Welcome to February and a day that for many will represent anything but a normal start to the calendar month. That's because fans of Rush and progressive metal worldwide are celebrating today's date, 2-1-12, as 'Rush Day!'

2-1-12 of course lines up nicely with the title of the Rush album '2112,' (see our recent look back at the album, which we did in honor of our 2,112th post) which is a hallowed platter of music that has provided hours of headphone listening and mental dissection for a nation of prog lovers since it was first released in 1976.

Author Jeff Wagner, who wrote the book 'Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal,' calls '2112' “probably the first album that can rightfully be called progressive metal.” Wagner and other Rush fanatics are leading the charge to honor their Canadian rock superheroes by listening to the album in sync today as a sort of pre-game activity, since we're 100 years away from the actual year 2112.

So if you're walking down the street today and feel like you're experiencing this strange phenomenon where everybody around you is listening to the same damn album – you probably won't be crazy.

As Wagner says, Rush fans should seize the opportunity to “blast the album from the rooftops, from our cars, from our iPods, from everywhere, to celebrate this landmark album and Rush's incredible longevity and lasting influence."

RushRadio.org will host the world's largest streaming Rush listening party tonight at 9:12pm (in all time zones), inviting fans to join in on an online chat “as we crank this epic album and fill the world with our music.”

Unless you're cryogenically frozen, RushRadio points out that today is the closest that most of us will get to being able to celebrate 2112 in our lifetime. As a result, they're urging everyone to “celebrate and assume control!”

'2112' continues to make an impact on pop culture – last night's episode of the Fox TV series 'Alcatraz' had a sly reference to the album courtesy of bank robber Calvin Sweeney, who had a prison ID number of, you guessed it, “2112.”

You can bet your ass that there were Rush fans somewhere high-fiving each other in the moment. Happy 2-1-12 from Ultimate Classic Rock! It's all in your hands: Wherever you are today, press play on '2112' and turn it up loud!

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