Rush Archives » News

Geddy Lee Has Balls to Spare

The Archivist — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:41:52 +0000

Cheesy title, eh? Believe me, it could’ve been much worse.

Anyhow… We all know that Geddy is a huge baseball fan but this article about his donation of signed baseballs to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum shows how much he cares not only for the game but its history as well.

Low key and unassuming as ever — you gotta love him.

RIP: John Rutsey

The Archivist — Tue, 13 May 2008 13:32:29 +0000

Wow. Like the debut album or not… John Rutsey is a part of Rush history and his passing at 55 has thrown me for a loop. Here’s a guy who was a founding member who has basically become a footnote in the band’s history. Compound that by the skill set that Neil Peart brought to the band and their subsequent rise… it must have been hard to live in that constant shadow.

Having not heard anything from or about John over the years makes you wonder what kind of life he had: Was he happy? What was he doing? What does he think about Rush?

Regardless. Gone at 55 — that’s young. Let’s hope he didn’t have any regrets.

“Working With Neil Peart”

The Archivist — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:53:45 +0000

Over the years I’ve been pretty “vocal” in various forums about things I’d like to see Rush do: add interactive content to their CD releases, make raw track files available for re-mixing, sell their music direct to fans via their site, etc. It’s great to see that Neil Peart is getting his entire drum set sampled.

Who knows what the end product will be? In the past, Bun E. Carlos from Cheap Trick was selling CDs of his drum licks… you could piece them together to get a performance and then record on top of them. I’m wondering what they’re thinking of doing with Neil’s set? Maybe loops? Certainly, we’ll get samples. This’ll be great for keyboard drummers!

Check out the Studio ProFiles site for a clue as to what may be coming… it appears that they’re doing the sampling work.

Leaked

The Archivist — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 13:30:01 +0000

If you haven’t already heard, Snakes & Arrows has finally made its way online. With only a week to go, I must say that it’s impressive that it was kept offline for this long.

So… the reviews are coming in, as well as the bickering between the “I have” and the “I will not”-s. It’s interesting to read the various takes on the music, as well as to see how sanctimonious some folks can get.

As for me, I’m still the master of my domain. Not because I sit on that side of the downloading debate, nor because I’m downloading it at this very moment.

I’ve simply been too busy to care.

Am I excited about the new CD and tour? Of course. But for some reason, I don’t have that “gotta have it” feeling that makes me hunt down the tracks online and give it repeated listens on the iPod.

Maybe it’s because “Far Cry” and “Spindrift” didn’t immediately grab me. Maybe it’s information overload regarding every minute detail of the recording process or the “heard it from a guy who knows someone who had lunch with the guy that parked Neil’s car” speculation that often leads to misinformation. Or maybe I just want a decent release that hopefully doesn’t sound like a cross between Presto and Vapor Trails.

And the hype. Thanks to Google, you can now read a ton of interviews where you read the same rote answers so many times that nothing that anyone says comes across as genuine anymore. You can’t blame the person being interviewed because when ten different people ask you same question, what are you going to do… give ten different answers? So they all say the same damn thing: “this album is heavy“ and the ubiquitous “it’s our best work yet.” Read 20 articles that say that and tell me how you can’t have high expectations for the release?

When it comes to Rush, I always have high expectations. They’re my favorite band but they’re not infallible.

New Clip: Spindrift

The Archivist — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 23:44:10 +0000

Allrighty! Rush.com has posted a new clip from Snakes & Arrows called “Spindrift”. Sounds mid-tempo and on the dark side… no Hemispheres type chord in this one.

No Court Case

The Archivist — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 13:12:01 +0000

A federal judge dismissed Alex Lifeson’s civil suit that was supposed to go to court later this month:

Collier County sheriff’s deputies didn’t use excessive force in subduing an international rock star at the Ritz-Carlton, Naples, on New Year’s Eve 2003, a federal judge has ruled.

Grace Under Pressure Concert Online

The Archivist — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:01:27 +0000

If you’re not familiar with the site here’s some info about it:

Wolfgang’s Vault is the world’s most exceptional collection of poster art, vintage t-shirts, concert photos, concert tickets and other rock music memorabilia. The Vault’s holdings feature the complete archives of legendary rock impresario Bill Graham…

Update From Neil

The Archivist — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 02:12:13 +0000

Neil Peart has posted a news update on his site. For those of you who have read his articles, you’ll know that this is just a snippet:

As I have been writing to my friends over the past few weeks, “Sorry I haven’t been writing—I’ve been too busy writing.”

The first big job I had to do was the essay I always write to accompany the release of a new Rush album. It might seem fairly easy to put together a few pages about a piece of work like that, but I find it to be the hardest kind of writing—except for lyrics, it occurs to me now. For similar reasons, too, because I’m trying to use the fewest words possible to convey the greatest amount of information. Lyrics are the most difficult, yet have the fewest words—maybe two hundred—and the next hardest are short prose pieces, a couple thousand words or so, because they carry a heavy load.

Neil covers the writing process for the essay, some insight into his MySpace “presence”, his love of touring (heh) and some new drums that will appear on the upcoming tour. It’s just a guess, but it sounds to me like they will be red with black hardware.

Excellent stuff. It’s a shame that things are gearing up and that it may be a while before we get another update.

Far Cry on iTunes

The Archivist — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 02:20:34 +0000

“Far Cry” is now available for download from iTunes.

Far Cry Radio Promo

The Archivist — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 20:53:36 +0000

Grizz on the Counterparts board posted pics of the actual “Far Cry” promo disc that radio stations are receiving.