Norman's Rockwell

Hey Soul Mates, what a fantastic "only in Los Angeles day it has been." The back is aching ferociously, but that can't stop me! This evening we went to the live broadcast of ABC's Dancing With The Stars. It's a lot of fun being in a studio audience for a live show. The taped ones tend to get tedious. But Dancing is a quality show and there's quite a bit going for it. Live music, celebrities dancing, coldhearted judges. Ah, the dangerous and beautiful world of ballroom dancing. Being on the VIP list helped (thanks, Michael W.). We had fine seats, but watching the tape of the show, there wasn't a lot of face time to be had. So, blink and you missed us. The show was done at CBS Television City. I hadn't been in there since my weeklong stint as deep background on Bold & the Beautiful. I did get to chat with Randy Pulley, one of the crew members, whom I've known for a decade. Everytime I go to a filmed event (Idol, EW&F) he's there working h...

Hey Soul mates, after a week, I've finally gotten the live photos up from our last show at the Gig. It took some extra work this time. I'm not sure why? All this technology and it's hard to get digital pictures to look on screen the way they look as raw files. Hope you like them. Man, now blogger has changed the way you attach photos here and this thing is hard to maneuver. Anyway, you can see us in our cold sweat in our cold threads!! Click the picture when you are ready. The back is doing a little better today. Which is good. The sessions yesterday went well into the evening. We tackled the mix on A Talent For Loving first. That went pretty smoothly. Chris had some good ideas already mapped out for it. Then we went through Done Lost My Mind . That song was the easiest for everyone involved. Very solid vocal takes throughout. Then we spent a good deal of time on Down By Love , which required some overdubs and lots of vocal layers that we Bryan and I came up with on the sp...

Hey Soul Mates, hope that the weekend has been good for you so far. Me? I'm in severe pain from a back injury I sustained while cleaning out my car yesterday. Stayed in a cramped position for too long. Ow! So, I'm kinda hobbling around the apartment. But the weekend has been fun, so far. Last night I went to see my friend Micah McCain's one man show "Unshaven." It was excellent. Cabaret with some good storytelling and moving vocal performances. And when Micah tells a humorous anecdote it brings down the house. He's one of the most naturally gifted performers I know. But, it was closing night, so my recommendation will have to extend to his next project. Today is mixing day at the Studio. Bryan, Doug & I are destined for Santa Monica this afternoon. There are a few more vocal flourishes to add, but just a few. Some doubling on parts, a harmony here or there. Then we'll begin the mixing in earnest. Chris our engineer/mixer has been working on some rough...

Hey Soul Mates, Never before have I wanted an interviewer to smack his subject so badly as I did this morning. Did anyone else see Tom Cruise on the Today Show? He's gone wild. He was dissing Matt Lauer to his face and even if Tom was making a few valid points, Lauer shoulda said "this my house, B****!" I think that anti-depressants are useful in some cases. And Tom should leave Brooke Shields alone. Funny, but I think Tom has a movie coming out that he was supposed to plug. I bet Spielberg et Cie. are shifting bricks. Tom is sinking his career, disproving the old adage that there is "no bad press." I want to like Tom; I enjoy some of his movies and performances... But this is a case of stay on topic Tom: talk about your film. If you want to see more of this train wreck watch the Today show on Monday, Matt promised more. Oh, mad props to Lauer for keeping an even keel when Cruise repeatedly insulted his journalistic credibility and professionalism. Tom Cruise, ...

Hey Soul Mates, went to check out Orson at 3 Clubs in H'wood. 3 Clubs is a hip, dark joint on Vine. They mix a mean vodka Martini. Chris, the DJ spun a nice mix of Prince, Oasis, P-Funk... Right up our alley. The stage is actually floor level, making it an intimate venue. It would definitely be a cool place to perform. Orson rocked the house. They took the stage around 10:40; they kind of saunter in. This group has a batch of killer songs loaded with hooks. I've mentioned Orson before, but I hadn't seen them since last year. The set was mostly songs from their debut "Bright Idea." [Check out my review for their disc on CD Baby] They did play some newer material as well. Orson is a 5 piece based out of the South Bay/Beaches area, I would take it. Musically, they are reminiscent of the Cure, Jellyfish and the Durans but with even more radio friendly pop skillz. Last night, we went down to the Roxy to check out our buddies, Teaneck . They put on a really good show. ...

Hey Soul Mates, here's an exclusive announcement: our next show will be Tuesday July 12 @ The Good Hurt in W. L.A. Our set time will be 9:30, but we recommend that you get there no later than 9:15 to ensure you see the whole amazing set. I'm just back from the club after meeting with the booker, Alec Z. Also caught up with journo Peter Menocal in from Vegas with Feverbox, a band he's working with. The Good Hurt is a cool locale for several reasons: they have a parquet dance floor, several pool tables and hot female bartenders in nurse's uniforms. The best reason to be there will be the RHS experience, of course. I can't stress enough how important every single fan's participation is. If we don't draw; we won't be welcome to play. Conversely, if we bring boat loads of people, the energy is better, the bookers are pleased and we make new fans of the other people at the club. Help us keep live performance alive in LA! Tomorrow, Bryan & I will be worki...

