Alex Lifeson guest stars in the new CBC comedy "Crawford"

Premiering tonight across Canada on the CBC June 14th at 9/930NT is the new comedy series Crawford.  Created by Mike Clattenburg, who also created Trailer Park Boys, Alex Lifeson has a small role as Taylor, boss of actress Jill Hennessy's (Crossing Jordan) character Cynthia.  Cynthia is "the matriarch, who is an award-winning cereal executive for a product called Sugar Maple Pops.  Alex is "Cynthia’s mentor and the man who gave her a shot with Super Maple Pops, Taylor is a little worse for wear, with an aura of fast-food grease about him."

"I got asked to do a small role...I thought I couldn't do it - that it was something for real actors. But I ended up doing a few episodes. It definitely was not in my comfort zone. But if you throw a challenge at yourself and dive into it, it can be really gratifying." - Alex Lifeson, Globe and Mail, January 18, 2018

“He’s phenomenal,” says Hennessy, a RUSH fan.  (Hennessy herself has released two albums: her last, I Do, in 2015.)  Given the musical connections, the Star says it’s surprising that Clattenburg hasn’t got Lifeson and Hennessy busking in a Toronto subway in a giant ironic wink to the audience.  “That would so work!” says Hennessy. “My character didn’t finish high school, she was in a band. And one of her future fans was her boss (Lifeson) at the cereal company. So yes, I think somebody should talk to Mike about that scene. Could you maybe put in a word for me?” - The Star, January 30, 2018

Geddy Lee talks to the CBC about Toronto's Historic Massey Hall

Toronto's 124 year old Massey Hall is about to about to close for two years as it undergoes major renovations. Today the CBC published a collection of interviews with various artists including Geddy Lee and the Barenaked Ladies, with featured videos as well.  Click here for more.

A Farewell to Kings 40th Anniversary Edition nominated for PROG's Reissue of the Year

Click here to vote now for RUSH's ‪A Farewell to Kings 40th Anniversary Edition in PROG magazine's 2018 Progressive Music Awards!  The event takes place at the Underglobe in London, on the site of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, on Thursday September 13.  Click here for details. - Thanks to RushFanForever for the headsup!

Geddy Adds Pujols' Signature to his 3000-Club Baseball

On May 4th Albert Pujols of the L.A. Angels became the 32nd player to reach 3,000 hits and just the fourth to do so with 600 home runs. When the Angels rolled into Toronto Tuesday night the 22nd to play the Blue Jays, well known baseball collector Geddy Lee was on hand to request Pujols to add his signature to a special ball, which contains EVERY batter who has hit 3,000 hits.  Check out the video of the event here. - Thanks to CygnusX1-net for the headsup!

Rush references on Billions' May 20th episode

Well this escalates quickly - during last night's episode of the Showtime series Billions (titled "Icebreaker", aired May 20), the following epic conversation takes place between Axe (Damian Lewis) and Taylor (Asia Kate Dillon): 

• Businessmen "How soon do you want the money?"
• Axe "The Year 2112 we'll do the raise as a celebration of Rush's second best album, that's why we got you in here today."
• Taylor - "You mean Moving Pictures is #1. But I think it goes Hemispheres, then A Farewell to Kings, then 2112 then Pictures."
• Axe - "Well, you would...."

- Thanks to Tod Odonnell and Ronney Monteith for the headsup!

Alex Lifeson looks back on opening for The New York Dolls in 1973

Alex Lifeson just published his memories in the West End Phoenix newspaper about the night in 1973 when Rush opened for the New York Dolls at the Victory Burlesque Theater.  Check it out here. - Thanks to Dave Bidini for the headsup!

Alex Lifeson appears in Bachman

As seen in the trailer, Alex Lifeson is interviewed in the new documentary Bachman set for screening May 2nd at the 2018 Hotdocs Film Festival in Toronto.

"With 'American Woman' and 'You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet,' Canadian rock legend Randy Bachman achieved the rare status of reaching #1 in two separate bands. His story is one of chart-topping highs, crushing lows—and a single-minded passion for music."

- Thanks to RushFanForever for the headsup!

