Alex Lifeson Makes "VH1's 100 Most Shocking Music Moments"

Alex Lifeson makes list of VH1's 100 Most Shocking Music Moments. Moment number 62, titled "When a Rush Comes to Shove", discusses Alex's New Year's Eve at the Ritz in 2003 (click here for a complete history of the event). Several musicians, including Scott Ian from Anthrax, comment on how Rush is a "geeky prog rock band" and "who would've thought they'd actually be on the list", while a comedian states "maybe Rush is using the prog rock geekiness as a front. Maybe they all could kick your ass." The segment includes Alex saying, "Gives a whole new meaning to spending the night at the Ritz."

"Trailer Park Boys 2: Countdown To Liquor Day" Now On DVD

Trailer Park Boys 2: Countdown To Liquor Day, the second Canadian comedy film featuring the bad boys from the trailer park, is now available on DVD. The film includes yet another cameo by Alex Lifeson, this time in the role of a cross-dressing undercover policeman:

"Of course, there's the de rigueur appearance by Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, here playing a drunken, undercover cop posing as a transvestite in a gay-prostitute alley (centered around a Chip Wagon that serves alcohol -- man, Halifax is one weird town). The character may indeed be the same cop Lifeson played in the previous Trailer Park Boys movie, showing his true colours." - Edmonton Sun, September 25, 2009 - Thanks to RushIsABand.com

"R30" Complete Edition BluRay

The R30 Complete Edition Blu-Ray is released today, including Rush's complete concert from Frankfurt, Germany, on September 24, 2004. Unlike the DVD release which omitted Bravado, YYZ, The Trees, One Little Victory, Secret Touch, Red Sector A, La Villa Strangiato and By-Tor and the Snow Dog, those tracks have been restored to their original running order for this high definition release:

"Some of the songs were dropped from R30 due to technical reasons but also we didn't want to have too many similarities with Rush In Rio. Why not? Well, I think now that it was a dumb decision of ours. In fact I regret not having put the whole show on those disks. But I promise you, all those songs that were cut will eventually see the light of day, in some shape or form." - Geddy Lee, Aardschok Magazine, March 2006

Unfortunately, unlike the DVD release which includes a bonus disk containing over 1:30 minutes of interviews and bonus features, the Blu-Ray version contains the concert feature only. Click here for more information.

Neil Peart & John Good discuss The Finer Points Of DW's Shell Technology - Video Online

Early last month, the latest issue of Drum Workshop's "The Edge" magazine was published including a new article titled "Neil Peart & John Good discuss The Finer Points Of DW's Shell Technology" (see pages 14&15 here). Now, two 10 minute videos of their conversation are available on Drum Workshop's Youtube Channel. Check them out here and here. - Thanks to Mark Rosenthal for the headsup!

Permanent Waves Album Cover Details Explained

One intriguing aspect of Rush's albums is their album covers, and one of the most intriguing album covers to me has always been Permanent Waves. Let's face it, the scene showing a gorgeous smiling woman standing in the midst of all that destruction has always been a visual feast for the eyes.

"Permanent Waves is the result of a conversation which I had with Neil out at his home in the country. We spoke all evening about Rush growing up, and how we were going to do these EKG readings of each member as they were recording. We were going to tape their temples and chests and have real heartbeats of them while they were playing. So Permanent Waves was going to be a technical statement, and we were going to treat that with red and gold foil, and do a nice study in design- as opposed to a photographic thing. I walked out and, in the doorway, said 'Wait! Let's try something with Donna Reed, with her permanent Toni hairdo, and have her walking out of a tidal wave situation.' Neil gave me this blank look and said, 'Get out of here.' The following day, he asked me to consider doing just that because he'd discussed it with the band, and they'd all thought it was more likely for a cover than the serious approach." - Hugh Syme, Creem, 1983

By now we all know the story behind the "Dewey Defeats Truman" newspaper headline, but what about the rest of the cover?

