Peart has donated a signed 14″ Drum Workshop drumhead to help raise some cash for Robert “Bobby” Corrales, a Southern California deputy sheriff who is battling leukemia. The eBay auction is open until March 2, and the top bid at the time of this posting is $511.
Time to smash open those piggy banks, thumpers.
Now you can kinda’, sorta’ do so courtesy of DRUM! magazine. Peart will be the cover story for DRUM!‘s June 2009 issue, and instead of having the Professor interviewed by a regular old drumming journo, the magazine is turning over the question-asking to you, Neil Peart’s rabid fans. Just send your favorite to the following email address: neilpeart@drumlink.com. Fans whose questions are chosen will receive their names and pictures in the article. You got until March 15 to think of a good one. Check out the full details below:
[Press Release]
Enter Music Publishing, publishers of hip percussion mags worldwide, will feature Neil Peart on the cover of DRUM! magazine in June. However, instead of having one of its staff writers interview Neil, the company is inviting Neil Peart fans to conduct the interviews via email. In fact, the company has set up a special email address, neilpeart@drumlink.com, so the Neil Peart population can have their say. (Readers can also go online or access a question page on DRUM!’s YouTube site.)
Those fans who want to participate simply email their questions, and if chosen by editor Andy Doerschuk, they will have their names and pictures included in the story. “We’ve done this once before and it was a great success,” said Phil Hood, publisher of Enter Music Publishing. “With Neil’s fans it will be even better. We’re very curious to see what the results will be of our email story campaign.”
After receiving all of the interview questions, which are due by March 15, Doerschuk will then weave them into an integrated interview. “Neil Peart seemed like a great pick for this kind of story,” Doerschuk said. “After all, he has won DRUM! magazine’s “drummie” of the year for two straight years. Our fan base, regardless of age, obviously respects him and that did play into our decision to try this with him.”
DRUM! magazine expects a great response from Peart fans to this opportunity. The company just hopes that its drumlink.com server will not explode due to the amount of incoming email.
Even if you watched the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert on the Drum Channel, you still need to check out these cool pics from Michael Lowe, owner of the equally cool website Neil Peart Drumsticks. Our favorite is the shot below of Neil and his cymbal-spankin’ face.
The new concert DVD from Neil Peart and the fellows won’t be released until November 25, but a sneak peak of the song “Far Cry” was shown on VH1 last night. Try not to slobber on your monitor.
Good news for all Neil Peart groupies (…yes, we do enthusiastically include ourselves in that category): a new Rush DVD, Snakes & Arrows Live, will be released on November 25. The three-disc set was filmed with 21 high-def cameras in a wide-screen format (!), and it clocks in at 221 minutes (!!).
Here’s the awesome amount of content listed by disc:
Disc 1
“Limelight”
“Digital Man”
“Entre Nous”
“Mission”
“Freewill”
“The Main Monkey Business”
“The Larger Bowl”
“Secret Touch”
“Circumstances”
“Between The Wheels”
“Dreamline”
Disc 1 Extras
What’s That Smell
2007 tour outtakes
What’s That Smell outtakes
“Far Cry” (alternate cut featuring rear screen footage)
“The Way The Wind Blows” (alternate cut featuring rear screen footage)
“Red Sector A” from the R30 Tour
Disc 2
“Far Cry”
“Workin’ Them Angels”
“Armor And Sword”
“Spindrift”
“The Way The Wind Blows”
“Subdivisions”
“Natural Science”
“Witch Hunt”
“Malignant Narcissism — De Slagwerker”
“Hope”
“Distant Early Warning”
“The Spirit Of Radio”
“Tom Sawyer”
“One Little Victory”
“A Passage To Bangkok”
“YYZ”
Disc 3
Oh, Atlanta – The Authorized Bootlegs
“Ghost Of A Chance”
“Red Barchetta”
“The Trees”
“2112/The Temples Of Syrinx”
Wow, so much for the theory that diligent Rock Band practice can make you a superstar drum stud. Here’s a vid of Neil and the boys butchering “Tom Sawyer” on expert level. It was caught on camera before their appearance on the Colbert Report last week.
Whether with stick or pen, Peart never fails to entertain the shit out of us. So with very empty bowels, we’re happy to report that the Prof’s latest travel rumination has posted to his site here. It’s the product of more than 7,000 motorcycling miles, and as usual, the prose is pleasant and engaging. Our favorite parts? The parenthetical asides, of course. Peart busts out with references to Ponce de Léon, horned larks, Joseph Smith, and Blaise Pascal.
Who could not love this guy?…
Didn’t have an extra $30,000 to buy Peart’s 30th-anniversary kit from DW? Yeah, we didn’t either, but if you still got a hankering to have some Neil-like gear, don’t give up. AndrewOlson.com has been collecting photos of Peart-inspired setups for almost two years. Some of them might even cost less than a pair of lungs. A sample of some of the cooler kits:
And he wants to tell you all about it on DW’s website. The man is almost as good with his pen as he is with his sticks. Almost.
Update: The transcript isn’t available on DW’s site any longer it appears, but you can still find it on Power Windows. Yay!
This dude got 99% on expert level. He is using a real kick pedal though (via a mod).
So how would Neil Peart do?
[via Kotaku Australia]
