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The Mars Volta Information
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'The Mars Volta' is an American 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, oblique lyrics, and heavy reliance on ambient music to establish mood.
History
The Beginning
Members of the band, 'At the Drive-In', 'Cedric Bixler Zavala' and 'Omar Rodriguez-Lopez' were in 'DeFacto' with audio technician 'Jeremy Michael Ward' since the mid 90's. DeFacto included Cedric on drums, Omar on bass, and Jeremy with loop/vocal/sound/distortion effects and was a composite of sounds, hinging squarely on tripped-out, instrumental dub. Though DeFacto started as a local band with more of a rock sound, they were rooted within the realm of dub reggae pioneers like Lee Perry and Dr. Alimantado, the group also dabbled in electronica, Latin/salsa, and jazz, which gave their sound a distinct, timeless quality. The band played local shows around their home town, El Paso, TX, and released their first album How do you dub? You Fight for Dub. You plug Dub in. Eventually moving to Long Beach, California in 2000 the band met up with keyboardist 'Isaiah "Ikey" Owens'. Ikey added a distinct new tone to DeFacto and brought forth a new popularity that they had not yet received. In 2001, DeFacto released their second album, Megaton Shotblast on Gold Standard Laboratories, and received instant success. Eventually, At The Drive-In began to collapse, and the band had more time to experiment with new sounds. After the indefinite hiatus of At the Drive-In, Omar and Cedric decided to branch out, and joined 'Eva Gardner's' band, which became what is now 'The Mars Volta', a new project they envisioned would fulfill their creative desires. The initial lineup that was seen at their first public show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, CA was Defacto plus Eva Gardner and 'Jon Theodore'. Also during 2001, the band recorded two songs with Alex Newport, which became their first demo. Shortly after, they recorded three more tracks once again with Alex Newport, which would then become the 'Tremulant EP', which was scarcely released in early 2002. Tremulant was a collection of three songs - Cut that City, a complete rip on modern society; Concertina, a beautiful orchestrated condemnation of a former ATDI member; and Eunuch Provocateur, an intense drive with the prophetic mention of Deloused in the Comatorium. The EP tasted of prog rock, salsa, free and avant-garde, but left a miraculous flavor of a new, unclassifiable that left all who heard it hanging and waiting for what was to come.
De-Loused in the Comatorium
Following the EP, The Mars Volta continued to tour with many member changes, while preparing for their next release, 'De-Loused in the Comatorium'. Whereas Tremulant was a record with no general theme, except the prophetic mentioning of its follow-up album, De-Loused in the Comatorium 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 obtuse, The Mars Volta have stated in interviews that the protagonist of the album is based on a friend of theirs, Julio Venegas, or "Cerpin Taxt", as mentioned in the story, who several years prior was in a coma himself. Sometime after awakening, he jumped off of the Mesa Street overpass onto Interstate 10 in El Paso during afternoon rush-hour traffic. He was pronounced dead at Thomason Hospital. Venegas's 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 (renowned bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) played bass on nine of the ten songs on the LP. Deloused... would become their biggest hit yet, 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, currently available to download from Gold Standard Laboratories. 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, 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.
Frances the Mute
As the band resumed touring De-Loused they gained new members in the form of 'Juan Alderete' on bass and 'Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez' (brother of Omar) on percussion. Work began on their awaited second album in 2004.
In 2005 the band released their second full length album entitled 'Frances the Mute'. The album was inspired by late sound technician Jeremy Ward when he worked as a repo man and found a diary in a car he was reposessing. Each track of the album is a name of someone in the diary, with each song describing that person's woes.
Frances became an even bigger commercial hit than De-Loused, moving 123,000 copies in its first week and debuting at number four on the Billboard album charts, largely because "The Widow" received a considerable amount of radio air play. Reviews of Frances were polarized; Rolling Stone "a feverish and baroque search for self that conjures up the same majesty and gravity as Led Zeppelin three decades before," while Pitchfork Media "a homogeneous shitheap of stream-of-consciousness turgidity."