Rush Wins SOCAN's "International Achievement Award"

"Veteran rockers Rush took the international achievement award...as the music industry organization SOCAN handed out its awards Monday night. The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, the copyright collective for musical works, gives annual awards for Canada's top acts and recognizes songs and artists who get the most airplay. Rush is coming off a year of successful international touring and the release of its album Snakes & Arrows Live. The band, which first toured in 1974, is also wooing a new generation by releasing its classic songs for download on the game Rock Band." - CBCnews.com, November 23, 2009

"Working Men" Now Available

The new live Rush compilation, Working Men, is now available on DVD and CD.  This release brings together the "best of" live tracks culled from Rush In Rio, R30and Snakes & Arrows Live. Click here for the North American and UK press releases.

 Tracklist: Limelight³, The Spirit Of Radio², 2112¹, Freewill³, Dreamline², Far Cry³, Subdivisions², One Little Victory (previously, unreleased performance)², Closer To The Heart¹, Tom Sawyer (w/South Park Intro)³, Working Man², YYZ¹ [Source: ¹Rush In Rio, ²R30 and ³Snakes & Arrows Live]

Working Men downloads have been added to the Desktop Wallpaper, PSP Wallpaper, and Winamp Skins sections of this website. At the same time, I've revamped the entire Winamp Skins collection, updating the skins to include some new Winamp features.

Alex Lifeson's Painting Sells for $2,125 to Benefit Kidney Foundation

Alex Lifeson's painting, which he donated to the Kidney Foundation Of Canada, sold today for $2,125 through eBay.ca.

"Alex Lifeson (RUSH), Red Green (Steve Smith), Jessica Holmes, Rita MacNeil and Stompin’ Tom Connors are just a few of the celebrities who have taken up brushes and paints to create small masterpieces to help the nearly 2 million Canadians who either have kidney disease or are at risk." - www.kidney.ca

"It is through the support by all of us that the Kidney Foundation of Canada can continue to provide hope for those who are not so fortunate and must live with this debilitating condition. I urge you to take the time to help in any way you can, whether by donation or some other method to realize the dream of a cure. Even a little goes a long way..." - Alex Lifeson

New Rush Book: "Rush, Rock Music, and the Middle Class: Dreaming in Middletown"

Rush, Rock Music, and the Middle Class: Dreaming in Middletown by Chris McDonald, is now available. A professor at Cape Breton University, McDonald is an ethnomusicologist who specializes in popular music studies.

Synopsis: "Canadian progressive rock band Rush was the voice of the suburban middle class. In this book, Chris McDonald assesses the band's impact on popular music and its legacy for legions of fans. McDonald explores the ways in which Rush's critique of suburban life -- and its strategies for escape -- reflected middle-class aspirations and anxieties, while its performances manifested the dialectic in prog rock between discipline and austerity, and the desire for spectacle and excess. The band's reception reflected the internal struggles of the middle class over cultural status. Critics cavalierly dismissed, or apologetically praised, Rush's music for its middlebrow leanings. McDonald's wide-ranging musical and cultural analysis sheds light on one of the most successful and enduring rock bands of the 1970s and 1980s."

Canadian Release of Sacrifice's Latest To Include "Anthem"

"Canadian thrash metal legends SACRIFICE will release their first new album in more than fifteen years in November on Sonic Unyon in Canada. Entitled The Ones I Condemn, the album was recorded at Toronto's Rouge Valley Studios last winter by the band and Darius Szczepaniak...Released by the Brazilian-based Marquee Records this summer, Sonic Unyon will release a domestic Canadian version of the album, ensuring that it will be available in retails stores nationwide in their home country...After reuniting for a sold out performance at Toronto's Opera House in 2007, the band decided to reconvene and record a new studio album. Containing ten new original songs, the Canadian version of the album will also contain an exclusive bonus track of the band's cover of the Rush classic 'Anthem.'" - Thanks to Sean at SonicUnyon.com.

"Prog" Rush Feature Transcript Now Online

The August 2009 issue of "Classic Rock Presents…Prog" included a special feature on RUSH. The article has been transcribed by John at Cygnus-X1.net and is now available online here. You can also purchase a copy of the magazine at www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk.

