BU2B 7" Vinyl Record Store Day Exclusive

April 16th was International Record Store Day.  One of the items sold was a limited edition (only 3,000 were pressed) 7" vinyl single.  I personally was unable to track one down at the four stores I checked with, and one of the stores stated they had only received two copies.  Not surprisingly, copies of this single have already appeared on ebay.

"BU2B/Caravan will be released as a limited edition 7" vinyl for Record Store Day in the US & Canada. Limited to only 3,000 copies, the 7" will be on colour vinyl - with either red or white along with a lyric insert." - Rush.com , March 11, 2011

Donna Halper Reminisces About Discovering Rush

In preparation of Rush's filming of their next concert video in Cleveland, Donna Halper reminisces about her role in "discovering" Rush.

After Donna Halper gave 'Working Man' a spin on WMMS, Rush's career took off: "'As soon as I dropped the needle on 'Working Man,' I knew this was a perfect record for Cleveland,' she said. 'It was a working-class town...I remember a city where Republic Steel would literally light the sky on fire at night with pollution.' Phones at the radio station were lighting up, too, with requests for Rush. The buzz soon led to a record deal for the band, which singled out Halper for special thanks in the liner notes of its self-titled debut album...Halper, 64, left Cleveland in 1975 to become director of artists and repertoire at Mercury Records in New York City.  She hasn't returned here since then - until now. With a special invitation from Rush, Halper is planning to catch tonight's show at The Q." - Cleveland.com, April 15, 2011

The Girl Who Loved Rush: Donna Halper: "On the occasion of the band's show at The Q—which will be filmed for later DVD release—The Cleveland Sound chatted with a longtime Rush confidante who has North Coast connections that go way back...'Moon Records, yes. Oh, God—the ugliest cover [laughs]. Oye, oye. It was red. I still have the thing—I never parted with it. People ask me all the time, 'Would you sell it?' I'm like, no! Absolutely not. If you look online there's a few pictures of me holding that cover. If you friend me on Facebook you can see it. You'll see me with a couple other fans, and I'm holding the original Rush cover. So yeah, it came in your basic plain brown envelope from a friend of mine—Bob Roper. The bottom line is, I was never expecting to receive it. I didn't know who the band was. And Roper—who I'm still in touch with now and then—was the record promoter of A&M in Canada. That's the label that was co-owned by Herb Alpert, who has had many hits for many years. And they passed on it. But Roper heard something and thought it was a good record, and I had a reputation for both playing new artists as music director, and also for playing Canadian artists. I'd played a number of Canadian artists over the years; I could give you names but I don't know if they'd mean anything to your audience. But he figured I'd be receptive to hearing another Canadian band. It wasn't just out of the blue he sent this record. He figured I would be a good person to send it to. Not like, wow, I'm so marvelous, but I'd already made a lot of friends with people in the Canadian music history. So I got it, and I listened, and I was like, 'My God—you're right!' And the rest, as they say, is history." - TheClevelandSound.com, April 6, 2011 

The Rush Fan Film Project Interviews Donna Halper: "Late in 2010, Donna took some time from writing her most recent book on the history of Boston radio (which has since been released) as well as her dissertation and graciously invited us to her home outside of Boston to discuss that little Canadian band. She’s an amazing storyteller and I would highly recommend going to see her speak if she’s ever in your town. We trimmed our discussion down to under 20 minutes, though it easily could have been over an hour." - RushFanFilm.com, April 6, 2011

Rush: A Brief History of Time Part 7

Cygnus-X1.net has added another installment of Rush: A Brief History of Time. In this edition, John has added 35 new articles and advertisements from years past, including seven entries from the 1970's and twenty-one entries from the 1980's which are primarily focused around the release of Permanent Waves. A single entry from the 1990's along with four from the 2000's and two from the current decade round out this edition. - Thanks to John at Cygnus-X1.net for the headsup!

Neil Peart Talks About Moving Pictures With Jim Ladd

KLOS DJ Jim Ladd interviewed Neil Peart for two hours on March 15th to discuss the 30th anniversary reissue of Moving Pictures. The interview aired on KLOS Thursday, April 7th, at 10:00 p.m. PST, and is now available online. - Thanks to Steve Taylor for the headsup!

