I love synth Rush, the only thing that bothers me about those records is that tinny super-digital guitar sound Lifeson was favoring for a while.
― til the sound of my voice will haint u (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:21 (twelve years ago) link
I don't mind the synths, but for me Roll The Bones just sounded way too thin overall and had too many weak song. Also was my least favorite for Alex Lifeson guitars. Basically what Jon Lewis just said.
Test For Echo has some good songs and some corny ones.
For me, their output from the 90s onward pans out like this:Counterparts > Vapor Trails > Snakes & Arrows > Test For Echo > Roll The Bones
― Moodles, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:25 (twelve years ago) link
What WAS he putting on that thing? Chorus plus some kind of digital stereo delay thing plus...? He should have just replicated Andy Summers' rack top to bottom.
― til the sound of my voice will haint u (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:29 (twelve years ago) link
Perhaps more importantly, Lifeson also switched from Gibsons to some kind of PRS or something around that time as well.
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:31 (twelve years ago) link
Xpost
Probably everything and the kitchen sink. I think he still uses tons of efx, but has also learned the value of running it all through a battery of big ass tube stacks.
― Moodles, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:32 (twelve years ago) link
PRS! Never a good sign.
― bit.ly sno cone maker (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:33 (twelve years ago) link
Sting iirc
He still uses PRS a lot.
― Moodles, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:34 (twelve years ago) link
Never listened to the '90s albums; pulled up Counterparts on Spotify now. Liking it.
― 誤訳侮辱, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:43 (twelve years ago) link
Counterparts is kind of their take on Pearl Jam style grunge, but much more enjoyable. Lots of really ballsy stripped down drum grooves.
― Moodles, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 16:46 (twelve years ago) link
I love Lifeson's playing on "Power Windows" and "Hold Your Fire!" He's playing the hell all over those things, making the most of that thin (but not really) sound.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 18:19 (twelve years ago) link
I love his playing on Hold Your Fire too! Just think the timbre could be better. A remaster could do the job, actually...
― bit.ly sno cone maker (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 18:28 (twelve years ago) link
I'm really only complaining about him on Roll The Bones, I love those others too.
― Moodles, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 18:30 (twelve years ago) link
They did remaster them, though. Mostly beefed up the drums. His guitar sound is really sort of like Andy Summers if Summers were allowed a whole bunch of shit-hot soloing. I guess this era of the band had a lot of the synth parts so worked out that Lifeson sort of came in at the end to find spaces for his solos. But frankly I find his soling really awesome in the late '80s. I mean, "Turn the Page" and "Mission" have some incredible guitar parts. They're part shading, part flash.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 25 April 2012 18:35 (twelve years ago) link
I don't think I have the remasters of any of those. Will check em out.
― bit.ly sno cone maker (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 25 April 2012 18:41 (twelve years ago) link
"Ghost of a Chance" is my favorite Rush song directed at a woman.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 30 April 2012 23:40 (twelve years ago) link
also: the keyboards (Prophets?) and Aimee Mann's vocal on "Time Stands Still" quite consciously evokes mid eighties Kate Bush imo.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 30 April 2012 23:44 (twelve years ago) link
well, one thing is for sure... there new single sucks.
― UnderControl, Monday, 30 April 2012 23:57 (twelve years ago) link
new single is great! You're crazy.
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 00:11 (twelve years ago) link
Snakes & Arr
― Nate Carson, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 17:00 (twelve years ago) link
ows is one of my absolute favorite Rush albums.
Ps - fuck you iPhone.
― Nate Carson, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 17:01 (twelve years ago) link
Snakes & Arr was the pirated version that appeared on the net.
― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 17:18 (twelve years ago) link
I love R
ush
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 1 May 2012 17:20 (twelve years ago) link
Saw a kid today wearing a "Got Geddy?" shirt, and I'm guessing he was around 15 or 16. So that's still around the time Rush is its most potent, I see.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 1 May 2012 17:22 (twelve years ago) link
I just got Presto today; I've been digging back into Rush a lot these past few months. "The Pass" sounds like Strange Times-era Chameleons!
― Clarke B., Thursday, 10 May 2012 02:49 (twelve years ago) link
According to http://rush.wikia.com/wiki/Geddy_Lee_equipment, he had for the album:Prophet VSRoland D-50Yamaha DX-7Yamaha DX-7 II
And for the tour:Roland D-50Korg MIDI Pedals (1)Roland Super Jupiter
― Vini Reilly Invasion (Elvis Telecom), Thursday, 10 May 2012 03:19 (twelve years ago) link
Pretty psyched for June 12th!
― Nate Carson, Tuesday, 15 May 2012 07:31 (eleven years ago) link
I reviewed Clockwork Angels at MSN today...
― A. Begrand, Friday, 8 June 2012 17:25 (eleven years ago) link
So excited to hear this! Great write-up.
― heated debate over derpy hooves (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 8 June 2012 17:28 (eleven years ago) link
Great review!
