Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala met as teenagers, and have been making music with each other ever since. In 1993, they formed the post-hardcore band At The Drive-In. I'm not a fan of regular hardcore, so I don't really know what "post-hardcore" even means. Whatever the hell type of music it is, I'm actually fairly surprised that I like it, because it's usually not the type of music I listen to. They're really not bad.
At The Drive-In never reached a huge amount of success until their 2001 release Relationship of Command. It got #94 on Guitar World's 100 greatest guitar albums. However, tensions within the band were already way too high by then, and so they broke up right when they were getting known. Simply put, it was a dispute on where the band should go. Cedric and Omar felt that punk had basically been stagnant for twenty years, and people needed to try new things. But the rest of the band liked things more conventional. Heads were subsequently bumped.
Here's one of their last shows. Cedric (singer) and Omar (guitar with huge afro) pretty much just didn't give a shit about anything anymore, and wanted to play in the loudest and most obnoxious way they could -- because A) it was probably really fucking fun, and B) judging by the looks of the other guys in the band, it probably pissed them off a lot, and that's all that matters. Oh yeah, and C) They were both tripping balls on who knows how many fucking drugs.
Like I said, At The Drive-In had a very messy break up, and everyone basically ended up hating each other. Cedric and Omar formed The Mars Volta. Everyone else formed Sparta.
The Mars Volta can hardly be considered a band. It's more of a project. Omar writes the music, Cedric writes the lyrics. That is the deal. They switch out old band mates for new ones constantly. Ikey Owens, the keyboardist, is the only person who's been with them since the beginning.
The Mars Volta is not punk. They can't really be described as any single genre. They're progressive experimental psychedelic hard jazz rock. You are not allowed think they're "just okay." You either hate the shit out of them, or you think less of anyone who doesn't worship them as gods. Either way, you pretty much have to become a snobby music elitist and start judging people the very moment this band is mentioned. There's no way around it, it is required of you by music law.
Their lyrics can be very odd, and they're probably the band's most intriguing aspect. Everything is in symbolism, and nothing is ever clear. You have to decode. Fans debate endlessly on what everything means.
De-Loused in the Comatorium
De-Loused, released in 2003, is a concept album based on the death of Cedric's friend Julio Venegas, who committed suicide. Wikipedia: "the album is an hour-long tale of Cerpin Taxt, a man who tries to kill himself by overdosing on a mixture of morphine and rat poison. The attempt lands him in a week-long coma during which he experiences visions of humanity and his own psyche. Upon waking, he is dissatisfied with the real world and jumps to his death."
It's the best-selling Mars Volta album to date.
Frances The Mute
Jeremy Ward, a mentor and very close friend of Cedric and Omar, worked as a sound technician on De-Loused, creating most of the annoying and unnecessary ambient noises in between half the songs. Less than a month after De-Loused was released, he overdosed on heroine and was found dead in his apartment. His death convinced the band to get completely off opiates.
Frances The Mute was dedicated to Ward. Wikipedia: "[Ward] had previously worked as a repo man. One day, Ward discovered a diary in the backseat of a car he was repossessing, and began to note the similarities between his life and that of the author — most notably, that they had both been adopted. The diary told of the author's search for his biological parents, with the way being pointed by a collection of people, their names being the basis for each named track of Frances the Mute. Ward was in the process of completing it at the time of his death."
This album is dark. Cedric describes it as a "story of abandonment and addiction." Fans are still confused as shit on a lot of things, but this synopsis is generally agreed upon: Our protagonist is Vismund Cygnus, heroine addict and possible male prostitute. His mother is Frances, also known as "The Widow." Frances was raped many years ago, where Cygnus was conceived. She was later murdered and "gutted at the nave," and Cygnus was taken from her womb.
25 years later, the album follows Cygnus' attempt to track down his family's history, and seek revenge on his mothers' rapist(s) and murderer(s). He meets his aunt L' Via L' Viaquez, his grandmother Miranda, his possible sister Cassandra (who could also just be another one of his personalities) and along the way he descends into drug-induced madness. Many fans speculate that the characters and events in the CD aren't even happening at all, but are mere phantoms brought about by Cygnus' insanity. Others guess that Frances may not have been raped and murdered, but just made up a story so she could abandon her kid.
To me, Frances The Mute is one of the greatest albums of all time. The Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is commonly considered The Wall of Generation X, and I really do think Frances could be The Wall of whatever the hell they're calling my generation this week. It is motherfucking brilliant. Once you get past the first three or four songs, the entire rest of the CD is like one god damn fuckingly epic jam session, ranging from utter chaos, to eerie and tragic beauty. Omar (probably knowing full well what a god damn masterpiece he had helped write) wanted the best performances possible from his band, and so he used the method of old jazz legends to record the CD: he basically locked everyone up alone, and refused to let them hear each other play. They each had to play their own parts individually with a metronome.
^^ This leads into this, it's pretty much one song vv
The guy who designed the covers for De-Loused and Frances? That's Storm Thorgerson. You may have seen his other works. Do Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Muse, The Offspring, or Audioslave ring any bells? The motherfucker designed Dark Side of the Moon. He's a pretty big deal.
I won't cover the three albums that came after these, because De-Loused and Frances are really the only ones that matter. And also, I'm tired and I've typed enough already. But yeah, after Frances, everything else they pump out just seems mediocre. It just can't be topped.
