The Mars Volta

Why doesn't Sup Forums cum all over these guys every single day? Deep category of consistently good albums with unique stories and themes. A band this unique seems right up Sup Forums's "meme" alley.

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For me, they single handedly saved prog from prog metal mediocreness with De-Loused in the Comatorium.
Also 2/10 meme.

>Indie and prog-rock have a lot more in common than most of their listeners might like to admit. Both are dominated by apostate wallflowers who act a lot cooler and more self-assured than they really are, and their artists, despite creating an aura of aloofness, are notoriously defensive. If you wanna take the psychoanalytic bent, both have masculinity issues: Prog compensates with double kick drums and the phallic gratification of rabid shrrredding, while indie prefers to spin its shortcomings into anti-heroism

>This is not to detract from the legacy of either music-- both have rich and diverse histories-- but the reps of each have been tarnished by generations of feckless dudes whose spotlight-hogging has rendered the genres unusually susceptible to generalizations. In fact, the terms themselves are generalizations, almost always used negatively: These days, bands are most commonly dubbed "prog" or "indie" when their music isn't provocative enough to earn a more individually tailored description.

Mariachi Slipknot

>On De-Loused in the Comatorium, the Mars Volta weren't straddling any fencelines. Rather than carrying over characteristics from the rough-edged indie-esque stylings of their former band, At the Drive-In, or plunging headfirst into the never-ending math equations of psilocybic canterbury prog, they artfully missed both marks: too sincere for indie but not quite prolix enough for prog; too melody-driven for prog but not repetitive enough for indie. Listeners' initial bemusement enabled the band to transcend genre reducibility, which won De-Loused quick (if hesitant) points from critics and fans.

>But two years later, there are few other recent records for which putatively in-the-know listeners are so cautious of voicing approval. If you liked De-Loused (or thought so, at least) but often found yourself biting your tongue in the company of others, you were probably in the majority.
The Mars Volta drew attention for its technical proficiency, but behind all the meter-changes and 32nd-note polyrhythms, De-Loused featured some very strong melodies. The album's best moments registered in part because of the galling pomposity with which they were delivered, but the tripartite solos and Cedric Bixler Zavala's ornate vocal wallpaper wouldn't have held up without a backbone.

twitter.com/theneedledrop/status/807271476890103808

Seriously though, yeah, they're absolute god tier, but they're not very meme-friendly.

they're not considered fashionable by online tastemakers, do you even have to ask?

>The band managed to ingratiate themselves with so many who would have otherwise relegated De-Loused to the realm of ironic pleasures because they had the tact and melodic good sense to make masturbation acceptable for a deceptively Victorian set of listeners.
>Of course, there was always the kid with the green Ibanez who didn't know better and staged impromptu Omar Rodriguez-Lopez deification rituals. With no apologies, Frances the Mute-- The Mars Volta's new 77-minute, five-track, gratuitously subdivided, and feebly narrated album-- is for him. Call it what you will, but be sure to have finished your homework before tackling this gnarled swamp thing.

>I'm reluctant to say Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez have become better musicians in the two years since De-Loused was released. Any possible strides in technical proficiency are showcased in brazenly flown-from-the-rafters pandering. But the Mars Volta are also a band in the truest, bluest sense of the word, and their strong unity actually manages to temper songs that are premised on lack of temperance

>Solos are kept to a minimum; the band chug full-throttle on the same set of tires. Their most sophisticated algorithms are contained within sturdy sonic superstructures. In this sense, they're more Mastodon than King Crimson-- only they kick about a third as much ass as a Dream Theater side project.
>Predictably monolithic and impossibly huge, Frances never stops chugging. Its five songs are divvied up in several, nearly indistinguishable movements, but the album moves wholly, as a gross, plodding, overstuffed mass. Opener "Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus"-- which is said to tell the story of an HIV-positive male prostitute and drug addict born out of rape, but who knows?-- builds to a powerful, string-driven climax at around the eight-minute mark but never bothers to come back down, staying aloft in a spiral of guitar arpeggios and overeager drumming before eventually devolving into a chorus of synth textures

lmao i've never seen that and I follow cedric and his wife on twitter. They're really cool most of the time but lmao did fantano give them bad marks before or something?

