The Mars Volta: Difference between revisions
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==History== |
==History== |
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===The beginning=== |
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tl;dr;dc |
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{{main|At the Drive-In}} |
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{{main|De Facto (band)}} |
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The roots of The Mars Volta are found in the band [[At the Drive-In]].<ref name="allmusic">{{cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:39ftxq80ldte~T10|title=The Mars Volta - Biography|last=Fink|first=Matt|publisher=Allmusic|accessdate=2008-07-28}}</ref> ATDI members [[Cedric Bixler-Zavala]] and [[Omar Rodriguez-Lopez]] formed an experimental, [[dub reggae]]-influenced [[side project]] called [[De Facto (band)|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. |
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Due to creative differences and discomfort with mainstream success,{{Fact|date=January 2009}} Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala quit At the Drive-In in 2001. The remaining members of ATDI formed [[Sparta (band)|Sparta]]. By the time bassist [[Eva Gardner]] joined De Facto, they had 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. 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 (EP)|Tremulant]]'', released as a limited edition in early 2002. |
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Since the demise of At the Drive-In, Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala found themselves once again starting from the ground up, touring and performing in smaller venues. The early years of the The Mars Volta were characterized by chaotic live shows and heavy drug use.<ref name="harp">{{cite web|url=http://harpmagazine.com/articles/detail.cfm?article_id=4807|title=The Mars Volta: Spaced Out|last=Kelley|first=Trevor|work=Articles|publisher=''[[Harp (magazine)|Harp]]''|accessdate=2008-07-28}}</ref> |
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===''De-Loused in the Comatorium''=== |
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{{main|De-Loused in the Comatorium}} |
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Following ''[[Tremulant (EP)|Tremulant]]'', The Mars Volta continued touring with a fluid line-up while preparing to record their debut full-length album ''[[De-Loused in the Comatorium]]'', produced with [[Rick Rubin]]. Whereas ''Tremulant'' had no general theme (except the prophetic mentioning) ''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," 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]]''. |
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The Mars Volta had no official bassist during the recording session, but [[Flea (musician)|Flea]] (of the [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]]) played bass on nine of the album's ten songs, with [[Justin Meldal-Johnsen]] playing [[double bass]] on "[[Televators]]." |
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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 sold. The band later released a limited-edition storybook version of the album, available by download from the Gold Standard Laboratories website. The book speaks of Cerpin Taxt (Julio Venegas) and his suicide. |
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While on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in support of the album, The Mars Volta's former member [[Jeremy Michael Ward]] was found dead of a [[drug overdose]].<ref name="allmusic"/> 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 band leaders Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala to purportedly quit using [[opioids]].<ref name="harp">{{cite web|url=http://harpmagazine.com/articles/detail.cfm?article_id=4807|title=The Mars Volta: Spaced Out|last=Kelley|first=Trevor|work=Articles|publisher=''[[Harp (magazine)|Harp]]''|accessdate=2008-07-28}}</ref> |
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===''Frances the Mute''=== |
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{{main|Frances the Mute}} |
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As the band resumed touring to support ''De-Loused'', they added [[Juan Alderete]] (of [[Racer X (band)|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 ''[[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. |
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''Frances'' started as a bigger commercial hit than ''De-Loused'', moving 123,000 copies in its first week, and debuting at #4 on the [[Billboard magazine|Billboard album charts]] largely because "[[The Widow]]" received a considerable amount of radio and television airplay.{{Fact|date=July 2008}} 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."<ref name="Pitchfork">{{cite web|url=http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/19726/The_Mars_Volta_Frances_the_Mute|title=The Mars Volta - ''Frances the Mute''|last=Ubl|first=Sam|date=2005-02-28|work=Reviews|publisher=[[Pitchfork Media]]|accessdate=2008-07-28}}</ref> However, even the detractors of ''Frances the Mute'' generally praised the band's musical abilities.<ref name="Yahoo">{{cite web|url=http://uk.launch.yahoo.com/050228/33/1xj49.html|title=The Mars Volta - ''Frances the Mute''|last=Gill|first=Jaime|date=2005-02-28|work=Reviews|publisher=[[Yahoo! Music]]|accessdate=2008-07-28}}</ref> "[[L'Via L'Viaquez]]" was later released as a single, stripped down from its original twelve-minute length to five minutes. ''[[Frances the Mute]]'' has sold nearly 465,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan ratings.{{Fact|date=July 2008}} |