Costa Rica's President Elect is a (Huge) Rush Fan

As seen below, when Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau phoned Costa Rica's President Elect Carlos Alvarado to congratulate him on winning the recent election, after trading necessary pleasantries, Alvarado states "I'm a fan of...the best band in the world that I admire the most, comes from Canada, it's Rush." Check it out here, beginning shortly after the 3 minute mark. - Thank you for Raul Bonilla for the headsup.

Alex Lifeson's Top 5 Essential Albums - Guitar Tracks Insider

The new March/April issue of Guitar Tracks Insider includes Alex Lifeson's Top 5 Essential Albums.

"Alex Lifeson is one mutt of a guitar player. He combines the blues intensity of John Mayall's early fire breathers Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Peter Green, with the architectural vision of progressive innovators, Steve Howe and Steve Hackett, and the fractured creative vision of modernists, like Jeff Beck and Trevor Rabin."

The Top 5: "1. Electric Ladyland - The Jimi Hendrix Experience; 2. Blow by Blow - Jeff Beck; 3. Discipline - King Crimson; 4. Sounds Good To Me - Bill Bruford; 5. Voyage of the Acolyte - Steve Hackett.

Check out the feature here. - Thanks to RushIsABand for the headsup!

Edge Factor's "Masters of Resonance"

Here's something that's been literally years in the making.  Edge Factor first posted a teaser back in August of 2016, and later that year, they announced via a press release that the film "Masters of Resonance" was coming in 2017.  That was the last we heard until today, when Edge Factor released the Official Trailer for the film, which you can view below.  Per the promo, "This film takes you on a journey from the forest to the stage and pulls back the curtain on the art of drum making."

Geddy Lee inducts Barenaked Ladies into the Juno Awards Hall of Fame March 25th.

Last night Geddy Lee inducted the Barenaked Ladies into the JUNO Awards Hall of Fame.  You can see the induction below or at this link.  Leading up to the show,"Barenaked Ladies' Ed Robertson & Steven Page Talk 'Surreal' Canadian Music Hall of Fame Induction", including:

Billboard: "Geddy Lee is inducting you. How cool is that?"

Ed Robertson: "Oh man, for me that's like an actual dream come true. I reached out to Geddy and said, 'Hey, listen, this is an actual, literal teenage dream, but I am an adult now so I understand if you can't make this work.' And he's just been awesome. So he's going to do the induction, which is beyond a thrill to me. There's so much to look forward to -- we're gonna play, Geddy's doing the induction. It's a total dream weekend."

Alex Lifeson to appear in Randy Bachman Documentary "Bachman"

Winnipeg singer-songwriter Randy Bachman (The Guess Who/Bachman-Turner Overdrive) is the focus of a new documentary showcasing his life as an iconic Canadian musician.  “Bachman” will premiere at the upcoming 2018 Hot Docs Festival in Toronto May 2-4, is produced for CBC’s Documentary Channel in Canada and features archival footage and new interviews with friends, family and fans including Neil Young, Alex Lifeson, Chris Jericho, Peter Frampton, Buffy Saint-Marie, Tal Bachman, Fred Turner, Paul Shaffer and others. Click here for more.

Ian Thornley of Big Wreck talks about covering "Closer To The Heart" on the A Farewell to Kings 40th Anniversary Edition

Here's something that passed under the radar....   In January Ian Thornley of Big Wreck spoke to MusicLifeMagazine.net about their cover of "Closer To The Heart" for the A Farewell to Kings 40th Anniversary Edition.

"I knew going in that I am probably going to piss off Rush fans because it’s not hard to do. Rush fans are some of the most rabid on the planet, as you know. And I get that because I am kind of the same way with certain bands too. The list pretty long of bands that I could pick that have iconic songs that I would probably get two bars into a cover and turn it off. At the same time, I wanted to keep it close enough to the original so that it’s recognizable. To me it sounds exactly like how I wanted it to and am happy because it sounds like Big Wreck covering a Rush song."

 For more, check out the full feature musiclifemagazine.net. - Thanks Darren for the headsup!

Anthrax's Scott Ian talks Rush in Prog issue #85

The new issue of PROG magazine (#85) went on sale yesterday, and includes an interview with Anthrax's Scott Ian, where he talks about his his prog heroes, RUSH. Check it out on page 20 here. - Thanks to RushFanForever for the headsup!