30 Years Ago Today: "Countdown"

Thirty years ago today, RUSH were eyewitnesses to the historic first launch of Space Shuttle Columbia from Red Sector A, and later captured the event in the song 'Countdown', which is 'Dedicated with thanks to astronauts Young & Crippen and all the people of NASA for their inspiration and cooperation'.

"We were there! It wasn't easy, but we made it! We had a long-standing invitation to the first launch, and always swore that we would be there no matter what. Little did we know!

"On April 9th we flew into Orlando on a day off, checked into a hotel, and slept until about four A.M., when we had to leave for our rendezvous at the Air Force Base near the Cape.

"Not YYZ" Iphone/IPad App

"Not YYZ is like playing musical Morse code Mad Libs with a Rush song.  The beginning of 'YYZ' by Rush is based on the Morse code for YYZ, which is the IATA airport identifier for Toronto Pearson International Airport. But what if Rush wasn't from Toronto? What would 'YYZ' sound like if Rush was from your city? Not YYZ provides the answer (just in time for the 30th anniversary of Moving Pictures).  Pick any combination of three letters (other than YYZ) and Not YYZ will play it in the style of 'YYZ' by Rush. If the letters match an airport identifier, the airport's name and location will appear in the player. Search for airports you've traveled through and cities you've visited. Try your initials. Create your own rhythms using the Morse code as a guide. The possibilities are endless! (Actually there are exactly 17575 possibilities.)" - Click here for more info Thanks to RushIsABand for the headsup!

Geddy Lee on the cover of "Bass Guitar" April 2011

Geddy Lee is on the cover of the April 2011 edition of Bass Guitar magazine. According to bassguitarmagazine.com, Geddy is interviewed in the feature article "The 65 Basses You Must Play", revealing bass guitar #1.- Thanks to John at Cygnus-X1.net for the headsup!

"Rush: The Fountain of Surround" - Sound&Vision

Sound And Vision Magazine posted a two stories regarding the release of Moving Pictures in surround sound.

Rush: The Fountain of Surround: "Chronicling Rush’s decade-long journey toward embracing the 5.1 format—even for catalog studio material.  In anticipation of the 30th anniversary reissue of Rush's truly seminal Moving Pictures as both CD+DVD (April 5) and CD+BD (May 3) deluxe editions, with PCM 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround-sound mixes by Richard Chycki, I'm dipping into my personal Rush interview archive to present a truly exclusive, incremental look at how the band’s attitude toward bringing its vaunted studio material into the surround-sound arena has literally changed from 'no' to 'go' over the last decade." - SoundAndVisionMag.com, April 5, 2011

Rush’s Fountain of Surround, Part 2: Moving Predictions: "'It's a timeless record with so much detail,' says surround-sound remix guru Richard Chycki about Rush's 1981 masterpiece, Moving Pictures. 'I’m glad you’ve clued into all of the nuances.' Chycki is referring to what I said to him last week about the PCM 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes he did for MP’s 30th anniversary reissue...I’ve unearthed this related 5.1 treat. Back in February 2009, Chycki and I talked exclusively about his surround work for both the audio and live video releases for Rush's 2007 album Snakes & Arrows. That interview was initially intended to be a companion piece for my interview with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, but for various reasons not worth getting into, it remained on the virtual shelf — until now." - SoundAndVisionMag.com, April 5, 2011

Benedictum Covers "2112 Overture/Temples of Syrinx"

Dominion, the third album by US metal band Benedictum, was released March 8th. Included as a bonus track is their cover of "2112 Overture/Temples of Syrinx"; vocalist Veronica Freeman recently discussed how she was once a "closet" Rush fan:

