{"id":17260,"date":"2012-10-09T12:25:40","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T17:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=17260"},"modified":"2013-06-15T08:59:12","modified_gmt":"2013-06-15T13:59:12","slug":"geddy-lee-and-alex-lifeson-interviewed-by-premier-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2012\/10\/09\/geddy-lee-and-alex-lifeson-interviewed-by-premier-guitar\/","title":{"rendered":"Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson interviewed by Premier Guitar<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shawn Hammond<\/a> talks to two-thirds of Rush in the November issue of Premier Guitar<\/em> magazine:<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one band on the planet that\u2019s made it cool for musicians to be \u2026 well, uncool, it\u2019s Rush. Because let\u2019s face it \u2014 the intelligent, chops-heavy prog rock that Geddy Lee (vocals\/bass\/keyboards), Alex Lifeson (guitars), and Neil Peart (drums\/lyrics) have become synonymous with over the last 30-plus years will never completely escape the stigma of being considered overwrought, stodgy, and even nerdy.<\/p>\n

But with 1980\u2019s \u201cThe Spirit of Radio\u201d \u2014 a tune that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ranked as one of the top 500 most genre-defining \u2014 the dudes raked in fame and glory with brainy, multisyllabic bashing of the very industry and medium that made their careers possible, and they did it over a backdrop of swirling pull-off licks, distorted bass, and tour de force drumming that was somehow still catchy. Their encore? The next year they pilloried modern society at large with \u201cTom Sawyer\u201d \u2014 a chops-laden, darkly futuristic anthem that even hardcore deriders of prog can\u2019t help but dig.<\/p>\n

Today, Rush is arguably the longest running, most original, and most influential progressive rock band ever. Their influence can be heard in major bands ranging from Pantera to Smashing Pumpkins, Primus, Death Cab for Cutie, the Mars Volta, Coheed and Cambria, and countless others. And yet, through innumerable musical fads they\u2019ve remained staunchly committed to big ideas, grand arrangements, and stellar, instantly identifiable musicianship \u2014 rich, unorthodox chording, odd-meter riffing, and ethereal solos from Lifeson, and a finger-busting mix of Jack Bruce\u2019s beef, Jaco Pastorius\u2019 finesse, and a funk master\u2019s groove from Lee. But they\u2019ve also been flexible and open-minded enough to not come across as stagnant and stubborn. In the process, they\u2019ve managed to get more radio play than just about any of their peers, scoring bona fide hits with songs like \u201cFly by Night,\u201d \u201cCloser to the Heart,\u201d \u201cFreewill,\u201d \u201cLimelight,\u201d and the aforementioned classics. But even when their collective open-mindedness led to sonic evolutions that didn\u2019t sit well with some longtime fans \u2014 specifically, the synth-heavy output from 1982\u20131989 that seemed to push Lifeson into a more atmospheric and textural approach \u2014 the band has remained unapologetically forward-looking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shawn Hammond talks to two-thirds of Rush in the November issue of Premier Guitar magazine: If there\u2019s one band on the planet that\u2019s made it cool for musicians to be \u2026 well, uncool, it\u2019s Rush. Because let\u2019s face it \u2014 the intelligent, chops-heavy prog rock that Geddy Lee (vocals\/bass\/keyboards), Alex Lifeson (guitars), and Neil Peart […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,28],"tags":[200,915,772],"class_list":["post-17260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancon","category-media","tag-music","tag-progrock","tag-rush"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-4uo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17260"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20684,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17260\/revisions\/20684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}