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Rodriguez-Lopez wrote all the instrumental parts as well as arranging and producing the recording sessions himself. He used a method that [[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]]. While in the studio, Rodriguez-Lopez recruited [[Adrián Terrazas-González]] to play [[saxophone]], [[flute]], and additional wind instruments for the album. Terrazas-González was added as a permanent member to The Mars Volta while touring in support of Frances The Mute. |
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[[Image:Tmvwholeband.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The Mars Volta on stage at the Vegoose Festival.]] |
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Mid-way through their headlining U.S. tour, former [[At the Drive-In]] member [[Paul Hinojos]] (also known as Pablo) left the band [[Sparta (band)|Sparta]] to join The Mars Volta, claiming, "My time with Sparta has run its course, and simply wasn't fun anymore." Hinojos joined as rhythm guitarist and became the band's sound manipulator, the position previously held by the late Ward. Hinojos had previously toured with The Mars Volta in 2003 and 2004. |
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On May 20, 2005, instead of playing a traditional set at KROQ's Weenie Roast Festival, the band played a 40 minute instrumental jam that was jokingly named on-spot as "Abortion, The Other White Meat" by Rodriguez-Lopez. In keeping with the Mars Volta tradition of testing and developing new work live, parts of "Abortion" later appeared on "Population Councils Wet Dream" off Rodriguez-Lopez's 2008 album ''[[Old Money (album)|Old Money]]''. |
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During mid-2005, the band toured in support of the album with [[System of a Down]] and curated the [[All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival)|All Tomorrow's Parties]] festival. <ref name="ATP">{{cite web|url=http://www.atpfestival.com/archive/archived_event.php?archive=19|title=2005 - Curated by Mars Volta - Camber Sands, UK |publisher=[[All Tomorrow's Parties (music festival)|All Tomorrow's Parties]]|accessdate=2008-07-28}}</ref> In addition, a full-length live album named ''[[Scab Dates]]'' was released on [[November 8]], [[2005]]. |
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===''Amputechture''=== |
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{{main|Amputechture}} |
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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 Rodríguez-López#The Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Group|Omar Rodriguez Quintet]]." During this time Rodriguez-Lopez also composed the score to the film ''[[El Búfalo de la Noche (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. |
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''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 [[Italy|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. |
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[[Image:MarsVoltaJohnFrusciante.JPG|thumb|left|250px|The Mars Volta playing with [[John Frusciante]] in [[Toronto]] on [[September 25]], [[2006]].]] |
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[[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." |
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On July 28, 2006, the drummer's spot was filled by [[Blake Fleming]], formerly of [[Laddio Bolocko]], [[Dazzling Killmen]], and the very first Mars Volta demos. 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 the track "Goliath" from the band's fourth studio album. |
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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 within the band. Parks remained with the band only until the conclusion of the Japanese tour because of his prior commitments with other bands. |
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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''. |
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===''The Bedlam in Goliath''=== |
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{{main|The Bedlam in Goliath}} |
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[[Image:Thomas Pridgen.JPG|thumb|left|220px|[[Thomas Pridgen]] playing at the [[Roy Wilkins Auditorium]] in [[Saint Paul, Minnesota]] on [[April 21]], [[2008]].]] |
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In 2007, [[Thomas Pridgen]] became the new permanent drummer for the band. Pridgen's first appearance was at the March 12th show in New Zealand, where the band debuted the song "Idle Tooth" which was later renamed "[[Wax Simulacra]]" for the forthcoming 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]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://digitalproducer.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=152162&afterinter=true|title=The Mars Volta Records New Album at Ocean Way|date=2007-06-15|work=News|publisher=Digital Producer|accessdate=2008-07-28}}</ref> One of these performances was captured in a forthcoming live concert DVD shot by director Jorge Hernandez Aldana.<ref name="TMVI">{{cite web|url=http://www.themarsvoltaitalia.com/omar_eng.htm|title=INTERVIEW WITH OMAR ALFREDO RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ|date=2007-06-20|work=Interview|publisher=www.themarsvoltaitalia.com|accessdate=2008-07-28}}</ref> |
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Despite finding a permanent drummer and getting the band back on track, the recording and production of the album was reportedly plagued by difficulties related to a bad experience with a [[Ouija board]] purchased in a curio shop in Jerusalem.<ref>[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18513345 Unwelcome Spirits Haunt 'The Bedlam in Goliath' : NPR Music<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> 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. Also, Rodriguez-Lopez's studio flooded twice, and both he and mixer Rich Costey claimed that various tracks would disappear at random. |
