Living Hour, in vocalist and bassist Sam Sarty’s living room, which doubles as their jam space: (l-r) Isaac Tate, Gil Carroll, Brett Ticzon, Sarty, and Adam Soloway.
Matt Horseman
“Stainless Steel Dream,” the leadoff track from Living Hour’s fourth record, Internal Drone Infinity, begins with a manic, glitchy din. The sonic assault ends abruptly, swiftly contained, giving way to a lone bass and singer Sam Sarty's hushed opening lines: “Pink hair straightener, baby, messy messy dresser in a dark room, empty.” Less than 60 seconds goes by before the Winnipeg-based band ascends into a squall of noise and just as quickly calms themselves again. Internal Drone Infinity is defined sonically and lyrically by this tension—the push-and-pull between order and chaos, quiet and loud, inner and outer universes.
Living Hour, in vocalist and bassist Sam Sarty’s living room, which doubles as their jam space: (l-r) Isaac Tate, Gil Carroll, Brett Ticzon, Sarty, and Adam Soloway.
Matt Horseman
“I was thinking a lot about how anxiety and thoughts exist in your body and in the small decisions you make everyday and in what you see in the world,” Sarty says over the phone from her grandfather's house on Vancouver Island. “Your whole life is based on your perception of what you’re seeing. Then I thought about how anxiety and busy thoughts color that and affect it and change your whole life. When I’m feeling really extreme, I think, ‘Oh yeah, you could just die because a bee would buzz into your face and you’d freak out and fall off a cliff or something.’”
A typical response to existential dread is often grasping for control. On Internal Drone Infinity, this manifests in Living Hour’s gravitation toward precision in the midst of turbulence—in moments like the spiralling outro of “Wheel” or the feedback-heavy ease-in to “Big Shadow,” it’s as if the band has simply figured out how to put their hands around noise and turmoil and shape them to their whim. This move toward punchiness and away from the gentler, gauzier sounds of 2022’s Someday Is Today could be attributed to a number of things—the scientific rigor with which guitarists Gil Carroll and Adam Soloway tend to their tones, Sarty’s writing more guitar parts, or Carroll’s shift from mostly clean sounds to incorporating fuzz, distortion, and overdrive. (“Swiss army knife” multi-instrumentalist Brett Ticzon also handles a few guitar details, while drummer Isaac Tate plays one upside down on “Big Shadow”).
“We were kind of inspired by the band Superheaven, who I’m sure play their guitars through these massive stacks and get huge, huge guitar chord tones,” Soloway says. “But we were still working with our little amps, so we would be recording six different guitars doing different versions of a chord to try to make it sound as huge as possible, stacking them on top of each other.”
On their new LP, Internal Drone Infinity, Living Hour recorded on small amps, but built layers of tracks to achieve a massive sound.
It’s likely, though, that the most significant change is that Sarty is confronting some of that aforementioned dread defiantly instead of turning away or opting for resignation. “Everyone’s kind of angry, we’re getting pissed, the world is fucked, and sometimes it feels like I can’t just be in a nice indie rock band anymore playing twinkly things,” Sarty says. “It’s still nice to do that, but I think there needs to be a release, a scream or a grunt or something.”
Internal Drone Infinity offers a lot of moments for that kind of release, often in the shape of incredibly sharp, layered, fuzzy freakouts—like on “Firetrap,” a Soloway joint that wrestles with the weight of the onslaught of violent images and videos online, or “Half Can,” which adds Jenna Wittman’s unsettling violin to the commotion.
Sarty’s precise sense of composition, tone, and execution likely stems from an obsessive impulse she’s had since childhood—to photograph and write about whatever catches her eye, whether it’s garbage or cheese. Combined with the fact she was writing these songs while working as a projectionist at Winnipeg’s independent movie theatre (“It’s a really cool job, because you can watch so many movies for free and you feel like a weird, twisted Gremlin”), Sarty has long been tuning her attention to small details, a practice which, like auteur cinema, creates its own dreaminess.
