The Mars Volta

I bought 'Frances', oh, maybe a couple months ago (has it even been out that long?) Amnyway, I must say, I was shocked as well as awed when I first listened to this CD. The acoustic intro is amazing (I thought I knew what I was getting into), and then BAM! the music hits you full force -- completely unexpected.

That goes the same for much of the rest of the album -- things will be calm for a while, and you'll think that you've found peace, but then things get all fired up again. Amazing! Absoultely amazing.
This album requires repeated listens, and it's definitely not a throwaway album, nor is the band a throwaway either -- The Volta are doing things by their own rules, and they aren't following any sort of "code" that many mucisians of today follow. I guess you could say it's rebellious, but it's much more than that.

I'd have to say my favorite 'suite' on the album would be Miranda -- but that's the obvious choice. Eeerie, compelling, terrifying, & sad all in one piece. Once again - absolutely amazing!

I recently purchased 'De-loused', I have only listened to it a couple times so far, but it looks to be just as rewarding as 'Frances'.

Also, artwork by the man Strom Thorgeson <-----sp.?, what more could a person want.

One more thing, I like the new site design, it's a little more easy on the eyes.

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yay!! another fan..

I think i remember reading an interview with Omar where he said "that's what it about our band, not a single member is constrained by genre classifications, that's what makes it work" or something along those lines.

Miranda is indeed a fantastic song, I love the last vocal bit of it, when Ced sings the chorus twice through, sends shivers down my spine EVERY time.

Whilst we're at it. My best friend bought me the Frances the Mute/The Widow 12" EP today. It is amazing, totally spine tingling. I can't describe it, if you think you have an idea of what it's like, because you have the other two albums, well then you're probably wrong. Oh oh oh oh oh oh aaaand, it's green! It's the green marble special edition.. tres pretty!

She also got me "A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume one", Omar's solo venture, and the soundtrack accompanying this movie he's been directing for some years now. Alothugh, of course, it is a solo venture, some of the boys from the band help him out as well as John Frusciante of course, and the deceased *sniff* Jeremy Ward who played on the first album with them. Omar and Cedric are always saying, that there's this missing link, this person that should be at all the interviews and what not with them, and that Jeremy will always be there in spirit, in their music, flowing through their veins.

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how's the "A Manual Dexterity"??? what's its sound like? gimme gimme gimme..

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A manual dexterity is awesome! It's signature Omar, it's all just crazy atmospheric stuff. You know, like the awesome bits inbetween the "normal" song chunks on TMV albums. He uses all sorts of crazy crazy things to create the right effect. There's also this awesome song, that wasn't actually written by him but by Angel Marcelo Rodriquez, that seriously sounds like it came straight out of Fania (if you don't know what Fania is, it's a 70s Puerto Rican Salsa label that Ced and Omar are really into, and is very much worth checking out if you're into that sort of Latin music like moi)

so yeah.. I suggest you go get it and have listen yourself. I wonder what the film will be like.. I have this horrid feeling I'm gonna have to import the damn thing or something


EDIT: OMG!!!! Just found the best Omar quote ever..

Interviewer: "America supposedly has a rep for being a forward looking place, but challenging music like yours, Omar, is pretty much banned from mainstream pop culture."
Omar: "I don't mind, because I find all of that incredibly boring. If the music is boring, it's because people want all of their music to sound the same. They want their Social Distortion or Green Day played over and over again. People who don't have an open mind to different forms of music are so archaic. If music was a country, they'd be the Republicans. Music is a from of expression and freedom that we can all share, and these people are only interested in telling us how we can share it, how it can be expressed, and how it has to be regulated."

That line about Republicans is pure gold, the metaphors this man comes up with!

cheers

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Very much so. I will be gobbling up as much as possible from this band -- It will probably be at least a year, maybe two before we get another studio album.

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Well there's this wild rumour flying around that they're going to release something new within the year. I think that's slightly exaggarated, but Omar and Ced have apparently said that they wanna speed things up. They also record WHILE they're touring. If they have a stop somewhere they'll go and record for a week or something, and Omar has a mini studio on the bus from what I understand and is constantly writing new stuff, and recording snippets of it. I remember when they were playing Drunkship during the early shows, just after deloused came out, they were already jamming stuff from Frances (I have a live EP and in jam parts of Drunkship you can hear some very recognisable bits of Cygnus)

Anyway, it only took about a year and half between Deloused and Frances. For such a heavily layer and conceptualised album, that's a bloody short time.


cheers

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That's exciting stuff, true or not.

