Prog magazine's first annual Progressive Music Awards were awarded September 5th, and Rush's Clockwork Angels won Album of the Year. Also nominated was the Sectors box set in the Grand Designs category, losing to the Pink Floyd Immersion reissues.Neil Peart...said that in the three and a half weeks of rehearsals...he dropped at least 10 pounds....This year’s pre-tour training regimen began in February. Three times a week, Mr. Peart would bike 20 minutes to his local Los Angeles Y.M.C.A., swap his helmet for a bandanna, and spend 30 minutes on the cross-trainer (keeping his heart rate near his recommended maximum), followed by calisthenics, yoga sun salutations (he held each pose for a count of 20 Mississippi) and the return bike ride home. (His favorite workout track? Silence. 'The only activity I combine with music is driving,' Mr. Peart said. 'For me, exercise is an act of will.'). Click here for the full story.- Thanks to AndyO for the headsup!
“I’m still kind of close to it, but I would definitely say it’s one of our better efforts,” Lifeson says. “It’s cohesive throughout. I always feel there are one or two weak moments on a record once I’ve had a chance to get away from it. So far, I don’t feel that with this record.”- Thanks to Kevin Kerwin for the headsup!
On tour, Rush is continuing to push forward and take its show to new places. For starters, Lifeson says, there’s a new light show and new video over a three-hour set that includes most of “Clockwork Angels” and a number of older songs that haven’t been played live in years.
Then, there’s something completely new to a Rush tour — a string section.
“ ‘Clockwork Angels’ has five or six songs with strings on them, and we thought that rather than triggering samples, why don’t we think about taking strings out for a change?” Lifeson says. “We can pull out some of the older material from the past that we did string arrangements for and include that. And, we sort of dove into it.
“It’s so nice to go out and do something that’s unusual and different and keeps you on your toes,” he said. “And, hopefully, you don’t wreck anything for them and they don’t wreck anything for you.”
"Rush frontman Geddy Lee discusses the band's upcoming tour, the challenges of picking a set list and the reason for their longevity" - Grammy.com, September 5, 2012
"The hunt is on, Clockwork Angels: The Novel fans! We've hidden ten Golden Tickets inside copies of Clockwork Angels: The Novel and distributed them around the world. Each lucky finder will be able to redeem their ticket for an 8-volume Kevin J. Anderson and Neil Peart library. Happy hunting!" - ECW Press.com, September 4, 2012
We were having lunch together in a café in Santa Monica, and he was telling my wife and I all these plans that he had and he mentioned the novel and my wife [author Rebecca Moesta] immediately said, “Well, who’s going to write the novel?” and Neil stopped and looked at us and said, “Well, Kevin, of course.” I was kind of hoping he would think of that as he was putting the story together, but he was just developing the framework of it. So from that point on, I was actively involved in working with him about how the pieces of the story would come together, that the character had to go through this and then the next thing and things had to get worse before they could get better and how the story would resolve. So we were plotting this from the very beginning.Kevin also talks a great deal about the ins and outs of the book, including the editing process:
...And then we edited it together when it was done, and he would say things like “I really feel we need to emphasize this part more,” or “We need to come up with something else.” For example, it was rather late in the game when Neil decided he wanted Owen to spend more time in Poseidon City, trying to survive in the streets. So he came up with the character of Guerrero, the Artful Dodger-type kid he falls in with, who’s stealing things…Click here for more.
"There’s no denying the electric bass has been critical in shaping the sound, style and rhythm of the heavy music genres. But when it comes to instrumentalists, it’s my humble opinion that bass players often get a touch less fanfare than their guitarist counterparts. (I play bass, so I’m allowed to make this claim!)...- Thanks to Frank Ray for the headsup!