2112 Comic Series by Matan Kohn

2112 Sighting!  Yesterday saw the release of issue number one of the comic book series "2112" by Matan Kohn.  Details of this series are unknown, and the title may be the only Rush relation in this post-apocalyptic series.  In "Genesis", issue #1, "a person awakens from a coma after about a hundred years, and discovers that everything around him has changed." You can get it here. - Thanks to Chad Saylor for the headsup!

Alex Lifeson performing at Phoenix Rising March 29

Alex Lifeson will be performing March 29 at Phoenix Rising, a fundraiser for West End Phoenix in Toronto to be held in the Great Hall 1087 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M6J 1H3.   Performers including Rheostatics, Alex Lifeson, Whitehorse, Nasim Asgari and Special Guests. Hosted by Tom Wilson (Lee Harvey Osmond).  Click here for more.

Fu Manchu: How SoCal Stoner Crew Enlisted Alex Lifeson for Epic Space Jam

Revolvermag.com has posted a new interview with Fu Manchu frontman Scott Hill, where he talks about enlisting Alex Lifeson on their latest album Clone of the Universe, set for release on Feb. 9.

"Our manager is friends with his manager, and they were talking. Without asking us, our manager was like, "Hey, would Alex want to play on their new record?" His manager asked him and got back to our manager, like, "Oh yeah, he totally will. Send him a song!" When he told us, we were all like, "Holy shit!" We immediately reverted back to the Rush fans we were in seventh grade! [Laughs] So we sent him the four-track, which was a little lower than normal demo quality and he was like, "This is great. What do you want me to do on it?" We were like, "Holy shit, he's asking us?!? Dude, do whatever you want, wherever you want!  So we got in the studio and recorded the song, and then we sent it to him in Canada; he sent us back a bunch of stuff, and it all just sounded insane. He was like, "Use whatever you want," so we picked this one section of stuff that he did; it's in the first part where the band drops out — he's playing a really effected guitar riff along with the bass and drums, and then the bass and drums drop out. He's doing stuff with a bunch of different effects, all these sci-fi sounds and pick slides, and we were just flipping out listening to it. We still can't believe it! [Laughs]"

 Click here for the full story.

"Animate" covered by Allegaeon, featuring "Counterparts" inspired album art

Back in September 2016 I shared that Denver Colorado death-metal band Allegaeon had included their cover of "Subdivisions" on their latest album, Proponent for Sentience.  During the recording sessions for Proponent For Sentience, Allegaeon recorded two Rush covers. Besides the aforementioned "Subdivisions", on January 6th, 2018, the date version of the band's song 1.618, Allegaeon released their cover of "Animate" worldwide on all digital music services featuring a single cover based on the Counterparts album art; buy the digital single at Amazon.com.

"When we settled on Rush to cover during the 'Proponent' sessions, I simply couldn't pick which song to do. 'Subdivisions' or 'Animate.' Both were favorites for me personally, and both were sort of 'under the radar' eg. not 'Tom Sawyer' or 'Spirit Of Radio.' Where the original idea was to do a cover for a Japanese bonus track, we figured if we did both we could cover a special song for both the Japan AND Europe pressing. Then the powers that be decided to just include 'Subdivisions' on the album, and keep 'Animate' in reserve for something. Jan 6th, 2018 is the only occurrence of the golden ratio in date form that will occur during our life time. So 1.6.18 seemed like the perfect date to release it in Allegaeon fashion." Guitarist Greg Burgess, via Blabbermouth.net, January 5, 2018

- Thanks to B-man for the headsup!

Rush Reference on "Kevin Can Wait"

Kevin Can Wait is an American sitcom television series starring Kevin James currently airing on CBS.  During Monday night's episode, season 2 episode 15 titled "Fight or Flight", Kevin and Vanessa are at the airport, and the flight they are waiting on from New York to Orlando is flight number 2112. - Thanks to Chad Kilhefner for the headsup and for Riab for the screencap!

Rush Reference on "Riverdale"

Riverdale is an American television series based on the characters of Archie Comics currently airing on Warner Bros CW network. During season 2, episode 10, aired January 17, 2018, titled "Chapter Twenty-Three: The Blackboard Jungle," when confronted with being transferred to a new High School, Jughead quotes "Subdivisions" and says: 'So our choices are conform or be cast out." - Thanks to Sebastian Seifert for the headsup and screencap!