Brief News Update for Wednesday December 28th, 2011

Rik Emmett jams on Rush track 'Red Barchetta'

For the first time Rik Emmett of the classic Canadian rock power trio TRIUMPH sang and played guitar in a unique “virtual collaboration” with a member of another legendary Canadian rock power trio, Rush. Rik performed as a guest artist with fantasy rock band “Sonic Elements” on a cover of the song ‘Red Barchetta’ which features drums performed by legendary Rush drummer Neil Peart via a music software sample library called “Neil Peart Drums” by Sonic Reality.

Dave Kerzner, CEO and founder of Sonic Reality, put together a unique music project called “Sonic Elements” where various singers and musicians of progressive rock perform and record along with sampled musical elements from the music software Sonic Reality creates for musicians.

“At Sonic Reality we record (aka “sample”) the sounds of musical instruments and drum grooves so that musicians can use these deluxe sound elements in their own music on the computer or mobile devices.” says Kerzner “I created the Sonic Elements music project to not only show what these inspiring Sonic Reality sounds are like in musical context but to also explore giving songs an alternate reality with different fantasy combinations of musicians and authentic sounds.”

A premium example of such a fantasy rock scenario is ‘Red Barchetta’ featuring Rik Emmett which is another take on the classic Rush song with new life brought to it by Rik’s passionate performance and interpretation.

Listen to an audio clip preview of ‘Red Barchetta’ featuring Rik Emmett:

http://soundcloud.com/sonicelements/red-barchetta-feat-rick-emmett

Here’s what Rik Emmett had to say about the project:
“It was such a great day in the studio, jamming out to Neil’s incredible tracks, getting to play virtual ‘basement band’ and laying down my versions of Geddy and Alex parts. I felt like I had been transported back to 1980 for an afternoon. ‘Red Barchetta’ is one of my absolute fave RUSH songs… like an exciting, Ray Bradbury-esque SF short story, told by a progressive rock band… so to get a crack at it, with the actual drum takes that Neil performed, was an ‘artistic’ challenge – almost like accepting a dare.” Says Emmett “This is like “Rock Band” for the seriously, deeply committed.”

The full release of the song ‘Red Barchetta’ by Sonic Elements featuring Rik Emmett is coming in Q1, 2012 and is part of a larger collection of songs with Sonic Elements and other guest artists performing with Neil Peart Drums by Sonic Reality.

Follow progress on the Sonic Elements project:

Sonic Reality and Neil Peart Drums:Facebook – www.facebook.com/sonicelements
YouTube – www.youtube.com/sonicelementschannel
Rik Emmett – www.rikemmett.com

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About the Sonic Elements project and Neil Peart Drums:

Dave Kerzner of the music software company Sonic Reality has headed up a unique “virtual fantasy rock band” called “Sonic Elements” combining the sounds and performances captured in Sonic Reality music software and sound library products such as Neil Peart Drums with performances of guest musicians like Rik Emmett on classic covers like ‘Red Barchetta’ by Rush. Collaborating through the use of the sample library “Neil Peart Drums” which was performed by legendary Rush drummer Neil Peart and recorded by top producer Nick Raskulinecz is something that any musician who owns the product can do. Neil’s digitally recreated DW® Snakes and Arrows drum kit in software or soon to be released audio grooves to play along to or loops can be used in any recording software on the Mac, PC or iPad™. To celebrate that concept Sonic Elements have been working up an entire Rush tribute album as well as original songs all built around Neil Peart Drums with various guest guitarists, bass players and vocalists including Rik Emmett (Triumph), Billy Sherwood (Yes, Circa), John Wesley (Porcupine Tree, Marillion) and many other classic and progressive rock musicians.

© Sonic Reality 2011. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Marco Mendoza returns home from Europe for hometown gig

After a successful series of European solo dates in Denmark, Austria, Italy and Germany, bassist / vocalist Marco Mendoza returns back to L.A. for a low key gig at his favourite club, The Baked Potato.

This Friday night, December 30th, 2011, Marco will be joined by Jeff Kollman (Guitars) and Joel Tayloer on drums, to kick out some rockin' R 'n' B and jazz jams!

Entrance is $20.00

For more details:

The Baked Potato
3787 Cahuenga Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604

Phone: 818-980-1615

http://www.thebakedpotato.com/

Good luck Marco, so ..., what's new in 2012 I wonder?

Perhap we'll get to see / hear that album with Neal Schon and Deen Castronova ..., I wish!

Keep up with Marco at:

http://www.marcomendoza.com/

QUEENSRYCHE FRONT MAN GEOFF TATE “AND FRIENDS” TO PERFORM SELECT, ALL-ACOUSTIC DATES ON THE WEST COAST BEGINNING IN JANUARY

Geoff Tate Photo by: Valerie Nerres

After touring extensively in 2011 with his band, Queensryche, lead singer Geoff Tate has announced that he will be doing a handful of acoustic solo dates billed as “Geoff Tate and Friends” beginning on Friday, January 27 at The Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, California.

What can fans expect on the brief run of dates?

According to Tate, he’ll be “playing acoustic renditions of songs from my solo album as well as some of my favorite Queensryche songs.” And that certainly gives him a lot to choose from…

Not one to remain idle, Tate is anxious to hit the road again next year despite an incredibly busy 2011 that found the band performing over 75 dates along their 30th Anniversary tour primarily in support of their 12th studio album, Dedicated to Chaos (Roadrunner Records/Loud & Proud), that was released in the summer.

Towards the end of the tour, Geoff and the band pulled out “all the stops” by performing Rage for Order in its entirety for the first time ever (New York City on Halloween) and Operation: Mindcrime from beginning to end on this year’s ShipRocked Cruise (with In This Moment’s Maria Brink handling vocal chores as “Sister Mary”) for the first time in three years.

Both shows were a pure treat for fans!

“Mindcrime” (1988) is universally respected as a classic concept release about rock, revenge and redemption and, ultimately, regarded as one of the most important and essential hard rock records in the genre’s expansive canon. 1990′s follow-up, Empire, yielded a number one single, the Grammy-nominated ballad “Silent Lucidity,” which Queensryche performed at the 1992 Grammy Awards accompanied by a supporting orchestra.

In 2006, the band released Operation: Mindcrime II, a scorching sequel to their original. The band then hit the road performing both albums Operation: Mindcrime and Operation: Mindcrime II back-to-back in their entirety in an incredible theatrical presentation throughout the year. The final performance was recorded at The Moore Theatre in Seattle that October and the Mindcrime at the Moore double CD/DVD release debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Music DVD Chart and eventually reached gold status.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 30 years and more than 20 million albums sold worldwide later…

For 2012, Queensryche has plenty up its sleeve…

Geoff’s acoustic performances are just the beginning of what promises to be another exciting year.

For more information, please view the official Queensryche website at www.queensryche.com

Happy Holidays!

Those live dates are:

Jan-26 Thu San Diego, CA        Anthology
Jan-27 Fri Agoura Hills         Canyon
Jan-29 Sun San Juan Cap         Coach House
Jan-31 Tue Grass Valley, CA     Center for the Arts
Feb-01 Wed Chico, CA            El Rey
Feb-02 Thu Napa, CA             Uptown
Feb-04 Sat Snqoualmie, WA       Finapalooza