The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta is an American rock group founded by Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Omar Rodríguez-López, Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, and Jeremy Michael Ward in 2001. They are generally considered progressive rock, with jazz, punk, psychedelic, funk metal, and Latin influences. They are known for their wild, energetic and improvised live shows, as well as their usually concept-based studio albums.

History

The Beginning

The roots of The Mars Volta are found in the side project of At the Drive-In members Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez known as De Facto; which also included Jeremy Michael Ward: audio technician, close friend, and cousin of At the Drive-In member Jim Ward. De Facto featured Bixler-Zavala on drums, Rodriguez-Lopez on bass, and Ward with various loop, vocal, sound, and distortion effects, — a composite of sounds, hanging squarely on tripped-out, instrumental dub. Though De Facto started as a local band with a rock feel, they were rooted in the realm of dub reggae pioneers such as Lee Perry and Dr. Alimantado. The group also dabbled in electronica, Latin, salsa, and jazz which provided them with a distinct sound. The band played local shows around their home town, El Paso, Texas, and released their first album How Do You Dub? You Fight for Dub, You Plug Dub In.

The group eventually moved to Long Beach, California in 2000 and keyboardist Ikey Owens was added to the band lineup. In 2001, De Facto released their second album, Megaton Shotblast, on Gold Standard Laboratories, and received instant success. Although much of their initial fan base was based upon their association with At the Drive-In, De Facto continued experimenting with new sounds after Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala decided to end their time with the other band. The remaining members of At the Drive-In went on to form Sparta. Rodriguez-Lopez cited frustration with growing mainstream success, as well as creative suffocation as his motivation for quitting At the Drive-In, although Bixler-Zavala takes credit for the break-up of the band.

Eva Gardner joined De Facto, and it became what is now The Mars Volta, a new project they envisioned would fulfill their creative desires. During 2001, the band recorded two songs with drummer Blake Fleming and producer Alex Newport, which became their first demo. Later 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 Tremulant EP, released sparsely in early 2002. Since the demise of At the Drive-In, Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala once again found themselves performing in small clubs characterized by chaotic live shows and heavy drug use.

De-Loused in the Comatorium

Main article: De-Loused in the Comatorium

Following the Tremulant EP, The Mars Volta continued touring and changing band members while preparing for De-Loused in the Comatorium, produced with Rick Rubin. Whereas Tremulant had no general theme (except the prophetic mentioning of its follow-up album), De-Loused was a unified work of speculative fiction that told the story from the first-person perspective of a drug-induced coma, in which the protagonist battles with 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", as mentioned in the story, who was in a coma several years prior to his awakening, after which 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 "Embroglio" from their album Acrobatic Tenement.

At the time of the recording the band did not have a bass player. Flea (bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) played bass on nine of the ten songs on the LP. De-Loused became both critically and commercially their biggest hit, eventually selling in excess of 500,000 copies despite next-to-no promotion, but featured on several critics' "Best of the Year" lists. The band later released a limited-edition storybook version of the album, available by download from the Gold Standard Laboratories Web site. The book speaks of Cerpin Taxt (sometimes referred to as the album/story's "hero") and his suicide.

While on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers in support of their album, Ward was found dead of a heroin overdose. The band 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 bandmembers Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala to finally quit using opioids.

Frances the Mute

Main article: Frances the Mute

As the band resumed touring De-Loused, they added Juan Alderete (Racer X) on bass and Marcel Rodríguez-Lopez (brother of Omar) on percussion. Work on their second album began in 2004.

In 2005, the band released their second full-length album, 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 fourth on the Billboard album charts largely because "The Widow" received a considerable amount of radio and television air-play. 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." However, even the detractors of Frances the Mute generally praised the band's musical abilities. "L'Via L'Viaquez" was later released as a single, stripped down from its original twelve-minute length to five minutes.

Rodriguez-Lopez wrote all the instrumental parts (guitar, keyboard, and drum lines with help from Theodore) as well as arranging and producing the session himself. He used a method that jazz musicians such as 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.

