Norman's Rockwell

Hey Soul Mates, you can now purchase a "bootleg" of my performance of Curtis Mayfield's Pusher Man with Adam Marsland's Chaos Band . It's part of a bootleg of the entire show, entitled "Tribute to 70's Soul." I've heard the recorded version and it's lots of fun. A very faithful, but exuberant performance of the hit from Superfly . Interested parties should visit the AMCB link above. It's a Friday night in North Hollywood. What to do? What to do? Looks like a visit to Amoeba. That's always good for an hour or so. Tomorrow, Bryan and I are going to work on some new songs and fine tune the set for Wednesday. We've got a slamming show ready for you. After conversing with a few people, we need to remind some of you to reset your junk mail filters to accept our Evites. We want you to know when we are playing, we love our audience. Plus we have two UK polls on this one and the responses so far have been good. 3121 where the party be. A...

Hey Soul Mates, nothing will give you a 2 a.m. giggle-fit faster than reading severely negative hotel reviews. I must say that Trip Advisor has shaped our reservations for our voyage to the UK. The member comments are pure gold. I nearly cried reading about "mould 1/2 an inch thick" in a shower, "alarming eggy" smells emanating from a dining room and a general "sour and smokey" odour about. Phew. Turn me loose. Needless to say, we are going strickly modern. We'll of course report back on our accommodation, but I must give a disclaimer that the views expressed on Trip Advisor are not mine, nor do they reflect my opinion of any establishment or its service. But I'm still in hysterics. It's hard to type. When people say youth hostels or the Y are better than a given hotel, that's funny. Or when a review entry is entitled "Never Again." LMAO!!! How about a room with a view of "a very attractive nitrogen tank?" Dizzamn!! I a...

Hey Soul Mates, we are all stoked. We've made our flight resv's for the UK. It's a first international flight for both Doug & Bryan. Me, you know I loves the traveling and collecting those frequent flier miles. This will make my sixth trip to England. And it never ceases to amaze me. It will be Spring time. Maybe we'll get in a one-day cricket test or a little footie. Any suggestions on which side to support? I know Doug wants to see Wimbledon's Centre Court. Bry wants to see Stonehenge, but I think it has more to do with Spinal Tap than anything else. This weekend we had two really productive rehearsals. Mainly worked on vocal parts for two hours on Saturday. Yesterday, we did a full electric practice. The run through Fall Out that we did was heavy (as they used to say). Dead heavy on the funk. We plan to record a version of Fall Out for our re-issue of the EP for the UK. On the way home, Doug and I were listening to Cameo and Parliament, singing along. Shake...

Hey Soul Mates, wow, what a great response we are getting from our new British friends on MySpace. In only 2 weeks time, we have added nearly 300 new friends who are all excited about seeing us perform in the UK! From L.A. With Love, indeed! We can't wait to get over there to play for you. Only two months till the throwdown in yo' town! Last night, we went to an advanced screening of Inside Man , Spike Lee's new joint. It's a heist thriller. Just about my favorite genre. I'll recommend it, for sure. I always enjoy Spike's work, even when he's off pace. But in this case, it's crackerjack. Denzel and Clive Owen work well together. Shame Clive couldn't be the new Bond. All right, the band is getting a big kick outta the new V-dub ads with Peter Stormare. "Oh, Znap!!" If you haven't seen them yet, seek them out on Youtube.com or the like. Watch Peter looking like the lost member of Kraftwerk "drop it like eet's hhhot" and try ...

Hey Soul Mates, I know I haven't checked in all week. But we've been working prodigiously. Mainly, we've been sorting out our tour info and show dates for the United Kingdom. We are going to be announcing many shows in the coming weeks. First up, Rush Hour Soul are confirmed for a headlining appearance (+ support) at the Blue Cat Cafe in Stockport for 28 May. The night before our dual IPO dates. We are also booking to play at Bar 1 Twenty in Huddersfield, date and time, tba. As mentioned there will be many other dates confirmed, but these we can tell you about right now! Be sure to visit our tour page at Rush Hour Soul.com or MySpace for the latest posted dates. One other major piece of news we can give you is the title for our tour: "From L.A. With Love." If you've been to our official site you may have already known. Being James Bond fans, we felt it was only right. Plus, it's our way of spreading our own special brand of West Coast vibes to our new ...