BTW, I got to listen to 'De-Loused' a few more times yesterday, and it seems to be just as good, if not (dare I say) better, than 'Frances'

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I was reading Rolling Stone today, and in the albums section they had a "buy this" area with three albums. 'Frances the Mute' happened to be there, and you know what they said?? "This is early Pink Floyd with fro's".

Oh Come On!! I can sort of understand where they are coming from -- how the music is a little untamed & wild. But I don't think that's why they made the comparison. It was probably more likely that the fact is, today, anything with keyboards, spacey guitars, and sound effects seems to be dropped into the "stoner-rock" category. Anything that doesn't conform with the rest of the music today is automatically labeled different. Also, the cover by Strom probably had something to do with it.

Again with the comparisons. Why can't the Volta just be themselves??Honestly, I think they are better than early Floyd......even if Rog, Syd, Nick, & Rick had fro's.

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What do you mean by untamed and wild? Because, at times it sounds like that, but if you have a good listen to it, it's quite rigid, and Omar is very rigid when it comes to recording, everything is carefully planned out, especially the work on Frances. I think Jon said how his work on Frances is much better because the drum stuff, just like anything was VERY carefully planned before recording, whereas on the first album he just came in and went with it and recorded. Here's the really interesting part (and just proves that Omar is a genius), I think I read somewhere that some of the musicians hadn't heard any other parts of the music before they came in and recorded,so they just came along, planned stuff out with Omar and played, and then he put it all together. Their live shows.. well that's a whole other story..


Hell, I think they're better than Floyd full stop, but perhaps I'd better not say that around here.
I think the reason why people compare them to Floyd is that they are pushing the boundaries of rock. Pink Floyd came along and everyone, at first, was like wtf!? But over time it just sort of slid into the charts. TMV seem to be doing the same thing. I don't think they're anything like Floyd, I mean, certainly there's Floydesque things in there, but I could pull out a dozen other names out of my arse and say the same thing.
Saying that they're like anything though.. it's a weird one, because Omar and Ced are inspired by movies and books as opposed to other music, when they write. I mean obviously they have influences (Ced's heaviest (and these are vocal influences, not lyrical ones) is Bjork, and he also states Jeff Buckely, Cathleen Hannah, Marky Smith and Wilson Pickett as his other influences, where as Omar's biggest influence (for his guitar work anyway) is this Piano player, whose name I forget now)
What TMV are creating is totally original, I think it is at least. The thing you have to realise about Floyd, is that they are to Psychedelic Rock what James Brown is to Funk (well I think they are anyway) So who knows, we could be seeing some awesome new genre emerging through TMV. Genre's a load of crap though.
I don't like to classify them as anything, if I really have to I'd say Prog Rock.. but TMV are not held back by genre boundaries, that's what makes it work, Omar is a genius for combining things and making them unique. I recently got into an argument with a friend cos he though that the opening guitar solo on L'Via was metal! It was one of the most heated arguments I've ever had. When I put deloused into the cd drive on my comp to whack it into itunes so i could put it on my ipod the genre classification was "alternative", when I put frances in it was "metal", which I thought was just effing stupid.

I think the only thing you can do with Volta is love them, see them live and then worship them, and just let them wash over you. Omar once said "Our band is not background music, it tells a story, it's meant to be treated like a movie, you put the record on and you sit down and shut up until it's over"

right.. I hope all that made sense..

cheers

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Burn her! She's a witch!

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Untamed & wild as it may sound to the untrained ear. I didn't mean that the Volta didn't know what they were doing. But to a new listener, as it DID to me, it was a little wild.....at first.

And as for them being better than Floyd, it's hard to tell. The Volta are only 2 albums into their career -- Floyd had fourteen, depending on who who are and which ones you count.

But it's definitely possible.

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Well that's silly. TMV are good, but nowhere near Floydian perfection, sorry. But I think I would describe their music as more similar to Yes (actually, quite similar), in the way the music is composed; it is very busy, with a lot of stuff going on in the same way. But Yes wasn't too spacy, so that's probably where the Floyd part comes in.

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Well.. I think they're better than Floyd, but that's a personal choice.
Every hardcore Mars Volta band KNOWS that they're the next Floyd/Zep it's just gonna take time for the rest of you shmucks to catch on.. Though.. kiddies.. lets never compare TMV to Led Zep, ESPECIALLY not Ced to Robert Plant.. he gets a little shirty about it

cheers

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oh I've caught onto the fact they are the next pink floyd, but I wouldn't compare them to zeppelin. TMV are indeed incredible and theres too much inside me right now to really talk about them, so I'll just go listen instead...peaceout

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