Tag: Alex Lifeson

Friday at Last

It’s Friday. Finally!

We have yet another contractor coming today. The arrival window we booked opens at 8:00am. They texted us at 7:00am saying they were on their way. We assumed that meant that… ya know… they were on their way. Well its 8:02am now and they still haven’t arrived. So I guess they weren’t actually on the way.

Today is a monumentally huge day for the entertainment industry. Well… for my personal entertainment industry preferences. Alex Lifeson of Rush is releasing a new album today with his other band, Envy of None. Now while I will say that that sort of gothy/synthy/poppy vibe Envy of None gives off is not generally my personal bag, I did enjoy the first record and I have been enjoying the first three songs they snuck out from the second record even more. They are winning me over.

Along with that, there is a new Throwing Muses album out today. Technically there are two new Throwing Muses albums today, but only one is going to streaming services. I’m going to have to actually go somewhere and find a copy of the other one. Moonlight Concessions is the one you can stream. The singles they gave us ahead of time are seriously working for me. I haven’t started listening to the full album yet but I am really excited to give it a spin.

Even more important, Kristin Hersh sent out an email to her mailing list today (which I’ve been subscribed to for about as long as email lists have been a thing) and it lists some new tour dates. They are all in Europe, which is great for folks in Europe but not very helpful for me. There was some good news for those of us who live in the nazi states of america. Just read the last line on this screen shot from the email…

US DATES COMING SOON!!! Robert is excited. Robert’s wife is probably going to be slightly less excited, but my finger are crossed that she’ll be okay with going to another show with me.

On top of the musical gifts we get today, there is also a new episode of Yellowjackets where they actually talk about DATs. Digital Audio Tapes. I never owned a DAT player but somewhere around here I do have a couple of DAT tapes because I spent some time in a recording studio in 1993. There is also a new episode of Severance. I think that show might be losing me a little. I have found my attention drifting while watching the last two episodes. I am just thinking that we’re so deep into the black box that we’re never going to find out exactly what’s going on and maybe I am just trying to subconsciously protect myself from disappointment. I don’t know. The show is still good but I am getting worried.

The contractor is here. He rang the door bell at about 8:10 or so. Right when he was supposed to. That’s good news. Maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll be finished before I start work.

Speaking of music, I started noodling out an idea for something for the Record Every Month challenge. I am thinking of continuing along with the acoustic 12-string stuff I was doing last month. I also got my 6-string acoustic guitar back from my singer, who borrowed it 10000 years ago. Right on queue, today’s That Pedal Show episode is talking about 12-string guitars and the guys are bitching about how difficult they are to play. Just like me!

Right then. Time to go and get ready to start my work day. Happy Friday, everyone. Enjoy the new music.

ADDENDUM: The Envy of None record was originally supposed to come out today, March 14, 2025. It did not though. The new release date is March 28, 2025. Bummer, dude.

There is a Rush 50th anniversary boxed set scheduled for release next week. I wonder if that’s why they pushed the EoN release? Who knows.

Random Sunday Night Thoughts

This week’s episode of The Penguin doesn’t launch for another 40 minutes so I am going to write a blog post to kill some of that time.

You ready?

Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith posted a picture on instagram today (at least I think it was today) that was taken backstage at a Maiden show in Toronto. In the photograph is one Mr Alex Lifeson who apparently is an Iron Maiden fan? Larry and Mike and I are going to see Maiden in less than two weeks. Do you think there’s a chance that Alex Lifeson will be at that show too? I hope so! I think it would be the best thing ever to watch Big Al air guitar to The Trooper. That would freakin’ rule.

Tomorrow is Monday. Back to work for everyone. Sad, painful, depressing. All that stuff. I have a small mountain of paperwork to do this week. I need to find a way to not be distracted by other work responsibilities so that I can get it all done as soon as humanly possible. I have the day off on Thursday because I wanted to be home and off the clock in time to run our house’s Trick or Treating.

I have one very important non-work responsibility that I have to take care of tomorrow. Well, two actually. I need to pick something up at the drug store for Jen tomorrow before work. That’s not what I am writing about, though it is important. The thing that I am writing about will also hopefully happen before work. I need to buy five tickets to an NCAA hockey game. UMass Lowell (my and my wife’s old school) at University of Vermont (my step daughter’s old and my step son’s current school). Harry and I went to a game last year. This year Jen and Bellana and Harry’s girlfriend are going to go too. I need to get the tickets in advance because I am crazy and don’t want to wait.