On May 20th, 2005, instead of playing a traditional set at KROQ's Weenie Roast Festival, the band played a 40 minute improvisational jam that was jokingly named on-spot as "Abortion, The Other White Meat" by Omar.

Mid-way through their headlining U.S. tour, former At the Drive-In member Paul Hinojos left the band Sparta to join The Mars Volta, claiming, "My time with Sparta has run its course, and simply wasn't fun anymore." He is now their sound manipulator, the position previously held by the late Ward. Hinojos also toured with The Mars Volta in 2003 and 2004.

During mid-2005, the band toured in support of the album with System of a Down and curated the All Tomorrow's Parties festival (which featured bands and artists including the Locust, Mastodon, Blonde Redhead, and Diamanda Galás), titled A Nightmare Before Christmas.

In addition, a full-length live album named Scabdates was released on November 8, 2005.

Frances the Mute, which debuted at a career-best No. 4 on the Billboard Top 200 (selling roughly 100,000 copies in the first week), has sold nearly 465,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan ratings.

Amputechture

Main article: 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 also their first album that was not a concept album. Although the motif of "amputation" was explored there was no underlying narrative. 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 fan site www.themarsvoltaitalia.com 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, drummer Jon Theodore was replaced by Blake Fleming, formerly of Laddio Bolocko, Dazzling Killmen, and the very first Mars Volta demos. In addition, Paul Hinojos expanded his role, contributing both guitar and sound manipulation skills.

The Mars Volta's live set at Endfest in Auburn, Washington on August 12 took a turn for the worse when around halfway through their set, the group was pelted with a water bottle filled with urine by members of the crowd after Cedric Bixler-Zavala made comments about of some of the fans who were slam dancing, a practice which that band was previously critical of. The band cut their performance short with Rodríguez-Lopez smashing his guitar into an amplifier and Cedric Bixler-Zavala telling the crowd "I will pay $100 to $1,000 to somebody to find the person that's throwing urine up here. I will give you free merchandise and a lifetime supply [of passes] to Mars Volta shows. Find that person and kick his ass for me. Bring me his head and we'll be friends.".

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 track "Goliath" from their 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 with the band and his girlfriend. Parks remained with the band only until the conclusion of the Japanese tour because of his prior commitments with other bands and financial complications.

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

Main article: The Bedlam in Goliath

In 2007, Thomas Pridgen became the new permanent drummer for the band. He joined them at the March 12th show in New Zealand, where the band debuted the song called "Idle Tooth" on the band's setlists, later appearing as "Wax Simulacra" in Bixler-Zavala's on stage lyric booklet.

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 the fourth LP titled The Bedlam in Goliath. One of these performances was captured in a forthcoming live concert DVD shot by director Jorge Hernandez Aldana.

Despite finding a permanent drummer and getting the band back on track, the recording and production of the album was reportedly still plagued by difficulty due to a bad experience with a ouija board purchased in a curio shop in Jerusalem. 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. In addition Rodriguez-Lopez's studio flooded twice, and both he and mixer Rich Costey claimed that various tracks would disappear at random.

On November 5th, 2007, The Mars Volta released a document by Jeremy Robert Johnson titled, "The Mars Volta's Descent into Bedlam: A Rhapsody in Three Parts". It includes a history of the band and describes the obstacles and inspirations they encountered in the creation of The Bedlam in Goliath.

On November 20th, 2007 Wax Simulacra, the album's first single 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. 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, The Mars Volta released an online game called "Goliath: The Soothsayer". It is a game 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 is available exclusively via Amazon.com from January 2nd through January 29th, the release date for the album.

On January 17th, 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 appeared on the show with At the Drive In in 2000). On January 22nd, they made a rare appearance at Toronto, Canada's MTV Live studios, where they performed Wax Simulacra and an extended version of Goliath.

