LeeAnn at the cheese stands alone posted a challenge the other day: "for each letter of the alphabet, list a band you truly like," in her words. Here goes:

Aerosmith
Booker T and the MGs; Bowie, David
Cream; Cure, The
Deep Purple; Doors, The; Dream Theater
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
Folds, Ben; Foo Fighters
Genesis; Gabriel, Peter
Hendrix, Jimi
INXS; Iris, Donnie
Jackson, Joe
Kinks, The
Led Zeppelin
Monkees
Numan, Gary
Orbison, Roy
Pink Floyd
Queen
Rush
Styx; Seal; Santana; Steppenwolf; Supertramp
Triumph; Traffic
Ultravox
Van Halen; Vangelis
Who, The; Winwood, Steve
X, Planet (OK, that's kind of cheating)
Yes
ZZ Top

Feel free to leave your list in comments, or post it and trackback to here or LeeAnn.

Posted by: JohnL at 08:53 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I've enjoyed taking my new dog on nightly walks. The neighborhood is even prettier and more peaceful than usual. A chorus of thousands of toads is raising its voice from the creek. Birds are settling down for the night. Venus and a few stars peek through the veil of dusk.

The moon was one of my regular walking companions for the first couple of weeks that we had Jake. But it disappeared a couple of weeks ago, coming out later and later. Tonight, it reappeared, low in the West -- a waxing crescent. Reflected Earthlight illuminated the night-side of the moon.

One of my favorite sights, and one that is evocatively captured in the lyrics of the Rush song Earthshine.

(Lyrics in extended entry). more...

Posted by: JohnL at 09:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is interesting news.

Rush, which has never been known for covering other artists' material (although their very first single was a cover of Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away), is now releasing a new album to commemorate their 30 years together consisting of eight cover songs representing their earliest musical influences:

• Summertime Blues (Blue Cheer/Eddie Cochran)


• Heart Full of Soul (Yardbirds)


• Shapes of Things (Yardbirds)


• The Seeker (The Who)


• For What It's Worth (Buffalo Springfield)


• Mr. Soul (Buffalo Springfield)


• Seven and Seven Is (Love)


• Crossroads (Robert Johnson/Cream)

More in the extended entry. . .

more...

Posted by: JohnL at 11:45 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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I'll be sprinkling more and more Rush into my posts in the coming month-and-a-half until the big concert on June 23.

Given today's headlines, I decided to post the lyrics from their take on the "Religion of Peace," written post-9/11 (from the 2002 album, Vapor Trails):

Peaceable Kingdom

A wave toward the clearing sky

All this time we're talking and sharing our Rational View
A billion other voices are spreading other news
All this time we're living and trying to understand
Why a billion other choices are making their demands

Talk of a Peaceable Kingdom
Talk of a time without fear
The ones we wish would listen
Are never going to hear

Justice against The Hanged Man
Knight of Wands against the hour
Swords against the kingdom
Time against The Tower

All this time we're shuffling and laying out all our cards
While a billion other dealers are slipping past our guards
All this time we're hoping and praying we all might learn
While a billion other teachers are teaching them how to burn

Dream of a Peaceable Kingdom
Dream of a time without war
The ones we wish would hear us
Have heard it all before

A wave toward the clearing sky
A wave toward the clearing sky

The Hermit against The Lovers
Or the Devil against the Fool
Swords against the kingdom
The Wheel against the rules

All this time we're burning like bonfires in the dark
A billion other blazes are shooting off their sparks
Every spark a drifting ember of desire
To fall upon the earth and spark another fire

A homeward angel on the fly
A wave toward the clearing sky

Posted by: JohnL at 08:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I was happy to see Rush back in the news today, with a generally positive preview of their upcoming 30th-anniversary world tour and an interesting interview of all three band members.

This is a nice contrast to the recent negative headlines surrounding the extraordinarily-out-of-character behavior of guitarist Alex Zivojinovich (Lifeson) on New Year's Eve. (Over 30 years, none of these guys has ever had any kind of run-ins with the law).

Lifeson's court date is set for May 17, just a week or so before their world tour starts on May 26. This makes me think that the defense either has iron-clad video evidence substantiating Lifeson's version of events, or they have a plea arrangement worked out in advance and are waiting to formalize it in court. This is rank speculation, of course, as I am neither a criminal defense attorney nor licensed to practice in Florida.

I sure hope they've got something worked out that doesn't involve deportation proceedings or jail time, since I've already got three tickets (for my two sons and me) for the June 23 appearance in Dallas. At ages 7 and 9, this will be the boys' first rock concert.

Rush exerted a huge influence on my intellectual and musical development, turning me on to Ayn Rand, libertarianism, synthesizers, and odd time signatures. If you've never seen or heard Rush, this DVD and its accompanying live CD are good places to start.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Here's a DVD I'll be looking forward to later this year.

Bob Moog's synthesizers defined the sound of much of the popular music of the 1970s and early 1980s: from progressive rock to heavy metal, pop to disco, country to new wave. My favorite groups, Rush, Yes, and ELP, all gave Moog instruments a leading role in their recordings and performances.

Then, "digital" synthesizers appeared and pushed the warm, user-friendly analog instruments to the sidelines for more than a decade.

But in the last few years, analog synthesizers in general (and Bob Moog's instruments in particular) have been making something of a comeback.

This is a real synthesizer.

And this is the anti-Moog.

Posted by: JohnL at 12:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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