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On November 5, 2007, The Mars Volta released a document by [[Jeremy Robert Johnson]] titled, "The Mars Volta's Descent into Bedlam: A Rhapsody in Three Parts."<ref>[http://themarsvolta.com/TBIG.doc The Mars Volta's Descent into Bedlam: A Rhapsody in Three Parts]</ref> The document includes a history of the band and describes the obstacles and inspirations they encountered in the creation of ''The Bedlam in Goliath''. On November 20, 2007 "[[Wax Simulacra]]," the first single from the forthcoming album, was released with a cover of "Pulled To Bits" by [[Siouxsie and the Banshees]] as the b-side. |
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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]].<ref>[http://www.themarsvolta.com The Mars Volta Announce New Years Eve Extravaganza]</ref> 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 San Diego|Soma]], followed by another month's worth of European dates from mid-February to mid-March. |
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On January 2, 2008, The Mars Volta released an [[online game]] called "Goliath: The Soothsayer," 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 was available for a limited time exclusively via [[Amazon.com]]. {{Fact|date=December 2007}} |
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On January 17, 2008, 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 had appeared on the show with [[At the Drive-In]] in 2000). On January 22, they made a surprise appearance at [[Toronto, Canada]]'s [[MTV Live (Canada)|MTV Live]] studios, where they performed "Wax Simulacra" and an extended version of "Goliath." In late January, the new album debuted at a career-best #3 on the [[Billboard Magazine|Billboard 200]]. |
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The song "Wax Simulacra" won the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. It was the band's first nomination and win. <ref>http://www.grammy.com/grammy_awards/51st_show/list.aspx</ref> The band members thanked their families and Bixler urged people not to forget the memories of the recently departed [[Lux Interior]] and [[Ron Asheton]]. |
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===Recent activity=== |
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As early as January 2008, the month that ''The Bedlam in Goliath'' was released, Rodriguez-Lopez was discussing the band's next album, claiming "I consider it to be our acoustic album."<ref>http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/omar_rodriguez_lopez_of_the</ref> Cedric Bixler-Zavala has expressed an urge for their next album to not be released on a major label.<ref>[http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/articles/16219 Mission to Mars — philadelphia weekly online<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> A new song was played at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on December 31, 2007.{{Fact|date=January 2009}} A low-quality 30-second studio clip of the 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]].{{Fact|date=January 2009}} |
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[[Image:Omar Rodríguez-López.JPG|thumb|right|200px|Omar Rodríguez-López playing at the [[Roy Wilkins Auditorium]] in [[Saint Paul, Minnesota]] on [[April 21]], [[2008]].]] |
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In an interview with Rodriguez-Lopez on February 22, 2008 before his concert in Copenhagen, he mentioned that if the record label doesn't interfere, he hoped to have the new album and the Australian concert (at [[Festival Hall, Melbourne]], [[March 17]] 2007) DVD to be released by the end of 2008.<ref> [http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=343705915 MySpace.com - T M V - Interview - DK - Other - www.myspace.com/tmvinterview<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> |
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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]]''.<ref name="TMVI" /> |
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The band will play the [[Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival]] on the weekend of June 11–14 in [[Manchester, Tennessee]], <ref>http://www.marsvolta.com/</ref> as well as the [[T in the Park]] concert on July 10 in [[Scotland]]. <ref>http://www.tinthepark.com/content/default.asp?page=s3_16</ref> |
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== Band members == |
== Band members == |
Revision as of 23:54, 15 March 2009
This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2009) |
The Mars Volta |
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The Mars Volta is an American progressive rock group formed in 2001 by guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala. They incorporate various influences including punk rock, jazz fusion, funk and Latin/Salsa into their sound. They are known for their energetic and improvisational live shows, as well as their concept-based studio albums. In 2009, the band won a Grammy in the "Best Hard Rock Performance" category for the song "Wax Simulacra."[1] They were named rock music's "Best Prog-Rock Band" by Rolling Stone magazine in 2008.[2]
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.[3]
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
The roots of The Mars Volta are found in the band At the Drive-In.[4] 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,[citation needed] Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala quit At the Drive-In in 2001. The remaining members of ATDI formed Sparta. By the time bassist Eva Gardner joined De Facto, they had 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. 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, released as a limited edition in early 2002.
