THE MARS VOLTA
Real people versus The Mars VoltaMy favorite music critics don't write for websites or magazines: they're my friends. Music is a part of my experience and I want to represent it as it occurs in my life. I don't talk to myself about music, I discuss it with my people I know and respect. Which is why I asked a bunch of my friends what they thought of the song "Metatron" from the new Mars Volta album.
"There's too much going on in this song as far as instruments are concerned. This band was one of the only current acts to do Rawk music with one guitar and make it work well. I go back to Vagrant, Weezer, and '70s power pop where dual guitar attacks are a must (like sunglasses). I'm a fan of the twin attack, but TMV does not need it.
"I listen to all kinds of stuff that's a 'tough listen' with the expectation of having that 'Ah-ha' moment. I did it with Eloy, Rudgren, Alan Parsons, Crimson, Hella, Soft Machine and others. I see [TMV's] current direction as being a rehash of previous ideas."
"I noticed one funny thing about the way that these tracks are mixed, especially "Metatron." The guitars are often panned hard left or right which allows multiple solos to happen at once and there are a couple places in "Metatron" where it sounds like there are 3 separate guitar solos going on at once: one on the left, one on the right and a lead guitar solo in the center. I guess it's probably the easiest way to cram in as much epic guitar soloing as possible but when I listen to it I can't help thinking about the "everybody solo" from that 90s novelty song "Let's Go Smoke Some Pot." Listen to it if you haven't heard it. It's funny."
"I am LOVING the new drummer. They sound like they're on musical Human Growth Hormone. It's no Rick Rubin recording. This is the saddest element of post-Rubin Volta. I love Rich Costey, but I am jones-ing for that huge Vistalite kit sound with ungodly loud keyboards and vocals. Their first album hit that Zepplin/prog vibe perfectly, and this album especially could use that thunder. Overall, it's not a timeless TMV song (parts are great, 2nd half is superior to the first), but I would listen to it over some 11 minute impenetrable wall of noise ANY DAY."
"They've needed a producer since Deloused, they clearly don't think so, and the more records they put out, the less likely it seems that they'll ever try to write "songs" again. Far be it for me to be the judge of someone else's artistic vision, but they're just starting to sound more and more like a boring, messy, prog, circle jerk (the worst kind of circle jerk)."
"After my first listen I thought the song should have ended at the 3 minute mark. Why not make it radio friendly? It could sneak in to some sort of KROQ like rotation pretty easy and blow prepubescent minds. The Mars Volta is for the kids! I still think this is better than anything off the post-Deloused releases because perhaps it sounds more like that record. The breakdown is growing on me, though the lead guitar around the 5:30-6:30 mark sounds like a recurring leitmotif that I know I've heard before and feels like a cop out. Rating: 8.0 million effective pixels."
"There's too much going on in this song as far as instruments are concerned. This band was one of the only current acts to do Rawk music with one guitar and make it work well. I go back to Vagrant, Weezer, and '70s power pop where dual guitar attacks are a must (like sunglasses). I'm a fan of the twin attack, but TMV does not need it.
"I listen to all kinds of stuff that's a 'tough listen' with the expectation of having that 'Ah-ha' moment. I did it with Eloy, Rudgren, Alan Parsons, Crimson, Hella, Soft Machine and others. I see [TMV's] current direction as being a rehash of previous ideas."
—KIM ROBINSON, music lover
"I noticed one funny thing about the way that these tracks are mixed, especially "Metatron." The guitars are often panned hard left or right which allows multiple solos to happen at once and there are a couple places in "Metatron" where it sounds like there are 3 separate guitar solos going on at once: one on the left, one on the right and a lead guitar solo in the center. I guess it's probably the easiest way to cram in as much epic guitar soloing as possible but when I listen to it I can't help thinking about the "everybody solo" from that 90s novelty song "Let's Go Smoke Some Pot." Listen to it if you haven't heard it. It's funny."
"I am LOVING the new drummer. They sound like they're on musical Human Growth Hormone. It's no Rick Rubin recording. This is the saddest element of post-Rubin Volta. I love Rich Costey, but I am jones-ing for that huge Vistalite kit sound with ungodly loud keyboards and vocals. Their first album hit that Zepplin/prog vibe perfectly, and this album especially could use that thunder. Overall, it's not a timeless TMV song (parts are great, 2nd half is superior to the first), but I would listen to it over some 11 minute impenetrable wall of noise ANY DAY."
—EVAN MICHALSKI, bassist/investor
"They've needed a producer since Deloused, they clearly don't think so, and the more records they put out, the less likely it seems that they'll ever try to write "songs" again. Far be it for me to be the judge of someone else's artistic vision, but they're just starting to sound more and more like a boring, messy, prog, circle jerk (the worst kind of circle jerk)."
"After my first listen I thought the song should have ended at the 3 minute mark. Why not make it radio friendly? It could sneak in to some sort of KROQ like rotation pretty easy and blow prepubescent minds. The Mars Volta is for the kids! I still think this is better than anything off the post-Deloused releases because perhaps it sounds more like that record. The breakdown is growing on me, though the lead guitar around the 5:30-6:30 mark sounds like a recurring leitmotif that I know I've heard before and feels like a cop out. Rating: 8.0 million effective pixels."
Live in L.A.
Click to download “Metatron” (From the album The Bedlam In Goliath by The Mars Volta)
BONUS: Click to download the pre-Tremulant 'original version' of “Eunuch Provocateur” (From the Alex Newport demo sessions in October 2001)
BONUS: Click to download the pre-Tremulant 'original version' of “Eunuch Provocateur” (From the Alex Newport demo sessions in October 2001)
When I got Amputechture on my computer, the tracklisting wasn't available so I made up my own titles, which I'll never change. I don't know where else to memorialize this, so I'll bury it here for Indiana Jones to find. They are:
ReplyDelete1. Cergium Carthopiary
2. Mute Visions From The Tropic Of Surgery
3. Variations On Signae
4. Ecktrations
5. Sylogenius Camp
6. Marksman Turns Suede
7. Home Of Certain Fission
8. Abstruct For Amber's Delirious Cut
The real track titles:
1. Vicarious Atonement
2. Tetragrammaton
3. Vermicide
4. Meccamputechture
5. Asilos Magdalena
6. Viscera Eyes
7. Day Of The Baphomets
8. El Ciervo Vulnerado
So close, yet so far.