Canada's socialist envoys to headline Summerfest

Rush has sold more than 40 million records worldwide. Rush is third behind the Beatles and the Rolling Stones for the most consecutive gold or platinum studio albums by a rock band.

I knew they were monsters, but I did not know that.

I wonder if those are Canadian gold or platinum, which you get for 10% of units shipped compared to what you need to sell in the U.S. (Canadian gold is 50K, Stateside it's 500K).

And I haven't kept up on it, but there used to be federal Canadian content laws according to which commercial radio stations had to play a mandated percentage of Canadian acts. There's no question Rush benefited from those Marxist commands which is funny because drummer Neil Peart's lyrics are mostly derived from Ayn Rand novels.

(Rep. Paul Ryan will be camping out for tickets.)

Apart from a few early numbers Rush's screaming, bombastic sci-fi pretentiousness always drove me crazy despite each and every member being superb musicians (especially Neil Peart). I much prefer Rush's sometime collaborators and touring mates Max Webster, who I expect are virtually unknown south of the Tundra.*

They put out a couple of minor masterpieces in the late 70s, Max Webster and High Class In Borrowed Shoes. Check 'em out.

Summerfest should talk them into reuniting.

* Although I see Max Webster's frontman-gone-solo Kim Mitchell went to #86 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Go For Soda." (I would have guessed "Patio Lanterns" but it only made the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, whatever that might be. Both catchy tunes complete with suitably fromage-infused [literally: there's cheese in that fridge] 80s videos. Considerably less heavy and less harmonically dexterous than Max Webster was, however.)