"I'm a huge Rush fan, I love 'em. I just don't talk about it much because everybody wants to talk to me about the Dio stuff. Rush has always resonated with me, but I knew so many people that didn't like them back in the day because they didn't sound evil enough (laughs), so I became a closet Rush fan. I had always wanted to sing 'Temples'. I remember back in the times before CDs, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I had my wannabe souped-up Firebird blasting Rush on the cassette deck. The stereo was worth more than the car (laughs). I had the windows rolled up so nobody else could hear while I tried to hit those notes (laughs)." - Benedictum vocalist Veronica Freeman, CarlBegai.com, March 28, 2011 Thanks to RushIsABand for the headsup

Rolling Stone Readers Pick the Top Ten Bassists of All Time - Geddy #4

"If Geddy Lee's only role in Rush was to play the bass he'd be unbelievably accomplished. The fact that he does it while singing and playing keyboards proves that the man is almost a freak of nature. Few singers in the history of rock could have handled this triple duty.  The group has occasionally flirted with the idea of adding a fourth member to their stage show to ease Lee's load, but they always decide that fans only want to see the three members of Rush onstage. He manages it all by playing bass pedals during his keyboard parts. The band is currently performing their 1980 LP Moving Pictures on a world tour." - Rolling Stone Readers Pick the Top Ten Bassists of All Time

Coming in at #5 is Primus' Les Claypool, who is quoted with these words:

"When I saw my first Rush concert, I spent the whole time watching Geddy's hands," Claypool told Bass Player Magazine. "There were so many things I didn't know; I didn't even know there were such things as roundwound strings. I'd had that Memphis a year and a half without changing the strings, and here I was trying to sound like Geddy Lee and Chris Squire." - Thanks to Matt Kelly for the headsup!

Geddy Lee Discusses His Favorite Baseball Game

As Major League Baseball kicks off this year's season, the TorontoStar has just posted "The old ball game brings together Canadians of all stripes" where famous Canadian discuss the greatest game on Earth.

"Rush lead vocalist Geddy Lee is no stranger to Blue Jays fans. He’s been a longtime fan himself, and has attended hundreds of games through the good and not-so-good times. When asked about his fave game, the Toronto native knew right away: 'Game 6 of the 1992 World Series in Atlanta,' Lee said this week, just as the band was leaving Toronto for Tampa to open a tour. 'Sitting with my brother Allan and beside Candy Maldonado's dentist from Puerto Rico and the wives of the Blue Jay coaches...an island of Jays fans in a sea of Braves T-shirts, cheering in the top of the 11th inning as Dave Winfield hit a double off of Charlie Liebrandt to drive in two runs, which would lead to the Blue Jays capturing the Holy Grail, a long-awaited World Series championship. 'Truly the greatest Blue Jay play for me...Even the 1993 championship and Joe Carter's jaw-dropping home run could not compare to that spectacular moment in Atlanta." - TorontoStar, March 31, 2011

Weekly Drawing To Win A Meet And Greet With RUSH

The 2011 leg of the Time Machine Tour kicks off tonight in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  For this leg of the tour, Rush Backstage has just announced it is holding a weekly drawing for two winners to each win a pair of Meet and Greet passes to meet RUSH:

"Every week RUSH BACKSTAGE will draw two winners to win a pair of Meet and Greet passes to meet RUSH during the Time Machine 2011 tour. The winners will meet members of the band, before the show. These lucky people will have the opportunity to say hello and have their picture taken with the guys!  In order to qualify to win the prize, entrants MUST already have in their possession tickets to a Rush Time Machine concert during the Time Machine 2011 tour. Rush Backstage will not be providing concert tickets to the winners." - Click here to enter

Time Machine Tour 2011 iCalendar

The Time Machine Tour Kicks Off Wednesday, March 30th, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  I have created a Google iCalendar for the 2011 leg of the tour, showing all dates and local venue times (subject to change by the band, etc., although any changes should automatically sync with your calendar [may require a reload to re-synching]). You can link to this calendar using one of three options: xml, ical, html.  With these options, you can add this to an RSS feed, import into Outlook, and add to your Google Calendar (to sync with your Smartphone!). Click here for help.

Google Calendar (any computer with a web browser, also syncable with your smartphone):
1. Go to http://www.google.com/calendar and sign in. If you do not have a Google Account create one using the link provided at the bottom of the page.
2. Click on "Add" in the "Other Calendars" box located at the bottom of the menu on the left.
3. Under Add select "Add by URL".
4. Copy and paste the URL of the iCalendar file into the pop up window. The new calendar will now appear and is accessible from the My Calendars menu located on the left hand side of the screen.