"Issue 3 of …Prog looks at the world of prog metal, featuring such genre stars as Dream Theater, Queensryche, Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Voivod and Finnish siren Tarja, and an intriguing interview with the man who launched the legendary Vertigo label. There are also brand new interviews with ex-Genesis guitarists Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips, Marillion, The Gathering, War Of The World’s maestro Jeff Wayne, It Bites and even Captain Sensible. Plus there’s the usual round-up on the latest prog news and an even bigger reviews section than ever before. All this plus a free CD featuring an hour’s worth of the finest new progressive music being made today." - ClassicRockMagazine.com

New GarageBand Lessons Include Rush

"Today’s Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you, and the space he invades is your personal computer. Well, if you’re using GarageBand ’09, anyway. The GarageBand Lesson Store has added three new lessons to its arsenal, including the classic tune by the Canadian progressive rock band. Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson contributes two lessons to the new assortment, 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Limelight'...Each lesson costs $5 and consists of a video of the artist walking you through the piece, in some cases with both simplified and more complicated versions of the song." - MacWorld.com, September 22, 2009 - Thanks to Devon Cox for the headsup!

Neil Peart on Vertical Horizon's "Burning The Days"

Burning The Days, the long awaited album by Vertical Horizon, is finally available. Neil plays drums on three tracks, "Welcome To The Bottom", "Save Me From Myself", and "Even Now" (in fact, these tracks were recorded before Rush recorded Snakes & Arrows). In addition, Neil contributed lyrics to "Even Now", which you can view here.

Even now after all these years
I think about you with both joy and pain
Even now I remember when you left
I walked all night thru the rain
Broken and lost
Swearing I'd never love that way again

Even then you were aiming much higher
Somewhere higher than you thought I could fly
Even then you were looking for rainbows
Something more than the cloudless blue sky

And now you tell me you were wrong
You never should have let me follow an empty dream
Now you spill out your regrets
Am I a river to a bitter stream

Lying awake thinking about all that might have been
I guess we're even now
I guess we're even now

Even now we're often alike
I think of you and the place we used to share
Even now I remember all the songs and the perfume in your hair
I was carried away until you cut me down in mid air
Even then there was something inside you
Something bright that was burning so cold
Even then there was something about you
Something dark that I couldn't hold

And now you tell me that your life has never been the free flight you thought it would be
And you know it's way too late all we've got is history
We know that when I lost you, you lost me
I guess we're even now
I guess we're even now
I think we're even now

Even then you were looking for rainbows
Even then in a perfect blue sky

I guess we're even now
I guess we're even now
I think we're even now
Could be we're even now
I think we're even now
I think we're even now
I think we're even now

All that summer
In the moonlight
You were dreaming
I was believing
All that summer
In the moonlight
You were dreaming
I was believing
All that summer

The April 2007 issue of Drumhead Magazine included an interview with Vertical Horizon frontman, Matt Scannell, where he discussed his friendship and collaboration with Neil, and also discussed how Vertical Horizon was influenced by Rush. Neil first wrote about this collaboration over three years ago in his "News Weather & Sports" report:

"Late in 2005, Matt and I started working on a song together, with lyrics I wrote especially for Matt’s voice — literal and metaphorical. Matt suggested I might like to play drums on that song, and when I agreed to that, he started sending me demos of other songs he thought I might like to play on. (Trickster!). So while I was in Toronto working on Rush songs, I was also 'moonlighting' on three of Matt’s songs, playing to his demos and working out drum parts for them...Through the miracle of modern technology, I was able to e-mail those recorded sketches to Matt, and collect his comments as I went along. Thus it came to pass...on June 14, 2006, at Capitol Records Studio B in Hollywood (Hollywood and Vine, in fact), I recorded three songs for Matt’s upcoming Vertical Horizon album...The following day I told Matt that session had been one of the greatest challenges, experiences, and — now — rewards of my life. That’s the way I have always felt about making Rush albums, and I have every faith the same will be true when Alex, Geddy, and I reconvene in September." - Neil Peart, NeilPeart.net, June 17, 2006

A Talk with Ian Grandy – Rush’s First Roadie

GuitarInternational.com has posted an interview between long time Rush fan Skip Daly and RUSH's original roadie, Ian Grady. Ian has stories of the very beginnings of Rush, told for the first time. - Thanks to Skip Daly for the headsup!

