Have you heard of G. Love and the Special Sauce?  They are alternative hip-hop, while some of their songs sounds like blues.  Their lyrics are very interesting, sometimes funny (“Kick Drum”) and sometimes have a great message (“Peace, Love, and Happiness”).  Two of their songs feature Jack Johnson from before he was famous.  They have him playing an early edition of “Rodeo Clowns”, while they added a drum beat behind the song.  Ben Harper is also featured on the song “Let the Music Play.”

G. Love’s real name is Garrett Dutton, who is the founder of the band.  Dutton is from Philadelphia but moved to Boston which is where the band formed.  The current line up is Garrett Dutton (vocals, guitar ans harmonica), Jeffrey Clemens (drums and vocals), Mark Boyce (keyboards) and Timo Shanko (bass).

G. Love and the Special Sauce played on Comedy Central’s show “Turn Ben Stein On” and performed on a Cocoa-Cola advertisement.

Music News

Alright, what’s going on in the world of music? Yes, I have decided that I will include a few things going around that I think are important in music news. So, let’s get into it, shall we? Are you a fan of G. Love and the Special Sauce? You should be. Point being, on July 31st they’ll be releasing CD/DVD called, “A Year and a Night with G. Love and The Special Sauce.” There are appearances by Jack Johnson, Marc Broussard, and Tristan Prettyman.

Rivers Cuomo has finally earned his degree from Harvard, and we’ll finally be seeing a new Weezer CD. Check out their site, Weezer.com, where Rivers has posted this message, ““Hey Party-People, Weezer is just polishing up a batch of songs for a recording session that is going to start at the beginning of July. This will be the final recording session for our 6th album which we aim to put out in the first half of 2008. We hope you are all having good times. Love, R-dawg.” I can’t friggin’ wait.

The Spice Girls have finally announced their reunion tour. Unfortunately, they won’t be coming to San Francisco, which is weird, because I thought the gays loved them. I guess you’ll have to fly to Cape Town, or something. For more information, click here and for dates and cities, click here.

One of my favorite bands, Straylight Run, put out a new CD that you should go buy right now. Read more here.

Music Reviews

– Landon Pigg - If you don’t know Landon Pigg, you should. His new CD, LP, is pretty damn good. I wouldn’t necessarily classify him as another singer/songwriter/guitarist that’s here today and gone tomorrow, because the kid has staying power. Technically, the guy has put out around 4 or 5 CD’s or EP’s, and he has started to get featured on a few TV shows and whatnot. If you get a chance, download some of his songs. I recommend ‘Keep Looking Up’, ‘Perfectionist’, and ‘Sailed On’. Check out his homepage here.

– Jason Reeves – Here’s another guy that you probably haven’t heard of. If you have, then you have less of a life than I do, and that’s not good. From what I’ve seen, you can pretty much only find his CD on CD Baby. He’s not really a big at all, but he’s good. So, give it time, and I’m sure you’ll be hearing of him soon. His new CD hearts are magnets sounds really gay, but it’s actually good. It’s a simple album, and well worth a listen. Check out his myspace here. The song, ‘Beautiful’ is well worth a listen. Play it for you lady and get sex.

– Colbie Caillat – One good turn deserves another? Jason Reeves and Colbie Caillat are either good friends, or Jason Reeves song, ‘Beautiful’, got the sex. I’m not sure what’s going on, but they’re releasing or have released a CD called Paint it Golden. Find out more about it on their myspace. They do sound great together, but we’re not here to talk about them, are we? Colbie was who out of the duo that I started listening to first. Mind you, it was by about 20 minutes, but it was still first. She’s moderately cute, and pretty damn soulful. I recommend you listen to all of her songs, especially ‘Battle’, and then download or buy the CD. Here new CD CoCo will be out on July 17th. Order now and get an autograph. Just click the CD cover.

– Teitur - Actually, Ray introduced me to Teitur a few months ago, and I’m just now getting around to him. I don’t know what to say about him, other than he’s pretty phenomenal. He’s from Hoyvík, Faroe Islands, where ever the hell that is, and was awarded best singer at the Danish Music Awards. His newest CD, Poetry & Aeroplanes, is so good it makes me want to crap myself. Check out of their songs, buy the CD or download it. It’s just that good.

– Paul McCartney – I’ve been listening to Paul McCartney’s album for the past two days wondering why he’s still putting out music, and trying to decide if it’s close to being good or not. I mean, by now we’ve all heard the single, ‘Dance Tonight’, from the iTunes commercial and we all think it’s good, right? I do. It’s a fun song, and seeing Paul do anything is cool to me. I’ve decided that for as long as Paul can put out music, he should be putting out music. I mean, most of the stuff out there right now is crap anyways. Sure, he’s not going to give us something that changes the way we look at music, because he did that some 40 years ago. But you should buy or download the album because it is good, and it’s Sir Paul McCartney. I like it.

As always, click the link for information on buying the CD’s. For past Toph Listens, go HERE, HERE, and HERE.