Tag: Rush

Another Milestone

I am hitting a weight loss milestone as we speak.

I am wearing a t-shirt that I bought at a Rush concert in 2004. It is one size smaller than all of the t-shirts I’ve been wearing for years.

It fits.

It fits well. Not perfectly (it feels a little short), but it fits well.

I think I can officially wear smaller shirts now.

Tick off that box, kids.

Also, it’s a Rush R30 shirt. How awesome is that? I had an R40 shirt but I put it through the dryer by accident and it shrunk. Now it’s Jen’s R40 shirt. After I lose a little more I might go to the official Rush merch store and look for another R40 shirt. Or a Hold Your Fire shirt, because that was the first tour I saw.

I miss Rush.

Clown Costume

I only own two pairs of pants right now. One was in the laundry waiting for the next wash and the other was on me. Then I took out the trash. The trash bag had some really, seriously, major league gross semi-liquid something in it that just so happened to leak onto my jeans. Gross.

I am supposed to leave to visit my mother in 90 minutes. What to do?

I took the jeans that were in the hamper and put them into the washing machine on quick-wash mode. 25 minutes and they’ll be cleaner. Clean completely? Maybe. Clean-ish? Yeah, sure. Quick wash time plus a round in the dryer means they should be finished at just about the time I need to leave.

The freshly grossed jeans will go into the washing machine on the heavy duty wash setting because ick. That needs to wait for the quickie to finish first though. So what do I do while I wait for the quickie wash/dry to finish?

When I was bagging up all of my too-big clothes to donate somewhere, Jen suggested I save one pair of jeans. That way a year from now I can put them on and see how big they look and we can all have a good laugh. That sounded like a plan.

I am wearing that pair of jeans right now. They are probably 5-6 sizes too big. I feel like a hobbo. I look like a clown. It’s pretty funny today, just think of how funny I will look in nine more months.

I’m pretty sad about the whole gross experience though so I just threw on some Rush (Signals, to be precise) to cheer me up. It’s working.

You move me
You move me
With your buildings and your eyes
Autumn woods and winter skies
You move me
You move me
Open sea and city lights
Busy streets and dizzy heights
You call me
You call me

Spinning Media

Lunchtime photo shoot. I took two pics of a spinning record (Rush – A Farwell to Kings. Side two, track four. Cygnus X-1) with the digital camera and then tried to take the same pic with a film camera. Someday in the distant future I may be able to compare the results.

DSC_0004
Spinning media and a blurred background? WOOHOO!

Lerxst

So I’m driving from my weight loss surgery class to the Supercuts in Tewksbury and I’m listening to the Envy of None record.

Spy House is playing and it gets to that moment when the guitar launches out from under the mix and Alex Lifeson reminds us that he’s the greatest guitarist ever. That moment.

I may be in a fragile state right now and that might explain why I got super emotional and a smile lit my face and my eyes grew damp and I literally asked myself who would I even be without Alex Lifeson?

Yeah. That moment. Let’s all give thanks that Alex keeps blessing us with his presence.

Envy of None

Go. Now. Make this a part of your life.

Not being much of a synth-pop guy, when I listen to this I think of some of the Smashing Pumpkins stuff that Flood produced, or maybe some of the post-Actung Baby electronic stuff U2 did. Wait… wasn’t that Flood too? Or was that Brian Eno? I don’t know. I heard an interview with Andy Curran where he said it sounds like Depeche Mode or The Cure. That works too.

So there I am, listening for the first time and really enjoying it purely on a holy-shit-this-hook-is-infectious level. I wasn’t hearing any stand out guitar parts, but I knew that was coming. Alex Lifeson (as well as everyone else involved in the album) has made a big deal out of the fact that he’s playing the guitar without ever sounding like a guitar. He’s basically a guitar synth player rather than just a guitar player. Then you get to Spy House, track five, and there’s a stretch of about four bars where he just shreds like the Guitar God he is, and then it’s back to synthy stuff.

I imagine Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew sitting in a room together listening. They both nod their head in approval. Then they look at each other and nod their heads in agreement. Then they look over at Alex Lifeson and nod in solidarity. Yeah. I’m 100% sure that exact thing happened.

No go and listen to it.

Big Day for Prog Fans Tomorrow

Tomorrow is going to be a big day for prog rock fans.

