Lately, I’ve been trying out a new album choosing system. I go to the CD’s and I choose an album randomly. Sometimes, the outcome of this system isn’t what I’d like it to be, but it works 90% of the time. I try to go to the bargain bins, and look for interesting music that I’ve never heard before.
Of these random picks, I found that one of them sits among my favorite albums now.
Nico Vega is a LA based band featuring Aja Volkman on vocals, Rich Koehler on guitar and Dan Epand on drums.
I’m not sure what it is, but everybody that I’ve shown this album to is taken in almost automatically by Aja’s vocals. Her voice is enchanting, seductive, and entertaining to say the least.
A few of my favorite tracks from their self-titled album would be “Burn Burn”, “Million Years”, and “Iron Man”.
“Burn Burn” features a set of chord changes that drew me in to listening to the band. This was also the first time I heard Aja sing. The Youtube video is also worth watching, by the way. “Burn Burn” focuses a lot on the guitar and drums if you’re into that kind of thing.
“Million years” has more of a vocal focus. The beat the drums are playing is pretty straightforward, and the guitar is playing some basic chords. The thing I like most about this track is the vocals. At times, this song has more of an edgy feel to it.
“Iron man” isn’t what you’d think it would be. It’s a nice ballad with an acoustic guitar behind the vocals. The drums come in later, but I prefer the balance of the vocals and the acoustic guitar.
Nico Vega also has a number of albums out. They include: Cocaine Cooked the Brain, No Child left Behind, Chooseyourwordspoorly, as well as Nico Vega.
This album was everything I wasn’t looking for. Every song only added to the overall quality of the album. The songs cover a variety of styles ranging from hardcore to a song that has a country feel.
Nico Vega is definitely worth the $10.96 at Bullmoose, or the $9.99 on iTunes.
Another Album that I picked up off of the shelf at random was Newton Faulkner “Hand built by robots.”
This album is absolutely fantastic. The first sounds I heard when I played the album reminded me of the music in the movie “August Rush”.
Newton’s guitar playing is only overshadowed by his wonderful vocals.
This album has a lot of folk overtones to it. His lyrics actually carry a message that can be useful to everyone who listens to this album. There is a sense of lyricism that has become uncommon these days. He sings of topics such as the decline of society, love, and aging.
One of my personal favorite tracks on this album is the track titled “U.F.O.” This track brings up the question of what the world would look like if you were to look from the outside looking in. How would the wars, and the pollution, and everything bad in this world look to an outsider? That’s something that I would like to know.
Another track that I love is “To the light”. This song is a really great track if you like the guitar. The guitar in this track shows Newton’s masterful use of his instrument.
One of the things that keep me listening to this album is the balance of the vocals and the guitar. I never get tired of this album because the balance is perfect.
The album art is also quite incredible. That’s actually the main reason I picked up the album in the first place.
I love to listen to this album on a nice spring day, while I’m walking down the street. For some reason, it gives a great walking pace. This album makes a sunny day even better.
You can get Newton Faulkner’s Hand Built by Robots for $9.97 At bullmoose, or $7.99 on iTunes.
I’ve always been a big fan of instrumental music, and I found an album right off the shelf that was really cool. If you play the Bass Guitar, you’ve probably heard of Marcus Miller. I picked up “Marcus,” by Marcus Miller.
Marcus doesn’t waste any time satisfying his audience with the first track on this album, “Blast!” This song has an Arabic hip-hop feel to it. It’s actually the first time that I’ve ever heard this type of sound. This sound returns throughout the album. I’m not sure what it was that intrigued me about it, but it kept me listening.
Other favorites of mine on this album would be “Funk Joint,” and “Pluck (interlude).” These tracks could be used as the definition of funk.
I also love how that Arabic feel weaves in and out of this album. It gives the album a sense of continuity.
One thing that really surprised me about this album is that Marcus did a cover of “Higher ground”. He did an absolutely fantastic job with the bass line. It also included a lot of saxophone soloing, and even some harmonica playing. This is usually uncommon with an album featuring a bass player, but it only shows that Marcus is a true pro.
I definitely recommend that you pick this up if you love the Bass. You can get it for $14.97 at Bullmoose or $9.99 on iTunes.
There have been three great albums in a row that I have picked up randomly. Those are really great odds. However, you will eventually pick up a lemon.
In this case, I picked up “The Standard” by the group Take 6. This is an a cappella group made up of six people. They cover songs like “Sweet Georgia Brown”, “Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans”, and “Straighten up and fly right”.
I know that there are going to be some people out there who don’t exactly agree with me, but I didn’t like the interpretation of most of the songs.
The only two of the songs that appealed to me, were the songs “Sweet Georgia Brown”, and “Someone to watch over me”. These were the only two songs that really spoke to me, and appealed to my particular taste.
Sometimes, when you do an album of old jazz standards, your album will either be a hit or a miss.
To me, this album is a giant miss.
If you’re going to take a bunch of Jazz Standards, in my opinion, you shouldn’t change it beyond recognition.
They take “Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans”, and the lead singer on this song puts this horrible vibrato on, and it went from a nice song to karaoke in about 2.2 seconds.
That’s what they’ve done with this album. This group has changed the things that made that music great in the first place.
It might also be the tone of their voices collectively (one of which, I find incredibly annoying). I like the voice of their bass singer. If he were to make a solo album, I would probably look for that, but these people’s voices don’t compliment each other. They are constantly clashing.
I honestly wouldn’t recommend this album to anyone.
There is so much music out there that we haven’t even discovered yet. I strongly recommend this new system of mine. Go to your local record shop (I prefer Bullmoose) and pick up something that you’ve never heard before. It’ll be something that you might regret right away, but don’t let it discourage you. I can promise that you will find some excellent music out there, and that music will lead you to another artist.