Hey Soul Mates, it's the morning after, time to check in with a recap of our show at the Gig last night. The lineup was all aces from us to Kingstreet to Get Licious. Lots of cool performances. Of course, no one looked as good as your Rush Hour Soul. Our set was slammin! We came out swinging with left-right combo of Sucka/Excommunication . Our new song, Everything My Heart Desires went over well. And we did an even mix of our hard funk pop and ballads the rest of the way. We dedicated our last number of the night, Everyone's Ingenue, to our Florida Soul Mates (who also requested the song, thank you). It was a great way to end the set with the "I love you, love you, love you's" ringing out. We got lots of excellent action shots at the show. Our photographer, Patty Tokahuta, captured the sweat and the sweet of a RHS set. We'll have the pix up on our site by the end of the weekend, so keep an eye out. Yup, lots of changes on RHS.com. Got to make it look clean a...

Hey Soul Mates, be sure to check out the new bubblegum cards on our website. Hope you saved the previous batch. We will be doing these every couple of months to keep things interesting. The new ones are on the Bios page of RHS.com . There a lots of pics to choose from and we'll be putting up some freshy fresh ones on the actual bio pages this weekend. Time to prepare for the show tonight. Gonna go grab a bite (greasy eggs and bacon). Try to shop for a new pair of pants. It's hard finding 32x34 pants for some reason. Then run a few errands. Have to pick up a mess of Krispy Kremes for the brithday celebrations at the show tonight. Get there early if you want some. Love, Power, Peace Try this on for size. Thanks to Bobby A. for the tip.

Hey Soul Mates, it's been a long time coming, but a change has come. You've probably noticed a major face lift for our website. It was time. Thanks ever so much to my cousin Julie for her beautiful front page photo that graced our site for our first year. Now, we have this colorful picture of the group (taken by Patty Tokahuta) for you to see every time you check in at RHS.com. The News page has been updated for easier reading and navigation. Just run your mouse over the page. You'll find links virtually everywhere, esp. where the text is highlit [I think I just invented a word]. It takes a while to get these changes made, so I hope you enjoy them. Yes, we have more pictures from Sunday's photo shoot on the way. Don't forget, we have a show tomorrow night. I need to get some rest. I'll do more web work in the a.m. Love, Power, Peace.

Hey Soul Mates, it's Young Blue Eyes, Bryan's birthday. We had a busy day Sunday and got in some early celebrating. First we rehearsed, running down the set for Friday's show. We will be debuting a new song "Everything My Heart Desires" and feel we've got a really strong set for you. Sadly, Adam Marsland is under the weather and won't be performing with us. Get well, soon, Adrock. We hope that you will be attending the show. We are going to have a mini-celebration for our Gemini's Twins Bryan and Doug. After rehearsal, we had a photo shoot near Lake Hollywood. There was a golden sunset and the band sure looked good. We hope to have some of the pictures up for you shortly. Watch our website and MySpace for new shots. Then we took Bryan out for dinner at our favorite diner. As far as I'm concerned it's always breakfast time. Bryan has become such a great friend in the last 2 years. We started playing together in the spring of '03. Brought to...

Hey Soul Mates, today oughta be a National Holiday. It's certainly a day to celebrate an international institution and American Original: Prince Rogers Nelson is 47 today. Me: "That was a helluva show, sir." Prince: "Thank you." Me: "Thank you ." And he smiled the whole time. Not an earth-shaking exchange, but tonight I met one of my most cherished heroes. Prince performed a very private show for about 400 people at BB King's Blues Club on the Universal City Walk. Not only did I get to greet Prince, I watched his entire hourlong set from the balcony standing next to Morris Day, one of his musical cohorts. Quite an exciting evening. Morris was also very nice and I chatted with him briefly. It's a relief when people live up to your expectations or exceed them in their patience and pleasantness. By the way, I am a full foot taller than Prince and he was in high heels. That was from an e-mail I sent to friends on Aug. 19, 2003. I am in awe of Pri...

Hey Soul Mates, it's been a long day running around Hollywood. Back and forth and back. Started the day with the annual car washing. Ha Ha. And now the bumper is ready to proudly display a Rush Hour Soul decal. Took me long enough. Then I was in Hollywood at Iguana looking for some new pants. No luck. Yesterday was much more fruitful on the fashion front. Picked up a couple new ties at Barney's and down on Melrose. This afternoon's rehearsal was really grooving. We ran down the set for our upcoming show. The material sounds really good. It was our first rehearsal since our recording sessions. Now, we've been toying with some covers to spring on you. But as we neared the end of our session, we cooked up a new slice of funkpop that will make you shake a tailfeather or two. My goal is to have it done in time to debut in 2 weeks. We'll also be playing our new original Everything My Heart Desires for the first time. If'n you like Done Lost My Mind , you'll dig t...

Hey Soul Mates, it's June 1, a day to celebrate. Why? It's our drummer, Doug Gordon's birthday! I'm just so thrilled to play with Doug. He's our anchor. His drumming certainly makes my bass playing infinitely better. No cat can drive like our dog. Ha Ha. (And if you've ever been in a car with him that has a double meaning.) I've known Doug for about 5 years now and played with him for 3 of those. It seems like longer than 3 years, through ups and downs: Rock The Stones, personnel changes. But Doug has remained loyal and steadfast through it all. I just can't express how thankful I am for him. Much love, Dog. June 1 is a historic day in Pop music. Doug was born and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released by the Beatles. Needless to say Sgt. Pepper is the most important record in my reckoning. I learned to read by following the lyrics printed on the album's back cover. I'll have to throw that CD on today. There are albums that I ...