The low-key “Texting” maybe the most pining song on the record—which is saying something for a band that calls their music “yearn-core”—provides a poignant example of this phenomenon. The accumulation of mundane observations produces a strangeness much like that which emerges when you simply gather the seemingly disparate fragments of reality around you: “Sunwashed plastic garbage bin, blue now from the cornflower sun, handles like madonna’s nails; picking zits in Home Depot, and the tread in your shoes.” Elsewhere, there are isolated non-sequiturs (“soft chorus of cellos,” “rabbits looking”) and painful clarity: “I walk home from the movies ’cause I don’t have a car anymore / At 29, I feel sick, but I’m just getting started on my medicine.” It’s kind of like if the poet Mary Oliver had strolled the garbage-strewn and overgrown, busted-concrete back alleys of Manitoba’s capital instead of her peaceful Cape Cod forests.
“‘Texting’ is very much about Winnipeg,” Sarty says. “I was really thinking about moving during Covid, and then after I was like, ‘Okay, it’s my moment.’ But then I can never really leave. It just gets sticky.”
Stickiness—in this case, the stickiness of long-running relationships—is the tacit catalyst in this mixture that’s allowed Sarty to “come into her own as a songwriter” or for the band to record their “funnest album yet,” as Carroll notes. Closeness and intimacy—Carroll lives on the top floor in the same duplex as Sarty, whose apartment is also the band’s jamspace—plus time creates intangible and fluid dynamism. And at this point in their long collaboration, the band members are comfortable with taking the chaos of their 21st-century lives and, with each other’s help, making some order out of it.
“I can imagine a lot of bands struggle with delivering feedback about parts or when they want things to change in a song,” Carroll says. “And obviously we still have those conversations with care, and we’re gentle, but like, Solly can tell me, ‘That tone’s not working.’ Or we can say, ‘Sam, you need to tune your guitar.’ It’s good—that makes the song and the band better, and people are able to receive feedback, which I think has made our songs better, too. It’s like The Rehearsal season two. I’m Captain All-Ears when it comes to my tone.”
Line 6, Inc. has introduced the Powercab® CL family of open-back multi-voice active guitar speaker systems designed to provide exceptional amplification for all modelers and even compact amp-simulation pedals.
“Both the Powercab CL 212 and Powercab CL 112 are perfect for practice and live performance,” said Rick Gagliano, Senior Director of Products. “Unlike FRFR cabs, they are loaded with custom-designed guitar speakers, providing a playing experience more like plugging into a guitar amplifier with a traditional open-back cabinet.”
The 200-watt Powercab CL 212 boasts dual 12" speakers, while the 100-watt Powercab CL 112 has a single 12" speaker. These lightweight open-back cabinets feature simple, straightforward controls—including a 3-band room EQ with Low, Mid, and High boost/cut. MIDI control and USB connectivity are also supported. Powercab CL cabs operate in either of two modes:
In Speaker Voicing mode, you can select Speaker Voicings that interact with the internal speakers to make them sound and respond more like one of six legendary speakers. In Power Amp In mode, they function as high-quality powered guitar cabs; In either mode, disable your modeler’s cab block and simply plug in and play.
While in either mode, you can insert a speaker IR into the XLR Out signal, creating an independent virtual cab when routing it to a front-of-house mixer or an audio interface. Six Factory IRs are included, and you can also load your own IRs using the free Powercab CL IR Loader application, select the default/neutral speaker IR, or bypass the IR on the XLR output.
No matter how you use them, Powercab CL speaker systems deliver consistent tone and feel at any volume.
Pricing & Availability
Powercab CL 212 is $549.99 USD (MSRP) and Powercab CL 112 is $449.99 USD (MSRP). Both are available worldwide.
OC Pedal Co. was formed in 2024 by Santa Ana native Evan Haymond, a session ace who toured with Jack Russell of Great White in the 2010s. Not surprisingly, OC Pedal Co.’s U.S.A.-made LA HABRA Hard Clipper evokes many of the crunchy sounds from that era.
Less is More
The LA HABRA’s control panel is minimal, with just two knobs—volume and tone. There’s no gain knob, instead you get a gain switch that lets you choose between two clipping profiles. In the right position the pedal employs op-amp clipping. Set it to the left and a set of LED diodes are activated. With humbuckers, the gain switch set to LED mode, and the tone knob at 11:00, the LA HABRA produced a toothy sound that, sure enough, produced power chord sounds that sounded more than a little like Great White’s cover of “Once Bitten, Twice Shy.”
