The Mars Volta

I'm kind of snobby in regards to TMV, since I was a huge ATDI fan and feel like they moved on from something great to something mediocre. Well, I take that back, the original recordings they did (Roulette Dares and Cicatriz were the first, iirc) sounded fantastic, but they went through seemingly bi-monthly iterations, each one getting worse and worse, until the DeLoused version was released and by then I hated it.

it's really weird, i have friends that are super into mars volta who don't like atdi. I on the other hand realize that atdi were actually something spectacular, especially live, and as brian said above, feel like the moved on to an inferior band. sparta sucked, even though they were super nice dudes.

in conclusion, if you like mars volta, at the drive in will blow your mind.

de-loused in the comatorium is a shining example of modern prog rock and should not be dismissed because of any connotation associated with the band.

nothing they've done since has been as focused / tight as that first full length, which is a shame, but let's not let that detract with their initial brilliance.

Is this 2003 all over again? I though tremulant ep was pretty good and deloused was good at times but everything since has been a bit pretentious and overall not very good. It's not "too next level" but just not very well edited and a bit too meandering and with lack of focus. I don't think they're nearly as great or groundbreaking as they or their fans think. I was a bit atdi fan back in the day and looking back on it in the past year and trying to revist them, i really don't like relationship of command all that much. I prefer the bit more raw, organic, not overly produced and super tryhard feel to el gran orgo, in casino/out, and even a few acrobatic tenement songs. Vaya had a few solid outings but started to get into the pretentious range a bit too much for me. Kind of like when i was younger in high school and stuff i loved Cursive and thought Tim Kasher was a genius. But looking back on Cursive's "good and creative album" The Ugly Organ, it comes off as really mediocre and pretentious but just trying way too hard to make it sound arty and forcing the "creative" aspect. Their previous albums like Burst and Bloom EP and Domestica were much more organic, less contrived and more interesting to me. Bottom line is that simpler music is often better (and tougher to screw up). Once bands start to get a bit of momentum and reputation for being poets or creative with prog stuff, i think they let that effect them and they start to overdo it and become caricatures of themselves

It's weird that other long time bands (10+ years) that I follow Wilco and Radiohead have kinda been all over the place. Radiohead started out as another alt-brit rock band, started to get a bit more creative and unique with The Bends, reached arguably a perfect (well, really just very good) harmony between progressive-art rock and simple alt-rock with OK Computer. Then Kid A and Amnesiac kinda tipped the scale and while some songs were great, others were def misses. Their last two albums have seen them try and find that ok computer balance again with mixed results. Wilco is even weirder. They started as an alt country band breaking off from arguably the first alt-country band ever (unless you want to count Gram Parsons and his various bands) in Uncle Tupelo. Their first CD was very country and still sounded like uncle tupelo. Being There brought a few interesting ballads and creative studio work, another album and ep, and then Yankee Hotel Foxtrot i think is the perfect mix of country, alt-rock, art and studio rock, and other categories and is a perfect 10 album in my book. Then their next cd was a bit too artsy and wasn't that great, sky blue sky was almost too stripped down and mediocre and sounded kinda boring., Their latest self titled album is awful and just sounds super super generic. It's always interesting to see real bands with talent and at least some kind of vision other than following popular trends really have ups and downs and changes in tone and direction. It's hard to see these days as there aren't a lot of similar bands because nowadays it seems that music is too niche and record companies have such a say, you don't get to watch talented but unseasoned bands slowly find their voice and develop their sound organically and without heavy input and alteration by studio/record execs/media/fan pressure

Met the drummer at the Mex City airport in 2003; he comped me to their show there. Was in an old art moderne movie house converted to a music hall. Can't recall the nabe. Just remember hundreds of fans screaming CIC-A-TRIZ! CIC-A-TRIZ! before they finally played it as the encore.

Slight Derail: I don't think I can ever tire of Domestica and Burst and Bloom. Although the ugly organ had a few excellent pieces, it doesn't have the same lasting appeal for me either.

Back to the issue, I've seen ATDI, TMV, and Sparta (they opened for Thursday) live and it's really hard to choose between ATDI and TMV. I say this because I stopped following TMV not long after Deloused, so I didn't get very involved in the more recent stuff which, from what I have heard, is not nearly as good. That being said, I still find myself reaching for ATDI much more frequently than TMV.

Still, it's a bit difficult to directly compare the 2 bands as I cannot think of a time where either ATDI or TMV would be equally suitable music. Apples to oranges and such.

I dunno, relationship of command and deloused aren't really that different. You can kinda tell it was headed that direction if you look at how things changed from el gran orgo ->incasinoout ->vaya ->relationshipofcommand. Deloused seemed like an obvious next step regardless of the band breakup. In regards to some tmv stuff, ugly organ vs. domestica, relationship of commond vs. el gran orgo, i think there is a line between making music/lyrics innovative and realizing that bottom line is that it's music and should sound good and be enjoyable. I think it's much more difficult to be creative and listener friendly than it is to be either one of the other.

There is no doubt that they can play their instruments. Quite amazing technique for pop musicians, drummer especially.

Instrument virtuosity is highly highly overrated imo. Since it's a clothing forum it kinda is like someone having bomb ass pieces with superhigh quality but the guy just can't make a really good/stylish looking outfit. Not applying this directly to TMV but just in general. John Mayer's music sucks but i always hear people defend him saying "but he's good at guitar". Yea, so are a lot of other people out there who can play a mean blues/blues-rock guitar solo and whatever. Doesn't mean anything about the music though unless you're just sitting around practicing with the person. I mean, John Lennon is arguably the best beatle or if you still want to give it to Paul for his technical and pop prowess, at least most everybody agrees that Lennon was one of the better musical artists and made amazing music. However, he was not the best guitar player, wasn't that great at other instruments, and his voice technically was not very good (though i think unique voices are much much better than technically sound voices) Not disagreeing with you audiophilia, just adding stuff for discussion

Worst. Band. Ever.

My roommate in Cairo loved them, we argued over this every week.

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/your...mars-volta.php

You can basically chart TMV's album quality in a downward slope...each album was not as good as its predecessor.

De-loused is the best.
Frances the Mute (minus the minutes and minutes of filler noise) was quite good...Via l'Viaquez awwwesome!
Amputechture I liked, but not as good as the previous 2.
Bedlam in Goliath...wait, this one is better than Amputecthure....but barely.