Norman's Rockwell

Hey Soul Mates, off topic: 48 points in 51 minutes. Epic performance, bringing the Cavs home with a 3-2 lead. This pic never gets old. Your Kid and The King, Cleveland 2002. Love, Power, LeBron

Hey Soul Mates, for his birthday, I got Doug his own Mr. T talking key chain. Grrrrr . So that's taken. If you want to send him a birthday greeting, post us a message on the band myspace or even here. His own myspace page has been acting up. His birthday is Friday/tomorrow, so don't forget. Studio time was very productive. Doug got some choice percussion parts on. Shakers, cowbell, rain stick, tambourine, vibra -slap. Of course all of us helped with the soul clap on Fall Out . (I got to do the finger cymbals at the top of Roosevelt's Revue .) We were a lot like third graders in a music appreciation class, making a racket. Best of all, Doug, who had missed all of the vocal sessions prior, got his voice on the record! We rerecorded the choruses on Roosevelt and Sucka to include Mr. Doug. Slammin ! It was a real blessing, tho' to have Doug here tonight. Thanks for adding all that flavor. Can I tell you how much fun the past month of session work has been? Adam has pul...

Hey Soul Mates, our appearance at the IPO Liverpool festival last year was such a highlight. I'm listening to the audio from the Cavern Club show as I type. Certainly a highlight we'd like to repeat in the very near future. As a special gift to all of you, I will be posting a new Rush Hour Soul " Superboot " MP3 from the Cavern gig on Friday. So watch this space and listen!!! As promised here are some more previously unpublished pictures of us in Liddypool . Ah, a Mersey-side Bank Holiday weekend! This is us wandering the high street, looking like no- goodniks from LA, for sure. The best photos from IPO are up on our website, but these are certainly some interesting shots from the first of our three sets, 29 May 2006. These pics were taken in at Lennon's, the early show. Photos by Patty Tokahuta Tomorrow night, we are in the studio doing percussion and mixing with Mr. Marsland . We'll take photos, so you can see what we look like this week. I must tell you,...

Hey Soul Mates, here are some more "From L.A. With Love" exclusives. This first one, (me, seated on the pavement, Doug leaning on the Magic Peugeot ) is from our first day in the UK. After flying for 14 hours then driving for nearly 2 hours, on the odd side of the road, my knee gave out. We arrived at our equipment pickup point and I sort of spilled out of the car. Photo by Molly Gordon. Our host booker Hayley and her family recommended that we drive from Sheffield through the peaks to take a very scenic route to Liverpool. No kidding. I don't think any of us had seen that much green before. At the bottom of the peaks was Glossop / Woolley Bridge. The Spring Tavern should definitely be on the official RHS fan tour of the UK. After lunch, Bryan and I went to see the Woolley Bridge. That's me video taping Bry at the Equestrian Crossing. As we had no horses, we hoofed it on foot. Preceding photos by Patty Tokahuta . In current RHS news, we have just viewed our new ...

Hey Soul Mates, It was one whole year ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. Last year on May 24, Rush Hour Soul departed from LAX to begin our tour of the UK. It was a journey none of us will forget. In fact, I had a long conversation with Doug about it last night. We miss simple things, like green hillsides, Twinings Everyday tea, Starmix. But most of all we miss our fans in Great Britain. Our current work is going to help us return in style. The work continues on the recordings. Our co-producer Adam Marsland has been adding lots of tasteful keyboard parts and editing. As I've mentioned before, mixing begins in earnest in two weeks. Just in time to split the difference between Doug and Bryan's birthdays! So to commemorate and to get everyone in the right frame of mind for our return in Autumn, here are some never before seen photos from our tour. "From L.A. With Love!" I will endeavor to post some everyday during the next two weeks. This is from our first n...

Hola , Soul Mates, I'm feeling very jet lagged. Just got back from Espana . Catalunya and Andalucia to be more precise. I even learned Catalan ( jo parlo catala , amics ) and spoke it in broken fashion to amused natives. But wait, here's proof... It's me at the Dali Teatro - Museu in Figueres on Salvador's birthday. The place is more funhouse than museum. This objet d'art was hidden in a stairwell. I call it "The Crowned Peacock Dreams of Genie." Dali lived here. He's buried here. I'm being idiotic here. Genuflecting or posing? Felicitats , Salvador! It was his birthday and I was the only one celebrating. And yes, I did sing "Happy Birthday" to him. Another installation that defies explanation. But it's got a real crocodile and a real light bulb and artificial limbs involved. What's not to like? Seems like every town in Catalonia has some sort of memorial to John Lennon. This sign had fallen off (no, I did not keep it), s...

Hey Soul Mates, today marks the year anniversary of our RHS House Party/Bon Voyage in preparation for our 2006 tour of England. It brings back warm memories of a fun semi-acoustic performance and give-aways for our fans. In fact, beginning tonight, we'll roll by a bunch of anniversaries from our trip to the UK. All of them wonderful. I'm going to take a few days away from the business of Rush Hour Soul, including our MySpace. A bit of decompression before our next round of madness/excitement begins. As previously noted, mixing for our new album starts in earnest in a few weeks. Then it's limitlessness. To the toppermost of the poppermost! Love, Power, Peace

Hey Soul Mates, it was a long and productive day at the Lincoln Lounge. It was our last scheduled recording session for our album. We got to hear some preliminary mixes of a few things, including U Had The $ , which is gonna take you back to 1982 in a good way. Adam Marsland has pulled out a few vintage machines to get some way-back sounds. Sucka is huge and Everything My Heart Desires ( EMHD ) also sounds spectacular. Though it currently features a Hammond organ, I'm lobbying for a piano part. Regardless, Adam has gotten his hands on a glockenspiel which will figure prominently on EMHD . I had to redo the lead vocal for Fall Out . This time around I got a much livelier feel for the number and tore through it. Down By Love still presented its challenges, but we got through it adding lots of harmony and secondary vocal parts. Ladies favorite Done Lost My Mind was completed after Bryan and I did harmonies for the coda. I performed Doug's part, hope I did him justice in his s...

Hey Soul Mates, I'm up a little late on the night before a session. In fact, tomorrow represents our last recording date for our new album. Originally, we were going to call it "A Talent For Loving," but some other names are coming to mind. I'll be heading in around 2 to record some vocal filigree. Bryan will get there in the evening to do his harmonies. Then we've got a weekend of mixing scheduled for the first week of June. Hold on, true believers! Cheers to everyone who's been sending in their listening suggestions. This morning, though, I heard the new White Stripes single Icky Thump . It sounds nearly like Yes on crack. Ouch. Rocking the house. And in the lyric to beat, as I decipher it, Jack White channels Snoop Dogg : "While Americans want nothing better to do, Why don't you kick yourself out, you're an immigrant, too. Who's using who, what should we do? Well you can't be a pimp and a prostitute, too." I can tell their new albu...