Though the lack of a gain knob may leave some players feeling limited, the tone knob is a powerful tool for shaping the characteristics of the distortion, and with the tone knob at its darkest setting, the LA HABRA still delivers ample definition. Move the tone knob up to around 3:00, though, and there’s enough clarity and treble detail to make leads sizzle. To my ears this is where the pedal shines, and bumping the tone knob all the way up (with the gain switch still set to the LED clipping mode), the sound is super aggressive without being over-saturated.
In general, with the gain switch set to LED clipping you get a high-end boost and hear and feel more compression. Op-amp clipping tames some of the highs yielding a more balanced output, which is particularly noticeable when the tone knob is set to 3:00 and above. I generally preferred the gain switch set to op-amp clipping but each clipping mode yields sounds that can work in many contexts.
The Verdict
The LA HABRA has plenty of definition for melodic parts and is tough enough for bluesy riffs. For legato shred-type playing, there were times when I wished the pedal had a little more gain. But LA HABRA has a knack for feeling amp-like, particularly in terms of dynamics and touch sensitivity—much more so than many pedals that occupy this mid- to high-mid-gain category.
Hello, and welcome back to Mod Garage! Let’s pick up where we left off with our Telecaster.
Our next step will be to take care of the neck pocket, which is a very important and crucial task. This is the contact point of the body and the neck, so we want a tight, precise connection for maximum tuning stability and playing comfort.
I don’t know if it’s the same on all Harley Benton T-styles, but the fitting accuracy of the Harley Benton’s neck and neck pocket is perfect—I wish I saw this kind of quality on guitars which cost more than 10 times the price of this one! No need to modify our neck pocket by gluing in some wooden veneer to make it tighter; we can leave it just the way it is.
While the fitting is commendable, unfortunately the craftsmanship of the neck pocket itself is not that good. Besides wooden debris and chips, there’s a lot of “stuff” inside that I can’t identify for certain, but it’s likely some grain filler and clear coat. We’ll need to remove a fair amount from the neck pocket to ensure the heel of the neck has a completely level surface for installation.
SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
I decided to use a simple razor blade, a Japanese carving knife, and a razor knife to scrape all the junk away. You can also use some micro chisels, or even simply sanding paper. Special knives that are used for guitar lutherie as well as violin-making are ultra-sharp, and with some practice, it’s easy and fast to use them for such tasks. I was surprised by how much material there was in the neck pocket; it had a strong chemical smell to it, so it went immediately into the garbage.
SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
Next, I took some sandpaper of different grits to make the surface as smooth as possible. I started with 150-grit and worked my way up to 1000-grit. After blowing away all dust, the neck pocket was absolutely even and clean, offering the perfect surface for the neck heel. Pleased with the result, I moved on to the next task.
For some reason, there was a big hole in the neck pocket, which I think has something to do with the CNC routing or the painting process. While this hole is not a problem regarding stability, and it’s invisible after the neck is installed, it’s not in the original Fender design, and my inner monk can’t live with this, so it had to be closed with a wooden dowel. After measuring, it turned out to be a metric 10 mm hole, and I knew luck was on my side—as is often the case, IKEA would be my best friend. You’re probably familiar with the bevelled wooden dowels used on almost every IKEA product to attach two parts together. They’re made out of strong beech wood and available as individual spare parts with an 8 or 10 mm diameter, so I always have a good collection in the shop. This was easy going: I simply cut the dowel to length and put it in a cup of warm water for a couple minutes so it expanded a little bit for a tight fit. After drying it for a short time, I put some wood glue on it, plus some in the hole, before pushing it in and wiping away the excess glue with a damp cloth.
SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
A tip from the shop: Ask your local optical store what they are doing with the old lenses from their customers. If there’s a chance you can get some for free, this is the perfect helper for any glue job—I always have a good collection of such lenses in the shop, and they’re easy to clean with a bit of rubbing alcohol. Put the wood glue on the concave side of the lens and use a toothpick to apply the glue to the dowel and hole. Afterwards, wipe the rest of the glue away, clean the lens with water, and it’s ready for the next time. This also works for super glue, but you’ll have to throw away the lens afterwards.
