The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta is a progressive rock group formed in 2001 by guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala. They incorporate various influences into their music including punk rock, jazz fusion, funk and Latin/Salsa. They are known for their wild and energetic live shows, as well as their usually concept-based studio albums. They were named rock music's "Best Prog-Rock Band" by Rolling Stone magazine in 2008. In December 2008, their song "Wax Simulacra," from their latest LP The Bedlam in Goliath, was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Hard Rock Performance category.

Band name

Cedric Bixler-Zavala stated in an interview:

The Volta is taken from a Federico Fellini book about his films, what he characterizes as a changing of scene, or a turnaround; a new scene to him is called Volta. Y'know, changing of time and the changeover. And Mars, we're just fascinated by science-fiction so and it's something that ultimately looked as in anything I write, its meaning is always up to the listener. As the way we write songs and words, if it looks great on paper then to us it's like painting, so if it looks good meaning the second then people usually have a better interpretation than we ever would.

The definite article "The" is used to distinguish the band from a group of European techno artists that previously used the name "Mars Volta."

History

The beginning

Main article: At the Drive-In

Main article: De Facto (band)

The roots of The Mars Volta are found in the band At the Drive-In (ATDI). ATDI members Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez formed an experimental, dub reggae-influenced side project called De Facto, which featured Bixler-Zavala on drums, Rodriguez-Lopez on bass, Isaiah "Ikey" Owens on keyboards, and Jeremy Michael Ward on vocals, loops and sound effects.

Due to creative differences and discomfort with mainstream success, Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala quit ATDI in about 2001. The remaining members of ATDI formed Sparta. By the time bassist Eva Gardner joined De Facto, they'd changed their name to The Mars Volta. During 2001, the band recorded two songs with drummer Blake Fleming and producer Alex Newport, which became their first demo. Later the lineup for their first public show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, California was Rodriguez-Lopez, Bixler-Zavala, Owens, Gardner, Ward, and drummer Jon Theodore. This lineup recorded three more tracks with Alex Newport, which became the EP Tremulant, which saw limited release in early 2002.

After the success of ATDI, Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala found themselves performing in small clubs characterized by chaotic live shows and heavy drug use.

De-Loused in the Comatorium

Main article: De-Loused in the Comatorium

Following the Tremulant EP, The Mars Volta continued touring and changing band members while preparing for De-Loused in the Comatorium, produced with Rick Rubin. Whereas Tremulant had no general theme (except the prophetic mentioning of its follow-up album), De-Loused was a unified work of speculative fiction telling the first-person story of someone in a drug-induced coma, battling the evil side of his mind. Though lyrically obscure, The Mars Volta stated in interviews that the album's protagonist is based on their late friend Julio Venegas, or "Cerpin Taxt," as mentioned in the story, who was in a coma for several years. When he woke up, he jumped from the Mesa Street overpass onto Interstate-10 in El Paso during afternoon rush-hour traffic. Venegas' death was also referenced in the At the Drive-In song "Ebroglio" from their album Acrobatic Tenement.

The Mars Volta had no bassist during the recording session, but Flea (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) played bass guitar on nine of the album's ten songs, with Justin Meldal-Johnsen playing double bass on "Televators."

Despite limited promotion, De-Loused earned strong reviews, and appeared on several year-end best-of lists. The album remains The Mars Volta's best-seller, with over 500,000 copies. The band later released a limited-edition storybook version of the album, available by download from the Gold Standard Laboratories Web site. The book speaks of Cerpin Taxt (sometimes referred to as the album/story's "hero") and his suicide.

While on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in support of their album, the former member Jeremy Michael Ward was found dead of a drug overdose. The band had canceled the tour's second leg, and the first single from De-Loused was later dedicated to Ward. It was this event which finally convinced bandmembers Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala to purportedly quit using opioids.

Frances the Mute

Main article: Frances the Mute

As the band resumed touring De-Loused, they added Juan Alderete (Racer X) on bass and Marcel Rodríguez-Lopez (Omar's brother) on percussion. Work on their second album began in 2004. In 2005, the band released their second full-length album, Frances the Mute. The album was inspired by late sound technician Jeremy Ward, who found a diary in a car he repossessed while working as a repo-man. Each track of the album is loosely based on characters described within the diary.

