A new, unofficial documentary on Rush titled Rush: The Rise of Kings (1968-1981) is set to be released this coming May 6th. The documentary comes from Sexy Intellectual Studios whom are known for producing unofficial music documentaries. From the Amazon.com listing: The most successful band to emerge from the Canadian rock explosion of the early 1970s, Rush would go on to become one of that nation's biggest entertainment exports. A trio of musical polymaths who cut a fiercely independent, sometimes controversial path through various musical styles to forge a distinctive, evolving sound that was incomparable to that of any of their contemporaries, this hugely influential group have flourished across a forty-plus year career. This film traces the history of Rush from the bar rooms of Toronto in the late 1960s to the world's largest arenas in the late 70s and early 1980s, by which time they were amongst the biggest bands on the planet. Through a stunning combination of rare

No Turning Back is the new collection of original short fiction by Dan Burns. This beautifully crafted hardcover edition includes story illustrations by Chicago artist Kelly Maryanski and an original cover design by world-renowned graphic artist Hugh Syme (album cover designer for the rock band Rush ). Additionally, the author accompanies each story with his personal notes regarding the thoughts and ideas that inspired him to write the story, adding a unique behind-the-scenes perspective of the writing process. The hardcover first edition will be published May 1st from Chicago Arts Press, and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.Com or directly at www.danburnsauthor.com . For more information about the book and the author, please click HERE . Thanks to the author Dan for the news.

Each year, the Audie Awards (or Audies) are bestowed in the USA for outstanding audiobooks covering a number of different categories. The Audies have been granted by the Audio Publishers Association , the not-for-profit trade organization of the audiobook industry, since 1996. Rush's Clockwork Angels: The Watchmaker's Edition has been nominated for a 2014 Audie Award in the category of Package Design . The winners will be announced at a gala banquet this coming spring, in conjunction with BookExpo America. For a complete list of the nominees and categories, please click HERE . For more information on Clockwork Angels: The Watchmaker's Edition , click HERE . Or purchase your own copy via this LINK . Thanks to reader Thomas Gieloff for the news.

As Rush begin the celebration of their 40th anniversary since the release of the band's debut album, and as Cygnus-X1.Net itself approaches its 10th anniversary later this year, I decided it was time to honor both occasions with a new section to this site: The Rush Timeline The idea first occurred to me when I, quite by accident, stumbled across the site of an old British band whose history was presented in a simple but effect graphical timeline. It immediately struck me that Rush's extensive history, which is filled with numerous significant events, would be served well if presented in such a format. After researching some options, I came upon TimelineJS , an open-source tool that enables you to build visually-rich interactive timelines. TimelineJS's simple-to-use interface and clean design made developing a timeline virtually effortless. Of course the real work would be in identifying the significant events in Rush's storied career to include in the timeline.

The feature story in the March 2014 issue of Modern Drummer magazine is the periodical's list of the 50 Greatest Drummers of All Time . Neil Peart ranked #3 in the extensive list, which was selected by Modern Drummer readers and drummers. From the issue: Whose playing endures through the decades? Whose music do we reach for when we want new ideas? When we want to practice? When we want to laugh ? Who inspires and delights us most? Drumming is a vast and mysterious art, but those are the concepts that help determine greatness. Now you can turn the page and find the artists who, regardless of genre or era, are revered by the drumming community most consistently. The results, after all, were made by you - drummers, from hobbyist to superstar. Many thousands of you submitted your top ten in our online poll, we tallied it all up, and now we present for all the world MD 's 50 Greatest Drummers of All Time. Taking the top spot is Buddy Rich, followed by Led Zeppelin's Joh

Neil Peart has just posted his first update of 2014 to his "News, Weather, and Sports" website blog. This February 2014 entry is titled "Bubba And The Professor" . The entry takes a look at Neil's duality of personas, if you will, from his given nicknames of "Bubba" and "The Professor". Neil elaborates on how - and why - he received these nicknames: "...It was the same way with Bubba — I didn’t pick it, and probably wouldn’t have. It came from Andrew MacNaughtan, the band’s main photographer from around 1989 until his tragically early death in 2011. During those years Andrew shot us casually and formally all over the world, including the portrait that opens this story (with expert Photoshop work from Hugh Syme), my all-time favorite. (Bubba’s, anyway.) In the early ’90s, Andrew also traveled with us on a couple of tours as a personal assistant. (Poor guy.) Back in those days, early in a friendship that would deepen over the years,