Microsoft Outlook 2007 - Windows:
1. In Outlook 2007 Go to the Tools menu and click on Account Settings.
2. Click on New from the Internet Calendar and enter the full iCal URL embedded above to the desired iCalendar file.
3. Click Add.
4. Type the name of the calendar as you want it to appear in Outlook in the Folder Name box (or use the default name) and then click OK. The calendar will be listed under "Other Calendars" with the name you chose (it does not merge with "My Calendar").

Apple iCal - Mac:
1. From within iCal, choose "Subscribe" from the "Calendar" menu at the top of your screen.
2. Enter the full URL to the desired iCalendar file in the "Subscribe to:" box and click "Subscribe".
3. iCal will then download the calendar and bring you to a screen which allows you to give a title to that calendar. Check the "Refresh:" checkbox and select "every day" which will instruct iCal to check for updates to the calendar on a daily basis.
4. That's it. Your new calendar will appear, and you can choose to show or hide it by selecting or deselecting the calendar's title in the "Calendars" screen.

Nancy Wilson Talks About Geddy Lee's Credit On Heart's "Red Velvet Car"

Update: Last August 31st, Heart released their album Red Velvet Car.  The album was produced and engineered by Ben Mink and David Leonard respectively, both of whom had the same credits on Geddy Lee's My Favorite Headache.

Geddy Lee is credited with "Whistle" on the track "Death Valley".  Engineer David Leonard previously explained that the "Whistle" credit was an inside joke made by Ben Mink:

"...an inside joke between Ben Mink and Nancy Wilson...Nancy heard some hi pitched thing in 'Death Valley' and Ben said 'it's probably Geddy whistling'. They gave Geddy credit. That's the story." - David Leonard, September 2010.

Nancy Wilson recently discussed this in more detail on New Mexico's KZZR radio:

"When Ben was mixing Red Velvet Car, Geddy Lee was around, and he got the voice of Geddy Lee hidden in the beginning of the "Death Valley" song. It's sort of a secret signal from Geddy." - Nancy Wilson, KZZR 94rock.com, March 24, 2011

RUSH: Beyond The Lighted Stage - Music DVD of the Year Juno Award Winner

RUSH: Beyond The Lighted Stage has won the 2011 Juno for Music DVD of the Year:

"RUSH: Beyond The Lighted Stage, which offers a rare glimpse into the world of the Canadian rock stalwarts, has won Music DVD of the Year at this year's Juno gala dinner and award ceremony held tonight [March 26] in Toronto.The acclaimed documentary - which features the likes of Dave Grohl, Gene Simmons, and Billy Corgan speaking on the influence of the mighty rockers known as Rush - stands as the second consecutive win in this Juno category for filmmakers Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen (the duo of Banger Films walked away victorious last year thanks to 'Iron Maiden: Flight 666')." - Spinner.com, March 26, 2011

"Beating out the Broken Social Scene flick This Movie is Broken - arguably their biggest competitor - Dunn and McFadyen were in high spirits back stage at the press conference following their acceptance speech. 'Everyone kind of came out of the Rush closet,' Dunn said of making the doc. 'The musicians and fans have wanted something like this for a long time'." - Spinner.com, March 26, 2011

In addition, on Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson were on hand to present the Album of the Year Juno to Arcade Fire for The Suburbs. Here is an audio clip of Geddy and Alex's presentation speech! - thanks to Shane Stevens for sending this recording!

RUSH: Beyond The Lighted Stage premiered Saturday, April 24th, 2010, at the Tribeca Film Festival, winning the prestigious $25,000 Heineken Audience Award, was chosen as one of the Top 10 audience favorites at Toronto's Hot Docs festival, won the Golden Reel Award for best documentary, the Juno Music DVD of the Year and was nominated for the Best Long Form Music Video Grammy award.

