Norman's Rockwell

Hey Soul Mates, last night, Indie Airplay's weekly broadcast featured our song in the top 5 once again. That's right A Talent For Loving held tight at #2 for the second week in a row. You can veiw their top 5 chart online. Be sure to listen to the free streaming broadcast of Indie Airplay ! Special shout out to DJ Jennifer Wicks for the support. Don't forget we have a show on Thursday at the Gig on Melrose. This is a FREE show with our friends Pillow Of Wrongness. The night is being presented by Finlandia vodka. Ah, the Finnish. Immediately after us will be the Mojo Girls Burlesque show. That's right. No stripping to the nothings, but there is stripping. Actually there's more stripping in our show than in the Mojo Girls' but we're equal opportunity. All for now. Try to beat the heat in LA, try to dry out deep south. Love, Power, Peace

Hey Soul Mates, last night, ABC reclaimed its place as one of my favorite bands. Here is a group I never imagined I'd see live and they performed a dream concert at the House Of Blues. It was a greatest hits revue spiced with a few choice later-day ABC tunes. At some point in life, I have owned all but one of their albums. I hyperventilated for much of the set and was probably one of the two the rowdiest cats in the joint. Only the one guy next to me knew as many words to their songs. Martin Fry looked smashing in a smart robin's egg blue linen suit. He wore a matching shirt and tie: white with blue, gold and silver stripes. His belt buckle and cufflinks were pure bling. The rest of the group looked pretty sharp, too, in variations of white and black. The exception was original drummer David Palmer who had on jeans with a blue and yellow striped shirt. Palmer, by the way, looks like he's still in his 20's. And considering Martin bout with a severe illness in mid-80...

Hey Soul Mates, got this Prince quiz via MySpace. But since I don't have a personal page I figured I'd post the result here. Of course, there's no way of knowing what the answers to their questions add up to, but I am my favorite Prince album apparently. Must say I wasn't surprised. We've been getting a nice response to the Gear HQ and all of the fun Rush Hour Soul stuff there. I already altered one item per requests. Ladies, that Doll-Baby baby doll now says what you wanted. Have a great weekend. I'll check in with a review of tomorrow's ABC concert. Love, Power, Peace *** You scored as Parade Prince . You are the Parade Prince. You know that you are funny and make everyone around you feel better. You're funny and smart and witty. Parade Prince 100% Dirty Mind/Controversy Prince 83% Sign 'O' The Times Prince 83% Purple Rain Prince 83% Musicology Prince 67% Grafitti Bridge 67% 1999 Prince 67% Slave Prince 67% Diamonds & Pearls Prince 50% You...

Hey Soul Mates, so much is going on, I have to find a point to begin. This blog has quite a bit of information and at 3 seperate links to things going on in my life right now. Two are very exciting developments for Rush Hour Soul. The last is just what I'm feeling (musically). Here we go. Number 1: Got RHS? Well, I am officially announcing the GRAND OPENING of our new on-line merch storefront at CafePress! It's called the Rush Hour Soul Gear HQ. And it's open now! You can shop on-line for fantastic RHS souvenirs and clothing. I recommend that you browse through the entire selection. Enjoy the fun descriptions of each. The items range from mouse pads and magnets to hoodies and jerseys. Represent, Soul Mates! Keep in mind, Cafe Press is flexible. We control the content of our shop. If there is a style you like, that we are missing or that you'd like to suggest, we may be able to accommodate it. Just tell us. It's been fun putting together the catalogue. All of the lo...

Hey Soul Mates, it's been an adventure-filled day in Los Angeles. Or rather El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles . I have lived in LA for a decade and I love discovering new places and revisiting others. Today, we went downtown to the Fashion District off Olympic. There is lots to see downtown. Fantastic deco-era buildings, bustling streets and all types of faces. Mainly bargain hunters and buyers for boutiques. As the sun reached high noon, we were walking through the heart of the area, Santee Alley. It was jammed with people and felt like a third world bazaar. I've been to the Fashion District a handful of times, but today, I came up empty. But not for lack of looking. My favorite bit of window shopping came on Los Angeles St. where I found a men's clothing store selling the "Steve Harvey Collection." It recalled an episode of SNL where Bernie Mac did a biting fake advertisement for Steve Harvey's flamboyant, hepcat suits. From there we hopped in the car and...

