de:The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta onstage at the 2004 Big Day Out, Melbourne, Australia.

The Mars Volta is a musical group founded by Cedric Bixler Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. They are generally considered rock, with heavy punk, prog and Latin influences. They are known for their wild live shows and oblique lyrics, which have gotten them rave reviews and vehement criticism from fans and critics alike.

History

After the "indefinite hiatus" of the Texas based hardcore/emo band At the Drive-In, Cedric and Omar recruited keyboardist Ikey Owens and audio technician Jeremy Ward to form The Mars Volta, a band they envisioned would fulfill their every musical whim. The Mars Volta soon released Tremulant, a collection of three songs - including "Concertina", a condemnation of a former ATDI member - that explored Prog Rock, Punk Rock, Salsa, Free and Avantgarde

Following the EP, The Mars Volta continued to tour while preparing for their next release, De-Loused In The Comatorium. Whereas Tremulant was a record with no general theme, De-Loused was a unified work of speculative fiction that told the story - from the first person perspective - of someone in a drug induced coma. Though lyrically obstuse, The Mars Volta have stated in interviews that the protagonist of the album is based on a friend of theirs who, several years prior, was himself in a coma and who subsequently walked onto an overpass and killed himself by jumping into rush hour traffic.

The ten-track LP would become their biggest hit, both critically and commercially, eventually selling in excess of 500,000 copies and featuring on several critics' "Best of the Year" lists. The band would later release a limited edition storybook version of the album.

While on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in support of their album, The Mars Volta's "Sound Manipulator" and contributing lyricist Jeremy Ward was found dead of an apparent drug overdose. The second leg of the tour was cancelled and the first single from De-Loused would later be dedicated to Ward.

Currently

Currently the band is touring Europe in preparation of their upcoming release, Frances the Mute, an album that draws from a diary late sound tech Jeremy Ward found while working as a repo man. The first single, "The Widow", is expected to be released in early Janurary 2005 and to be followed with the afformentioned album on March 1, 2005. However, in December 2004 a full copy of "Frances the Mute" was leaked to the internet from the vinyl version. The rip was of horrible quality; encoded at 96kb/s mp3, other versions reencoded to 192kb/s wma from the source mp3 resulting in even worse audio quality. Gold Standard Laboratories issued a statement saying:

"The collective GSL staff and certain members of the band think what you are doing is fucked. You should honor the band's wishes and take the songs down. Leaks suck, and are an unfortunate evil of the Internet. It sucks even more when it's such a bad copy as what is being passed around right now. As much as the hype that's swept over the internet for this release is amazing, no one wished anyone to hear such an amazing album in such piss-poor quality this side of the 70s."

Etymology

The Mars Volta is a nod to deceased filmmaker Federico Fellini, one of the band's many influences. This led to some confusion, however, as a band from Europe had already taken the name Mars Volta. To resolve this, when one refers to The Mars Volta, they are speaking of the band mentioned in this article, and when one refers to simply "Mars Volta", they are referring to the European band of the same name. However, it should be noted that this rule is not universally followed, so context as well should be taken into account.

Members

Currently

• Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Guitar
• Cedric Bixler Zavala - Vocals
• Jon Theodore - Drums
• Ikey Owens - Keyboards
• Juan Alderete - Bass
• Marcell Rodriguez-Lopez - Percussion
• Adrian Terrazas - Flute, Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet and additional percussion

Previously

• Jeremy Michael Ward - Sound Technician (2001-2003)
• Eva Gardner - Bass (2001-2002)
• Ralph Jasso - Bass (2002)
• Jason Laden - Bass (2003)

Contributing Artists

De-Loused In The Comatorium

• Lenny Castro - Percussion
• Michael Balzary (Flea) - Bass
• John Frusciante - Guitar, Synthesizer on 'Cicatriz ESP'
• Justin Meldel Johnson - Stand-up Bass on 'Televators'

Discography

Albums

• De-Loused in the Comatorium - June 24th, 2003, Strummer Recordings/Universal
• Frances the Mute - March 1, 2005, Strummer Recordings/Universal

EPs

• Tremulant EP - April 2nd, 2002, Gold Standard Laboratories
• The Mars Volta Live - 12.16.03, Gold Standard Laboratories/Strummer Recordings/Universal

Singles

• Inertiatic ESP - September 22nd, 2003, single from De-Loused in the Comatorium, MCA
• Televators (Australian Tour Edition) - January 19th, 2004, live single from De-Loused in the Comatorium, Universal Music Australia
• Televators - March 1st, 2004, single from De-Loused in the Comatorium, MCA
• The Widow - 2005, single from Frances the Mute
• The Mars Volta - March 1st, 2005, will serve as a "decoder" for Frances the Mute

External links

• www.TheMarsVolta.com (http://www.themarsvolta.com) - Official website
• The Comatorium (http://www.thecomatorium.com/) - Fansite with a large fanbase, devoted to bootlegs and other TMV media.†
• Inertiatic (http://inertiatic.com/) - Another fansite, more so devoted to news than media.†
• Mix Online Article (http://mixonline.com/recording/interviews/audio_mars_volta/) - Technical report/interview on the making of De-loused in the Comatorium.
• www.TheMarsVolta.cjb.net (http://themarsvolta.cjb.net) - French fansite devoted to The Mars Volta

† The reason behind the split of news and media between Inertiatic and The Comatorium was due to a decision by the two sites to work together on separate areas of the fandom in early-to-mid 2004