I'm really loving the title track and Headlong Flight right now, can't wait to hear the rest
― Moodles, Friday, 8 June 2012 17:29 (eleven years ago) link
"Spirit of Radio" came on yesterday, and for a split second it struck me how much more irrationally sad I'll be when one of these guys vs. when any number of living legends I love dies.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 8 June 2012 18:14 (eleven years ago) link
That review and all the word I'm hearing from others wh have heard it have me amped. Next week, right?
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 8 June 2012 18:58 (eleven years ago) link
That is certainly one of the band's least ambitious album covers.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 8 June 2012 19:01 (eleven years ago) link
they haven't had a good album cover in sooooo long :(
wait except that covers EP was a kinda decent winterland poster knockoff type thing
― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 8 June 2012 19:32 (eleven years ago) link
When Rush met Pete.
Around that time I had a high-school science teacher who was exasperated by my constant finger-tapping on my desk. When I said I couldn’t help it, he said, “What are you—some kind of retard?”Seriously.He sentenced me to a detention in which I would have to sit and tap on a desk for one hour. I played Tommy from memory; the teacher had to leave the room.
Seriously.
He sentenced me to a detention in which I would have to sit and tap on a desk for one hour. I played Tommy from memory; the teacher had to leave the room.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, 8 June 2012 19:44 (eleven years ago) link
I didn't realize until just now that 2112 is based on the retarded philosophy of Ayn Rand.
― Poliopolice, Friday, 8 June 2012 20:04 (eleven years ago) link
peart's been working in randian stuff for years, iirc
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 8 June 2012 20:19 (eleven years ago) link
never liked rush, but now i hate rush
― Poliopolice, Friday, 8 June 2012 20:41 (eleven years ago) link
Rush hasn't been Rand_y in 35 years, dudes.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 8 June 2012 20:50 (eleven years ago) link
But don't let that stop you from enjoying the haterade.
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 8 June 2012 20:53 (eleven years ago) link
in roadshow with drums, he doesn't mention rand at all, but peart talks about how some of his roadies and bus drivers watch fox news, and he goes off on a big rant about fox news and george w bush (who was prez when the book was written)
so it's not like dude is a super hard righty or something
― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 8 June 2012 20:53 (eleven years ago) link
I like peart just fine, I always thought the Rand stuff was a thing that everyone knew
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 8 June 2012 21:02 (eleven years ago) link
I don't think you need to be a right winger to like Randian philosophy, but I do think you need to cultivate a certain level of abject ignorance about the world to think it's a good philosophy, and that instituting it will solve more problems than it will create.
― Poliopolice, Friday, 8 June 2012 21:27 (eleven years ago) link
well who knows? dudes tastes might have changed in, you know NEARLY 40 YEARS
― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 8 June 2012 21:34 (eleven years ago) link
Peart has always called his politics something like liberal libertarianism. Which is basically, you know, the Canadian/English system of gov. There is a safety net, health care, socially liberal laws, that sort of thing. Hardly conservative. But again, you doofuses, "2112" was 35 years ago. Dude was 25. The album is about a future where art is illegal, and a guy discovers a guitar, which sparks a rebellion. The people win. There's your Rand for you. As I'm sure I've noted repeatedly on this thread, he soon moves on to John Dos Passos. Guy reads a lot of books.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 8 June 2012 21:49 (eleven years ago) link
I heard this as anti-Bush song: http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858660806/ . The band has recorded at least one environmentalist song that I can think of.
In this DVD, Peart discusses the motivation behind 2112. After the commercial failure of Caress of Steel, there was a great deal of pressure from the record company to make a more accessible album, which he saw as an "injustice" since he was a "child of the 60s". Peart had just been reading Rand and felt that this pressure on him (the creative individual) from the corporation (the 'faceless mass') was equivalent to what Rand was depicting, which suggests that his reading of Rand was not very informed by political context. He states himself: "I was not thinking about politics. I was not thinking about global oppression. I was thinking 'these people are messing with me!'" Lee stresses that what interested the band was the emphasis on creative and artistic freedom in Rand. (As the son of Holocaust survivors, he was offended when the NME started associating Rush with extreme right views.)
For some context, btw, this was the leader of the more right-wing party in Canada in 1976: not exactly a conservative by US standards, particularly when you consider his work later on foreign affairs.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 8 June 2012 22:27 (eleven years ago) link
"by present-day US standards"
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 8 June 2012 22:29 (eleven years ago) link
(Still, I would never describe our system of government as liberal libertarianism [or "left-wing libertarianism", which is the term Wikipedia attributes to Peart]!)
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 8 June 2012 22:31 (eleven years ago) link
Well, it is liberal when you consider all the things people take for granted, from education to civil liberties (short freedom of speech, the one front where the US rules) to health care, high taxes, drug laws, etc. (Relatively speaking, by US standards). There are liberals and conservatives, and right wingers and left wingers, but the above is sort of the system within which people operate. Right?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 8 June 2012 22:47 (eleven years ago) link
Rand is a huge political boogeywoman in 2012, but back in 1974 I'd wager she was nearly as widely read but hardly as affiliated with the right-wing. And perhaps taken more seriously, too.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 8 June 2012 22:49 (eleven years ago) link