Born in NYC, Rob grew up in suburban New Jersey, where his "life was saved by rock & roll". As a youngster he was a member of a championship skateboard team and an ardent fan of surf music, but when the Beatles and Motown burst upon the scene, followed by the whole British Invasion, Rob's life was never the same. He was profoundly affected by seeing the Velvet Underground , still unknown at the time, play at his high school , opening for local rock legends the Myddle Class . then, as the golden age of rock and roll went into full psychedelic bloom, realizing his first true calling in life, Rob and his friends started a notorious high school acid-rock band, appropriately named the Owsley Elevator.
Leaving home during the Summer of Love , Rob lived in Chicago, San Francisco and then Boston, where he met up with the Velvet Underground, becoming, along with Jonathan Richman , a fixture at their shows at the Boston Tea Party . Next Rob settled in London, where, almost immediately, he saw Pink Floyd play (for fifty people) at Reading University cafeteria, which further blew his mind. He studied acoustic guitar with Davy Graham and played in various bands, sharing bills with the likes of T.Rex, Pink Floyd and Free, among others. It was also in England that Rob first discovered holistic healing, carefully filing it away for future unfolding. Deeply impressed by seeing the Grateful Dead's first UK show, he soon headed back to the States, to Boston, where he saw Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band for the first time (another life-changing experience).
Soon he joined Velvet Underground manager Steve Sesnick 's next band, the Red Rockets, and later toured the UK with Doug Yule's latter day Velvet Underground (see MOJO Issue 75). During the mid-70's, Rob played in a series of strange New Jersey bands, particularly the eccentric raga-rock group Tin Can, before ultimately ending up in Hoboken as a member of "a", the first band ever to play at Maxwell's . After a stint with the Brooklyn based, merseybeat/rockabilly outfit, The Zantees , Rob became an original member of The Bongos --the founding fathers of the 80's Hoboken music scene.
The Bongos' first album, Drums Along The Hudson , originally released on Fetish Records in England (where the band was joined both onstage and in the studio by members of Throbbing Gristle ), peaked in the US at number 15 in the CMJ charts. Their second release, the Numbers With Wings EP, topped the CMJ charts, remaining in the number 1 position for six weeks in the fall of 1983, and their final album, Beat Hotel, rose to number 4. During the Hoboken years Rob often played with other bands, most notably the Hoboken/Long Island group The Wizards, and Foggy Notion, the ultimate VU cover band, which included members of Winter Hours , The Feelies and Television , and worked as a producer and soundman, particularly for Winter Hours and The Gigolo Aunts .
In the late 80's Rob found his second calling as a healer and moved upstate to the Catskill Mountains region of New York's scenic Hudson Valley, where he currently lives and works as a musician and healer. Here Rob immersed himself in nature, hiking, yoga and meditation, as well as american indigenous healing and wisdom traditions. He also helped found OmU, one of the Hudson Valley's most innovative bands. In January of 2000 OmU traveled to Cuba , where they became the first non-cuban rock band to play at the Casa de las Tradiciones (roughly the equivalent of Maxwell's) in Santiago de Cuba , one of the most musical cities on Earth.
The summer of 2000 saw the simultaneous release of Rob's first solo CD, Morning Becomes Electric , and OmU's debut CD, Improvising . OmU returned to Santiago de Cuba in January of 2001 to play three outdoor concerts in the venerable Teatro Van Troi, accompanied by friends from Ballet Folklorico Cutumba , Santiago's top folkloric dance troupe, making them the first US group to perform officially sanctioned shows in that city since the Cuban Revolution in 1959. The group treasures an open invitation from Cuban jazz piano giant Chucho Valdes to play at the Havana International Jazz Festival and are slowly finishing their second CD.
In May of 2005 Rob became a member of the Damo Suzuki Network , when he, along with OmU krautrock guitarist (and friend from many stages) Tilman Reitzle , performed with the legendary Can vocalist in London, becoming perhaps the only rock musician to play with members of The Velvet Underground, Can and Throbbing Gristle.
Rob and Tilman are also members of Blue Paradox , an improvisational shamanic dance band, whose members include bass flute master Scott Sheerin, jazz keyboard monster Myra Melford and Huichol trained shaman Eliot Cowan , author of Plant Spirit Medicine . Blue Paradox performs throughout the US and in Mexico in service to the Sacred Fire Community and the Blue Deer Center , a healing retreat in the mountains of New York State.