Here, we can clearly see how many different pieces of wood are glued together for the body (I count four pieces alone in the small neck pocket), that the body is laminated horizontally, and the thickness of the paint.
As you can see, the routings for the bridge pickup and the electronics are a little bit strange. The bridge pickup’s cavity is relatively shallow, and a Forstner drill bit was used to create deeper spots for the three screws holding the pickup in place. At the bottom of the electronics compartment is a block of wood, which I’d guess was there to shorten routing time and reduce production costs. I still haven’t decided on the pickups and electronics I’ll use for this guitar, but I certainly don’t want to run into any trouble making them fit. The wooden obstruction here could limit what sorts of pots and pickup-selected switches we can use, so it’s best to get ahead of that and remove it from the equation. (Even if it doesn’t end up being 100 percent necessary, it’ll remove a bit of excess weight!) So, let’s carve out some space here.
SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
The professional way would be to mask the whole body with tape and use a handheld router to remove the wood. Since I bet most of you don’t have that sort of tool, we’ll do it the old-fashioned way, using a Forstner drill bit and a drill press. I don’t recommend any handheld drilling device for this—if you don’t have access to a drill press or a handheld router, ask your local carpenter if he can do the work for you. After masking the body, the drilling process is easy to do with a sharp Forstner bit. I used a smaller one for the edges and a bigger one for the rest.
SINGLECOIL (https://singlecoil.com)
It’s a crude but effective—and fast—way to remove the wood. After the drilling, I used some sandpaper to smooth out the surface and put some shellac on the bare wood, but this isn’t mandatory—my inner monk, you know? Take care to not drill too deep, which happened to me years ago on a custom-made Jaguar body with a very special paintjob. That wasn’t fun to explain to the customer.
Next month, we’ll finish the work on the body, before moving on to the hardware and electronics. The good news is that our $340 budget is still in hand for future investments, so stay tuned.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame® Inductees, GRAMMY® Award-nominated icons, and RUSH Co-Founders Geddy Lee [bass, keys, vocals] and Alex Lifeson [guitar, vocals] have announced their return to the stage for a very special 2026 headline tour, Fifty Something, in celebration of RUSH’s music, legacy, and the life of late drummer and lyricist Neil Peart. It notably marks the first time Lee and Lifeson have toured together in eleven years since the finale of RUSH’s R40 Tour on August 1, 2015 at the Forum in Los Angeles, CA, bringing it full circle with a return to the Forum to embark upon these special shows.Of the tour, Geddy Lee says:
“It’s been over 10 years since Alex and I have performed the music of RUSH alongside our fallen bandmate and friend Neil. A lifetime’s worth of songs that we had put our cumulative hearts and souls into writing, recording and playing together onstage. And so, after all that has gone down since that last show, Alex and I have done some serious soul searching and come to the decision that we fucking miss it, and that it’s time for a celebration of 50-something years of RUSH music. So in 2026, my BFF Lerxst (aka Alex Lifeson) and I are going to hit the road once again to pay tribute to our past and to Neil by performing a vast selection of RUSH songs in a handful of cities. No small task, because as we all know Neil was irreplaceable.
Yet life is full of surprises, and we have been introduced to another remarkable person; an incredible drummer and musician who is adding another chapter to our story while continuing her own fascinating musical journey. Her name is Anika Nilles, and we could not be more excited to introduce her to our loyal and dedicated RUSH fanbase, whom, we know, will give her every chance to live up to that near impossible role. Before we hit the stage, we also hope to add another musician or two to expand our sound a wee bit and free up Alex and I, in order to show off some of our new fancy dance steps.
Lerxst, Anika and myself, along with many of our longstanding crew members have been hard at work rehearsing and designing the kind of RUSH show you’ve grown accustomed to expect from us. We dearly hope you will come along and help us celebrate our history together.”
Carrie Nuttall-Peart and Olivia Peart, Neil’s widow and daughter share:
“We are thrilled to support the Fifty Something tour, celebrating a band whose music has resonated and inspired fans for generations, and to honor Neil’s extraordinary legacy as both a drummer and lyricist.
