The Mars Volta
 

Whilst there is much hostility towards this band, when i was 18 i had heard absolutely nothing like Deloused in the comatorium and it made me start listening to things like Can, The Fall and... Sonic Youth.
And Frances the mute got in the Uk albums top 10, mainly due to press coverage despite the fact its not a great album in my opinion. But an album like that getting in the album chart top 10 is such a great achivement dontcha think?
So yeah what does everyone think about them?

They are good nowadays. But, back in the days of the Tremulant Ep and De-loused, they were mind blowingly amazing. They have just got too pompous over the years. Frances wasn't that great and neither was Amputechture.

They are becoming a parody of themselves. They used to work hard to make cool and interesting music, now they just work hard to make sure that it sounds like something Mars Volta would do.

As a matter of fact, I'd rank Tremulant and De-loused in my Top 25 releases ever. And at least one of them in my top 10 since 2000.

De-loused was decent and that first EP was pretty good. Everything else has been shitty.

I've been into them since the start. Loved Deloused and then couldn't really care about Frances the Mute, but Amputechure is a top album. Seen them live twice. Fantastic live band. First time was my favourite, it was during Deloused at a festival and they had a small crowd. Saw them a few weeks ago at their own gig and it was very good, but way too fucking long. They played like 2 or so hours straight. Which in my opinion, gets alitle boring.

i miss at the drive-in

At the Drive-In will always be the band for me. But its offspring has been good.

At The Drive-In was great. They were a reall, honest hardcore punk band. Just 5 guys having loads of fun and acting crazy. 100x better than The Mars Volta and a million times better than Sparta.

I've seen them live 3 times and loved it but Frances the mute did not do much for me and after hearing Amputechture i lost interest. That album made their flaws too obvious and i barely get any satisfaction from any of their music now.
It's still cool that music like their's crossed into the mainstream for a short period.

I fucking love Deloused and Frances. (I don't carewhat folks say, Frances is a stellar album. The horns on it are fucking RAD.) Amputechture, I've only listened to it a few times, a bit... boring. Too much over-indulging, though while there are some cool parts, it's over-all not that great. The horns piss me off on it. I haven't heard Tremulant...:(

i rank sparta's first album the same with the tremulant ep.

i love de-loused, it really was a great album, i saw them around that time, great show...they just commited the prog rock mistake of soloing every five seconds, forsaking the songs in the process. de-loused and tremulant had great songs with great playing.

I have some live video from their early days, they went absolutely crazy. It's in a really small venue, kinda looks like someone's basement.

I can't stand the singing personally. The singer in my band listens to them and has this weird idea that he should copy their singing. Drives me insane.

Tremulant is great. De-loused is great. Frances ain't bad. i haven't heard anything else.

Might as well say it. the mars travolta.

I love At The Drive In and The Mars Volta. One of my favourite bands of the 00's. Terrific band. Although I take the point about them almost becoming a parody of themselves particularly on the new album.

This board is funny. All the same responses basically. The right bands get all the ticks, all of the time. You can almost tell the responses of a thread before it's even been made. haha.

yeah i like The Mars Volta, i prefer them to At The Drive In to be honest, my friend is obsessed with them both and i take great pleasure in been the person that introduced him to them.

I always thought the mars volta was a band that split opinion down the middle, and i dont remember seeing them discussed to the extent that Pavement, My bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr, Nirvana et al are, and how i myself have a love/hate relationship with them and theyre a band operating right now as oppose to indie rock royalty i thought of posting a thread about them. So yeah what are yr opinions?

I saw them live last summer and the singer threw a hissy fit because somebody threw a bottle of piss at him. He challenged the guy to a fight after the show.

I was actually not listening through most of the show, so I don't remember at all what they sound like. I was busy playing with coloring books with my friend and throwing up in the ampitheater bathrooms because of the bad food I'd eaten.

So what, why am I writing in this thread?

I saw the chilli peppers on the same night. They ended their show with like a half hour guitar/bass wank off. They had bigscreen closeups and everything. It was really weird because I was surrounded by hardcore RHCP fans and I couldn't have cared less.