Rob continues to perform with Richard Barone and The Bongos and rehearses and records with East Of Venus , a NJ based, 80's alt/rock super-group--whose members hail from Winter Hours, The Feelies and Luna --and with pop songstress Bibi Farber , as well as a loose-knit, ever shifting collective of Hudson Valley musicians and poets, including raga-master Steve Gorn , Jim Metzner and members of Wet Paint and June Cleaver & the Steak Knives .
A Special Edition of The Bongos' Drums Along The Hudson , released on Cooking Vinyl USA in August of 2007, includes a new version of The Bulrushes, produced by long time Bongos fan Moby . The release of this Special Edition was celebrated with four sold-out shows at Joe's Pub in NYC. You can download the exclusive video of 'Bulrushes 2007' , featuring The Bongos + Moby, at iTunes .
The Bongos were the first band to chart in the US with a T.Rex song when their version of Mambo Sun made it into the Billboard Hot 100 Dance Chart. They were joined ontage by Rolan Bolan , in a rocking rendition of his father's song, at Joe's Pub in February of 2007.
In September of 2007 The Bongos headlined the Hoboken Fall Street Fair, featuring bands from the city's 80's pop rock renaissance, where they were presented with a proclamation by Mayor Dave Roberts , citing their essential contribution to that rich era of Hoboken's musical history. It was their first Hoboken appearance in twenty years. The event also celebrated the release of Richard Barone's first book, Frontman: Surviving The Rock Star Myth .
And in January of 2008, Rob realized a life-long dream, when he spent an afternoon playing bass with Donovan (one of his all-time favorite musicians) and friends at The Cutting Room in NYC.
The Bongos were the "surprise guests" at the after-party at City Winery in NYC for the R.E.M Tribute at Carnegie Hall on March 11th, 2009. They kicked off the party with an electrifying eight-song set and then enjoyed a warm reunion with their old pals R.E.M. and many others, including The Feelies and The Apples In Stereo . Five of the songs from The Bongos after-party set (including Cool , their tribute to Randy Bewley, lead guitarist of the Athens GA based band Pylon ) are viewable on YouTube on hawkenowen's channel. And the beat goes on!! ALBUM REVIEWS:
ROB NORRIS: MORNING BECOMES ELECTRIC (CD) Available at CD Baby and the iTunes Store
"All fiery and fine, with many criss-crossing themes--especially the progression of romantic love towards individuation through relationship. There are comradely nods to The Velvets, The Feelies, Brian Eno, and The Beatles, but the tone, content and positioning of 'The Golden Dawn' gives a vertical element to the whole thing. Suddenly we're out of the horizontal world of contemporary life and into the vertical axis--hot-line to our ancestors--with inferences to the original intention of incarnation. A great achievement."--Evan Kent (London, UK) Former Bongos' publicist for Fetish Records UK
"As one might expect from a guy whose resume includes The Velvet Underground and The Bongos, Rob Norris knows the value of a raucous guitar sound and a unforgettable hook. That he can find such things in source material as eclectic as the Upanishads is pretty astounding; that he writes, plays, sings and produces everything on this--his solo debut--is amazing."--Thomas Anderson (Austin, TX) Journalist--MOJO, Trouser Press, Musician, Creem
"Rob Norris has always known about the healing powers of music. This knowledge and power can be heard and felt through his passionate musicianship with The Bongos, which I have the pleasure to experience first hand. And now this knowledge informs the brilliantly personal and powerfully soul-bearing music on his solo debut, Morning Becomes Electric. It looks and sounds gorgeous. Other artists can only hope to achieve such honesty."--Richard Barone (New York, NY) Musician, producer and founding member of The Bongos
"Rob Norris, the cosmic, dark and mysterious bass player of The Bongos has released his own solo CD. The Bongos, the 1980's pop rock and roll band that defined 'The Hoboken Sound' was an explosion, and Norris was the silent spiritual father of the band, who existed on a plane apart from the down and dirty workaday world that captures almost all of us so completely. Now Norris has re-emerged, as if he was never gone and nothing changed since the early days of recording and touring, when it was all music all the time. His CD of original tunes retains the exuberant pop sensibility of The Bongos, but with a pure Norris otherworldly vision that is ageless."--David Cogswell (Hoboken, NJ) Journalist (Fortune, Travel Agent) and author of 'Chomsky For Beginners'