Album Five

In a recent article on The Mars Volta in Relix magazine, it was stated that "Rodriguez-Lopez is constantly recording solo albums, Volta songs, soundtracks and has filmed almost every moment of The Mars Volta for a movie that he will one day release. As the band tries to figure out how to play Bedlam live, Rodriguez-Lopez already has the next two albums laid out musically and is knee deep in production on the follow up to Bedlam. "It's a mellow album" he says "the last one was our most aggressive. The next one we keep calling our acoustic album."

Cedric Bixler-Zavala has expressed an urge for their next album to not be released on a major label .

A new song dubbed "Beneath the Eyelids" by fans was played at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on December 31st, 2007.

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.

Etymology and trivia

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.

The definite article "The" is used to distinguish the band from a group of European techno artists that previously used the name "Mars Volta."

The music sample that The Mars Volta use to introduce their live shows is the title theme to the film A Fistful of Dollars, composed by Ennio Morricone. The band had also introduced their earlier live shows with the theme from A Clockwork Orange.

Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala also happen to be Doctor Who fans and incorporate the Axon characters into their backdrop and play the show's theme song at the end of concerts over the PA system.

The backwards vocals at the end of "Eunuch Provocateur" are the lyrics from the song "Itsy Bitsy Spider". Other backwards vocals in the same song can be heard saying "did mommy or daddy ever have to spank you?" These samples come from an old vinyl the band used that contained children's songs.

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)
• Xavier Pacheco - Guitar, Sound Manipulation (2001 - Present)
• Adrián Terrazas-González – flute, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, and additional wind and percussion instruments (2004 in studio, 2005-present in show)
• Paul Hinojos – guitar, sound manipulation (on stage 2003–2004, joined officially 2005–present)
• John Frusciante - guitar (2002-present in studio)

Former

Sound Manipulators

• Jeremy Ward – (2001–2003)

Drummers

• Jon Theodore – (2001–July 2006)
• Blake Fleming – (August 2001, July–October 2006)
• Deantoni Parks – (October–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

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":

• 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

Studio albums

• De-Loused in the Comatorium
  (June 24, 2003)
  Gold Standard Laboratories/ Universal/ Strummer Recordings
  #39 U.S., #40 UK
• Frances the Mute
  (March 1, 2005)
  Gold Standard Laboratories/ Universal/ Strummer Recordings
  #4 U.S., #23 UK, #9 AUS.
• Amputechture
  (September 12, 2006)
  Gold Standard Laboratories/ Universal/ Strummer Recordings
  #9 U.S., #49 UK, #6 AUS, #16 NZ.
• The Bedlam in Goliath
  (January 29, 2008)
  Universal/ Strummer Recordings
  #3 US, #3 AUS, #36 NZ, #42 UK.

EPs

• Tremulant EP
  (April 2, 2002)
  Gold Standard Laboratories
• Live EP
  (December 16, 2003)
  (limited edition)
  Gold Standard Laboratories/ Universal/ Strummer Recordings

Live

• Scabdates
  (November 8, 2005)
  Gold Standard Laboratories/ Universal/ Strummer Recordings
  #76 U.S.

Singles

Year	Song	US Hot 100	US Modern Rock	US Mainstream Rock	UK Singles	Album
2003	"Inertiatic ESP"	-	-	-	42	De-Loused in the Comatorium
2004	"Televators"	-	-	-	41	De-Loused in the Comatorium
2005	"The Widow"	95	7	25	20	Frances the Mute
2005	"L'Via L'Viaquez"	-	-	-	53	Frances the Mute
2006	"Viscera Eyes"	-	-	-	-	Amputechture
2007	"Wax Simulacra"	-	-	-	-	The Bedlam in Goliath
2008	"Goliath" USB single	-	-	-	-	The Bedlam in Goliath

Other

• "Televators" (Australian Tour Edition) – January 19, 2004, also containing the Live EP, Universal Music Australia
• "Frances the Mute" b/w "The Widow" (live) – limited edition marble-green-colored 12"

See also

• The Mars Volta tours
• At the Drive-In
• De Facto
• Racer X
• Long Beach Dub Allstars

External links

• Official website
• Template:MySpace
• The Mars Volta at IMDb
• De-Loused in the Comatorium Storybook