Frances started as a bigger commercial hit than De-Loused, moving 123,000 copies in its first week, and debuting fourth on the Billboard album charts largely because "The Widow" received a considerable amount of radio and television air-play. Reviews of Frances were generally positive (with a 75 on Metacritic) if somewhat polarized; Rolling Stone called it "a feverish and baroque search for self that conjures up the same majesty and gravity as Led Zeppelin three decades before," while Pitchfork Media called it "a homogeneous shitheap of stream-of-consciousness turgidity." However, even the detractors of Frances the Mute generally praised the band's musical abilities. "L'Via L'Viaquez" was later released as a single, stripped down from its original twelve-minute length to five minutes.

Rodriguez-Lopez wrote all the instrumental parts (guitar, keyboard, and drum lines with help from Theodore) as well as arranging and producing the session himself. He used a method that jazz musicians such as Miles Davis used to invoke great performances from bandmates: refusing to let the other members hear each other's parts, or the context of their own part, thereby forcing them to play each part as if it were a self-sufficient song. In order to accomplish this, the musicians recorded to the pulse of a metronome.

The Mars Volta on stage at the Vegoose Festival.

On May 20th, 2005, instead of playing a traditional set at KROQ's Weenie Roast Festival, the band played a 40 minute improvisational jam that was jokingly named on-spot as "Abortion, The Other White Meat" by Rodriguez-Lopez. Mid-way through their headlining U.S. tour, former At the Drive-In member Paul Hinojos left the band Sparta to join The Mars Volta, claiming, "My time with Sparta has run its course, and simply wasn't fun anymore." He became their sound manipulator, the position previously held by the late Ward. Hinojos also toured with The Mars Volta in 2003 and 2004.

During mid-2005, the band toured in support of the album with System of a Down and curated the All Tomorrow's Parties festival (which featured bands and artists including the Locust, Mastodon, Blonde Redhead, and Diamanda Galás), titled A Nightmare Before Christmas. In addition, a full-length live album named Scabdates was released on November 8, 2005. Frances the Mute, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard Top 200, has sold nearly 465,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan ratings.

Amputechture

Main article: Amputechture

Upon finishing the majority of touring for Frances the Mute in fall 2005, Rodriguez-Lopez traveled to Amsterdam and wrote what became Amputechture, which was released on September 8, 2006 in Europe, on September 9, 2006 in Australia and on September 12, 2006 in the U.S. Rodriguez-Lopez spent much of his time in Amsterdam working on and performing various solo projects most notably under the name "Omar Rodriguez Quintet."

During this time Rodriguez-Lopez also composed the score to the film El Búfalo de la Noche, which was written and directed by Guillermo Arriaga and Jorge Hernandez Aldana respectively. The Mars Volta as a whole performed the score.

Amputechture was produced by Rodríguez-Lopez and mixed by Rich Costey. Jeff Jordan provided the artwork, making it their first album not to feature the work of Storm Thorgerson. It was once again a concept album, but rather than telling a story, the album was based upon a single idea, with each song looking at it from a different perspective. It became the last album with drummer Jon Theodore, whom Rodriguez-Lopez fired before touring in support of the album. Rodriguez-Lopez said in an interview with an Italian fan site that Theodore was the only member in the band who wasn't happy playing live and brought down the moods of the rest.

The Mars Volta playing with John Frusciante in Toronto on September 25, 2006.

John Frusciante was featured on every track on Amputechture, except for "Asilos Magdalena." Rodríguez-Lopez contributed the solos and riffs where the guitar work needed to be doubled. Bixler-Zavala said in an interview, "…he taught Frusciante all the new songs and Frusciante tracked guitars for us so Omar could sit back and listen to the songs objectively. It's great that he wants to help us and do that."

On July 28, 2006, drummer Jon Theodore was replaced by Blake Fleming, formerly of Laddio Bolocko, Dazzling Killmen, and the very first Mars Volta demos. In addition, Paul Hinojos expanded his role, contributing both guitar and sound manipulation skills.