"I have listened to Morning Becomes Electric for many hours and find its fine, life-affirming sentiments to be very much a gift to others from a flower-child who has kept the faith right on through the turn of the century. My favorites include 'Gotta Get Away', reminiscent of the sound on 'Crown Of Creation', and 'Earth Is Turning', a massage for the soul. Thank you so much."--Mike Gauthier (Atlanta, GA) Director of Night Eagle Music
"The need to get up and dance wearing only a big smile has been my daily response to Rob Norris' latest creation, Morning Becomes Electric'. This life-affirming collection of songs, with its recurring themes of love and the complexities of relationships, respect for the Earth, and exploring one's inner life, is a welcome addition to my day. I hear shades of everyone from The Beatles to the Ramones, The Doors to The Byrds and Pink Floyd, but make no mistake, this is an original."--Miss Terry (Hoboken, NJ) Soul singer
"'I really like it! the obvious entry point is 'Gotta Get Away' with its potfull-of-coffee Bongos groove, but I also like 'Daybreak' and 'The Golden Dawn', which aren't like The Bongos at all."
--Jud Cost (Santa Clara, CA) Contributing editor to MAGNET
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
WINTER HOURS: WAIT TILL THE MORNING (CD) Link Records (Link CD022) 1985. "What a production job on this record. Bongo Rob Norris shows an uncanny ability to draw out the life and warmth in a band--but then he's working with quite a band here. Winter Hours, a quintet, are remarkably talented, with a decided bent towards the sensitive, introspective rock sound touched on by bands like REM and The Smiths (and those dreamier Bongos songs too, say 'Sweet Blue Cage'). Joseph Marques, lead vocalist, meshes with bassist/vocalist Bob Messing for seamless harmonies on 'At A Turtle's Pace', guitarists Michael Carlucci and Bob Perry both interweave and counter-play on 'Churches' and a version of 'All Along The Watchtower, the most eloquently subdued interpretation since Dave Mason's. Special instruments and percussion--chimes, harmonica, soft brushwork--are sprinkled about like salt and pepper, just the right seasoning that truly sets the record apart. An exceptional debut."--CMJ Jackpot
RED BUCKETS: LIVE AT CBGB's (Unreleased)
GIGOLO AUNTS: EVERYBODY HAPPY (Cassette/ LP) Coyote/Twin/Tone (TTC 88146) 1987 (out of print). "Hailing from Potsdam NY (the American equivalent of Siberia), The Gigolo Aunts are an alluringly sincere band that fits perfectly into the Coyote stable. The Aunts mesh REM with The Feelies, The dB's, Let's Active and Del Fuego-ish harmonies, but don't let their name fool ya, the Gigolo Aunts play lilting pop that shows remarkably mature songwriting for a debut. All of the elements are in place for greatness. A band to watch."--CMJ Jackpot
THE MARYS: THE DAY ROY ORBISON DIED b/w HEY MARYANN (7" single) Blessed Marys Music (01) 1990 (out of print). "The whimsical 'The Day Roy Orbison Died' and 'Hey Maryann' both provide deliciously wry looks at modern day love, with impeccable harmonies and production that rings like a bell."--Gold Coast Magazine.
"A great band to watch from Hoboken, The Marys exemplify the kind of uniqueness that made the Hoboken scene happen in the first place."--Alternative Press
ROB NORRIS: MORNING BECOMES ELECTRIC (CD) Solar Ram Records (SR-001) 1997
JEFF COHEN : SUMMER'S GOING BY (CD) JTC Records (BB CD1) 1999. "This is truly a 'primal' album, with intense, emotional lyrics and diverse musical styles. The songs deal with life, death, the passage of time and the fact that we must try to open our hearts and let love prevail over the madness that surrounds us. While undergoing primal therapy in the early '70's, John Lennon recorded 'The Plastic Ono Band' album. 'Summer's Going By' was recorded after a twenty-five year experience with Primal Therapy, with the last twenty as a therapist."--Jeff Cohen
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