I mentioned earlier that we are supposed to get a new Pink Floyd single tomorrow. We are also getting some new Alex Lifeson.

Envy of None’s album comes out tomorrow. It won’t sound even the tiniest bit like Rush, and based on the press they’ve been doing thus far, half the time you won’t hear guitar. Instead you’ll be hearing some other non-guitar sound that was actually played on a guitar.

I think the heroic Mr Lifeson may be embracing his inner Robert Fripp. Frankly, I am 100% here for it.

Yes indeed, it’s going to be a good day for prog fans.

Sleepy

I stayed up really late last night. I didn’t want to, but I was so busy all day that I never had a chance to do some of the things I wanted to do (laundry) and I ended up doing it all after Jen fell asleep. I finally fell asleep around 1:00am and given that I can say without any hesitation that I am ridiculously tired right now.

While I was up last night Harry sent me a text saying that he listened to a Rush album and really liked it. It was Moving Pictures, of course. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. Harry could be a Rush fan, oh glorious day!

He sent me a text a few minutes ago asking me which Rush records to listen to next.

My response was a 100,000,000 word essay.

As I said earlier, oh glorious day!

Here’s a summary of what I told him:

  • You’ve listened to Moving Pictures, now go to Permanent Waves. They both had a similar focus on trying to shorten their songs without sacrificing any musical craziness.
  • Most people who don’t think Moving Pictures is the best album think that 2112 is. It’s heavy and Geddy screams a lot, but it’s pretty much perfect.
  • For 80’s synth Rush go with Power Windows. I wish I could say Hold Your Fire, but the last two songs don’t really cut it.
  • For the 90’s they got heavy again. Go with Counterparts.
  • Clockwork Angels might be my favorite of all Rush albums.
  • Fly By Night is mostly a straight ahead rock record.
  • Hemispheres is amazing end to end, but it’s worth it just for La Villa Strangiato.

I Need to Practice

I haven’t touched a guitar in 20 days. I need to carve out some time this weekend. I have been thinking about bringing my Vox AC15 amplifier to the next Lizardfish practice, whenever that is, and I need to see how loud I can get it before the tone breaks up. I know my other 15 watt amp, the Fender Bassbreaker 15, can’t get terribly loud before it distorts. I think the AC15 handles it better, but if I can’t get it loud enough to compete with a drummer while still staying clean, then I can’t use it at practice. Really, I just want to bring my Fender Deluxe Reverb home again.

Speaking of Lizardfish, Mike the Bass Player is in Cleveland today. He sent us a bunch of pictures from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. To quote Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Alex Lifeson, blah blah blah. Mike sent me a picture of the BB King display. It’s awesome. Thanks, Mike!

At our last discussion, Mike said he’d be away for a couple of weeks. After that we can try to set up a rehearsal date. I really want to play. I really want to play. I’m still scared shitless of getting sick, but I really want to play.

It’s going to be a couple of weeks before the kitchen updates are finished. Once that’s all done I am going to start looking for a guitar tech to hire to work on my stuff. I’ll go with the ES-335 first. Check the frets, check the neck joint, rewire the whole friggin’ thing. Four new pots, a new jack, maybe a new pickup switch, and all new wiring. Don’t touch the pickups, they are gold and need to live forever. Everything else that lives under the covers, replace.

I’m worried about the neck joint. It’s clearly pulling away from the body, but it’s been doing that at a glacial pace for at least 22 years. I’m worried, but I’m not that worried. I am really worried about the frets. I’ve never had a guitar refretted. If they need to be replaced, is it still going to feel the same way it did before? No, clearly, but will it be so different that I will fall out of love with one of my two favorite musical instruments on Earth*? I hope not. Especially given that the frets on my other favorite musical instrument, my Les Paul Custom, are in worse shape. We’ll find out.

Right. Lunch break over. Time to read that huge email a coworker just sent me. I’ve got some back story to get filled in on.

*Technically I should say it’s one of my three favorite musical instruments. My ’78 Les Paul, my ’79 ES-335, and the Selmer Mark VII tenor saxophone I played in high school. I haven’t seen that instrument since 1989. That sucker was in bad shape when it came to me, but it was glorious. Epically glorious. I loved that horn. It was brass magic.