The Mars Volta's live set at Endfest in Auburn, Washington on August 12 took a turn for the worse when around halfway through their set, the group was pelted with a water bottle filled with urine by members of the crowd after Cedric Bixler-Zavala made comments about of some of the fans who were slam dancing, a practice which that band was previously critical of. The band cut their performance short with Rodríguez-Lopez smashing his guitar into an amplifier and Cedric Bixler-Zavala telling the crowd "I will pay $100 to $1,000 to somebody to find the person that's throwing urine up here. I will give you free merchandise and a lifetime supply [of passes] to Mars Volta shows. Find that person and kick his ass for me. Bring me his head and we'll be friends."

A new song titled "Rapid Fire Tollbooth" was debuted live on September 22, 2006 in Chicago, IL, as reported by fans and attendees of the show who had received set lists from the stage. The song originally appears on Rodriguez-Lopez's solo album Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo. The song eventually evolved into track "Goliath" from their fourth studio album.

On September 25, 2006, The Mars Volta played a unique set on the opening night of a double-header in Toronto, Ontario. Cedric Bixler-Zavala fell ill and could not perform, so The Mars Volta played with John Frusciante on third guitar. The set consisted of over 47 minutes of instrumental material, including a lengthy cover of the Pink Floyd composition "Interstellar Overdrive."

On October 17, 2006, while opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the band played with drummer Deantoni Parks. Rodriguez-Lopez fired Fleming because of complications with the band. Parks remained with the band only until the conclusion of the Japanese tour because of his prior commitments with other bands and financial complications.

On a 2007 episode of The Henry Rollins Show, The Mars Volta performed "Tetragrammaton" and "Day of the Baphomets" in a rare television performance. Afterwards, they did an interview with Rollins about the creation of Amputechture.

The Bedlam in Goliath

Main article: The Bedlam in Goliath

Thomas Pridgen playing at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in Saint Paul, Minnesota on April 21, 2008.

In 2007, Thomas Pridgen became the new permanent drummer for the band. He joined them at the March 12th show in New Zealand, where the band debuted the song then called "Idle Tooth," which was later renamed "Wax Simulacra" for the album.

After shows in New Zealand and Australia, The Mars Volta toured a few West Coast venues as the headliner, then entered the studio to record their fourth LP, The Bedlam in Goliath. One of these performances was captured in a forthcoming live concert DVD shot by director Jorge Hernandez Aldana.

Despite finding a permanent drummer and getting the band back on track, the recording and production of the album was reportedly still plagued by difficulties related to a bad experience with a ouija board purchased in a curio shop in Jerusalem. According to Rodriguez-Lopez, the original engineer experienced a nervous breakdown and refused to hand over the work in progress, forcing Rodriguez-Lopez to round up people to help him retrieve the materials. In addition Rodriguez-Lopez's studio flooded twice, and both he and mixer Rich Costey claimed that various tracks would disappear at random.

On November 5th, 2007, The Mars Volta released a document by Jeremy Robert Johnson titled, "The Mars Volta's Descent into Bedlam: A Rhapsody in Three Parts." It includes a history of the band and describes the obstacles and inspirations they encountered in the creation of The Bedlam in Goliath.

On November 20th, 2007 Wax Simulacra, the album's first single was released with a cover of "Pulled To Bits" by Siouxsie and the Banshees as the b-side.

The band kicked off their supporting tour with a December 29, 2007 "secret show" at the Echoplex in Los Angeles, California, followed by a special New Year's Eve performance at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. That night they played their first ever acoustic set, which included six songs and live performance of "Miranda, That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore" The band then departed on a club tour of east coast U.S. throughout January, with an album release show at San Diego's Soma, followed by another month's worth of European dates from mid-February to mid-March.

On January 2, The Mars Volta released an online game called "Goliath: The Soothsayer." It is a game based on a true story that inspired their forthcoming album The Bedlam In Goliath. The album chronicles the band's purported experience with the "Soothsayer," a Ouija board owned by vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and its transition from a source of fun on tour to a psycho-spiritual force that almost tore the band apart. The game is available exclusively via Amazon.com from January 2nd through January 29th, the release date for the album.