The film made its theatrical debut in Europe June 7th, and hit select theaters June 10th in the US and Canada, and premiered in the UK on November 1st accompanied by an exclusive Q&A with Geddy Lee, Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn. The documentary was released on DVD and Blu-Ray June 29th. On September 1st, only two months after its retail release, Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage was certified Double Platinum by the RIAA for 200,000 units sold (each 2 disk DVD package counts as two units, while the blu-ray edition counts as one). The DVD became the #2 best selling music video of 2010 with 118,000 copies sold in just 26 weeks according to YahooMusic.

Click Here For Additional Information And News

Rush: 'Our fans feel vindicated'

Rush was featured in today's UK Guardian Newspaper: "Rush: 'Our fans feel vindicated'" includes a brief biography of the last 37 years accompanied by recent comments from Geddy and Alex, and concludes with a retread of last fall's Guardian story where Neil discusses writing Xanadu. - Thanks to Reed Lover for the headsup!

Ultimate Concert Experience With Alex Lifeson Sweepstakes

"Win The Ultimate Concert Experience With Alex Lifeson:

•     Trip For Two To Las Vegas Show
•     VIP Concert Seating
•     Meet Alex Backstage
•     Take Home His Signed Gibson Custom Axe

In celebration of the new Gibson Custom Shop Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess Guitar, enter for your chance to win the ultimate Alex Lifeson Concert Experience! The Grand Prize winner gets a pair of VIP tickets to see Rush live in Las Vegas, meet Alex, and take home a signed Gibson Alex Lifeson Axcess guitar. Musician's Friend will provide you and your guest with airfare, lodging, meals, local transportation, and premium concert seating in Las Vegas on June 24, 2011  The Grand Prize has an approximate cash value of $5,999.00.  The winner will be selected in a random drawing on or around June 1, 2011. You're automatically entered every time you place an order with Musician's Friend between March 24, 2011, and May 31, 2011. No purchase necessary to enter." Click here to enter. - Thanks to Skip Daly for the headsup!

iDrum: Neil Peart Featured In Premier Issue

"LickLibrary is proud to announce the launch of iDrum - the world’s first truly interactive magazine for drummers. iDrum magazine is free of charge and contains news, reviews, lessons and hours of video content....The launch issue of iDrum features part one of an exclusive in-depth 40-minute video interview with Rush’s Neil Peart together with exclusive images from the current ‘Time Machine’ tour." For more information visit www.idrummag.com.

Pixies' Drummer On Peart Influence

While on tour last October in Chile, Pixie's drummer David Lovering was seen wearing a Rush Fly By Night tshirt.  Currently gearing up for a Canadian tour celebrating their 1989 album Doolittle, in a new interview with the Montreal Gazette, Lovering acknowledged Neil Peart as one of his greatest influences:

"...A bigger surprise comes when the subject of their influences is raised. Lovering acknowledged reverence for John Bonham, 'any drummer who played for Steely Dan' and especially Rush's Neil Peart. 'When I first started playing for the Pixies, I was doing a lot of fills, believe me, just like Neil would do. It took a long time and a lot of concentration to keep it toned down,'" - MontrealGazzette.com, March 21, 2011

Censored 2112 Cover And More

Imagine living in a place where Rush was censored and certain songs were never released as they were deemed "controversial". I was recently browsing the Japanese Rush fansite Diamonds In The Waste, and was surprised to see that the iconic red star was missing from the cover of the original Korean pressing of 2112.  The red star is of course iconic of the flag of North Korea.  According to SRO/Anthem, this was the Korean record label's decision and therefore out of their hands. In addition, I was told that on a related note "Tai Shan" was "dropped from some far eastern pressings" of Hold Your Fire. Delving into this further, Junya Suzuki from The Sphere pointed out that other Rush Korean releases have had similar changes due to their anti-establishment political views: "The Weapon" was dropped from Signals, "Red Lenses" was dropped from Grace Under Pressure and "Territories" was dropped from Power Windows. Surprisingly, "Witch Hunt" was apparently included on the Korean pressing of Moving Pictures, which is odd, as you would think that "those who know what's best for us" would protect their citizens from those dangerous Canadian views!