Hey Soul Mates, we got our green on and it was go, go, go. The show was so chill last night. We all had fun and breezed through the set. The Good Hurt's sound was spectacular. It's always a relief when the monitor work and give me a really good sense of what I'm singing. When we get to the slow numbers: watch out! The melody can get all the attention it deserves. I'm convinced we are the only "rock" band that does as many ballads as we do. He laughs to himself. All the ladies had a good time. Enjoy the daisies! I will endeavor to get pictures up by the end of the night. Lots of great shots in our shades of green. Doug was under the weather, but held up like Gibraltar. Looking like the urban cowboy. Bryan was tip-top, rolling through the solo of Done Lost My Mind twice while I delivered flowers. Mmm-mm! The set was high-flying. Helps when everyone is over 6' tall. We've got a great action shot of Bry in mid-air. Usually, that's me. Bryan had been g...

Hey Soul Mates, it's show time! Well, in a few hours. We have our first appearance at the Club Good Hurt for 2006. Should be fun. It's the "LOVE" show. Lots of songs about love. Including the new Beatles' cover we've learned up. Get ready for the lovin'. We are going to get our wearing of the green on as well. It's a week before St. Patrick's day, so why not. The title of today's blog does have significance. I've been selected as one of my high school's "Notorious Alumni." This year is their 50th Anniversary and they are putting together several commemorative events and of course - Yearbook! "Smoke Signals," it's the Terry Parker Braves after all, has approached the alums for feedback and profiles all year. Come to find out that I'm Notorious! Along with former Miss America & TV personality, Leanza Cornett. I haven't seen homegirl in years. I hear she's doing alright for herself. I've alway...

Hey Soul Mates, wow. What a great day in the history of the band. We got our festival dates for the International Pop Overthrow in Liverpool this a.m. Some of you may already know. We are playing twice in one day for the fest. First stop will be at Lennon's at 7.15 pm; followed by a perf at the legendary Cavern Club at 9.30 pm. Both shows are on 29 May and both venues are on the same block of Matthew St. And they are free! Get your bank holiday on with Rush Hour Soul! We hope as many of our new friends and fans in UK as possible will get to see us during the tour. More dates will be announced as they are confirmed. But fans, rest assured, we anticipate gigs in Manchester, Stockport, Leeds, Barnsley, London, Sheffield and Birmingham at the rate we are going. If you happen to be one of our myspace friends who lives in any of the aforementioned towns (or nearby) tell your friends to get ready to rock and roll. We are bringing the new West Coast thang to the UK! And it's slammin!!...

Hey Soul Mates, it's been a long day. Managed to see about an hour of the Oscars. That was enough. Got to see the Three 6 Mafia win an Academy Award. Whoop Whoop. I'm sure my Dad was thrilled Bob Altman received an honorary Oscar. That's one of Dad's favorite directors (my Dad has a role in "The Gingerbread Man" and has always had glowing things to say about Altman); plus I like "M*A*S*H*." We had a really good rehearsal this afternoon. Worked on our harmonies for the second day in a row. Takes a lot of concentration to get everyone attuned to singing harmonies where we might not have in the past. The results are encouraging. I know I need to work a little more on our Beatles cover for Friday. The band took advantage of beautiful weather here in L.A. today and had a photo shoot this afternoon. Yesterday, I noticed a new bike path being built along Chandler St., NoHo, where there are some great murals on the adjacent warehouses. A combination of vibra...

Hey Soul Mates, pictures are up from our barnburner at Brennan's. Hope you will enjoy them. Bryan was particularly photogenic. There are a couple in which it looks like we are plotting. We are. It was a show for foxy people, for sure. Here's a blog exclusive, just for you gentle readers! Bryan came over this evening and we worked on parts of three new songs. Watch out! You won't hear any of these before our April show. But I'll give you a taste of a couple of working titles: Next July and Roosevelt's Revue . One's a ballad; the other is an uptempo funk-pop cut. Guess which is which. Ok, so we went down to the Gig to catch our peers in action: Pillow Of Wrongness and People. Both put on rocking sets. I had to commend Russell from POW for incorporating keyboards and having a knockout lineup. One of their songs, Fake My Death , is "one I wish I had written." Very good and it's available on their latest disc. People just flat out rocked in their glam ...