By-Tor.com

Inspired by By-Tor2112's initial post and the hunger for something new to devour (having exhausted the decent Athlete 'tourist' album in a week) I downloaded the new Mars Volta album 'Frances The Mute'.
I knew I'd recognised the vocals from somewhere and it took mere minutes before it all came back to me. Of course, this is the band formed by the vocalist and guitarist of the awesome 'At The Drive In' http://www.rollingstone.com/artist/bio/ ... tistHeader , and in paticular the sheer genius that is the 'relationship of command' album.
I think I remember hearing the arty debut some time back and not getting at all, major disappointment but this, being their second album is simply incredible. I urge anyone with an open mind to check this out. Repeated listens are obligatory...
I'm hoping bt2112 will be more familiar and enighten you further.

http://www.rollingstone.com/artist/bio/ ... .0.12.1040

The Bio for the lazy amongst us.


Mars Volta

Genre: Alternative/Punk, Experimental, Indie Rock & Lo-Fi, Emo



No Beatles, no Wings. No At the Drive-In, no Mars Volta.

Hmm. Given that comparison, it may be worth starting again. At the Drive-In added another chapter to the long, rich history of Texas music by combining the flash and political astuteness of the MC5 with that indefinable something that seemed about to win them a large audience in 2000. But no sooner had fourth album Relationship of Command skirted the Top 100 before intra-band hassles finished the group off.

Singer Cedric Bixler and guitarist Omar Rodriguez wasted little time in forming a new outfit that would build on At the Drive-In's version of the MC5's more avant-garde tendencies. While other ATDIers found work in the dull emo exponent Sparta, Bixler and Rodriguez were intent on exploring jazz and other sounds that might take them out of the mainstream alternative sphere while keeping a core of fans who got it.

Having already collaborated with Ikey Owens of the Long Beach Dub All-Stars and Jeremy Michael Ward in ATDI side project De Facto, they seemed prepared to head for new horizons after bringing them into the Mars Volta fold. The quartet released De-Loused in the Comatorium through a deal with Universal in 2003, and toured Europe with the Red Hot Chili Peppers -- a move that ensured both mainstream credibility and exposure to perhaps the biggest audiences Bixler and Rodriguez had yet seen.

Unfortunately, Ward, an essential part of the band's lineup due to his dub leanings and his talent for bringing treated sounds into the mix, overdosed not long after the group returned from the Chili Peppers dates -- a tragedy that recalled that band's own loss of guitarist Hillel Slovak in the late '80s.

In 2005, Mars Volta returned with their second full-length, the ambitious song-cycle Francis the Mute, which, like their first CD, took its inspiration from rather gothic circumstances. But instead of being fueled by the death of a surrealistic painter, like De-Loused... was, this prog rock masterwork -- divided into five suites -- takes its subject matter from an anonymous diary found in the back of a car by their fallen compatriot, Jeremy Ward. It is both homage to him and a feverish and baroque search for self that conjures up the same majesty and gravity as Led Zeppelin three decades before.

You can guess that I like the band .

I absoluty LOVE The Mars Volta, and you're right; there are no words. I can't get enough of their music. Truly amazing.

I knew I started a 'The Mars Volta' thread somewhere March 05 to be precise and a deluge of replies

I implore all of you to beg, borrow, steal or download this rather splendid new 'THE MARS VOLTA' album entitled 'Amputetchure'. Mere words cannot describe this musical journey, trust me on this .

hmmm I might try and d/load some of the tracks off it

I lurve this band. I managed to hear Amputecture early, and it positively blew the doors off my place. They're latin jazz prog, channeled through a post-punk sensability. Imagine a modern version of Ambrosia or Little Feet.

It's a shame they fired John Theodore. He's an incredible drummer. I hear it had to do with drug problems, which I've long suspected will be the death of this band. Oh well.

Little time but simply a heartfelt '!!!' as to this advance copy of the forthcoming The Mars Volta album 'The Bedlam in Goliath'. First listen underway, already sounds awesome

01 Aberinkula 5:44
02 Metatron 8:11
03 Ilyena 5:35
04 Wax Simularca 2:38
05 Goliath 7:15
06 Tourniquet Man 2:37
07 Cavalettas 9:32
08 Agadez 6:43
09 Askepios 5:10
10 Ouroboros 6:35
11 Soothsayer 9:07
12 Conjugal Burns 6:35


"On a trip in Jerusalem, Rodriguez-Lopez purchased an
archaic ouija-type talking board at a curio shop as a gift for Bixler-
Zavala. They would return to their tour bus after shows to play with it
during their 2006 tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as it quickly
became the band's post-show ritual. Dubbed "The Soothsayer", the board
revealed stories, gave names and made demands, as the band was
contacted by three different people who appeared in the form of one,
whom was then referred to as "Goliath". The more the band had
interacted with "The Soothsayer", otherworldly coincidences began
plaguing the band's experience writing and recording The Bedlam in
Goliath: Deantoni Parks?their current drummer at the time?had quit mid-
tour and left the band with financial troubles; Bixler-Zavala wound up
needing surgery performed on his foot due to the shoes he had been
wearing, forcing him to relearn how to walk post-surgery; audio tracks
sporadically and literally disappeared off the screens; Rodriguez-
Lopez's home studio flooded and had been subject to multiple power
outages; and the album's original engineer had gone through a nervous
breakdown, leaving behind all previous work with no notes as to where
anything was. Rodriguez-Lopez was nearly on the brink of starting over
from scratch, but instead kept on with the recruitment of Robert
Carranza as the replacement engineer, along with assistance from Lars
Stalfors and Isaiah Abolin. Midway through the recording sessions,
Rodriguez-Lopez buried "The Soothsayer" as an attempt to undo the curse
and halt the unforeseen tragedies, who ended the ordeal by swearing
never to give away the whereabouts of its burial, and also asking the
band not to speak of it again during the remainder of the album's
production..." Wikipedia

I have just watched a series of The Mars Volta videos on YouTube.

Here is what I just listened to.....

Televatore
The Widow
Frances the Mute
A Plague Upon Your Hissing
Candy and a Currant Bun
Pulled to Bits
Drunkship of Lanterns...(Live)
Day of Baphomets...(Live)
Meccamputechture
Asilos Magdalena

They are not a (one listen and hooked) kind of band, but I like most of it. With more exposure to them, who knows?

Cool taste Bro, how did you come to find out about them? I've been a fan for some time myself

I give you all the credit bro.

They are very able musicians, I have had trouble with the trebble bias on their music, hard on the ears at loud.