Walmart has just launched a new advertising campaign that focuses the spotlight on the retailer's plan to pledge $250 billion over the next 10 years to "products purchased from American factories. And honoring the men and women who make them." One of the several television commercials in the campaign utilizes Rush's Working Man as a back drop to a video of American factory workers. The commerical is available in both a 60 second and 30 second version. Thanks to Tom Tommeh Kelley for the news.

Tour Link is a three day conference where professionals in concert touring and related industries spend time networking with their peers. Part of the three day session includes the Top Dog awards ceremony where awards in numerous categories are bestowed upon the very best of the best in the touring community as voted on by their peers. This year, long-time Rush engineer Brad Madix, who has been with the band since the Presto days and Video designer David Davidian, who has been with Rush since the Vapor Trails era, won three separate awards for their work during Rush's Clockwork Angels tour. Brad Madix shared the award with Ken Pooch Van Druten (Linkin Park) in the category of "FRONT OF HOUSE ENGINEER OF THE YEAR." David Davidian took home two awards, in the categories of "VIDEO DESIGNER OF THE YEAR" and "VIDEO DIRECTOR/OPERATOR OF THE YEAR" Howard Ungerleider, who won the award in 2011 , was on hand at the ceremony and accepted all three aw

Guitarist John Wesley, who is best known as the touring guitarist for the English rock band Porcupine Tree , has just announced that he will be releasing his latest album titled Disconnect next month. The announcement via his Facebook Page indicated that Alex Lifeson makes a guest appearance on the track "Once a Warrior" from the album. From the Facebook Announcement " 7 years ago I was fortunate enough to meet and spend some time with one of my early guitar heroes, Alex Lifeson of RUSH. He's been a HUGE influence on my guitar playing throughout the years, and he's also one of the kindest human beings you'll ever meet. Now, 7 years later, he's performed a MIND-BLOWING guitar solo on my song, 'Once a Warrior.' I'm so happy to have Alex on my new album, 'Disconnect,' and I can't wait for you to hear it! Disconnect is scheduled for release in Europe including the UK on March 31st. The US released date is set for April 1st I

Back in 2010, author and photographer David Phillips published a coffee table book titled A Drummer's Perspective: A Photographic Insight into the World of Drummers . The book contained a stunning collection of live action photos celebrating the world of drumming. Now, three years in the making, David is prepared to follow up his first book with From The Riser, A Drummer's Perspective II which will not only feature Neil Peart on the cover, but also includes a foreward written by Neil himself. ‘From the Riser: A Drummer’s Perspective II’ is a stunning collection of over two hundred live action drumming photos brought together in a large format coffee table book. Plus the foreword is written by the drumming legend Neil Peart of Rush. This project has been three years in the making and features more than a hundred drumming legends. The book aims to celebrate the world of drumming by taking you behind the scenes and showing you drummers doing what they do best. These images ca

A new article about the upcoming graphic novelization of "Clockwork Angels" was just published by Comic Book Resources . The article includes a brief interview with both Neil Peart and Kevin J. Anderson as well as an exclusive look at some of the artwork: "Clockwork Angels" began life as a Rush concept record that was then turned into a novelization written by Anderson and Peart and is now making the jump to comics. Everything seems all right in the steampunk world of Albion, but a young man named Owen Hardy wants to step out of the highly regimented schedule put in place by the mysterious Watchmaker. Peart took a few moments out of his busy schedule to talk with Comic Book Resources about his history with comics before Anderson went into more detail about the series. "When I was growing up in the '50s and '60s, comic books were a very important part of my life. I devoured hundreds of them, I realize now -- all of the superheroes, and everything else