Life on Mars

*Does this album cover remind anyone else of Bitches Brew?

At the Drive-In emerged from El Paso Texas in the mid-1990's.  Having established a popularity and following based largely upon frenetic live performances, the band eventually broke up due, at least in part, to creative differences.  I heard Deloused at the Comatorium, The Mars Volta's first album, for the first time in 2003.  I had only months earlier taken a liking to At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta's post-hardcore predecessor.  I loved Deloused so much that I eventually played it to death.  It was everything At the Drive-In could have become but didn't.  Apparently, it was actually divergent ambitions that led to At the Drive-In's split.  While Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López, who would become the founding members of The Mars Volta, wanted to take progression and experimentation to new heights, the other half of At the Drive-In would end up meandering in the opposite direction in Sparta.

Frances the Mute, their second studio effort, confused the hell out of me.   I couldn't tell you whether I agreed with friends, the music media and their assertion that the band's promise was being squelched by its pretension, or if they were just struggling to commit to a sound or musical direction.  Make no mistake, however, Frances the Mute is self-indulgent and schizophrenic. I guess, for me, these characterizations don't carry the negative connotations that they often intended.  Eventually, well after the release of Amputechture in 2006, I came to appreciate certain elements within certain sequences of certain tracks on Frances.  Not enough that I felt compelled to get my hands on Amputechture, but enough that I would defend the band in conversations where I felt they were levied unduly harsh criticism for making some of the music that colors the sonic fringes.  

Well, I just bought Bedlam in Goliath, their fourth and most recent studio output, and while it will take numerous listens to fully metabolize, it is already very apparent that Bedlam is much more cohesive than at least Frances the Mute.  And enough so that I'll likely be filling the gap in my collection ironically with Amputechture in the near future.  

For those of you who have never heard The Mars Volta, and to borrow from a sloppy Rolling Stone technique of which I've been a vocal critic (got hypocrisy?), the following influences can be heard in The Mars Volta sound:

Robert Fripp  

At The Drive-In

Pink Floyd

Geddy Lee

Mahavishnu Orchestra

Led Zeppelin

Santana