Tag: Rush

I Missed Them Completely

I’ve been a Prog Rock fan since I first discovered Rush in 1981. I was 10 years old and most of what Prog bands did went way over my head, but there was something about Rush that clicked with me. Not long after it was Yes. Then Pink Floyd. Then Genesis. Then King Crimson. And so on and so on.

The 1980’s though, were a pretty dark time for Prog. First we had Asia, which included members of Yes, King Crimson, and Emerson Lake and Palmer, releasing their very commercial, radio friendly, MTV orientated first record which blew away the album and singles charts in 1982. Then a year later we had Yes releasing 90125 in similar financially friendly fashion. Genesis had descended into a hellish pop music abyss by then as well (though there was still good in them if you were able to look past the chart topping crap), and while it would take a few years for them to catch up, even Pink Floyd released a pretty radio friendly record. Rush and King Crimson both morphed into an 80’s sound without really caving into the pop music world, at least not to my ears. I get the impression that Robert Fripp was trying to bend pop music to his own personal will (if anyone could have done it, it was him) while Rush just kept making Rush sounding records that happened to embrace 80’s technology (arguably to their detriment, but also maybe arguably to their benefit).

In other words, prog rock in the 70’s was awesome. Prog rock in the 80’s was… less awesome (though still better than almost anything else… except for some specific Genesis songs [looking at you, Illegal Alien and Invisible Touch]).

But there was one question that I never asked myself, or anyone else for that matter… did I miss anyone? Were there any other bands that I should have been listening to that I wasn’t?

Apparently the answer is yes, yes there was.

Marillion.

Well, there were probably 20-30 bands that I should have listened to but never did (Gentle Giant and Camel come to mind, but not Jethro Tull. Fuck Jethro Tull. I can’t stand that friggin’ band), but I don’t know why Marillion never came up. I think it might be as simple as they were not very big in the United States. They apparently were huge in the UK for a little while at least, and I was actually paying attention to the industry as a whole at that time (their biggest record came out in 1985, the same year as Power Windows by Rush, which I bought the minute it hit the record store shelves). Was that the only reason I never listened to them?

I have been aware of them for ages, of course. Was I aware of them before the internet? If it really was a regional (US vs UK) thing that kept me from them, then the internet would have been what put them on my radar. Recently they have been showing up in a bunch of places online where I happened to have been looking. A few months ago I made a note to check them out on a streaming service somewhere. I don’t recall what made me want to do that, but it was something. I didn’t do it until this past weekend though. Their guitar player was a guest on That Pedal Show and I figured I should at least listen to their biggest record, Misplaced Childhood, before I watched it. I did. I liked it. I thought the record had a sort of 70’s Genesis vibe to it. It was very 80’s, but not in a bad way (and me calling something “very 80’s” is usually meant as a negative).

I thought they dated back to the early 70’s like all of the more important prog bands but no, their first album was in 1982 or 83 (according to the two minutes I spent digging around wikipedia). I think if I had known about them at that time I probably would have gone completely off the deep end for them. They would have been a legit prog band that wasn’t devolving into a commercial/pop shadow of their former selves the way most of the prog acts from the 70s did. I knew they had two singers and that the changing of singers sort of mark different eras of the band, but I didn’t realize the first singer left as quickly as he did (after the forth album).

Yesterday I googled “list of best albums by Marillion” and found one random site that ranked them from worst to best. I listened to the 4-5 “best” albums on the list during the work day and liked most of what I heard, though I have to admit I wasn’t listening all that closely because, ya know, work.

I guess the point of this post is to get myself to accept that while I am a total prog rock snob, there are still a lot of things I don’t know about. Maybe it’s time to start taking advantage of streaming music services (ick) and start digging into the catalogs of some of those bands. Just not Jethro Tull or Dream Theater. I fucking hate both of those bands.

Joe Flaherty

Rest in peace, Joe Flaherty. The SCTV legend who once appeared as Count Floyd to introduce the Rush song, The Weapon.

If you don’t wear your 3D glasses you’ll only see in one half D.

Legend.

My Effin’ Life

Bloganuary writing prompt
What books do you want to read?
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I used to read constantly. I’ve worn reading glasses since I was a kid. A few years ago my eye glass prescription needs changed and I had to switch to progressives. That made sitting down and reading a book more difficult. It’s more stressful on my eyes and they get tired very fast. 

At the time I was commuting to work over and hour each way four days a week. I had a very active Audible account and I was listening to piles upon piles of audio books. When the pandemic hit I inactivated the account. I don’t do well with audio books when I am not a captive, driving audience. That means there have been very few books read (in any manner) since early 2020.

I am going to need to have a new eye test one of these days. There’s a part of me that wants to get a set of reading glasses again to go along with the mid-distance computer glasses I have and the progressives I wear when I am not sitting at my computer. That’s a lot of money for specs though so probably not.

There is one book that I started reading a little after xmas though. I’m only on chapter three and have only been reading a few pages at a time. It’s a memoir. It’s Geddy Lee’s My Effin’ Life. I am very driven to get through it but it’s hard to find the time or the energy. I will read it. I have to. It’s a moral imperative. 

