Amputechture

Untitled

Amputechture is the third full length studio album by The Mars Volta released on September 12, 2006. The album debuted at #9 on the Billboard Top 200 selling over 59,000 copies in its opening week.

Overview

Production

The album was recorded in Los Angeles, CA, El Paso, TX and Melbourne, Australia in late 2005 and early 2006. It was produced by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and mixed by Rich Costey.

Although most of Amputechture was newly recorded, the band also incorporated older material into some of the album's tracks. "Viscera Eyes" evolved from a song originally written by Omar while in At the Drive-In. "Day of the Baphomets" uses lyrics and melody from "A Plague Upon Your Hissing", an un-released song that was recorded for De-Loused in the Comatorium.

In early July of 2006, "Viscera Eyes" was officially released on the band's MySpace page. On July 13th, the band also posted a link to a stream of the song in full on their website. Soon after, the full version of "Viscera Eyes" on the MySpace page was replaced by a radio edit running at 4:21. "Viscera Eyes" was also confirmed to be the album's first single.

This album is the band's first studio recording with former At the Drive-In bandmate Paul Hinojos and is also the last with drummer Jon Theodore.

Themes

Amputechture marks the first time The Mars Volta have created an album without a single unifying narrative. According to the band's website:

The essential creative process remained the same: Omar creating the music (including the horn sections) for Cedric to lyricize — but this time with the freedom to document unrelated stories, vignettes, inside jokes, various people, events, and memories. All in all, Cedric likens the experience alternately to the compartmentalized episodes of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, or the disparate plotlines of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks - storylines not necessarily linear or in any way connected, but all told in the same voice.

Also, in an MTV interview posted on July 25th, Cedric Bixler-Zavala said inspirations for the album were very diverse, ranging from the recent U.S. immigration marches to the news stories of possessed nuns. As far as the concept of the album, storyline, and overall mood has to go, Cedric Bixler-Zavala had this to say during the interview:

This album's a commentary about the fear of God instead of the love of God, which goes hand-in-hand with Catholicism...To me, religion is the reason there is so much conflict in this world, and I think it's just so unnecessary to believe in this blue-eyed, white-bearded, white-haired God. Amputechture is my personal way of describing enlightenment, or just the celebration of this person who is a shaman and not a crazy person. It's about the pineal gland and how it has certain elements that mimic a DMT experience, and how we can come up with cures for cancer and AIDS if we're more in tune with what's going on in the rainforest.

Bixler-Zavala explained the lyric writing process to "Time Off":

Sometimes the lyrics come easily, other times I have to work quite hard. When I’m starting off actually singing on a song and I’ve never heard it before, I just do a whole take of gibberish. Just kind of mumbling fake words - because what’s more important is the intent of the feeling that you get with the melody, and if it’s the right one.

It shouldn’t really be that important what the word is, so later I’ll try and fit words to the gibberish I did, because I think the gibberish is a lot more honest than the words - so I’m just trying to put clothes onto something that’s naked. It’s easier to just put clothes onto something that’s naked and just say ‘Yeah, that’s what I meant’, when everyone else seems to come up with a better interpretation than what I intended.

And sometimes some of that gibberish is retained in the final product. There’s a lot of the stuff on ‘Tetragrammaton’ that Omar didn’t want me to repeat because he just liked the first scratch take of it. Some of it I cringe at, because it sounds so rough and scratch, and I’m really all over the place as far as hitting the right notes. So sometimes we’ll go in and alter it later in mixing with some effects that’ll kind of hide that, or amplify it even more and make it seem like an intentional fuck-up. Sometimes we believe in the creed that you should honour your mistakes as hidden intentions!

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has stated that the word "Amputechture" (a portmanteau of amputate, technology , and architecture) was coined by the late Jeremy Michael Ward. Omar stated in an interview with Switch Magazine:

That word has been with us for a long time, and we wanted to use it for something very important. For us, this third record is very important and...I don't know exactly what it does mean, but the sound of the word makes us feel good.

It should also be noted that the liner notes of The Mars Volta's previous album Frances the Mute feature a credit for "Amputekthure" under the "published by" credits, Cedric Bixler-Zavala's name under the ASCAP corporation. The word also appeared in the storybook accompanying De-loused in the Comatorium.

Artwork

Unlike The Mars Volta's first two albums, Amputechture contains no original artwork; the background of each page in the album booklet is simply a section of Jeff Jordan's "Big Mutant". In addition the CD art itself is "Dwarf Dancing", also by Jeff Jordan.

Track listing

1. "Vicarious Atonement" – 7:19
2. "Tetragrammaton" – 16:41
3. "Vermicide" – 4:15
4. "Meccamputechture" – 11:02
5. "Asilos Magdalena" – 6:34
6. "Viscera Eyes" – 9:23
7. "Day of the Baphomets" – 11:56
8. "El Ciervo Vulnerado" – 8:50

Notes

1. Vicarious Atonement is the theory that the atonement of Jesus Christ was legal in God's eyes and that Jesus died in the place of the humans that sinned.
2. Tetragrammaton is a reference to the four-letter name of the Hebrew God, that being יהוה.
3. Vermicide is any substance used to kill worms, especially those in the intestines, or the act of killing worms.
4. "Meccamputechture" is a portmanteau of Mecca (the holiest city in the Islamic faith), amputate, technology and architecture.
5. "Asilos Magdalena" is Spanish for 'Magdalen Asylums. It could be perceived that this spelling is grammatically incorrect; the correct Spanish being "Asilos Magdalenos", but this alteration was intentionally included by the band.
6. Viscera refers to internal organs, namely intestines, which were often used in fortune-telling rituals by ancient Roman priests.
7. A Baphomet is an object used for idolizing, also confused with popular representations of Satan.
8. "El Ciervo Vulnerado" is Spanish for 'The Wounded Shepherd.' In Spanish 'ciervo' and 'venado' are the words for 'deer' although the correct form of saying shepherd is "Siervo". Ciervo, in this case is being used as 'pastor', or 'shepherd'. In the Reina-Valera 1960 Edition of the Holy Bible, Jesus is referred to as 'El Ciervo que fue vulnerado' or the 'Shepherd who was wounded'.

Personnel

Amputechture features almost a dozen artists, including Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante who is featured on every track except "Asilos Magdalena."

• Omar Rodriguez-Lopez – producer, lead guitar
• Cedric Bixler-Zavala – vocals
• Jon Theodore – drums
• Isaiah "Ikey" Owens – keyboards
• Juan Alderete – bass
• Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez – percussion
• Paul Hinojos – sound manipulation
• Adrián Terrazas-González – flute, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
• John Frusciante – rhythm guitar, lead guitar
• Sara Christina Gross – saxophone on "Meccamputechture"

Singles

• "Viscera Eyes" (2006)

External links

• Interview - From The Henry Rollins Show, discussing the album
• Big Mutant by Jeff Jordan - Full version of the cover art
• Amputechture Lyrics - At The Comatorium Forum