Neil Peart has just posted a new update to the "News, Weather, and Sports" section of his website, his third such update in as many months. Once again, Peart continues on a theme he started back in September as this edition, titled BubbaGram™#3 , is the third entry since the end of Rush's R40 tour. In this entry, Neil discuss a ride between two dates that took place in mid-July, about two weeks before the end of the R40 tour. From the entry: It was mid-July 2015, a day off between shows in Salt Lake City and Calgary on the third and final leg of the R40 tour. The setting is the Bannock Pass, an unpaved route between Idaho and Montana. The wide, well-graded gravel curved upward through a treeless expanse of sagebrush and grasses rising to 7,684 feet. A closer look at the photo shows two tiny motorcyclists, Chris and Michael, riding across the lower middle. It was indeed a big country. Just to the north, the Lemhi Pass had been the route of the Lewis and Clark expedi

In celebration of the 30th Anniversary of Rush's eleventh studio album, Power Windows , which was released on October 29th back in 1985, both Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson will appear on In the Studio with Redbeard , the syndicated weekly rock star interview North American radio show. The initial broadcast of the Power Windows 30th Anniversary special will occur on December 14th. From the announcement: Rush is marking the 30th anniversary of 1985’s Power Windows with “The Big Money”,”Manhattan Project”,”Marathon”, “Mystic Rhythms”; and we will add 1993’s terrific hard-rocking Counterparts sporting “Animate”,”Stick It Out”, and the emotionally powerful “Nobody’s Hero“. Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson host this thoughtful conversation In the Studio the week of December 14. -Redbeard For a list of North American radio stations that will be airing the special, please click HERE . For additional information, and eventual links to the interview, click HERE . Thanks to Eric from

There are few musicians who fundamentally change their instrument, and even fewer still who transcend their instrument altogether. Jaco Pastorius did both. In 1976, Jaco’s melodic “singing” bass style redefined the role of the bass in modern music. Almost overnight, critics hailed Jaco Pastorius as “the future of modern music,” alongside popular visionaries like David Bowie, Tom Waits, Patti Smith, Bryan Ferry, Lou Reed, and Herbie Hancock. Produced by the Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, and directed by Paul Marchand and Stephen Kijak, this blistering biopic contains incredible unseen footage and photography from the Pastorius family archive, and takes viewers into the heart and soul of this hugely influential cross-genre artist. Featuring interviews with an array of artists (Flea, Joni Mitchell, Sting, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Geddy Lee) and friends, 'JACO' unveils the story of his music, his life, his demise, and ultimately the fragility of great artistic genius.

In 1994, Sandler gifted the chosen people with their most iconic holiday jingle ever, “The Chanukah Song”. He’s since followed up the original with two renditions, “Part II” in 1999 and “Part III” in 2002. Now, 13 years on from the last update to the song, Sandler has released “The Chanukah Song Part IV” — and it’s glorious. The song was debuted at a gig in San Diego last week, and now video of Sandler’s latest rundown of high-profile Hebrews has come online. Jesus and Punky Brewster get mentions within the first ten seconds, and it only takes off from there. After name dropping Drake and the guys who founded Google, Sandler sings, “We got Scarlett Johansson/ Talk about a kosher crush/ And if you need a higher voice to turn you on/ How about Geddy Lee from Rush! ” You can watch Sandler perform the song via the embedded view below or directly at this LINK . The shout-out to Geddy Lee occurs at about the 1:40 mark. Happy Holidays, everyone!

With the release of Rush's R40 Live Album and Concert Film, I have created new pages on the main site that include all of the liner notes, tracking listing, article links, artwork, photographs, and more. As most fans know, at least those who have purchased one of the incarnations of R40 Live , the liner notes include a brief essay by long-time Rush scribe Philip Wilding. His most recent article on Rush, titled Exit Stage Left?: Inside Rush's Farewell Show appeared in the October 2015 issue of Classic Rock magazine. Below is a brief passage from the R40 Liner Notes essay: The two hometown shows at Toronto's Air Canada Centre this summer were always going to have an added poignancy given the giant question mark over the band's future - Neil's resistance to play live, Alex's physical travails - plus, this was the town where Rush rehearsed in their rooms and garages, were the scourge of high school dances, brought the bar scene thrumming into bluesy life, it

At long last, Rush's latest live album and concert film offering, R40 Live , is now available. Produced in several formats and packages, R40 Live is the band's eleventh official live album, when you include the limited release of Grace Under Pressure Live: Tour 1984 : All roads have led to this. Forty-one years in the making, the R40 Live tour took a very real journey back through time. Beginning with the grand design: a state-of-the-art stage set that pivots, rolls and dives, and brings Clockwork Angels in to bombastic, colorful life before marching stridently back in time (through theatre stages, a panoply of band and fan shots, the accrued memories of a life spent playing live) to a mocked-up school gym and the band playing there; a solitary bass amp set on the chair behind Geddy Lee, a mirror ball spiraling crazily above, casting thin rods of light like a light rain across the crowd, 'Working Man' coming to a shuddering halt as the band s beginning becomes their