On January 17th, the band made their U.S. network television debut, performing Wax Simulacra on The Late Show with David Letterman (Rodriguez-Lopez, Bixler-Zavala and Hinojos appeared on the show with At the Drive-In in 2000). On January 22nd, they made a rare appearance at Toronto, Canada's MTV Live studios, where they performed Wax Simulacra and an extended version of Goliath. The album debuted to a career-best No. 3 on the Billboard 200.

On December 8, 2008, it was announced on their website that the song "Wax Simulacra" has been nominated for a Grammy for the Best Hard Rock Performance. It is their first nomination.

Recent activity

As early as January 2008, Rodriguez-Lopez was discussing the band's fifth album, claiming "I consider it to be our acoustic album"

Omar Rodríguez-López playing at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in Saint Paul, Minnesota on April 21, 2008.

Cedric Bixler-Zavala has expressed an urge for their next album to not be released on a major label.

A new song, dubbed "Beneath the Eyelids" by fans, was played at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on December 31st, 2007. A low quality 30-second studio clip of this song was also leaked on Facebook for a short while in September, which was originally falsely assumed by fans to be a clip from The Bedlam in Goliath.

In an interview with Omar on February 22nd, 2008 before his concert in Copenhagen, Omar mentioned that if the record label doesn't interfere, he expects the new album and the Australian concert (at Festival Hall, Melbourne, March 17 2007) DVD to be released by the end of the year, along with 8 of his solo recordings.

In addition, other future projects have been mentioned by band members. One is a film shot by Rodriguez-Lopez documenting the entire history of the band including studio and backstage footage taken over the years. Another is a new live album similar to Scabdates featuring songs from Frances the Mute and Amputechture.

In many interviews Omar and Cedric have said that the next album is finished and that it will probably be released during the first third of 2009.

Band members

According to the liner notes for Amputechture and The Bedlam in Goliath: "The partnership between Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Cedric Bixler-Zavala is The Mars Volta. These compositions are then performed by The Mars Volta Group."

Current

• Omar Rodriguez-Lopez – guitar, production (2001–present)
• Cedric Bixler-Zavala – lyrics, vocals (2001–present)
• Isaiah Ikey Owens – keyboards (2001–2002, 2003-present)
• Juan Alderete – electric bass (2003–present)
• Thomas Pridgen – drums (2007–present)
• Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez – percussion, synthesizers (2003–present)
• Adrián Terrazas-González – flute, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, and additional wind and percussion instruments (2004 in studio, 2005-present)
• Paul Hinojos – guitar, sound manipulation (joined officially 2006–present)
• John Frusciante - guitar (2002-present in studio). Although he is not officially a member, he continues to make significant contributions.

Former

Sound Manipulators

• Jeremy Michael Ward – (2001–2003)

Drummers

• Jon Theodore – (2001–July 2006)
• Blake Fleming – (August 2001, July–August 2006)
• Deantoni Parks – (August–November 2006)

Bassists

• Eva Gardner – (2001–2002)
• Ralph Jasso – (2002)
• Jason Lader – (2003)
• Flea – (2003, on De-Loused in the Comatorium)

Keyboardists

• Linda Good – (2002)

Timeline

The Mars Volta Group

According to the band's official website and the sleeve notes of Scabdates, there are fifteen more people that are a part of "The Mars Volta Group." Thirteen of these are:

• Henry Trejo – Rodriguez Lopez's guitar tech
• Amery "Awol" Smith – production manager
• Jesse Isaacs – Owens' tech, Hinojos's guitar tech, stage manager
• Jerry Riccardi – Alderete's bass tech, Bixler Zavala's tech
• Joe Paul Slaby – drum tech
• Dan Hadley – lighting designer
• Shaun Sebastian – monitor engineer
• Keith Mitchell – lighting director
• Jonathan Debaun – recording engineer
• Greg Nelson – front of house engineer
• Jack Lee – in-ear monitor engineer
• Lalo Medina – tour manager
• Paul Drake – tour manager

Discography

For a more comprehensive list, see The Mars Volta discography.

• De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003)
• Frances the Mute (2005)
• Amputechture (2006)
• The Bedlam in Goliath (2008)

External links

• Official website
• Template:MySpace
• The Mars Volta at IMDb
• Storybook of De-Loused in the Comatorium