Rush: Classic or Dud?

Yeah, they won me over in a big way when I saw 'em at MSG a little while back.

Great chatterbox interview and track-by-track evaluation of Moving Pictures by the oft recalcitrant Neil Peart:

http://www.cbc.ca/strombo/show-music/neil-peart-on-moving-pictures-track-by-track.html

saw them two nights in a row during one of those 90s tours. it was religious

Wow, that's a great interview with Peart. Rush=class acts.

My best friend from high school will be flying in to Austin from Seattle this weekend and we are going to see Rush at the Frank Erwin Center Sunday night. During the 90s, we were in a band together which started off as a Rush cover band back in HS.

Letterman last night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWyABiUpihs&feature=player_embedded

Having seen the band live several times now, I'm convinced that at least 50% of his set exists for the (very composed) solo. When you see how he approaches the songs proper, you can see how he's become a very efficient player.

holy moly

that sucked

sure if you hate drum train one man jazz bands

Having seen the band live several times now, I'm convinced that at least 50% of his set exists for the (very composed) solo. When you see how he approaches the songs proper, you can see how he's become a very efficient player.

Honestly, I think he could just ditch all the extra stuff that he only uses for the solo. Doesn't seem like there's much point to it. I'm sure he could still do a fine drum solo without it all.

Totes. His solo exemplifies the guitar-synth axiom: why would a first rate guitarist want to sound like a third rate sax player?

To me, the excitement of the video I posted is less "OMG! A Neil Peart drum solo!" and more "OMG! Neil Peart is on David Letterman!"

I like his drum solos, but they rank kind of low on the list of things I love about Rush.

Yeah I kind of mentally drifted off to the bar during the drum solo when I saw them recently. Are there any rock drummers that can play a decent solo? I can't think of one, unless it's avant types like Charles Hayward or Chris Cutler messing around w/ drums & electronics which doesn't really count.

what rush alb wld ppl say is the most guitar solo-heavy/most ROCK?

fly by night!

except for that acoustic lord of the rings song at the end i guess

The first album, maybe?

these dudes played for 3.5 hours when i saw them the other week. the whole idea was that they're supposed to play moving pictures in its entirety and after 90 mins and no tom sawyer in sight i was like oh shit. intermission, then tom sawyer and the rest of mp. then i thought oh ok cool they'll play a few more hits and call it a night. they play a few more hits, peart does his solo, lifeson comes on with a 12-string and plays his own solo eventually resolving into the opening of closer to the heart. THEN i was all PERFECT it's a huge hit and it has CLOSER right in the NAME. then an hour after that the show ended with a lengthy video vignette starring paul rudd and jason segel.

wanted to see them tonight but when I finally got around to looking for tickets, completely sold out.

'clockwork angels' delayed till 2012

http://www.billboard.com/news/rush-signs-with-roadrunner-preps-new-album-1005333222.story

not surpised by this, but I wish they'd hurry up and get it done. Time Machine tour wrapped up almost 2 months ago and I'm going through Rush withdrawl.

no kidding. the putative lead single for this album came out last year

and it was awesome

Wasn't that the first time the band ever toured behind nothing in particular? No new release or anything?

2 new songs on the Caravan single, but yeah it was really the tribute to Moving Pictures tour.

Definitely classic from "2112" until "Signals", with "Hemispheres" being my favourite. I'm also fond of several tracks from the first three albums: 'Anthem', 'Bastille Day', 'Lakeside Park', 'Beneath, Between and Behind' and the epics 'By-Tor And The Snow Dog' and 'The Fountain Of Lamneth'. I will confess to not having heard anything from "Grace Under Pressure" onwards, am I missing out on much? I've heard that "Power Windows" in particular is meant to be a stinker.

Grace Under Pressure is one of their best. Power Windows is very good, but maybe just a notch less so.

Then there were a few not-so-great ones.

More recent Rush albums that I enjoy: Counterparts, Vapor Trails.

'presto' might appeal to you, turrican
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNLc41ArS-k
'hemispheres' is my desert island pick too. the title suite kicks major ass and "la villa strangiato" is one of my favorite instrumental rock songs ever

So I've just given "Grace Under Pressure" a listen and I enjoyed it for the most part - standout tracks were definitely the first three, and I love the riff on "Kid Gloves", but I can't ever see me ever liking "Red Lenses". The album sounded like a continuation of "Signals", but possibly more accessible. Going to give it a few more listens though before I decide where it ranks in Rush's discography, mind. Will try Presto also sometime this week!

I can't listen to the entire "Hemispheres" suite anymore. The prelude is really nice but I don't think the whole composition really hangs together formally: they just seem to repeat material without developing it iirc. "La Villa Strangiato" is pretty cool though.

