The gift-giving season is upon us, and that means one thing: Rush stuff! This week we're talking to Something for Nothing alums Ray Wawrzyniak and Mark Irwin, the main contributors to Rush Gigs: Found on the Studio Walls and In Concert Halls. The book features selections of gig posters and ads promoting Rush concerts throughout the decades.

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We're back this week to discuss the remaining songs on Geddy Lee's 2000 album, My Favorite Headache. This batch of songs sees Geddy weighing in on some heavy topics with aplomb and, as has been par for the course for the album, a deft use of melody and songwriting. If you heard part one, this isn't a spoiler: My Favorite Headache rocks!

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In 2000, Geddy Lee released his first and only solo record, My Favorite Headache. Geddy wrote the music with Ben Mink, best known in Rush circles for playing the electric violin on Losing It, but handled the lyrics himself. In this episode, we discuss the first five tracks of My Favorite Headache, and we can confidently saw it doesn't hurt a bit!

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It's something that we've touched on in many previous episodes: what are our favorite Rush albums? And when we a list like this, we like to bring on a guest to share our pain with. This time, it's Michael Citro of the great Michael's Record Collection podcast. We were guests not too long ago on Michael's show to talk about Signals, so we wanted to return the favor! Drop a comment to tell us what you think of our favorite Rush albums lists.

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Way back in episode 93, we talked about the amazing live set Different Stages. Soon after, the emails and comments came in: what about a breakdown of the February 20, 1978, Hammersmith Odeon concert that was on disc 3 of Different Stages? So this week, we're doing one better: we're talking about the full Hammersmith concert that was included in the 40th anniversary A Farewell to Kings box set, which includes 4 more songs than the Different Stages disc. Spoiler: it's excellent!

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In August of this year, Henderson Brewing Company in Toronto released Rush Canadian Golden Ale. This week we speak with Henderson Brewing Company co-founder and GM Steve Himel about the first phone call with the Rush team, the rounds of beer tasting with Alex and Geddy, and the satisfaction of drinking the first beers to come off the production line. And Steve answers the question of when the beer will be available outside of Canada!

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We hear it all the time from listeners: we love it when you ask your guests their Rush origin stories. It seems that every Rush fan has a story, so this week, we hear from listeners about when they first heard Rush and how they became a fan. 

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Earlier this month, the Ohio State University marching band performed a halftime show featuring the music of Rush. Rush fans everywhere were delighted with the show. So we invited Dr. Christopher Hoch, Director of Marching and Athletic Bands at OSU, to talk about the show, the difficulty of performing Rush songs, and the positive feedback the performance received--including from the official Rush social media accounts!

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A year ago, we spoke with RushFest Scotland founder Steve Brown about the album of Rush cover songs he put together to raise money for charity. Steve's back again to tell us about The Stars Look Down: Songs for Neil, Vol. 2. He tells us about the reception volume 1 received and we play some of the songs from the new collection.

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This week, we're talking with Hugh Syme, the man behind Rush's indelible album covers and art work! From Caress of Steel to Clockwork Angels and everything in between, Hugh's contributions to the Rush landscape are impossible to overestimate. Join us as Hugh recounts the process of creating Rush album covers, opines on connection between an album cover and music behind it, and discusses the new expanded edition of his coffee table book The Art of Rush: Serving a Life Sentence.

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