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

Members of the Aggro-Punk band At the Drive-In Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez recruited audio technician Jeremy Michael Ward in 1998 to form De Facto, a band they hoped to experiment their past supressed ideas with and to break loose of the image they recieved from At the Drive-In and to delve into drugs like they had never done before. De Facto included Cedric on drums, Omar on Bass, and Jeremy with loop/vocal/sound/distortion effects. De Facto was a composite of sounds, hinging squarely on tripped-out, instrumental dub. Rooted within the realm of Dub reggae pioneers like Lee Perry and the Dr. Alimantado, the group also tampered 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, until they moved to Long Beach, California in 2000 and met up with jazz keyboardist Ikey Isiah Owens. Ikey added a distinct new tone to De Facto and brought forth a new popularity that they had yet recieved. In 2001, De Facto released their first album "Megaton Shotblast" on Gold Standard Labrotories and recieved instant success. Eventually, At The Drive-In began to collapse and the band had more time to experiment with new sounds and new drugs. The band went on to release 3 more albums, each one showing a distinct new sound. After the indefinite hiatus of At the Drive-In, Omar and Cedric decided to branch out and created "The Mars Volta," a new project they invisioned would fulfill their every musical whim. The Mars Volta soon released Tremulant in 2002, a collection of three songs - including "Concertina", a condemnation of a former ATDI member - that explored prog rock, punk rock, salsa, free and avant-garde.

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 except the prophetic mentioning of it's follow-up album, 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, Julio Venegas, or "Cerpin Taxt" as he is mentioned in the story, who, several years prior, was in a coma himself and who subsequently jumped off of the Campbell Street overpass onto Interstate 10 in El Paso during afternoon rush-hour traffic. He was pronounced dead at Thomason Hospital.

The ten-track LP 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 Cerpain 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.

Currently

Currently the band is touring Europe in support of their second full length album, Frances the Mute, which draws from a diary late sound tech Jeremy Ward found while working as a repo man. The fragmented diary supposedly details the story of a young man searching for his biological parents. Ward, himself adopted, identified with the diary and was in the process of completing it at the time of his death.

The first single, "The Widow", was released in early 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."

Despite the leak and others following it, "Frances the Mute" was released on midnight, March 1, 2005 and sold over 100,000 copies within the first week of release and debuted at number four on the Billboard Album Charts - no mean feat for a virtually unmarketable album. The title track, "Frances the Mute," which the band has said "decodes" the album's story, was not included in the album and was release on March 14th, 2005 in England. This included a 3 set limited edition release including a single with a live version of "The Widow" played at The Wiltern in Los Angeles on June 13th, and the self titled song "Frances the Mute." Also in the collection is a DVD that includes clips from their performance at the Electric Ballroom in London, England on July 8th, 2003, "The Widow" music video, and the "Televators" music video. Finally, the last item is a 12" picture disc vinyl single including "Frances the Mute" and live version of "The Widow". There are no current plans for a decoder release in the US. The band is currently on tour with DJ Nobody in Europe, and will come home to rest until they begin their North American tour beginning in April, 2005.

Etymology

According to the band, "Volta" was a term used by surrealist filmmaker Federico Fellini to describe a radical change in art and social contexts. "Mars" alludes to the band's love of science fiction. "The" is used to disambiguate the band from a group of European Techno artists that previously took the name "Mars Volta".

The Mars Volta is also popularly abbreviated TMV.

Members

Currently

• Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Guitar
• Cedric Bixler-Zavala - Vocals
• Jon Theodore - Drums
• Isaiah 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)

Discography

Albums

• De-Loused in the Comatorium - June 24th, 2003, Strummer Recordings/Universal
• Frances the Mute - March 1st, 2005, Strummer Recordings/Universal, #4 US chart, #23 UK chart

EPs

• Tremulant EP - April 2nd, 2002, Gold Standard Laboratories
• The Mars Volta Live - December 16th, 2003, Gold Standard Laboratories/Strummer Recordings/Universal

Singles

• Inertiatic ESP - September 22nd, 2003, single from De-Loused in the Comatorium, MCA, #42 UK chart
• 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, #41 UK chart
• The Widow - 2005, single from Frances the Mute, #20 UK chart
• The Widow, Includes track "Frances the Mute" - March 14th, 2005
• L'Via L'Viaquez - 2005, single from Frances the Mute - rumoured second single

Current US Tour Dates

The Mars Volta are currently about to start on a US tour covering much of the country.

• 4/22/05 - San Diego, RIMAC
• 4/25/05 - Austin, Music Hall
• 4/26/05 - Houston, Verizon Wireless
• 4/28/05 - New Orleans, Orpheum Theater
• 4/29/05 - Atlanta, The Tabernacle
• 5/01/05 - Philadelphia, Electric Factory
• 5/05/05 - New York City, Roseland
• 5/06/05 - New York City, Roseland
• 5/07/05 - Providence, Lupos
• 5/09/05 - Worcestor, Palladium
• 5/10/05 - Boston, Avalon
• 5/12/05 - Montreal, Metropolis
• 5/12/05 - Toronto, Kool Haus
• 5/15/05 - Detroit, State Theater
• 5/16/05 - Chicago, Riviera
• 5/17/05 - Chicago, Riviera
• 5/19/05 - Minneapolis, Wilkins
• 6/03/05 - Berkeley, Greek Theatre
• 6/04/05 - Los Angeles, Greek Theatre
• 6/10/05 - 6/12/05 - Manchester, Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival

External links

Official Sites

• www.TheMarsVolta.com - Official website
• The Mars Volta - Gold Standard Labs' TMV page

Fan Sites

• The Comatorium - Large TMV fansite, notable for working with the band at times
• Inertiatic - Another fansite
• www.TheMarsVolta.cjb.net - French fansite devoted to The Mars Volta

Reviews

• Mix Online Article - Technical report/interview on the making of De-loused in the Comatorium.