Oh, I think it hangs together really well. You're right though, they do repeat various themes here and there but I've always thought that made the piece feel more 'whole'. I also love the bit in the middle with the ambient washes of keyboards, and on headphones you can hear parts of 'Cygnus X-1' going from ear to ear, as well as incorporating little riffs and chord progressions from 'Cygnus X-1' into the composition itself (I know it's meant to be a follow-up piece, but I always liked the way they did it and I much prefer it to 'Cygnus X-1'.

In the extras on the documentary DVD they talk about how arduous the writing/recording of Hemispheres was (they tried eleven times to record "La Villa Stratiago" straight through before admitting defeat, and stitching together different takes), and then how they realized with horror that the music was pitched too high for Geddy to sing. It's not clear if they re-did everything, or if Lee just went for it anyway.

Yeah, I remember reading something somewhere about the writing process of "Hemispheres" being difficult - apparently the the title track and 'La Villa Strangiato' weren't completely fully formed when they went into the studio? I don't know if that's true or not. I definitely know 'Natural Science' from "Permanent Waves" was sort of a last-minute thing that they put together in the studio from riffs that they had lying around at the time. All I can say to that is that they must have worked well under pressure, because I couldn't praise that track highly enough!

I got the impression that all of Hemispheres was written in the studio, but except for Vapor Trails, they've never said if they generally write in the studio, in rehearsal, or some combination of the two. "Tom Sawyer" and "Subdivisions" were definitely written before they were recorded, as I've heard bootlegs that predate the albums those were on (and those live arrangements are slightly different).

Power Windows is the best post-Moving Pictures Rush record imo. Vapor Trails is a pretty close runner-up though, and Hold Your Fire is a major guilty pleasure

I'll check out both Power Windows and Vapour Trails after I've checked out Presto simply based on recommendations here - I've heard a few things about Vapour Trails mastering though, is it really that bad?

its mastered very loud, yes. it's kind of annoying but the songs themselves are very good and don't really suffer from the loss of dynamics that you get from overmastering. it's their most in-your-face record.

In fact, I've decided to leave "Presto" for the time being and went straight to "Power Windows" because it's discographically the next album along from "Grace Under Pressure" - I'm only three tracks in at the moment, so it's a bit too early to say really, but I'm actually surprised by what I've heard so far. The material sounds stronger than that of "Grace Under Pressure", but I don't think I'm too taken with the production. These are songs I can imagine would sound incredible live, though!

Didn't the band properly remix "Vapour Trails," admitting defeat?

"Presto" might be the band's most restrained, most song-oriented album. That and "Roll the Bones," I guess. This period of the band is pretty underrated. My fave is the techno-pop-prog of "Signals," "Grace" and "Power WIndows." And there's no reason at all to feel guilty about "Hold Your Fire." Good songs, great playing. "Power Windows" and "Fire" songs sound great on "A Show of Hands."

To this day, "Test for Echo" is the only Rush album I've literally never heard. No idea why.

Test for Echo is actually the best of the three 90s ones but that's not saying much

though i think "Sound and Motion" is pretty neat

err "Time and Motion"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHSam88u5WM

I've given "Grace Under Pressure" another spin, and now I'm listening again to "Power Windows", and I quite like both. I do think "Power Windows" is the better of the two and I'm finding myself suddenly excited to go further into their discography :)

I'm more attached to Grace Under Pressure, but Power Windows is a great album. "Marathon", especially. I couldn't stand "Mystic Rhythms" when I was 15, but over the course of 25 years it's grown on me quite a lot.

Yeah, 'Marathon' came across to be a definite standout of the record, but I also thought 'Grand Designs' and 'Manhattan Project' were great also. The only one that I found myself feeling a bit 'meh' over was 'Territories'. With "Grace Under Pressure", the only one I heard that I could consider to be a real stinker was 'Red Lenses'... but bear in mind I've only just heard these two albums today after spending years listening to everything up to and including "Signals", they're definitely records I need to spend more time with - but I do like them enough to listen to them more and investigate Rush's discography further!

"Territories" has that awesome spooky coda, though. It's the peak of Peart's arranging skills, that mix of electronic triggers that sound like acoustic drums and acoustic drums produced to sound like electronic drums.

Gotta love Neil Peart, sometimes I listen to his drumming on 'The Weapon' and I just think "how on earth is he doing that?"

I think I read somewhere that the drum part in The Weapon was based on a drum machine part that either Geddy or Alex came up with kind of as a challenge to Neil. They were daring him to play something really unintuitive and mechanistic and took the bait.

*he took the bait