>At six minutes, "Widow"-- a yowling "November Rain"-style ballad-- is half the length as the next shortest track, and still at least two minutes too long. It, too, subdues into a wash of chattering electronics, as if an envoy to the next, equally inconsequential track. Despite its long-windedness, Frances the Mute doesn't require a long attention span: It's as mesmeric as it is mercurial. Like an effective pop novelist, the Mars Volta manage to convey vast amounts of information in easily digestible fashion without saying much at all. Zone out to the closing 30-minute "Cassandra Gemini" for proof: Even at this length, the track seems brief, sailing by in stupefyingly uneventful fashion

>What may at first seem like extraordinary, ceaseless fluidity gradually sublimates into wah-wah wish-wash. Smoke a bowl first if you need to, but nothing short of opium will convince me that there aren't more productive ways to spend 30 minutes trying to fell a redwood with a plastic spoon than listening to this beast. At least some things haven't changed. For instance, Frances largely retains the audacity of De-Loused's lyrics. "Cassandra Gemini" approaches storytelling with the same breed of macabre circumlocution that pocked the band's debut. (A grizzled, possibly vocoded voice delivers this bracing narrative:

>There was a frail syrup dripping off his lap-danced lapel, punctuated by her decrepit prowl/ She washed down the hatching, gizzard soft as a mane of needles.") But no matter what your feelings for De-Loused, at least the band had a mind to curtail their most capricious jams before they lost all context. Here, they seem hellbent on making an album that's as contiguous as possible, and the result is a homogeneous shitheap of stream-of-consciousness turgidity.
Overall 2/10

When At The Drive-In's comeback single dropped a fan retweeted the link from Cedric's Twitter and asked for Fantano's opinion.
Before Anthony could say anything though, Cedric replied to the fan saying something along the lines of "if that's the kind of opinion you actively seek, then you're lost".
Then Fantano clapped back with that.

fantano comes off as the more butthurt one here, i'm sure the song isn't good though, probably not even going to listen to the new album.

Dumb of Fantano, imo. Does he forget that music critics and journalists panned Cedric's best albums over the years. Did he really expect him not to be bitter about music reviewers?

i'm sure his teenage fanbase will love it though

That's not his review of the song, that video is mostly just him firing back at Cedric.
He gave his opinion in a Best & Worst Tracks of the Week segment a few days after that, and he liked the track. I thought it was solid too, honestly

yeah i get it. as a critic you should expect the actual creators to talk shit about you and just ignore it, not feel the need to put out video responses

When you put it this way, it makes sense that cedric said that lol

What album should I start with?

deloused is crap compared to francis

>Pitchfork
I bet he gives shitty pop albums 10's too

Which album was that?

Pretty much every review of mars volta or arid from p4k is too low, look for yoursef

he said albums, so I am assuming Relationship of Command, deloused and francis which all got somewhat panned by a few places (Namely, of course, pitchfork)

Sup Forums always sucks off Frances The Mute wtf are you talking about

>music is supposed align perfectly with the exact sub-genres used to describe it

holy shit this review is next level cringe

5 minutes into Frances n chill and he gives you this look
>graduated from wesleyan
So that explains why he's a neutered numale

Pic related

Not nearly at the level of Trout Mask Replica, ITAOTS, etc and those albums are shit comparatively.

This is my favorite Mars Volta meme

>and those albums are shit comparatively.

Well there you go, Sup Forums for the most part is and has always been heavily influenced by p4k.

When it comes to TMV though, which is discussed on Sup Forums daily, Frances and Deloused dominate that conversation, while Amputecture and Bedlam in Goliath are arguably way better albums.

>Bands with only 2 good albums, their debut and their their sophomore albums

See also: Weezer

>only 2 good albums

Bedlam is better than deloused but frances is the best
Ampu has Vermicide which is not that great and
>6 minutes of acoustic guitar
It's a good album tho

>6 minutes of ambient noise

As good as Frances is it's pretty overrated, I think it's the weakest next to Octahedron. Song for song it just isn't as consistent and driving as Deloused, Goliath, and Amputechture

It's not ambient if he's singing too
>Frances below Noctourniquet
Now that's an objectively wrong opinion

Deloused > Bedlam > Frances > Ampu > Noct > Octa

Octahedron is still alright, but it feels confused; half the time it's genuinely great and the other half feels like The Mars Volta are self-parodying. Bosnian Rainbows is a lot better than TMV's last two albums

Killswitch Empanada

How correct is this flowchart?