Hockey… as a family… how cool is that?

While on our day trip to Burlington, Vermont today, I took a camera with me. A film camera. Dad’s Pentax K1000 with a roll of Kentmere 400 (black and white) film. I shot about two thirds of the roll. I know for sure that I completely and utterly mangled a few of the photos, but one or two might come out okay. If the weather is okay on Thursday (Halloween) I might use the morning portion of my day off as a photo morning. I keep talking about Boston…. maybe I could go to Boston for a little while?

Okay, we’re now 25 minutes away form a new episode of The Penguin. I think I am going to post this literary masterpiece now and listen to some music until the show is released on the MAX app.

Happy Sunday, everyone. Have a good night.

CD

The CD player on Dad’s stereo thing that I’ve been using to listen to all of my Rush records on vinyl works.

34/365

I started listening to everything in order yesterday. Presto, from 1989, is the first Rush studio album that I don’t have on vinyl (did it ever come out on vinyl? I don’t think so) and when I got to that point in the catalog… I just had to listen to it. I don’t have another album on vinyl until Vapor Trails, from 2002. So I guess it’s CDs for the next four releases.

Am I a nerd? Why yes, yes I am.

Blah Blah Wah

As a lifelong, slightly obsessed, devotee of all things wah wah pedal related, I wasn’t in the market for a new model. Seriously. My Real McCoy Customs RMC10 wah pedal is spectacular.

And then Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson’s gear company, Lerxst, announced a limited edition wah pedal called the Blah Blah Wah and… well… He’s released two amps, a guitar, and now three pedals. I’ve managed to not go all fanboy and buy any of them and goodness knows it’s been a struggle for me.

But a wah pedal… my personal kryptonite… How can I resist?

I’ll tell you how. Two ways. First and foremost, it’s a limited edition. They are only making 500 of them. I’m betting they are already sold out. I kinda hope so. The other way is that it was made in collaboration with Morley and… well… I’ve never really been a fan of Morley stuff. I used a Morley volume pedal for years and it was okay. I didn’t love it. It got the job done. I don’t know how much this new pedal costs (I’m frankly afraid to look) but I’m not sure I’d want to shell out any noteworthy amount of money for a Morley. No offense to the good folks at Morley, I’m sure they make excellent stuff, it’s just not my bag, babie.

So I will likely pass on this new product… but if they do a full production run rather than a limited edition… I’m probably going to cave and get one for Rush fanboy reasons alone.

Two Rush Items to Note

I have two things I want to comment on that refer to members of Rush.

First, I watched the second episode of Are Bass Players Human Too this morning before work. It focused on Robert Trujillo of Metallica. I knew nothing about this guy as I’m not much of a metal fan, never mind a Metallica fan. I saw them in 1989 when Jason Newsted was their bass player. I guess Robert Trujillo played for Ozzy Osbourne back in the 90’s. I saw Ozzy in the 90’s but Geezer Butler was playing bass at that time. I guess I sort of missed him twice then? Not really.

Anyway, Robert Trujillo is the current owner of Jaco Pastorius’ Fender Jazz bass. The one he ripped the frets out of to turn it into a fretless bass (but what did he put into the gaps? How did that work?). Watching Geddy Lee play Jaco’s bass, even if just for a few seconds, was something that I did not realize I needed in my life. It was a quietly magical moment.

On a side note, Metallica’s bass player owns Jaco Pastorius’ bass, which to many is the holy grail of electric bass guitars, and Metallica’s guitar player, Kirk Hammett, owns Peter Green/Gary Moore’s 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard, which to many (including me*) is the holy grail of electric guitars. How did that happen? Does Metallica’s drummer own Keith Moon’s kit or anything? That would be too weird for my tiny brain to process.

Anyway, on to Alex Lifeson. I mentioned yesterday that Lerxst has released an overdrive pedal. It’s called By Tor. The first write up I read said that it had two channels that shared drive and tone controls. I don’t think that’s the case. I think one channel is just a volume boost and only has a level control. The other channel is an overdrive which has level, gain, and tone controls. That makes more sense.

