Neil Peart -- The Latest News

John at Cygnus-X1.Net recently posted 28 new scans of old magazine articles about Rush. You can check them all out on John's website here:

Cygnus-X1.Net - A Tribute to Rush - Rush: A Brief History of Time

Thanks, John!

Labels: magazine article

Labels: magazine article

Even though Rush is on hiatus, there are quite a few current and future releases for Neil. I've created a page to track all these: Upcoming Neil Peart Releases.

In case you haven't seen all of these yet, here's the list:

May 18, 2009 - June 2009 DRUM! Magazine Cover

DRUM! Magazine readers interview Neil Peart. On newsstands now.

Read more about this.

May 28, 2009 - Buddy Rich Memorial Concert - 2008

Order from Drum Channel

Featuring Neil Peart, Chad Smith, Tommy Igoe, John Blackwell, Terry Bozzio with Efrain Toro, Nick Rich, Peter Erskine, Will Lee, and Jeff Berlin. These artists pay tribute to Buddy Rich, one of the greatest drummers of all time. With an all-star big band, they play not only Buddy classics but also their own hits. Over two hours of concert footage, plus almost two hours of rehearsal and backstage footage memorialize this historic drumming event.
Special Features:
* Interview with Cathy Rich
* Rehearsal Footage
* Pre-show & Backstage
* Contest winner Donnie Marple
DVD produced by Neil Peart and Don Lombardi
Published By: Drum Channel
Total Content: 286 min

June 18, 2009 - Drum Channel LIVE with Neil Peart, Doane Perry, and Terry Bozzio

Mark your calendars for June 18th at 6pm PST

Neil Peart (Rush) will be joined by special guests Doane Perry (Jethro Tull) and Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa) to answer your questions and talk about progressive rock drumming. There may even be some trivia questions with prizes, so be sure to catch the live feed!
You can ask your questions live in our chat room during the event, or email them in advance to info

Find out more here.

August 11, 2009 - I Love You, Man [Blu-ray]

Summer 2009 (expected): Vertical Horizon - "Burning the Days"

Neil Peart is a guest drummer and lyricist on this album.

"All Is Said and Done"

1. "The Lucky One"
2. "The Middle Ground"
3. "I Believe in You"
4. "Save Me From Myself"
5. "Carrying On"
6. "Back to You"
7. "Can You Help Me"
8. "Afterglow"
9. "Here"
10. "Welcome to the Bottom"
11. "Even Now"

Read more here.

Unknown: Ultimate Drum Play-Along Drum Transcription (Coming Soon)

The June 2009 edition of DRUM! magazine has an advertisement for this product. More details when I get them. The product ID is listed as 00-31869.

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There are also a few items that I missed from 2008

Dimensions Behind the Twilight Zone: A Backstage Tribute to Television's Groundbreaking Series- Released in 2007

Neil Peart wrote an essay for this book called Magic Realism Comes to the Suburbs. You can read a sample here.

2112 Drum Transcriptions

Moving Pictures Drum Transcriptions

Labels: Buddy Rich Memorial Concert, CD News, Drum Channel, magazine article, Site updates, Vertical Horizon Burning the Days

Three magazine articles from 2007 have been added to NeilPeart.net.

Motorcyclist Magazine - May 2007

DRUMHEAD Magazine - September/October 2007

Labels: drums, magazine article, NEP motorcycling, written by NEP

The 40 Worst Lyricists In Rock -- #10 to #2 Article on Blender :: The Ultimate Guide to Music and More 

According to Blender.com, Neil Peart is #2 on their list of "40 Worst Lyricists in Rock." Sting is #1. In my opinion, these are two of the best lyricists out there.