Noctourniquet is the only album of theirs I can't get into. Probably because idgaf about "krautrock" or whatever they're trying to pay tribute to.

Frances and Deloused are interchangeable as a starting point, this is pretty spot-on though

Ochtahedron is one of my favorites, honestly, I like the soft twinkly, comfy songs in it. It's relaxing, and I think TMV as a whole improves due to it's existence, since it makes you appreciate how versatile they are. There's not a single bad song on Ochta, but theres a couple bad or meh ones on Bedlam, De-Loused and Ampu. I think both their last 2 albums have to grow on you.

Noctourniquet is weird but it has a freshness that is TMV but also trying for something different. It's ok that they hung it up after that, because it's a fitting conclusion. Feels more like a goodbye, than an end. So maybe one day they can bring it back after they're done with ATDI.

I think Octahedron is a decent album, it's just not a good TMV album

Are you knocking Asilos Magdalenas

:P !

De-Loused is god tier

Noctourniquet is their 2nd best IMHO

Frances is their best and my all time fav

because TMV looks almost like MTV
it would be popular here if it looked like P4K

My car got broken into, and those two CDs were stolen. I wonder if the thief enjoyed them.

>stories and themes l
>>in music

truly the mark of a plebe

Favorite songs on their studio albums.

>De-Loused In The Comatorium
Eriatarka
>Frances The Mute
Miranda, That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore
>Amputechture
Day Of The Baphomets
>The Bedlam In Goliath
Goliath
>Octahedron
With Twilight As My Guide
>Noctourniquet
Zed and Two Naughts

You have excellent taste; I'd swap Eriatarka for Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt though

Day of the Baphomets is their best song, I'd say

Octahedron is my 2nd fave of theirs after Deloused.

Thanks, user.
Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt is actually my next favorite on the album. :D

>not having cassandra as favourite

Has anyone listened to all of Omar Rodriguez Lopez's solo or collaborative stuff? - and I mean ALL of it

Some say that not even he himself has listened to all of it

Here's some good recs:
>ORL - Solar Gambling
>ORL & John Frusciante - Sepulcros de Miel
>Bosnian Rainbows - Bosnian Rainbows

Any other good ones? Preferably with female vocals

>Some say that not even he himself has listened to all of it

hahahahaha
This is probably true.
I bet that every time Omar squats on the pot, an album comes out.

His stuff is sometimes too abstract for me. I think Omar and Cedric are such a good pair because I think Cedric has a much more "poppy" melody driven style and omar is almost the entire opposite (at least from what I've heard), and part of what I love in TMV is how they blend progressive stylings with silky melodies and great vocals/delivery.

Pitchfork gave Relationship of Command a pretty high score coupled with a BNM once it got re-released, though.

BNR*

I'd rather listen to Bruno Mars

Not a chance that I'd listen to all of Omar Rodriguez Lopez's solo work, but I would say any Mars Volta fan should check out Un Escorpión Perfumado

>Bruno Mars
>The Mars Volta
>Thirty Seconds to Mars

De-Loused In The Comatorium. If you dig it, move chronologically. If you don't, then there's no use trying again with other albums since it only gets weirder from then on.

I have. His 2016 and 2017 albums are fantastic.
Solar Gambling is my favorite though, Ximena Sariñana really brings that home for me.

Is that an official b-sides comp?
Anybody got a FLAC link?

No, it's not.

youtu.be/RJVoYBSuOqE

bump

holy shit kek

t. contrarian
You have 30 seconds to tell me why tetragrammaton isn't the best on ampu

Day Of The Baphomets exists.

That's called giving in to the public outcry after giving one of the most influential post-hardcore albums an average/mediocre score, also that original review is next-level autism (the george bush vs John Kerry presidential debate themed review)

Best band of the 2000's. Prove me wrong/

Maybe not the best, but certainly the most underrated. I think they will sorta be remembered similarly to Rush (critics despised them at the time, but gain a massive cult following)

they're really hispanic and it's not really my genre

>t. *deletes moonchild*

I guess. And yeah, that review is probably one of the worst in Pitchfork's history. Pure cringe-fest.
They should fix the scores of The Mars Volta albums too, if they ever get reissued. I really doubt that'll ever happen, though.

This

>[summons demons in spanish]


Kek


Good chart, though. Great work