The Mars Volta

The Mars Volta is a Progressive Rock band from El Paso, Texas (currently based in Mexico) formed in 2001. Rolling Stone magazine named them the best prog-rock band of 2008.

Members:
 * Omar Rodríguez-López: guitar, production
 * Cedric Bixler-Zavala: lyrics, vocals
 * Juan Alderete: electric bass
 * Deantoni Parks: drums
 * Marcel Rodríguez-López: percussion, synthesizers
 * Lars Stalfors: sound manipulation, keyboards

Former members:


 * Dave Elitch: drums
 * Blake Fleming: drums
 * John Frusciante: guitar
 * Eva Gardner: bass
 * Linda Good: touring keyboardist
 * Paul Hinojos: sound technician, occasional guitar
 * Ralph Jasso: bass
 * Jason Lader: occasional bassist
 * Isaiah Ikey Owens: keyboards
 * Thomas Pridgen: drums
 * Adrian Terrazas-Gonzalez: flute, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet.
 * Jon Theodore: drums
 * Jeremy Michael Ward: sound technician

Collaborators:
 * Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Bass


 * 2001 - ''Tremulant (EP)
 * 2003 - De-Loused in the Comatorium
 * 2005 - Frances the Mute
 * 2006 - Amputechture
 * 2008 - The Bedlam in Goliath
 * 2009 - Octahedron
 * 2012 - Noctourniquet


 * Awesome McCoolname: Try telling anyone the name Cedric Bixler-Zavala is dull-sounding.
 * Berserk Button: Cedric tends to get vocal about his dislikes, like moshing, and cigarettes
 * Bilingual Bonus: Several songs have Spanish lyrics and one ("Asilos Magdalena") is entirely in Spanish.
 * Granted, Cedric's Spanish is mostly mispronounced on purpose to fit his vocal range.
 * Book Ends: The "Sarcophagi" section on Frances the Mute opens and closes the album; a whistling kettle in the first instance is also taken off the stove in the second.
 * Careful with That Axe: Towards the end of Goliath.
 * Concept Album: Four of them, in fact:
 * De-Loused in the Comatorium: A man named Cerpin Taxt attempts suicide via a mix of morphine and rat poison, but instead falls into a coma for a week and experiences very strange hallucinations during this time. Very loosely based on the life and death of the band's friend, Julio Vanegas.
 * Frances the Mute: Based on a diary found by the band's late audio manipulator, Jeremy Ward, in the backseat of a car in his days as a repo man. The journal described a man's search for his biological parents. The names of those who led him to his parents were altered to create the titles of the songs. In the album's story, Vismund Cygnus goes searching for his mother Frances.
 * The Bedlam In Goliath: The lyrics are based on sayings and events that the band encountered while using an old ouija board they found in Jerusalem, and the string of unpleasant events that they thought were due to a curse from the board. Bixler-Zavala later said it was a commentary on how women are treated in Islamic countries.
 * Noctourniquet is said to be a concept album, somehow relating to Solomon Grundy from DCU, and Hyacinthus from Greek myth.
 * As for the other two albums, Amputechture didn't have a specific story but was all about organized religion and the things the band didn't like about it; while Octahedron had one or two songs being about reacting to the Republicans winning the election at the time, or the Salem witch trials.
 * Cover Version: Six cover versions of songs by some of their favorite bands were recorded for use as bonus tracks on various versions of the Bedlam In Goliath release.
 * Also their live cover of "Broken English" by Marianne Faithfull, which takes an uptempo but dreary synthpop number and turns it into a Santana-esque groove.
 * This is pretty much a foregone conclusion since he's based on a real life friend of the band,.
 * Epic Rocking: They have some pretty lengthy songs, but topping them all is the 32-minute "Cassandra Gemini" from Frances the Mute. Also notable because many of its musical themes were taken from live jams done in the middle of their previous longest song from De-Loused in the Comatorium, "Cicatriz ESP", which would extend its length from 12 minutes (buffered by an ambient section in the middle) to 40 minutes (all music).
 * Last-Note Nightmare: The band love this trope. "Asilos Magdalena" might be the most obvious example, but "Televators," "The Widow," "L'Via L'Viaquez" and a number of other songs also qualify.
 * Most notably, however, is probably "Tourniquet Man". Being the only quiet spot on the otherwise cacophonic The Bedlam In Goliath, however, this was probably to be expected. Starting off slow but ominous, the vocals suddenly become horribly distorted halfway through, the backing synths slow down and slur, the drumming grows erratic, and the saxophone keeps on playing as if nothing had happened (although Omar has a proud tradition of not letting the other musicians hear the rest of the piece, so for all Adrian knew nothing had happened).
 * Leave the Camera Running: this is used on Frances the Mute with the endings of songs like Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus, The Widow, and L'Via L'Viaquez most likely for an ambient effect
 * Loudness War: Every single album has clipping, which in many cases is audible. Noctourniquet was so bad that even the mastering engineer criticised it, claiming she was forced (by either the label or the band; it's not clear which) to master it that way. At least some of the vinyl editions also have clipping. Luckily there are programs that can be used to remedy this.
 * Mind Screw: Most of their lyrics and quite a bit of their music.
 * Mind Screwdriver: The story the band wrote to explain the plot of De-Loused in the Comatorium. Your Mileage May Vary on whether it's effective.
 * Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly: their genre is hard to define, Prog, Post-hardcore, Latin, Electronic
 * Nightmare Fuel
 * One of Us: Both Omar and Cedric have admitted to being Doctor Who fans, which is evident when they used to use The Axons as props on stage and appeared in publicity photos with Daleks
 * Portmanteau: At least three album titles bear one, let alone their song names.
 * Revolving Door Band: Cedric and Omar are the only constant members of a line-up that has changed countless times over the years. Most notably, the band has had three drummers since Jon Theodore left in 2006.
 * Textless Album Cover: Thus far, none of their full-length studio albums have had the band name or album title on the front, although the packaging will typically include a sticker with that information on it. Most of their singles or EPs do have a title and artist name on the front, as does the Live Album Scab Dates.
 * What Could Have Been: This was very nearly the artwork for Amputechture.
 * Word of God: The song "Frances the Mute" is a "decoder ring" for the album of the same name.
 * Word Salad Lyrics. It's very expressive word salad though. Their Spanish lyrics are usually quite a bit less word salad-y.
 * THE KIOSK IN MY TEMPORAL LOBE IS SHAPED LIKE ROSALYNN CARTER!
 * Word Salad Title (their name)
 * It's apparently supposed to be indicative of them being something "revolutionary", as per a quote by Federico Fellini where he defines his personal meaning of the world "volta" as a new turn of events. They just added in the "mars" because... well, it sounds cool.