I owe a special thanks to The Mars Volta. During the time I was introduced to them, there was some high school drama bullshit going on that was really making my life hell. I had never been exposed to anything even close to these guys, and listening to something this new and interesting really helped me wade through all the crap in one piece.
Additionally, when I was first getting into music, I would flat out refuse to listen to anything that wasn't classic rock, and I would actually lose respect for someone if they didn't like it. I really was a fucking douchebag. I was also in high school, so I obviously knew everything about everything ever. When my brother Chris introduced me to Frances The Mute, I slowly but surely began opening up. The Mars Volta was my gateway drug. I've been shaped a considerable amount by the new music I've enjoyed since then, and The Mars Volta is what started it. I know I'm sounding a lot like one of those annoying "THIS CD IS LIKE, TOTALLY MY LIFE" schoolgirls, but if there are two bands that really opened the doors for me, it is Dredg, and The Mars Volta.
By the way, here they are watching a video where two women shit and vomit into each others' mouths.
De-Loused, released in 2003, is a concept album based on the death of Cedric's friend Julio Venegas, who committed suicide. Wikipedia: "the album is an hour-long tale of Cerpin Taxt, a man who tries to kill himself by overdosing on a mixture of morphine and rat poison. The attempt lands him in a week-long coma during which he experiences visions of humanity and his own psyche. Upon waking, he is dissatisfied with the real world and jumps to his death."It's the best-selling Mars Volta album to date.
Jeremy Ward, a mentor and very close friend of Cedric and Omar, worked as a sound technician on De-Loused, creating most of the annoying and unnecessary ambient noises in between half the songs. Less than a month after De-Loused was released, he overdosed on heroine and was found dead in his apartment. His death convinced the band to get completely off opiates.
Frances The Mute was dedicated to Ward. Wikipedia: "[Ward] had previously worked as a repo man. One day, Ward discovered a diary in the backseat of a car he was repossessing, and began to note the similarities between his life and that of the author — most notably, that they had both been adopted. The diary told of the author's search for his biological parents, with the way being pointed by a collection of people, their names being the basis for each named track of Frances the Mute. Ward was in the process of completing it at the time of his death."
This album is dark. Cedric describes it as a "story of abandonment and addiction." Fans are still confused as shit on a lot of things, but this synopsis is generally agreed upon: Our protagonist is Vismund Cygnus, heroine addict and possible male prostitute. His mother is Frances, also known as "The Widow." Frances was raped many years ago, where Cygnus was conceived. She was later murdered and "gutted at the nave," and Cygnus was taken from her womb.
25 years later, the album follows Cygnus' attempt to track down his family's history, and seek revenge on his mothers' rapist(s) and murderer(s). He meets his aunt L' Via L' Viaquez, his grandmother Miranda, his possible sister Cassandra (who could also just be another one of his personalities) and along the way he descends into drug-induced madness. Many fans speculate that the characters and events in the CD aren't even happening at all, but are mere phantoms brought about by Cygnus' insanity. Others guess that Frances may not have been raped and murdered, but just made up a story so she could abandon her kid.
To me, Frances The Mute is one of the greatest albums of all time. The Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is commonly considered The Wall of Generation X, and I really do think Frances could be The Wall of whatever the hell they're calling my generation this week. It is motherfucking brilliant. Once you get past the first three or four songs, the entire rest of the CD is like one god damn fuckingly epic jam session, ranging from utter chaos, to eerie and tragic beauty. Omar (probably knowing full well what a god damn masterpiece he had helped write) wanted the best performances possible from his band, and so he used the method of old jazz legends to record the CD: he basically locked everyone up alone, and refused to let them hear each other play. They each had to play their own parts individually with a metronome.
The guy who designed the covers for De-Loused and Frances? That's Storm Thorgerson. You may have seen his other works. Do Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Muse, The Offspring, or Audioslave ring any bells? The motherfucker designed Dark Side of the Moon. He's a pretty big deal.
I won't cover the three albums that came after these, because De-Loused and Frances are really the only ones that matter. And also, I'm tired and I've typed enough already. But yeah, after Frances, everything else they pump out just seems mediocre. It just can't be topped.
I owe a special thanks to The Mars Volta. During the time I was introduced to them, there was some high school drama bullshit going on that was really making my life hell. I had never been exposed to anything even close to these guys, and listening to something this new and interesting really helped me wade through all the crap in one piece.
Additionally, when I was first getting into music, I would flat out refuse to listen to anything that wasn't classic rock, and I would actually lose respect for someone if they didn't like it. I really was a fucking douchebag. I was also in high school, so I obviously knew everything about everything ever. When my brother Chris introduced me to Frances The Mute, I slowly but surely began opening up. The Mars Volta was my gateway drug. I've been shaped a considerable amount by the new music I've enjoyed since then, and The Mars Volta is what started it. I know I'm sounding a lot like one of those annoying "THIS CD IS LIKE, TOTALLY MY LIFE" schoolgirls, but if there are two bands that really opened the doors for me, it is Dredg, and The Mars Volta.
By the way, here they are watching a video where two women shit and vomit into each others' mouths.
4T plus capsules have been designed specifically to
ReplyDeleteremove all the hindrances in a male's system which stops him from gaining optimum erection. Is it really true you can reverse impotence naturally if you are 65 decades old. One time the laser treatment normally takes put, the more robust penis of the man and feeling of lust and self-assurance, will transform all the psychosexual worries of the guy, as he will experience his penis sturdy, alive, and capable to accomplish at any time.
Also visit my homepage ; Man Impotent