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Showing posts from November, 2014

Rush's R40 Box Set Enters the Billboard Charts at #2

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Rush's latest offering, the R40 box set, has entered the Billboard Music Video Sales chart at the #2 spot. Even though the last four video releases from Rush (Clockwork Angels, Time Machine Tour, Snakes & Arrows Live and Replay X3) all entered the charts at the #1 spot, a #2 showing for R40 is still impressive given its roughly $100 price point. It will, however, be interesting to see how long R40 will remain on the charts. The Clockwork Angels tour video remained on the charts for an impressive 43 weeks while the similarly packaged Replay X3 only lasted for a total of 11 weeks. For more information on the R40 box set, including complete liner notes, tracks, artwork and more, click HERE . To purchase R40 , click HERE . Thanks to Ed from RushIsABand for passing along the news.

Alex Lifeson Limited Edition Signed Prints Now Available

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Over the past few years, including this year , Alex Lifeson has participated in the " Brush of Hope " charity auction, producing and donating original artwork to the cause. This year, Alex's painting fetched an impressive $10,100 in the auction. Now, the The Kidney Foundation of Canada have just announced the availability of two limited-edition signed prints by Alex Lifeson from previous charity auctions: Now, the Kidney Foundation of Canada - Atlantic Branch and Alex have teamed up to produce these two limited edition set of prints. Only 300 prints have been made of Self Portrait #1 and only 200 prints have been made of Greek Salad. Each print is numbered and Alex Lifeson has personally signed each individual print. That's right, each print has Alex Lifeson's ORIGINAL signature on it. The print is on high quality, heavy stock. In addition, each print comes with a Certificate of Authenticity, signed by the Executive Director of the Atlantic Canada Branch of

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson Talk ‘R40′, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Future of Rush

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Radio.com has posted a new, lengthy Q&A session with both Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson where, among other topics, the question about 'What's next' for Rush was addressed: Do you think you’ll tour again before going back into the studio? Lifeson: I don’t know. Some days I feel like being back out on the road and taking advantage of the fact that it’s our 40th anniversary, and on other days, I kind of sit around here messing with musical ideas and I think, “We’ve got to get together and start writing.” I think that whatever we do, it’s not going to be until next year. I was over at Ged’s the other day, in fact—he’s just redone his little [home] studio, [and] we were both chomping at the bit to get together and start writing. He wants to try out his millions of new bass guitars that he’s got now. So we’ll do some writing, and we’ll see where that goes. Lee: I just want to play. I wouldn’t mind going back on tour. I’m really dying to play, I have all of these new old in

Geddy Lee Answers Fan Twitter Questions in New Rolling Stone Article

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Geddy Lee admits he's not big on social media in a new interview that was just posted on Rolling Stone magazine's website. So too offset his absence from the social media scene, he decided to answer some fan tweets such as: I'm going to move on to questions we solicited from Twitter. Why isn't 2112 21 minutes and 12 seconds long? It's just a few seconds more to make a great effect. [Laughs] I think we recorded that before digital clocks and we weren't paying that much attention to that aspect. It's like a baseball player I read about once that retired when he had 2,999 hits. In those days, they didn't keep track and with one more he would have been in the 3,000 club. Geddy also talks in length about the next possible tour and what songs the band may perform: How about the two books of "Cygnus"? Ah, well, that would be cool. Yeah, that would be super cool. "Cut To The Chase"? I like that song. I don't know if the others guy

Celebrate Rush Week with CBC Music

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To help celebrate the release of Rush's latest box-set R40 , CBC Music has just posted a number of articles and special features on Rush, including a new retrospective piece written by Dave Bidini, the Canadian musician and writer who was a founding member of the rock band Rheostatics, and currently performs with Bidiniband. Click any of the following to access all of the 'Rush Week' CBC content: Neil Peart's Guide to Neil Peart's Drums Neil Peart on the 10 best Rush songs ever Rush, a legacy: 40 years of being unapologetically uncool Rush: 40 things you didn't know about the legendary prog rockers Win a Rush R40 box set by proving you are the world's biggest Rush fan From Trailer Park Boys to Freaks and Geeks, a brief history of Rush in pop culture An MPC full of Geddy Lee: 11 great songs that sample Rush

Geddy Lee Performs "The Seeker" at 'The Who Hits 50!' Benefit Concert

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As we reported last month, Geddy Lee was one of numerous musicians taking part of 'The Who Hits 50!' Benefit Concert which was in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust . The concert took place last night and, as somewhat expected, Geddy was front and center performing his (and Rush's) rendition of the Who's classic "The Seeker". As fans know, Rush covered 'The Seeker' on their 2004 cover's album Feedback . The MC for the evening, Chris Evans, introduced Geddy who said the following before his performance: Well, Hello! Very happy to be here to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Who for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Thank you all for supporting the Teenage Cancer Trust. This is The Seeker! Geddy was joined on stage with The Who's house band during 'The Seeker'. Check out The Who's Facebook Page for a full report on the benefit concert. Numerous videos of Geddy's performance have appeared online, including this one . Thanks t