Check out this demo from (the youtube legend) Andy from Reverb. I started watching this last night but had to shut it off before I finished. I’m posting it here so that I won’t forget to watch the rest of it later tonight.

*Peter Green’s Les Paul is probably my definition of The Guitar Holy Grail. The only guitar that might challenge for that tile would be Eric Clapton’s 1960 Les Paul Standard that is generally known as The Beano Burst. It was stolen in 1966 and has never resurfaced. I’m sure it’s out there somewhere, but unless some collector gives it back to Clapton we will probably never see it again. The reason it might not supersede Greeny is simply that I prefer the spec of a 1959 Les Paul Standard to the spec of a 1960. The neck is supposed to be thicker on 1959’s. By that logic I would probably prefer 1958’s to 1959’s as the neck is supposed to be even thicker on 1958’s. How’s that for cork sniffing? A little too much, maybe? Nope. It’s never too much.

By-Tor Overdrive Pedal

After announcing two new amplifiers made in partnership with Mojotone and sold under the name Lerxst, Alex Lifeson unveiled an overdrive pedal today, again made by Lerxst/Mojotone, called the By-Tor.

It’s a duel pedal with an overdrive and a boost. You can select the order they run in, which is a nice feature. The two channels share drive and tone controls though. I’m not sure how that works. Also, the price is $300 which is a little too ouchie for me these days. The $2k+ Omega is crazy expensive but about normal for a 50 watt tube head. $300 for a drive/boost feels a smidge high to me.

Geddy Lee: Two New/Old Songs

We’ve known about these two songs for a few weeks now as he’s been playing the recordings on his book tour, but Geddy Lee released two new/old songs today under the title “The Lost Demos”. They were recorded during the writing of his one solo record, “My Favorite Headache” back in 1999 or 2000 or so. He dropped them from consideration as they were a little two personal to share. One is apparently about an argument he had with his wife and the other is about the death of Neil Peart’s daughter.

After one listen, I like them both. Good stuff. Enjoy some new/old/previously unreleased Geddy Lee!

After two books and one TV show (which is out soon… possibly today, I think. Not sure) it’s time for Geddy to start writing some new music. Preferably with Alex Lifeson, but another solo record would be welcome too. We’re ready, Geddy. Bring it on.

Lerxst Omega Amp

Looks like Alex Lifeson and Mojotone are bringing out new versions of Lifeson’s signature Lerxst amps.

That sound you are hearing right now (not the youtube clip) is me drooling. They are too expensive to really consider, but that doesn’t matter. I’m still drooling. Literally.

Hopefully we’ll have some good review videos soon. I want to hear more.

PRS

As I was sitting in the living room feeling terribly nauseous and sick I put on Youtube and poked around. I found a rig rundown video with Alex Lifeson’s guitar tech from the Time Machine Tour in 2010. They checked out his guitars. Most of them were his signature Les Paul model, the Les Paul Access. There were a couple of older Les Pauls too and his gorgeous ES-355, and that one Telecaster he plays now and then. There were also a couple of 90’s Paul Reed Smiths.

Lifeson started playing those in the late 80’s or early 90’s (I think) after he stopped playing those Signature strat copy things that I think he was a part owner of the company. I was so happy when he stopped playing those things and I really liked how he sounded playing those PRS guitars but I was sort of hoping he’d start playing Les Pauls again, which eventually he did. I mean, Geddy Lee once said something along the lines of Alex doesn’t sound like Alex unless he’s playing a Les Paul. I don’t remember the exact quote but it was something like that, and once Mike my lifelong bass player said the same thing about me and that was pretty much the best compliment I’ve ever heard.

Anyway…

After I watched that rig rundown video I found today’s new episode of That Pedal Show and who should they have as a guest? Paul Reed Smith himself.

Maybe someday after I win the lottery and buy a bunch of Les Paul Standards from 1957-1960 I might treat myself to a two humbucker Paul Reed Smith model. They are great guitars. Even that weird strat copy they make for John Mayer is a great guitar, even if it’s basically a stratocaster with a funny looking headstock.

Rush at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert

I haven’t watched this yet but I will shortly because I believe this is the greatest thing to happen in a long, long time.

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson playing at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert. Dave Grohl for two songs, and then with Omar Hakim for a third.