Man's Volta

Here's the news:



The Mars Volta announces their 6th studio album Noctourniquet due out in March. That's right, sixth album. Where has the time gone.

If you don't know The Mars Volta, let me give you my summary and essentially everything you need to know about them.



Once upon the 90s, the prog/punk band At-The-Drive-In split to form Sparta and The Mars Volta. These two bands (with impressive but very different skill sets) were ATDI's split personalities. Where Sparta went the more convetional rock music route, whereas TMV went uber progressive.

I hadn't heard of TMV, and when I saw them open for A Perfect Circle in 2002 I thought it was ATDI because of their trademark large hair and spastic performing. They were awesome to behold. My compadre, Crispex, made haste the next morning to buy De-loused in the Comatorium their first and greatest LP. It was awesome to behold. For whatever reason, these musicians struck a chord with me. I saw them in concert two more times touring their second and third albums. Each subsequent show was a little less impressive than the previous. I feel like once they got a strong fan base they just released every studio jam session no matter how subpar the track. Jon Theodore was their drummer and I thought he really pulled the band together. (Much like a quality rug can pull a room together.) He got tired of working with ego tripping lead singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and left the band much to my disamay. Initially I thought that Theodore was irreplaceable, but their next drummer (though not as good a fit for TMV in my opinion) was actually more impressive. Thomas Pridgen (aka 'tha predator') played on The Bedlam in Goliath their 4th album. He is an animal, and awesome to behold. He makes this album my second favorite behind only thier first. Here they are performing 'Wax Simulacra' from said album.





Later Pridgen had a similar experience with the effeminant Bixler and also quit the band after releasing their 5th, Octahedron, which was so unremarkable I almost gave up on them completely. But in the end, I'm a sucker for some new Volta music so I'll be preordering my copy soon. Yes, it may very well be a "listen once then forget about it" type of CD, but I'll have to go ahead and make sure. If thats the case, then this post you're reading will then be an even bigger waste of time. But since you've read this far I'll be honest, I just came across this band image and wanted to post it somewhere, then I thought maybe I should put some words under it.

So these are those words.

Shallow and worthless I know.

Life is short I know.

What are we doing talking about TMV?

For that I have no answers.


Anybody heard news about Tool's new album? I've searched the interwebs and can't find anything but rumors. Proof links anyone? Hello? Anybody still reading this?

Some Goodies

Com Touch by Chris Clark is an exciting little taste of his upcoming album set to be released sometime this year. I would classify it as modern prog synth. Clark has been around since the advent of IDM and most of his music is comparable to Aphex Twin and the like. This song: A+, and as with most electronica, you miss out on 75% of the music when only using computer speakers. (Nudge nudge, hint wink, wink nudge, nudge wink, wink hint, nudge hint, SLAP! Bet you didn’t see that coming.)

The Butterfly Technique by Mux Mool has a sweet break beat that’ll get your head-a-bobbin’. Also includes some very engaging synth work that builds to a subtle yet epic climax. Mux Mools recent release Planet High School is definitely an album worth your consideration. So consider it.

Sonic Armada by Air is one of my fav’s off of their new album “a trip to the moon” aka “Le Voyage Dans La Lune.” I think that a good way to describe this song would be: funky beat with a mad R2D2 solo. Overall, I would say that Air doesn’t have the same depth of emotion that many of their previous albums have, but its still an enjoyable listen if you spotify or find a stream.

Let’s Groove by Teen Daze is one of his most unique songs, in that it doesn’t really fit into his genre of Glo-fi/Chillwave music. (And this genre, by the way, is definitely a sinking ship. Too many uncreative kids are creating this music in their basement and making it very difficult to wade through it all to find the bands worth listening to. Bands like such as: Teen Daze, Washed Out, Teeel, and Brothertiger… speaking of which…)

Next is Evening Glow (Keep Shelly in Athens remix) by Brothertiger who is touring Europe this spring with TEEN DAZE. He also makes some worthy tunes, this is one of my favorites, even though it is heavily remixed.

Lastly, Love out of lust (Saturday, Monday Bootleg Remix) by Lykke Li. Why this you ask? I guess I just tacked it on because, well, I came across it and I liked to listen to it so you should also listen to it because you should also enjoy what I have been enjoying without you up until now. No further questions; have a good day.



And remember: