that is special to us and I think it’s special to our fans too... We are known as a trio. Our reputation has a lot to do with our live show and what the three of us can do live.” - Neil Peart