You should know: NICO VEGA
You know how I know that The Sunset Strip is BACK? Because I’ve seen sooo much amazing live music this week! Between The Sunset Strip Music Festival and all of the other fantastic shows that happen on the regular out here, as a live music fan I don’t think I’ve ever felt more at home.
And of all this amazing music I’ve seen lately (honestly 4-5 nights a week), the best act I’ve seen in a while to really, genuinely impress me has been the “Indie Gospel” that comes from NICO VEGA. I’ve seen them 3 times this week alone and everytime feels completely new; but this is not a new band by any stretch. Dan Expand (drums), Rich Koehler (guitar+) and Aja Volkman (vocals) have certainly been making a name for themselves in the indie scene around Los Angeles for years now, but I think very soon this will be a band that will illuminate a lot of peoples’ worlds. Their Self-titled album has been available on Myspace Records since February and what absolutely mystifies me about it is how versatile the sound is while at once being such a cohesive collection. Each song is so different yet such a complete part of a sonic narrative. And an expansive narrative it is for one that comes from just ONE melodic instrument onstage! The way that dancing maestro Rich mixes his guitar sound through Octave and Delay pedals is that of a psychedelic mad scientist whose found the cure for having a bassist or synth player to clutter Aja and Dan’s stage. And believe me, there may never be a big enough stage to hold Aja; within the first minute of seeing them live, you will be in love.
Aja’s is a voice with the unique ability to sound completely in control while going from the softest reassuring patter (Iron Man) to an all-out emotional thrash (Million Years). Although I hate to use another name to compare, but do so often enough to consider myself a hypocrite I would liken her voice at times to the calculated artistry of Souxie Sioux (Living Underground) with the gravel and soul of Janis Joplin (Coal Miner’s Song) That one hurt to type, I hate JJ. Regardless, this is the talent and character that Karen O has burned the last 10 years of her potential attempting to be. If she actually stops dancing, posing and levitating long enough to sing, her kinetic energy alone will hold the total focus of any audience lucky enough to bear witness. Driven by the dynamic encyclopedia of Dan’s drums, a medium is reached and then exceded from a stylistic mix of tribal African (Beast) through Delta blues and into classic rock until it has become something new beyond definition altogether.
Beware and be warned, this is a sound so powerful and yet so universal that it is bound for placement EVERYWHERE. Wooden Dolls may be the song that will play when you meet your next true love. Beast may be the song the director uses when the heroes make their final stand. And what album would be complete without a gateway single to ricochet in the back of your mind upon first listen like Gravity.
Remove one piece and it wouldn’t work, anything further and you’ve gone too far. This whole sound and all of these elements work because this is a band truly greater than the sum of its parts. And after all that is what a BAND truly is.
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Recent Live Photos of Nico Vega by Andrew Herrold (aherrold.com – flickr)
Tags: Aja, Aja Volkman, Dan, Dan Expand, Indie Gospel, Myspace, Myspace Records, Nico Vega, Rich, Rich Koehler, Self-Titled, Self-Titled Album, Silverlake, SSMF, Sunset Strip, Sunset Strip Music Festival, The Roxy, West Hollywood