Neil’s musicianship was singular. Compositions of intricacy and power that expanded what rhythm itself could express. As both drummer and lyricist, he was irreplaceable. Inimitable in his artistry, and unmatched in the depth and imagination he brought to the lyrics that inspired and moved so many, he profoundly shaped how fans connected with him and the band, giving voice and meaning to their own lives.
As the band enters this new chapter, it promises to be truly unforgettable. We are excited to see how their new vision unfolds, and to hear this legendary music played live once again.”
Earlier today, fans got the news via a Rush newsletter from a home video that announced the celebration of upcoming dates with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson at Geddy Lee’s home studio. Watch here.
Last night the band celebrated in a private event at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland with this on-stage interview and Q&A. Watch full clip here.RUSH will perform multiple shows in 7 cities across Canada, the United States and Mexico, beginning June 7, 2026 at The Kia Forum in Los Angeles. These special “evening with” shows will find the band playing two sets each night. Each show will feature a distinct selection of songs and RUSH will build each night’s setlist from a catalogue of 35 songs including their greatest hits and fan favorites.
For Fifty Something, Lee and Lifeson will be accompanied by German drummer, composer, and producer Anika Nilles, who has performed as Jeff Beck’s drummer for over 60 shows and has released four solo albums.
Fans will be able to participate in the RUSH Artist Presaleby signing up at https://livemu.sc/rush by Thursday, October 9 at 11:59pm ET.
Artist Presales for this tour are hosted by multiple ticketing sites but anyone who signs up can join the sale. For Artist Presales on Ticketmaster, no code is needed – access is tied to your account. The Artist Presale on SeatGeek for Cleveland will require a code. The Artist Presale begins on Monday, October 13 at 12PM local time in the US and Canada and Thursday, October 16 at 12PM local time in Mexico. General onsale begins here on Friday, October 17th at 12pm local time for the US & Canada, and 11am local time for Mexico.
Additionally, these pre-sales will be available:
Citi for US shows: Citi is the official card of the RUSH 2026 tour. Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets in the US beginning Friday, October 10 at 12pm local time until Sunday, October 12 at 11:59pm local time through the Citi Entertainment program. For complete presale details visit www.citientertainment.com.
American Express for Canada: American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets for the Toronto show before the general public beginning Friday, October 10 at 12pm local time through Sunday, October 12 at 11:59pm local time.
Banamex for Mexico City: Banamex cardholders will have presale access ahead of the general onsale. Times vary based on Banamex card type, see list below for more details.
(BEYOND BANAMEX):Presale available Monday, 10/13 9:00 AM local to 11:59 PM local
(ELITE BANAMEX):Presale available Tuesday, 10/14 9:00 local to 11:59 PM local
(ALL CARDS):Presale available Wednesday, 10/15 11 AM local to 11:59 PM local
Rush invites fans to get closer than ever with three elevated offerings: an all-new VIP program, the first-ever 2112 Platform Experience, and curated Travel Packages for fans making a trip to see the show.
Sun Jun 07 Los Angeles, CA Kia Forum Tue Jun 09 Los Angeles, CA Kia Forum Thu Jun 18 Mexico City, MX. Palacio de los Deportes Wed Jun 24 Fort Worth, TX Dickies Arena Fri Jun 26 Fort Worth, TX Dickies Arena Thu Jul 16 Chicago, IL United Center Sat Jul 18 Chicago, IL United Center Tue Jul 28 New York, NY Madison Square Garden Thu Jul 30 New York, NY Madison Square Garden Fri Aug 07 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena Sun Aug 09 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena Thu Sep 17 Cleveland, OH Rocket Arena
Additionally, RUSH just revealed the 50-track super deluxe anthology, RUSH 50, that Rolling Stone called “an epic saga, that functions equally well as an introduction for the uninitiated or a companion piece for the super fan.” RUSH 50 is available in five distinct configurations, including the (1) Super Deluxe Edition, (2) RUSH Store Exclusive Super Deluxe Edition, (3) 7-LP Deluxe Edition, (4) 4-CD Deluxe Edition, and (5) Digital Edition. It represents breadth of their discography, beginning with the first-ever reissue of their 1973 debut single and concluding with a live recording the final song Lee, Lifeson, and Peart played together during the R40 Tour closer at The Forum. Purchase HERE.
Get ready to celebrate the music of RUSH with Lee and Lifeson live in 2026!