This is Michael Mixerr. Tonight I will review Vallejo - Leftovers.
Only 1,000 copies of the Leftovers album by Vallejo of were ever pressed onto CD. The Leftovers album was really meant to be a digital download album only. The Leftovers album is basically a collection of outtakes, alternate mixes, and remixes of songs from previous albums from Vallejo. Leftovers is for all the hardcore Vallejo fans, fans of Latin rock, and Latin music lovers. The sound on most of these songs are raw and unpolished. Leftovers was released in 2004 on CD and in 2005 as a digital download album on iTunes and emusic.
Snake In The Grass was on the soundtrack of True Blood. All you True Blood fans should know that! Snake In The Grass was minor hit that gained the band a relevant buzz with radio stations and TV cross the US. The song Snake In The Grass was a minor hit in the US.
Other than that, this version of Snake In The Grass is Snake In The Grass (Original Rock Mix). This song was the original version that was supposed to be on the 1998 album Beautiful Life before TVT Records gave the song to DJ Hurricane to remix for a single. This is the version Vallejo wanted on the Beautiful Life album, but ended up getting outvoted by TVT to have DJ Hurricane’s version on the album instead.
Dynamite Wack was diss song aimed at rock band Dynamite Hack when they did a shitty ass cover version of N.W.A.'s Boys In The Hood. Which wasn't funny at all! Somehow Dynamite Hack got to hit a chart at #12 and #2 on the BillBoard, thus killing any chance for Vallejo's albums to chart back in the year of 2000. Dynamite Hack even made front page news on the Austin Chronicle back in the year of 2000 because of this.
Dynamite Wack and appear as hidden tracks on the 2004 CD of Leftovers and the 2005 digital download version of Leftovers on iTunes and emusic. Dynamite Wack appears as hidden track.
Natasha as a song was the beginning of Vallejo’s introduction into Latin rock that would eventually become a part of their own sound. The song Natasha was recorded in 1997 for the Shining Sun album. The song did not make it onto the album due to an abrupt seizure lead band member AJ Vallejo had experienced while recording the vocals for the song. Natasha was the final song for the Shining Sun album which as supposed to be the last song.
The song Natasha was about prostitution. AJ read a disturbingly moving news article in TIME magazine about fathers in foreign countries who pimped out their teenage daughters to tourists against their own will to make money for themselves. TVT considered this song to be too violent and sexually graphic in lyrical content on an album of songs about hope and faith. TVT was not too crazy about the song’s message anyway. (Or the song either.) In the end, TVT replaced Natasha with Cold Monkey.
Natasha appeared on the Japanese version of Vallejo's self-titled album as a bonus track. For some reason in 1997 when Vallejo was signed to TVT Records, TVT decided to not include Natasha and Irishman on the US version of their self-titled album. This was done for promotional purposes or some other shit like that. TVT sucks!
Just A Game was a previously unreleased song intended for Into The New album, but the producer deemed it a bit too different for the direction the album was going in. Just A Game was replaced by The Beginning.
The song Break Free was recorded in March 2004 at Matchbox Studios for another album the Vallejo band was working on which was too good for Vallejo to ignore. Break Free was the first rock music song the band had recorded in 2 years since the release of the Stereo album in 2002. Break Free is an unreleased song.
Tono's Montreaux will remind you a lot of Bonzo's Montreaux from Led Zepplin's Coda album! It's almost exactly like Bonzo's Montreaux which is a drum solo! Tono's Montreaux is a tribute to Bonzo's Montreaux. (Am I the only one that noticed that?) XXX 96 Mix was more instrumental than the album version. It will remind you a lot of the local ATX electronic band OHN. XXX 96 Mix was possibly meant to be an instrumental.
Man Lotion was a wack song. Vallejo’s attempt at humor is quite witty. Yet this tracks humor was too state with no substance. It seems as if the Vallejo band was not really trying. The acoustics are unbalanced yet the vocals are not which is quite odd.
This compilation album was just basically thrown together. Break Free, Dynamite Whack, Man Lotion, Tono's Montreaux and Just Game are the only real unreleased songs. To sum it all up, overall, Leftovers by Vallejo is an overlooked compilation album by fans of rock music and Latin music.
I rate this album, Leftovers, 3/5***.
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