Here's what they had to say:

02 Neil Peart
An ace on the rototoms, a train wreck on the typewriter.
Drummers are good at many things: exploding, drowning in their own vomit, drumming. But the Rush skinsman proved they should never write lyrics--or read books. Peart opuses like "Cygnus X-1" are richly awful tapestries of fantasy and science fiction, steeped in an eighth-grade understanding of Western philosophy. 2112, Rush's 1976 concept album based on individualist thinker Ayn Rand's novella Anthem, remains an awe-inspiring low point in the sordid relationship between rock and ideas. Worst lyric: "I stand atop a spiral stair/An oracle confronts me there/He leads me on light years away/Through astral nights, galactic days" ("Oracle: The Dream")

OK, I wasn't even going to post this story -- as this pointless list is only meant to inflame fans of the artists who are listed and get Blender a few web hits. But let's be honest here. Who are Jon Dolan, Josh Eells, Tim Grierson, Andrew Harrison, Ben Mitchell, Tony Power and Mark Yarm, and why are they uniquely qualified to tell us who is and isn't a good lyricist? Come to think of it, after reading through the list, just about everyone is on it -- from Paul McCartney to Robert Plant. If someone's not on the list, does that mean these sophomoric sultans of taste (Jon Dolan et al.) think they're good lyricists?

And why are these writers against lyricists reading books and infusing ideas into songs? Perhaps they subscribe to the idea that a rock lyric should only be about meaningless debauchery, nihilism, drugs, and sex. Or perhaps they subscribe to the "drummers are stupid" stereotype that has been proven wrong again and again.

Finally, using Cygnus and 2112 are cheap shots at Neil. He would most likely agree that the lyrics for these songs are "doggerel" (as he once said about "The Trees"), but there's something obviously important about them. 2112 was the first Rush album to reach Gold status, and Cygnus X-1 was at the top of the list for songs fans wanted to hear live in an Internet poll. Neil was developing as a songwriter during this period, when he was 23 or 24 years old. If you're going to put the man down, at least do it with his most recent work.

I'm filing away this list into the same category as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and many other Rolling Stone lists, along with People Magazine's "Most Beautiful People." Perhaps someone forgot to tell these journalists (Jon Dolan et al.) that Rush has proven itself to be relevant, and that they're still selling out arenas 33 years after they started. I wonder if Jon Dolan et al. will be writing articles 33 years from now?

PS - Neil has never played "rototoms," which proves these guys didn't even do their research. The correct term would have been "concert toms." But the sentence they constructed, "An ace on the rototoms, a trainwreck on the typewriter" doesn't even capture the hip alliteration these writers were going for. To me, it's just sloppy writing and poor editing.

Labels: magazine article

 The October 2007 issue of Modern Drummer is their "Prog" issue, with Mike Portnoy on the cover. In the article "50 All-Time Prog Classics," Rush's 2112 is listed in the "classic" section with the following quote:

"2112 is the first essential Rush album, the one that garnered widespread acclaim for the band." NEIL PEART's godlike rep was built upon his technical and muscular approach to the opening twenty-minute title track."

While Neil isn't interviewed for this issue, his presence is felt throughout--especially in the interview with Mike Portnoy. When asked about "the great innovators" of Prog drumming," Portnoy answers:

"My biggest and most obvious progressive drumming influence was Neil Peart. Before I heard Rush I was into The Who, Led Zeppelin, and The Beatles. Neil Peart's drumming was the first time I'd ever heard a drummer playing a lot of odd time signatures, and his massive kit was immediately intriguing to me. The way he created drum parts that played such a lead role on the early Rush albums captured me. I couldn't listen to Hemispheres, 2112, Permanent Waves, or Moving Pictures without immediately being drawn to the drumming. I was one of the kids obsessed with Rush and the drumming of Neil Peart in the late '70s and early '80s."

In addition to the interview with Portnoy, there's an interview with Bill Bruford, an update on Porcupine Tree's Gavin Harrison, a "Woodshed" article with Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson), "Playback" with Aynsley Dunbar (Frank Zappa, Journey, David Bowie, and Jeff Beck), and more. If you like drumming and progressive music, I recommend this issue of Modern Drummer.

Labels: magazine article

Neil Peart wrote an article for the August 2007 Modern Drummer, entitled "The Drums of Snakes & Arrows."

