Happy Fortieth Anniversary, 2112!
While Caress of Steel ended on an organic, open and free-spirited note, their fourth album, 2112, began with discordant and spacey computer noises and swatches of sound. The contrast in mood and sound could not have been greater. 2112 even inverted the structure of Caress, placing the epic side-long track on side one of the album, with the shorter songs on side two.
Again, it’s worth remembering that if they were going to end, they were going to do so on their own terms. If Rush was going “down the tubes,” they were going to go down with a serious statement and a very, very loud thud. No whimper. Only a bang. “We talked about how we would rather go down fighting rather than try to make the kind of record they wanted us to make,” Lee remembers. “We made 2112 figuring everyone would hate it, but we were going to go out in a blaze of glory.”[i] Alex feels the same. “2112 is all about fighting the man,” he states. “Fortunately for us, that became a marker. That was also the first time that we really started to sound like ourselves.”[ii] It is hard to judge whether or not this anti-authoritarian streak in Rush came from the group as a whole or from each of the three individuals who made up the band. Perhaps the distinction is a false or a super-fine one.
Continue reading “2112: The Uncompromising Integrity of Neil Peart’s Individualism”
The boys in black have embarked on their final tour, and I was fortunate enough to see them perform at the MGM Grand Garden Arena last night. Geezer, Tony, and Ozzy (still missing Bill Ward!) played all the hits (“Black Sabbath”, “Snowblind”, “Iron Man”, “War Pigs”, etc.) before ending the night with the classic “Paranoid.” The original members were not the only standouts, however: young drummer Tommy Clufetos rocked as hard and played as well as Geezer and Tony. His lengthy and frenetic drum solo about halfway through the show was certainly a highlight.
It’s unavoidable. It is impossible to speak of modern music, regardless of genre, and not take note of the critical importance of Miles Davis. Call him what you will or what he called himself — a genius of composition, a dazzling trumpeter/performer and band leader/manipulator, an agent provocateur, a counter-racist, coke fiend, pimp, misogynist — Miles Davis was to musical art what Pablo Picasso was to visual art in the 20th century. It’s so true it’s not even up for debate, and there’s about a kazillion hours of recorded, generous, lovely, dark, funky, bopping proof. By natural extension Davis was the incarnation of what 
Google Play and British rock legends Queen have teamed up to create The Bohemian Rhapsody Experience, a virtual reality experiment powered by groundbreaking immersive audio and interactive technologies that aim to push the boundaries of creative expression and evolve the way we experience entertainment. Soundtracked by a remixed 3D spatialized version of the quartet’s iconic hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” that reacts sonically to the user’s movements, the app gives users the opportunity to travel through an interactive visual narrative developed by VR pioneers Enosis VR along with a team of worldng-class animators and designers.
Progarchy 