Midway through their headlining U.S tour, former At the Drive-In member 'Paul Hinojos' joined The Mars Volta and left Sparta behind, claiming: "My time with Sparta has run its course, and simply wasn't fun anymore." He is now their 'Sound-Manipulator,' the title that the late Jeremy Ward held previously.
The band spent its Summer touring with System of a Down in support of the album and are organizing a line up for the All Tomorrow's Parties festival, entitled A Nightmare Before Christmas.
In addition, a new full-length live album named 'Scabdates' was released on November 8th, 2005.
Currently
The band is currently in the process of recording their third album. John Frusciante is said to be involved once again, and this time in a much larger capacity.
In addition, a remix album is in the works.
Etymology & Trivia
Cedric Bixler stated in an interview: "The Volta is taken from a Federico Fellini book about his films, what he characterizes as a changing of scene, 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." Additionally, Omar has stated that Mars is a reference to the Roman god of war. The is used to disambiguate the band from a group of European Techno artists that previously took 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.
Members
Current
*Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Guitar
*Cedric Bixler Zavala - Vocals
*Jon Theodore - Drums
*Isaiah Ikey Owens - Keyboards
*Juan Alderete de la Pena - Bass
*Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez - Percussion
*Adrian Terrazas Gonzalez - Flute, Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet and additional percussion
*Pablo Hinojos-Gonzalez - Sound Manipulation
Previous
'Sound Techinicians'
*Jeremy Michael Ward - Sound Technician (2001-2003) ( )
'Bassists'
*Jason Laden - Bass (2003)
*Michael Balzary - Bass (2003) (Bass Guitarist on De-Loused in the Comatorium)
*Ralph Jasso - Bass (2002)
*Eva Gardner - Bass (2001-2002)
'Drummers'
*Blake Fleming - Drums (2001)
'Keyboards'
*Linda Good - Keyboard (2002)
Discography
Studio Albums
Image:The mars volta-de loused in the comatorium-2003-cover.jpeg|'De-Loused in the Comatorium'
(June 24, '2003')
Strummer Recordings/Universal
'#40' U.K.
Image:Frances the Mute.png|'Frances the Mute'
(March 1, '2005')
Strummer Recordings/Universal
'#4' U.S., '#23' U.K.
EPs
Image:TMVTremulantEP.jpg|'Tremulant EP'
(April 2, '2002')
Gold Standard Laboratories
Live
Image:Livemv.gif|'Live EP'
(December 16, '2003')
'(limited edition)'
Gold Standard Laboratories/Strummer Recordings/Universal
Image:Scabdates2.jpg|'Scabdates'
(November 8, '2005')
Gold Standard Laboratories/Strummer Recordings/Universal
Singles
*Inertiatic ESP - September 22nd, 2003, single from De-Loused in the Comatorium, MCA, #42 UK chart
*Televators - March 1st, 2004, single from De-Loused in the Comatorium, MCA, #41 UK chart
*The Widow - 2005, single from Frances the Mute (Includes track "Frances the Mute"), #20 UK chart
*L'Via L'Viaquez - 2005, single from Frances the Mute (Includes track "The Bible and the Breathalyzer") #53 UK chart
'Other'
*Televators (Australian Tour Edition) - January 19th, 2004, live single from De-Loused in the Comatorium, Universal Music Australia
Compilations
*A Missing Chromosome - July 12, 2005, Universal Music
The Mars Volta Group
According to the band's official website and the sleevenotes of Scabdates, there are 14 more people that are a part of "The Mars Volta Group". It is currently unclear the specific roles of the following people, but they all play some part in coordinating The Mars Volta's live shows. The following are listed below.
'"The Mars Volta Group"':
*Henry Trejo
*Amery 'Awol' Smith
*Jesse Isaacs
*Jerry Riccardi
*Joe Paul Slaby
*Dan Hadley
*Shaun Sebastian
*Keith Mitchell
*Jonathan Debaun
*Greg Nelson
*Steve Taylor
*Lalo Medina
*Paul Drake
*Edward Parker
(the current line-up of the band is also a part of '"The Mars Volta Group"')
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