Rush has been one of my favorite bands since 1989. Thus, it was a big thrill when I got the chance to interview Geddy Lee (lead vocals, bass, keyboards) in the Fall of 1998. The interview was done over the phone, so I had no opportunity to get any albums autographed. However, he did give me the following audio souvenir.
Sometimes I like to watch people who are better than me at certain skills. It is:
> Entertaining
> Educational
> A painfully demoralizing experience that causes me to spend hours dwelling on the idea that I suck
The first two outcomes are great. The third can be handled with prescription medication.
The latest cause of these reactions is the new Drum Channel. Although it is just getting started, it already has some great content. So if, like me, you are a drummer who enjoys watching and learning from the best while simultaneously being reminded just how bad you are, you might want to check it out.
I like Kenny Chesney, but the other night at the CMAs he kept making a weird motion with his head when he sang. After every other lyric he would suddenly turn to the left, like he was experiencing some sort of rhythmic muscle spasm. On the one hand it looked kind of like a dance move. On the other hand it looked like he might now be eligible for handicapped parking.
It was kind of like what you see with dogs when, while playing catch, you fake the throw. So I suppose it's possible that someone kept teasing him with a tennis ball. Either that or his performance was choreographed by his chiropractor.
There is something about the voice of Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland that I really like. She could sing selections from the US Tax Code and I would enjoy listening to it.
Neil Peart is my favorite drummer. I just love his work.
Additionally, he has some chops as a writer too. In this piece for the
DW Drums website, he talks not only about his new signature bass drum,
but also about what it was like many years ago when Rush was just an
opening act. It is an interesting, kind of behind-the-scenes view.
We went to a street fair this past weekend. At street fairs there is always at least one booth selling recordings of really dreamy music, the kind of songs that seem to have been written as the soundtrack to an afternoon spent experimenting with large amounts of Valium.
A lot of this music is done with keyboards. Not the kind of keyboards you hear in rock songs, but the kind of keyboards made for the house band at a yoga studio. As a result, they're not so much musical instruments as the audio versions of water fountains, those small water fountains that are essentially made with the motor from a fish tank filter and some surgical tubing. On the one hand those fountains sound like brooks in a forest. On the other hand they sound like someone urinating. Either way, they tend to bring on bladder discomfort.
And that's kind of the essence to the music you find sold at street fairs. In some ways it is magical and ethereal and in some ways it is about as soulful as the Tidy Bowl Man. So really, it would be ideal to listen to while relieving yourself in the woods. Imagine rays of sunlight filtering through the tree branches and casting a halo of light around you as so you rid yourself of that last cup of coffee. "Buy the new album from Celestial Moons . . . 'Peeing in Paradise'".