Hey Soul Mates, last night was a cool night at the Greek Theater. We went to check out one of the hottest and oddest couples in rock history. For the uninitiated, imagine if Sonny and Cher said they were brother and sister. And imagine if they loved the blues and feedback. And only dressed in red, black or white. And imagine Cher was virtually rhythm-free, but surprisingly watchable. And that Sonny, moustache and all, was a musical genius. Well, that would be them. This one's for my buddy, Mike. The White Stripes kicked off the set with The Hardest Button To Button . Rudimentary drummer Meg White and her shrieking little brother Jack (tricked out like a 4 year old in a cowboy suit from Hell) played amidst a backdrop of palm trees, oversized floating apple (a motif from their album art) and instruments in their trademark Red, White & Black. Yes, lots of instruments. Jack shifting from guitar to guitar to piano to marimba to mandolin and back. It looked like there was junk on s...

Hey Soul Mates, the time has come. New music from RUSH HOUR SOUL will be available exclusively on MySpace . The track is being formatted by their programming, so it should be ready for you to hear within 24 hours of this post. Granted, it's a 35 second sampler of what we've been creating in the studio. You'll hear a taste of what we've been up to this Summer. Hopefully it will further pique your curiosity and whet your appetite for the complete songs. The new tracks will be available for download in their entirety soon. We are thrilled to be able to share this snippet with you. The songs represented are A Talent For Loving, Done Lost My Mind & Down By Love. If you are not a member of MySpace, the track will be up on RHS.com in a few weeks, as well. We had to remove a track, so we chose Love Someone (sorry, fans of that song). The Rush Hour Soul EP Megamix is the 4th song available on our MySpace page. Please feel free to leave us comments and recommend our websit...

Hey Soul Mates, we're burning the midnight oil and sleeping with one eye open. The whole world is about to learn about your Rush Hour Soul. Big things are brewing and it smells like success. La dolce vita, hm hmm. Last night, Bryan came over with the final mixes of our new songs. We listened through the different mastered versions and selected the ones to release. We are very pleased. And you will be too. The tracks really came out well and I'm very proud of how they've turned out. Bryan's solos are going to drive you to learn air guitar and Doug's bass drum foot is dead heavy, y'all. We are in the process of putting together some huge events and we want all of you to be a part of them. Details will be revealed as we are able to finalize them. Love, Power, Peace

Hey Soul Mates, first of all. I'd like to thank each and everyone of the 200+ people who were in BB King's last night. You made the energy of the room crazay . We so thoroughly enjoyed entertaining all of you. Thanks for singing along and for your great response to our music, especially the new song we debuted. That's a wonderful stage to perform on and to look out at all of the faces. There are lots of pictures to go through and I'll be posting them over the course of the weekend. Great action shots and pictures of the beautiful Soul Mates. I also want to thank Elle Grace, the booker, and her crew for making the night an event. And an extra-special thank you to DiMarko Chandler, the GM of BB King's. What a compliment to have the general manager of the venue come up on stage to give us an encore. That is a first in our experience. BB's is going to have us back (details to follow). They were pleased with us and our fans. You all are the best. You show true suppor...

Hey Soul Mates, last night I went to the world premiere of Iain Softley's new film The Skeleton Key . We walked the red carpet which is always a gas. Saw star Kate Hudson in a hot, very low cut in the back dress. Keep your eyes peeled for me in the background of any photos. I had fairly low expectations for the movie, as I'm not a big fan of horror films. Little did I know this is actually a piece of good old American Southern Gothic in all its glory: conflicted heroine, haunted mansion, tales of dementia & plenty of live oaks with Spanish moss. The acting from the 4 leads is fun, notably John Hurt ( Elephant Man ) as a near mute stroke victim Hudson is hired to care for and his turn-back-the-clock wife, Gena Rowlands ( Gloria ). This is not a blood and gore slasher film. This is a well-crafted "suspenser" that delves into folk magic or "hoodoo" & the power of persuasion. Not your typical ingredients for a Summer film. I was pleasantly surprised and ...