New Rolling Stone Interview with Geddy Lee States that Rush are Undecided on 2015 Tour

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With the release of their newest box set, Rush: R40 , Rolling Stone magazine took the opportunity to speak with Geddy Lee about the offering and the band's plans to tour in 2015: In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Geddy Lee says that announcement may have been a bit premature. "We're still talking," he says. "Everybody has a different idea how they want to spend the next couple of years, so we haven't come to a decision. I'm ready and happy to play if everyone else agrees. I think in the next couple of months we'll decide to do something or not." Geddy was referring to Alex Lifeson's earlier statement signaling the band would be touring in 2015. He went on to say: "It's one of those things where everybody enjoyed their break so much. It doesn't feel like it was very long ago that we played our last show in Kansas City. So it's like, 'Do we have to talk about this already?' But slowly we're getting around to f

Win a Neil Peart Autographed 12 Year Old Bottle of The Macallan Whiskey

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The organizers of RUSHfest Scotland , Scotland's premiere convention for Rush fans, are hosting a worldwide raffle where one lucky winner will receive a 12 year old bottle of The Macallan whisky signed by Neil Peart. The proceeds of the raffle will be donated to the Macmillan Cancer Support . From the announcement: The 12 year old Macallan, which will come with a certificate of authenticity, is no longer in production and sure to go up in value within the whisky collector community. www.themacallan.com/the-whisky/sherry-oak/sherry-oak-12/ It is a well known fact amongst RUSH fans that Neil Peart’s favourite tipple after a show or a bike ride is a ‘wee measure’ of Macallan! Here are just a couple of quotes from his self-penned travelogue books... Each drawing entry is just £5 GBP (~$8 USD), and is open worldwide. The more you donate, the more times you get entered into the raffle as each multiple of £5 GBP counts as an additional entry in the raffle. The drawing will be

Neil Peart: A Rare, Intimate Interview with George Stroumboulopoulos Airs This Sunday

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Update: The complete, unedited video interview is now online at this LINK while the full radio episode can be accessed HERE . For more information, please click HERE . Neil Peart was recently interviewed by George Stroumboulopoulos regarding the release of Neil's latest book Far and Near: On Days Like These . The interview will air this Sunday evening, November 9th on CBC Radio 2's The Strombo Show with George Stroumboulopoulos. From the press release: "One likes to believe in the freedom of music..." The Strombo Show will run the gamut this Sunday night, keeping the spirit of radio alive by delivering the best records in the best order. It's a show for music lovers by music lovers. We'll be ranging over three hours of commercial-free music to honour both old and new. George Stroumboulopoulos will be joined by Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist of the legendary band RUSH, for a rare and intimate conversation from George's home. Aside from being

Rush Premiere "The Loser" featuring John Rutsey

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Last week, Rush premiered one of the bonus tracks from their upcoming R40 boxset. The track, "I’ve Been Runnin'" was recorded during the band's concert at the Laura Secord Secondary School in St. Catharines, Ontario during the Spring of 1974. The latest track also from that performance is called "The Loser": Radio.com has posted another segment of their interview with Alex Lifeson where they discuss the track: What do you remember about the song “The Loser?” I honestly don’t remember that song, and I didn’t remember it until I actually saw the footage of us playing it. And I didn’t remember it was called ‘The Loser.” So much for my memory! We wrote so many songs in the early days, and half of them fell by the wayside. A while back, Alex uncovered a demo tape that he and I had done for copyright purposes. Since we couldn’t write music, the only way you could submit a song for copyright in those days was, you’d record it. Alex would play guitar and I wo

Special NYC Event with Geddy Lee

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Rush.Com has just announced that there will be a special event in New York City on Friday, November 7 with Geddy Lee: Rush fans in the NYC area: On Friday, November 7, Geddy Lee will be taping a special episode of Speakeasy with his friend and author, Michael Chabon. Front & Center Presents Speakeasy: An intimate conversation with Geddy Lee of Rush Location: New York, NY | McKittrick Hotel (542 W 27th St, New York, NY 10001) Event time: 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm There will be 50 tickets available for this event for fans to be in the studio audience that will go on-sale on Tuesday, Nov 4 at 10am ET. https://www.citiprivatepass.com/landing/speak_easy_geddy_lee.html Rush.com will also be giving away a few pairs so stay tuned for your chance to win! We'll have more news as it becomes available.

Ultimate Classic Rock Lists the Top 10 Rush Songs of the 1970's

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Ultimate Classic Rock, the online Classic and Hard Rock music magazine, has just posted a list of their Top 10 Rush songs from the band's first official decade: the 1970's: 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. Any list of this nature is, ultimately, subjective however there were some interesting entries including the often overlooked 'What You're Doing' from the band's self

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