At the intersection of bumping your favorite pop tune on your stereo, the late night you spent kicking game to that special someone at the club and the lonely train ride home thinking of all things you should have said just a few fleeting moments before, theres a quiet kid with a fitted hat and enough music to capture it all with music and a voice that is uniquely his own, but will soon belong to everyone. That kid is
Peter Toh, a genre-smashing 24 year old artist/producer from Brooklyn, New York who is poised to be a major force in popular music in the months and years to come. The young maestros genre-spanning mix of uptempo rock, soulful r&b, outsider electronica and straight up snap your fingers pop is unlike anything you're hearing on the radio or in the rock or dance clubs right now, and thats just the way he likes it. One listen to Toh's inventive music reveals that although hes forever working out new arrangements, melodies and beats in his musical laboratory in Brooklyn, hes all about creating the rush that comes with hearing a great hook that all people who know an amazing song when they hear one, no matter who or where they are can experience and relate to. "I want to represent my generation as we actually exist today," says Toh with the earnestness of a musician on a serious cultural mission. From Top 40 radio hits that you play for your little sister to the dirty rock and roll that makes you want to pick up a guitar and start a band, I want to strip away the pretense and bring it all back to songwriting that people can genuinely relate to. What you hear is what you get. What you hear when you listen to Toh's music is a collision of classic pop songwriting and innovative hip-hop styled production that piles on dance floor-ready beats, sweeping keyboards, snyths and deep bass grooves that create an uplifting soundtrack to his distinctive vocal stylings. And what you get is the feeling that you need to hear it again and again first to relive the unstoppable hooks and many more times to take in all the music he's so richly layering on each and every track. Toh's sound is both familiar and experimental. And oh yes, its also crazily flavorful. From the club banger "Shoes Of A Beast" and the hard-edged soul of "Criminal" to the dub-tinged, down low funk number "Ages" and the feel-good future club banger "More", Toh is equally adept at channeling his love for confessional songwriters like Elvis Costello as he is his appreciation for pure pop groups like New Edition and Jodeci. "The craft of writing a great song with a verse, bridge and hook has been left to cornballs and American Idol singers, I want to bring it back to Motown and then push it forward to 2020," he says. And if his self-released debut EP is any indication, taking back the airwaves will never sound as perfect and necessary as it does right now.
(excerpt taken from
Peter's Myspace Bio.)
-AS
I don't usually post videos that I didn't create, but this is one of my favorites. This was featured many times on those VH1 and E! behind the scenes celebrities shows. Apparently, Mark Mcgrath of "Sugar Ray" was a little tipsy on the streets of Hollywood one night, and getting bothered by fans and paparazzi. He was complying to their requests of photos and autographs, until one fan got pissed and yelled out "Sugar Gay". Well, Mr. Sugar Gay was pretty pissed himself at that comment, and got very angry with this younger fan, who happened to look like he wasn't even the one who said it. Either way Mcgrath definitely reacted in a way that leads me to believe that this incident of being called "Sugar Gay" maybe isn't the first of it's kind. It seems more like the millionth time. I can picture him being called that everyday of his life, and brushing it off, until he just can't take it anymore. Wahhhh, I'm a millionare who get's made fun of, wahhhh. The fact that he seems like a real prick, also adds to the amusement for me. Check it out for yourself below...