Since the demise of At the Drive-In, Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala found themselves once again starting from the ground up, touring and performing in smaller venues. The early years of the The Mars Volta were characterized by chaotic live shows and heavy drug use.[5]
De-Loused in the Comatorium
Following Tremulant, The Mars Volta continued touring with a fluid line-up while preparing to record their debut full-length album De-Loused in the Comatorium, produced with Rick Rubin. Whereas Tremulant had no general theme (except the prophetic mentioning) 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," 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 official bassist during the recording session, but Flea (of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) played bass 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 sold. The band later released a limited-edition storybook version of the album, available by download from the Gold Standard Laboratories website. The book speaks of Cerpin Taxt (Julio Venegas) and his suicide.
While on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in support of the album, The Mars Volta's former member Jeremy Michael Ward was found dead of a drug overdose.[4] 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 band leaders Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala to purportedly quit using opioids.[5]
Frances the Mute
As the band resumed touring to support De-Loused, they added Juan Alderete (of 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 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 at #4 on the Billboard album charts largely because "The Widow" received a considerable amount of radio and television airplay.[citation needed] 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."[6] However, even the detractors of Frances the Mute generally praised the band's musical abilities.[7] "L'Via L'Viaquez" was later released as a single, stripped down from its original twelve-minute length to five minutes. Frances the Mute has sold nearly 465,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan ratings.[citation needed]
Rodriguez-Lopez wrote all the instrumental parts as well as arranging and producing the recording sessions himself. He used a method that 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. While in the studio, Rodriguez-Lopez recruited Adrián Terrazas-González to play saxophone, flute, and additional wind instruments for the album. Terrazas-González was added as a permanent member to The Mars Volta while touring in support of Frances The Mute.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/Tmvwholeband.jpg/250px-Tmvwholeband.jpg)
Mid-way through their headlining U.S. tour, former At the Drive-In member Paul Hinojos (also known as Pablo) left the band Sparta to join The Mars Volta, claiming, "My time with Sparta has run its course, and simply wasn't fun anymore." Hinojos joined as rhythm guitarist and became the band's sound manipulator, the position previously held by the late Ward. Hinojos had previously toured with The Mars Volta in 2003 and 2004.
On May 20, 2005, instead of playing a traditional set at KROQ's Weenie Roast Festival, the band played a 40 minute instrumental jam that was jokingly named on-spot as "Abortion, The Other White Meat" by Rodriguez-Lopez. In keeping with the Mars Volta tradition of testing and developing new work live, parts of "Abortion" later appeared on "Population Councils Wet Dream" off Rodriguez-Lopez's 2008 album Old Money.
During mid-2005, the band toured in support of the album with System of a Down and curated the All Tomorrow's Parties festival. [8] In addition, a full-length live album named Scab Dates was released on November 8, 2005.
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.
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, the drummer's spot was filled by Blake Fleming, formerly of Laddio Bolocko, Dazzling Killmen, and the very first Mars Volta demos. 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 the track "Goliath" from the band's 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 within the band. Parks remained with the band only until the conclusion of the Japanese tour because of his prior commitments with other bands.
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
In 2007, Thomas Pridgen became the new permanent drummer for the band. Pridgen's first appearance was at the March 12th show in New Zealand, where the band debuted the song "Idle Tooth" which was later renamed "Wax Simulacra" for the forthcoming 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.[9] One of these performances was captured in a forthcoming live concert DVD shot by director Jorge Hernandez Aldana.[10]
Despite finding a permanent drummer and getting the band back on track, the recording and production of the album was reportedly plagued by difficulties related to a bad experience with a Ouija board purchased in a curio shop in Jerusalem.[11] 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. Also, Rodriguez-Lopez's studio flooded twice, and both he and mixer Rich Costey claimed that various tracks would disappear at random.