City Sonic Project - Geddy Lee At Massey Hall

The City Sonic Project pairs Canadian music artists with award-winning Canadian filmmakers to create short documentary films about the artists' connection to places where their musical lives were transformed. One of the 13 short films pairs Geddy Lee with director Bruce McDonald. Geddy takes viewers on a tour inside the legendary Massey Hall, culminating in his memories of the making of All The World's A Stage. The film premiered today at the Toronto International Film Festival, and can also be seen online here. In addition, you can also check out the Geddy Lee Massey Hall Flickr photo stream. - Thanks to RushIsABand for the headsup!

Rush In "Guitar Hero 5" - Details Of Live Recording Confirmed

Guitar Hero 5 was released September 1st, with 85 songs by 83 artists, including a previously unreleased live version of "The Spirit Of Radio" (click here to view).

We have confirmed with SRO/Anthem that this recording was taken from an unreleased live performance in Manchester on June 17, 1980 on the Permanent Waves Tour (Producer Terry Brown, Engineer Andy Rose, mobile truck recorder- Mobile studio LONDON). Unfortunately, there are no plans at this time for a live album release of the complete Manchester show, but anything can happen...

Its A Girl!

From Rush.com: "The RUSH family congratulates Neil and his wife Carrie on the birth of their healthy, beautiful daughter Olivia Louise Peart." - Rush.com, August 24, 2009 - Thanks to Trip Kinzie for the headsup!

Geddy Lee New Addition At Rock Legends Wax Museum

Geddy Lee is a new addition to the Rock Legends Wax Museum in Niagara Falls. Geddy Lee, along with Slash, are the latest arrivals to the museum. - Thanks Sam for the headsup!

Geddy Lee Signature Jazz Bass With Sunburst Finish

Fender has announced it has added a second edition of the Geddy Lee Jazz Bass to Signature line, this one with a sunburst finish and black pick guard. This is a minor revision to the previous version, a replica of his trusty black bass with white pick guard. - Thanks to Sean Robinson for the headsup!

"Mean, mean stride! Our Geddy Lee Jazz Bass guitar is an exact replica of the tonally singular instrument that Rush’s revered bassist/vocalist has riffed away on in front of thousands of devoted fans worldwide and on many a mega-selling album.

The bass has an alder body; the one-piece C-shaped maple neck (thin) has a maple fingerboard with black binding and black rectangular position markers. The two vintage Jazz Bass single-coil pickups crackle with life and bristle with the energy; other features include chrome hardware, vintage-style tuning machines and a Badass® Bass II™ bridge." - Fender.com

Behind The Drum Kit - The Ro Sham Bo Story

While at the Winter 2009 Namm show, in celebration of their 100th Anniversary, Ludwig drums re-created iconic kits that defined certain eras of Ludwig manufacturing and artist input with the current output of Ludwig products. To represent the 80's/90's, Ludwig recreated Neil Peart's Presto tour kit; Ludwig's Kevin Packard has provided complete details on the "Ro Sham Bo" kit (aka "rock paper scissors"):

"The Ludwig Super Classic kit Neil played on the 1990 tour for the Presto album, to me, represented a brilliant bridge between the 'old' Rush...and the 'new'...It was the last of his live kits to feature the classic double-kick configuration that is instantly recognizable to the Peart aficionado (of which there is a small army.)...Since Neil left Ludwig in 1995, we couldn't call the kit The Peart Kit, so we called our recreation RO SHAM BO (so named because on this tour, his kick heads featured three illustrated hands doing 'Scissors-Paper-Stone' as described in the album track Hand Over Fist,) a very obscure reference that only a true fan would catch (Neil himself reportedly had to look up the phrase 'ro sham bo' on Wikipedia to catch the reference.)" - Behind The Drum Kit - The Ro Sham Bo Story, Kevin Packard, Director of Marketing, Ludwig Combo Percussion