Four Years Ago

We didn’t know it until a few days later, but on this date four years ago we lost Neil Peart. Easily the most painful moment of my musical life. He had such an impact on me. I’m sure if I ever told him that it would embarrass the hell out of him, so I would never have said anything even if I had the chance… but it’s true. It’s silly that some clown in a rock band that I never met could have such a huge effect on who I grew up to be… but it’s true. You know? It’s true.

New Years Eve

It’s New Years Eve again. Wasn’t it just New Years Eve a few weeks ago? 2023 is ending? How the hell did that happen?

We don’t have any solid plans for today apart from picking up some take-out Chinese food. Maybe some board games? Maybe another round of Yahtzee?

I watched Rebel Moon on Netflix. I was conflicted. I wanted to watch it but I also did not want to watch it. See the conflict? My spoiler free review is to recommend that you wait until part two comes out in April. This movie feels like two hours worth of a four hour heist movie, where generally the first half of a heist movie is assembling the team. That means the movie that is out now is really just the assembling of the team. That’s why it doesn’t have a coherent story. It’s more like a bunch of mini-movies introducing all of the characters. Hopefully part two will make sense on it’s own. So if you wait for part two to come out and then watch them both together, maybe it will be a decent movie as a whole. For now though… eh.

I have to play guitar today. I have two songs in progress for this month’s Record Every Month challenge. They both need lead guitar parts. I need to record them today and then mix the two songs and then I will have my first R.E.M. win since September. It’s a must.

Speaking of guitar, I went down a rabbit hole last week that I find myself visiting once every couple of years. If you read this page you might have noticed that I have been obsessed with the band Rush since 1981. Back then there were two bands that I was obsessed with. The other was Led Zeppelin. As I got older though, the whole unending adolescence vibe that Zeppelin had sort of got tiring for me and I moved away from them. Also, Jimmy Page is one of my guitar heroes, and he is definitely one of the reasons I NEEDED to learn to play guitar when I was a kid. When I look at my own playing objectively though (if that’s even possible) I don’t hear a lot of his style in my playing. I think as I moved away from the debauchery that Zeppelin represented, I sort of moved away from Page too.

Every once in a while though, I feel the need to really dig into the catalog and try to remind myself that there is a lot of value there. That comes up once every couple of years, and it came up for me on Thursday. I put together a playlist with all of their studio records and over the course of the work day I plowed through all of it. Did the old musical feelings I used to get when I listened to Led Zeppelin as a teenager come back? Yes. Not exactly the same, as I am no longer that kid that I used to be, but it was close enough that I felt good about the whole experience. Now I can move on to other things again until the next time I feel cosmically compelled to examine the Zeppelin again. Probably some time in 2025, I think.

Okay then, it’s almost 11:00am. I have not had anything to eat for about three hours. It’s time to have a snack to keep my stomach happy. Gastric Bypass for the win!

Happy New Years Eve, everyone. HoHoHo.

Post Covid Vax Come Down

My wife and I both got our latest Covid-19 vaccination shots yesterday evening, and we are both feeling the effects today. The last time we did this I felt legitimately sick the next day. Today I am just tired and sore and flakey-brained. I’ve managed to check a couple of things off of my to do list, but I feel like I have punted a lot of things off until tomorrow.

I finished the laundry and made the bed and bought a gift for my work’s yankee swap on Tuesday. I ran an errand for Jen and I helped her with a home office project she’s working on. I wrapped some xmas gifts, but only about 25% of the pile. Hopefully I can pick off some more tonight. I had told Jen that I was thinking about hanging xmas lights outside but that I wasn’t promising anything. I just didn’t have it in me today. The weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow, but it could be okay early in the morning. We’ll see if I feel better then.

My stomach has been a jerk today. Lots of “hey, I’m empty so I am going to hurt you a lot” stomach aches. I wonder if that can be related to the vaccine shot. Probably not, but who knows? I’ll be fine tomorrow, I am sure.

On unrelated nerd notes, I have not watched the third and final Dr Who 60th anniversary episode yet. I got a text from my step son, Harry, asking me if I have seen it yet. I told him no but asked him if it was good. He said very, without any spoilers. I’ll get to it before I sleep tonight. I did manage to watch the 4th and final episode of Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too with Krist Novoselic from Nirvana. What a fascinating guy. I also finished season three of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The 3rd season finale is one of my favorite episodes ever. The 4th season premier is another one of my favorite episodes. I’m in a good Star Trek binge watching place right now.

Okay, time for dinner. Time to try to talk my stomach into calming the hell down. No problem!

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.

Are Bass Players Human Too?

I just watched the first episode of Geddy Lee’s TV show, called Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bass Players Human Too?

I freakin’ loved it!

It was about 20 minutes of Geddy and Les Claypool of Primus just hanging out. The two of them are just plain goofy and it was kinda delightful.

I’ll admit that when Geddy was reading from a script he didn’t sound particularly… professional. It’s clear that reading copy is not something that he generally does. When he and Claypool were just talking to each other it felt natural and… I’ll say it again, delightfully goofy.

There are three episodes left. One is the new guy in Metallica, one is (I think) a former member of Hole, and the third is some guy who used to be in some band called Nirvana or something.

I’m looking forward to all of them. I now need to know, are bass players human too?

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.