The Mars Volta

[Calis]

Someone here recommended these guys at some point. I know it. Otherwise I wouldn't have seen the CD yesterday and thought it sounded familiar. So I picked it up, since I have a long road trip coming up and need some good music to listen to.

Wow.

This is definitely the best CD I've heard in years, and has a good chance of becoming one of my all-time favorites. So kudos to whoever recommended this.

That being said, I find it to be about the most lyrically confusing album I've heard in quite a while also. I get almost none of it, but am slowly piecing at least small parts of it together. Regardless though, great sound. I gather from what little bit of research I'm done the whole thing is a concept album? They're telling the story of a friend of theirs who committed suicide? Anyway, some very obscure lyrics.

Anyway, I have nothing really of value to add here. Just wanted to chime in about how great this CD is. It's made the last two days of work go by rather quickly. :)

Anything else like this? It's like Tool, Radiohead, Bjork, and Rush all having a massive orgy of sound.

I'm annoyed also, because they were just in concert here less than a month ago. I'm always one step behind.

Thanks to whoever mentioned them. Just when I had about given up on any modern rock that I liked, aside from Tool/APC.

[Hurst2112]

Glad you liked it. I don't know who actually suggested it, but there were a few of us talking about it.

I would agree with your orgy analogy. I think Ksyrup suggested that you throw in Santana as well. I would agree.

There was one thing I didn't like about the album:

It wasn't a double release. I wanted more...hehe.

Rock on

[Fritz]

Listened to the Mars Volta some via XM. They sound completely unoriginal.

[ageofquarrel]

I heard this guys on a Black Flag cover comp. Not intrested, the dudes voice is annoying.

[dawgfan]

I find their music fascinating, but it hasn't yet drawn me in and made me feel inside it. They're all obviously very talented musicians, but in comparison to a group like Tool that is also made up of very good musicians, they lack a certain something to make their music truly compelling. I'd like them more if there was a bit more variety to their music, both in terms of the singer varying his singing register a bit and a bit more melodicism and variety of style to their playing.

[korme]

Well I don't know much about them, but I am going to go grab my bro's cd right now.

I know I'll probably like them because At The Drive-in kicks ass.

[Calis]

Well I don't know much about them, but I am going to go grab my bro's cd right now.

I know I'll probably like them because At The Drive-in kicks ass.

I wondered about picking up some At The Drive-in because I like this so much, but I'm under the impression that is much more Punk. Is that true?

I'm not a fan of punk music, so I'm a bit leery.

[korme]

I mean, listening to a few songs of Mars Volta, I can feel similiarities. If you can, see if you can go to cdnow.com and sample some songs. I recommend starting off with One Armed Scissor, Invalid Litter Department, and Napoleon Solo.

[korme]

Sample two of them here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004X0Q0/qid=1084310006/sr=8-4/ref=sr_8_4/002-7839528-8508039?v=glance&s=music&n=507846

I listened to them myself, and it bites listening to 30 seconds of a song. Oh well. FWIW, I wouldn't even put them in the punk category.

[Calis]

Cool, thanks Shorty. Went through and sampled the songs on that CD.

I just don't think it's my cup of tea. I'm more of a fan of the melodic mellower parts of The Mars Volta album, and that seems pretty much gone from the ATDI stuff.

[korme]

no problem, everybody's got different tastes

[Super Ugly]

They came recommended to me by my little brother (who is a massive At the Drive In fan). I dunno, I like Tertiatic ESP, but the rest of it sounds too much like Radiohead to me. Unless I'm mistaken, the other band that came out of the ATDI split was Sparta - I was much more impressed with their debut album.

[korme]

I like the Sparta I have heard too, Cut Your Ribbon is great stuff

[Leonidas]

I think they owe a great deal to King Crimson. The guitar riffs are clearly influenced by Fripp and Belew, which is a good thing considering how good Fripp and Belew are. It's nice to see people actually trying to apply technical talent to music again. Other than Tool there aren't many folks out there that seemed too concerned with delivering skilled musicianship.

[sovereignstar]

IMHO The Mars Volta are an amazing group, especially live. I'd recommend seeing them anytime, anyplace. As for Sparta, I like them as well. There's a totally different sound with them..maybe a little more "pop". Wiretap Scars is probably their best work. I'm going to see them in Fargo June 6th (The Afoci, you say Fargo is boring..well then I'll see you there :D)

I'm gonna plug another group here too. A collaboration of Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw and Dan "The Automator" Nakamura (Gorillaz). They're called Head Automatica and I'd recommend checking out the song "Brooklyn is Burning" from their site, headautomatica.com (http://headautomatica.com)

[Cecil Fielder]

Mars Volta is great, incredible stuff... they remind me of a cross between King Crimson, Led Zeppelin, Rush, and early Santana....

[Easy Mac]

to get back to an earlier part of the discussion, At-the-Drive-in is definitely more punk, but not the pop crap you hear on the radio. I think you can tell with the later stuff how part of the group was going to do the Mars Volta stuff (like the songs Shorty mentioned). I think Sparta may be more radio friendly, but I still think their music is not mainsteam punk enough to garner airplay. I think they both work in their own right, but the songs on TMV are just easier to listen to. That being said, I definitely bought both CD's.