With the pending release of Rush's latest live offering, R40 Live , both Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have been busy providing interviews and making appearances ahead of the November 20th release. Below is a breakdown of all the recent events: 10 Things We Learned From Rush's Michael Moore Interview As we reported earlier, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson were at the New York City headquarters of Sirius XM on Friday, November 13th for an intimate 'Town Hall' meeting with moderator Michael Moore. Excerpts from that interview are available in the Rolling Stone article including this response: 6. Rush's view of today's music biz is pretty grim. Both Lee and Lifeson painted a rosy picture of the music industry that they came up in, an environment in which band and label worked together as a team, and artists had the time and space to develop their sound and find their audience. ("What was great about our era," said Lee, "was there was patience on the

Update: (11/26/2015): Video clips from the interview are now available on YouTube: Geddy Lee on being the a Child of a Holocaust Survivor // SiriusXM Dave Grohl & Geddy Lee's Rock Star Moms // SiriusXM The Future of Rush after R40 // SiriusXM Update (11/25/2015): The first broadcast of the Town Hall Meeting occurs tonight at 6pm EST on Sirius XM's Classic Rewind station. Additional airings of the Town Hall meeting will occur through 12/1. Click HERE for more information and details on all of the airings. Update (11/18/2015): Rolling Stone Magazine has just posted an article about the Sirius XM event with some audio outtakes. Click HERE to read the article. Earlier this month we reported that Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson would be stopping by the New York City corporate headquarters of Sirius XM radio for an intimate 'Town Hall' meeting with award-winning film maker and Rush fan Michael Moore. Ahead of the meeting, Sirius XM held a contest for their subscrib

Rush have appeared on the cover of Canadian Musician Magazine over a dozen times in the past, with the last such honor coming back in 2007 (See: In the Studio with Rush ). That eight-year drought has ended as the band will grace the cover of the magazine's November/December 2015 issue. The accompanying article, titled Travelling Back In Time With Rush has Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson reflecting on the "...concept, design, and music of R40..." From the article: I'm very proud of the way it sounds and looks," Lifeson says of the band's 11th live package. "All in all. it's a very satisfying way to cap [R40]. It's not like we're leaving anything unturned." Lee takes over: "This whole tour was really driven by the fans," he says, reflecting on R40. "The design of the show, the song list, and a lot of the [video] content on the rear screen was all us saying thank you to our fans, because that's really the nature of an

No other drummer has adorned the cover of Modern Drummer magazine more than Neil Peart. The January 2016 issue will mark the 9th time the Rush drummer has appeared front-and-center on the magazine (the first time was back in April of 1980 . The accompanying article/interview, titled simply Neil Peart , discusses "...soloing and set lists, the very real differences between his drumming past and present, and the much-speculated topic of his band’s future..." Here's an excerpt from the article: MD: In your last MD interview , in 2011, you said that studies with Gruber and Erskine helped you retain accuracy but feel good inside. Has anything changed? Is that even better now? Neil: I’m still evolving in the ways that they have guided me. Sometimes I’ll do an interview with non-musicians and they’ll ask why I practice so much and take lessons. Well, I have the privilege of being a professional musician. It’s my responsibility to devote myself to being all that I can be

Rush's R40 Live album and concert film, which will be released on November 20th, will be premiered tonight, November 9th, on Sirius XM's Classic Rewind channel. The premiere will take place at 6pm EST on Pat St. John's show. In addition to the world premiere, both Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson will be in the Sirius XM studios on Friday, November 13th for a Town Hall event. More from the announcement: SiriusXM wants to give you and a guest the chance to attend SiriusXM’s Town Hall with Rush. This exclusive event will take place on Friday, November 13 at SiriusXM’s NYC studios and will feature original members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson answering questions from an intimate studio audience about their legendary 40-year career, to celebrate the release of the RUSH R40 LIVE DVD+3CD set (out November 20). To qualify, we're asking SiriusXM subscribers to submit their most creative and insightful questions about Rush for a chance to ask the question to Geddy Lee and Alex

The December 2015 issue of Drum! Magazine includes a new article that was penned by Neil Peart. Titled Magnetic Memories: Four Decades in the Studio with Rush , the article focuses on Neil's memories of recording with Rush over the decades. Additionally, he looks further back to his days with J.R. Flood: J.R. Flood was a serious band, my first "full-time pro" outfit, with Paul Dickinson on guitar, Wally Tomczuk on bass, Bob Morrison on Hammond, and Gary Luciani singing. They were a good bunch of guys, disciplined and dedicated - and funny. (I've been lucky that way.) We practiced hard every weekday in the Dickinson family basement. (Paul's mother has surely been sainted.) Weekends we played at high schools and small halls around Southern Ontario. What had been called "dances" in the early '60s were firmly "concerts" by 1970, when pretty well everyone in the audience sat down on the gym floor or stood around the walls to listen and watc