"If the only thing Geddy Lee did in Rush was play the bass he’d be implausibly accomplished. But, he does it all while singing and playing the keyboards; a near-impossible feat. Not many frontmen have successfully juggled this triple task. Add to that the confidence that comes from playing for a long time, and Lee remains one of the genre’s biggest and best players. " - Gibson.com, September 3, 2012
"Featuring improvised drums, funky new Rush album “Clockwork Angels” is a revelation. Alex Lifeson shares the story of the album with Powerplay. We talk to rising Irish rockers Million Dollar Reload about their superb second album. And we chat to Luca Turilli about the first Rhapsody album since the band was split in two, plus we join Bullet In Germany and spend time with Katatonia in London. We also catch up with back-on-the scene hottie Lita Ford, Asia, Herman Frank, The Flower Kings, Fiona, and Soul Sacrifice, and we look at the new bad boys of rock and we have a Pro-File of Slipknot and Murderdolls man Joey Jordison."
"We’re pretty long-winded and it’s hard to shut us up when we get going on something,” grins Geddy. “It just seemed this album had moments that needed fleshing out. We didn’t really watch the clock, not that we ever really watch it carefully. We were kind of in a groove, writing what we felt were necessary parts of the story and when we added it up in the end...holy crap, there’s value for money.”
The Top 10 Rush songs demonstrate how Canada’s favorite power trio have always been more than the sum of their parts. Now obviously, those pieces — guitarist Alex Lifeson, bassist / vocalist Geddy Lee and drummer Neil Peart are at the head of the class when it comes to musicianship, but there is more than just virtuosity at play. One thing that often gets lost in translation is that Rush really do have a grand sense of humor. So if you are taking them more seriously than they take themselves, what can we tell ya? We think they’re just peachy. So let’s get ready to take off with the Top 10 Rush Songs of the ’70s. - Click here for more. Thanks to John at Cygnus-X1.net for the headsup!
Yesterday author Kevin J. Anderson published the first two chapters of his first novel, Resurrection, Inc., to his blog for your review, along with the following introduction:"My first novel RESURRECTION, INC. (originally published in 1988) has recently been reissued in eBook and in hardcopy. This book was inspired by the songs on the Rush album “Grace Under Pressure”—Someone to talk to and someone to sweep the floors; no swimming in the heavy water and no singing in the acid rain; suddenly, you were gone from all the lives you left your mark upon; are we the last ones left alive?; every muscle tense to fence the enemy within; one humanoid escapee, one android on the run; blind images flashing by, like windshields toward a fly….Click here for more.
"I see my novel, characters, and situations when I listen to the songs. You can order autographed copies from our webstore AnderZone Shop, including bundles with Clockwork Angels. EBook downloads in all formats from WordFire Press.
"Enjoy the first two chapters..."
"...Geddy Lee, frontman of Canadian rock band Rush, called the verdict a "shocking abuse of power" and a "Neanderthal overreaction to a fairly harmless prank. Clearly artistic freedom has no place in modern-day Russia," he wrote in an email to Evan Solomon, host of CBC's Power & Politics...."- Thanks to Ed at RushIsABand for the headsup!
My family had a boat, a cruiser, which we docked in Atherly, Ont., just outside of Orillia. The thing I liked most about going there in the summertime was laying across the bow while anchored in the middle of Lake Couchiching, my radio/cassette player at my elbow. I’d listen to a few songs — hoping for Ringo’s No No Song or Pick Up the Pieces by the Average White Band — until something came on that I didn’t like, at which point I’d hop in the water, swim a little, then climb back to the bow.- Thansk to RushFanForever for the headsup!
That year, there was hardly any rock music on the radio — it was mostly Barry Manilow and How Long by Ace and Have You Never Been Mellow by Olivia Newton-John; even the hit version of Pinball Wizard was done by Elton John — so hearing anything on AM radio with a guitar was a big deal. Most rock music had migrated to FM radio, and my summer radio didn’t get that.
In context, Fly By Night was to 1975’s summer playlist what grindcore is to acoustic folk. Its opening chords sounded mean and nasty, even though, hearing them now, the guitar is more lightly flanged than fuzztoned, although I wouldn’t have known the difference at the time. There was also something about the chorus, full of punches and accents in strange places at a time when a lot of pop songs just kind of loped along stepping easily from place to place. Throughout the song, the sun climbed and the day grew hot, but I remember not swimming the rest of the afternoon, instead laying there sunburnt and wanting to hear Fly By Night again, wondering if what I’d heard the first time was, in fact, real.
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