On November 5, 2007, The Mars Volta released a document by Jeremy Robert Johnson titled, "The Mars Volta's Descent into Bedlam: A Rhapsody in Three Parts."[12] The document includes a history of the band and describes the obstacles and inspirations they encountered in the creation of The Bedlam in Goliath. On November 20, 2007 "Wax Simulacra," the first single from the forthcoming album, 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.[13] 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, 2008, The Mars Volta released an online game called "Goliath: The Soothsayer," 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 was available for a limited time exclusively via Amazon.com. [citation needed]
On January 17, 2008, 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 had appeared on the show with At the Drive-In in 2000). On January 22, they made a surprise appearance at Toronto, Canada's MTV Live studios, where they performed "Wax Simulacra" and an extended version of "Goliath." In late January, the new album debuted at a career-best #3 on the Billboard 200.
The song "Wax Simulacra" won the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. It was the band's first nomination and win. [14] The band members thanked their families and Bixler urged people not to forget the memories of the recently departed Lux Interior and Ron Asheton.
Recent activity
As early as January 2008, the month that The Bedlam in Goliath was released, Rodriguez-Lopez was discussing the band's next album, claiming "I consider it to be our acoustic album."[15] Cedric Bixler-Zavala has expressed an urge for their next album to not be released on a major label.[16] A new song was played at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on December 31, 2007.[citation needed] A low-quality 30-second studio clip of the 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.[citation needed]
In an interview with Rodriguez-Lopez on February 22, 2008 before his concert in Copenhagen, he mentioned that if the record label doesn't interfere, he hoped to have the new album and the Australian concert (at Festival Hall, Melbourne, March 17 2007) DVD to be released by the end of 2008.[17]
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.[10]
The band will play the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival on the weekend of June 11–14 in Manchester, Tennessee, [18] as well as the T in the Park concert on July 10 in Scotland. [19]
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–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 (touring member, 2003-2004: officially, 2005–present)
- John Frusciante - guitar (2002-present in studio). Although Frusciante is not officially a member, he continues to make significant contributions in the recording studio.
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
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/timeline/le507y7b75tpd8kh3quu71lkz5a01l9.png)
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
- De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003)
- Frances the Mute (2005)
- Amputechture (2006)
- The Bedlam in Goliath (2008)
References
- ^ "The Mars Volta Wins 'Best Hard Rock' Grammy for 'Wax Simulacra'". Blabbermouth.net. Roadrunner Records. 2009-02-08. Retrieved 2009-02-09.
- ^ Serpick, Evan. "Best Prog-Rock Band". Rolling Stone. Jann Wenner. Retrieved July 24, 2008.
- ^ http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/The_Mars_Volta_-_Etymology_and_trivia/id/2070708
- ^ a b Fink, Matt. "The Mars Volta - Biography". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
- ^ a b Kelley, Trevor. "The Mars Volta: Spaced Out". Articles. Harp. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ Ubl, Sam (2005-02-28). "The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute". Reviews. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
- ^ Gill, Jaime (2005-02-28). "The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute". Reviews. Yahoo! Music. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
- ^ "2005 - Curated by Mars Volta - Camber Sands, UK". All Tomorrow's Parties. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
- ^ "The Mars Volta Records New Album at Ocean Way". News. Digital Producer. 2007-06-15. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
- ^ a b "INTERVIEW WITH OMAR ALFREDO RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ". Interview. www.themarsvoltaitalia.com. 2007-06-20. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
- ^ Unwelcome Spirits Haunt 'The Bedlam in Goliath' : NPR Music
- ^ The Mars Volta's Descent into Bedlam: A Rhapsody in Three Parts
- ^ The Mars Volta Announce New Years Eve Extravaganza
- ^ http://www.grammy.com/grammy_awards/51st_show/list.aspx
- ^ http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/omar_rodriguez_lopez_of_the
- ^ Mission to Mars — philadelphia weekly online
- ^ MySpace.com - T M V - Interview - DK - Other - www.myspace.com/tmvinterview
- ^ http://www.marsvolta.com/
- ^ http://www.tinthepark.com/content/default.asp?page=s3_16
- ^ http://www.themarsvolta.com/TBIG.pdf
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)