In the article, Neil tells the story of how "Snakes & Arrows" came to be, and he also analyzes his drumming in each song. He writes a lot about other drummers he admires, too. One of my favorite quotes is about Terry Bozzio (who also likes to play large drum kits):

"During a visit to the DW factory last year to check out the drums I would play on this album, I saw one of Terry's massively intricate drumsets under construction. When I sat behind it with all those chromatically tuned drums, the fantastic array of unique cymbals, and multiple pedals (eleven, I think), I looked around and up and down at that dizzyingly complex instrument and thought, "This is the guy's mind I'm looking at."

An excerpt of the article is now online at DW Drums:

Labels: magazine article, Rush SnakesArrows, written by NEP

Neil Peart will be interviewed in Drumhead magazine, Issue 4, available at the end of July 2007. I recently picked up a copy of this magazine (Issue 3), and was impressed with the quality and depth of the interviews. Looks like this will be more of the same, with 14 pages of interviews with Neil. Here's the official blurb from Drumhead (thanks to Michael at NeilPeartDrumsticks for the head's up!):

Promising to be Drumhead's biggest issue to date, Issue 4 with Rush's Neil Peart debuting his new drumkit is currently being printed. Look for copies in Barnes & Noble, Borders, Guitar Center, Sam Ash and independent retailers at the end of July.
     Issue 4 contains an in-depth 14 page interview with Neil Peart, including pages of photos detailing the intricacies of his new drum kit.

 

Labels: magazine article

Rush is a band has posted a few scans of recent NEP magazine articles that are worth checking out:

DRUM! magazine photos: I've been trying to find this issue for a while with no luck. But you can look at the accompanying photos in these scans. Subscribe to DRUM!

Motorcyclist Magazine artice: Includes some never-seen-before photos along with excerpts from "Roadshow." A nice sidebar called "Peart's Picks" catalogs the top 11 destinations from the R30 Tour. Finally, on the last page, Motorcyclist Editor-in-Chief Brian Catterson writes an interesting story about riding with Neil. Subscribe to Motorcyclist.

Labels: drums, magazine article, NEP motorcycling

There are a lot of interesting bits of news about Neil and Rush that I thought I'd compile into one update.

• Snakes & Arrows hit #3 on the Billboard 200, #3 on the Canadian charts, and #13 in the UK. Read the official Anthem release.
• The official "Far Cry" video is now available on YouTube. The video was directed by Chris Mills.
• The reviews of "Snakes & Arrows" have been coming in over the past few weeks (mostly positive). I've been compiling them on my "Snakes & Arrows" page. Thanks to Rushisaband.com for tracking down many of these reviews.
• While Geddy and Alex continue to do a lot of press for "Snakes & Arrows," Neil has also done some interviews. You can listen to a radio interview on IcebergRadio.com. There are also two interviews with Neil: Toronto Star: Closer to the Heart and Globe and Mail (although you now need to purchase the Globe story to read it all).
• The "Snakes & Arrows" MVI disc is confirmed to release on June 5. A few short clips of the documentary have made it to YouTube: clip 1: Alex working on guitar overdubs and clip 2: Geddy singing and entire band playing The Main Monkey Business.
• Andrew MacNaughtan has Neil Peart prints for sale (signed by Neil himself): Neil Peart Retrospective 2006 - $95.00 (sale); Neil Peart Snakes & Arrows Recording Session - $325.00; Neil Peart African Drum - $275.00 (sale).
• Finally, you should be able to find the Drum! issue with Neil on the cover at newsstands now.

Labels: Andrew MacNaughtan, audio interview, magazine article, newspaper interview, press release, Rush SnakesArrows, videos

Neil is on the cover of Drum! magazine for June. He's also in a Modern Drummer special issue called Drum Gods. I'll post more info when I get these.

Also in the Drum! issue, check out the interview with Michael DF Lowe of NeilPeartDrumsticks.com. You can also read it here:

Labels: magazine article

The interview with Vertical Horizon lead singer Matt Scannell where he discusses working with Neil Peart is now online.

Drumhead magazine interview with Matt Scannell

Thanks to Rushisaband for the head's up.

Labels: magazine article