The Mars Volta is, and always will be, my favorite band of all time. No music will ever touch me like their music has. It came to me at a critical juncture in my life. I associate their music with strong, nostalgic memories that reside in that special place that cannot be touched by time.
For me, the time was the summer between high school and college. To borrow a term used by one of my professors, this period was a “moment of crystallization” for me. It was a culminating moment where my myriad of musical interests (alternative rock, jazz, classical/wind band music) were converging into one holistic love of music. At the same time, this moment also marked the shedding of a lot of the music I previously listened to. Or, maybe not so much a “shedding” as a “re-analysis”. I don’t have the same reaction to pop/punk music as I did in middle school. Today, I can only experience this music as it is channeled through the lens of that particular summer. That summer created a filter that permanently distorts how I now view the sum of my past musical life.
That summer was more than just a period of crystallization, however. While my previous musical interests all converged up to this point, my new musical interests were about to radiate outwards into a million uncharted territories. That summer was when I truly started to listen to other kinds of music. This marked the point where my biases slowly started to disintegrate and my mind gradually started to open. I am still moving in this direction (the last two years have really broken down my biases against rap, hip-hop, and mainstream pop music). My greatest hope is to continually move in this direction as I get older.
In sum, I consider this summer to be a “focal point” in my life. It represents the summation and convergence of previous events (a moment of crystallization), in addition to being a fertile beginning for future events. Smack dab in the middle of this focal point lies The Mars Volta.
On the one hand, TMV connects with my musical past. I listened to tons of alternative rock, punk rock, and ska in middle and high school. At its core, TMV is essentially a punk rock band. Their music is loud, fast, and aggressive. I think this got my foot in the door with regards to their music. I can vividly remember first listening to them. I was a junior in high school. I heard their song “The Widow” on the radio and really liked it. The DJ announced the band name and I remember thinking, “The Mars Volta? What a weird frikkin’ name.” Fast forward a few weeks. My sister’s boyfriend burned my sister a copy of “De-Loused in the Comatorium” and “Frances the Mute”. I saw the name “The Mars Volta” written on the CD and I was intrigued. I was about to drive my Ford Ranger to my trumpet lesson in Royal Oak (good times) and I needed something to listen to. I remembered liking “The Widow” so I figured I’d give their music a shot. I didn’t know which CD “The Widow” was on, so I arbitrarily picked “De-Loused in the Comatorium” to listen to first (which “The Widow” is not on, ironically). I instantaneously loved the album from the very first moment I heard the very first song. It is hard to describe what the sensation was like. It was an incredible feeling. I felt I was on the precipice of something humungous. It was like standing next to a skyscraper; I felt overwhelmed by something monumental and beautiful, however I knew there were elusive details that would take an extraordinary amount of time to flesh out. There was a lot I didn’t understand, but I was beyond excited about this. Something clicked with me on that day.
On the other hand, TMV has nothing to do with my musical past. Earlier I classified TMV as a punk rock band, but now I think I need to qualify this description with the word “otherworldly”. They are out there. They are psychedelic, experimental, noisy, and just plain weird. Their music was an elaborate puzzle for me, but I was willing to take up the challenge. Remember I started listening to them when I was a junior in high school. My deep passion for their music didn’t sink in until that special summer after my senior year. I joined The Comatorium, which is a forum dedicated to the band. I had a blast chatting with other fans and dissecting their music. We discussed musical motifs, lyrics, themes, time signatures, and everything else under the sun. One day I got the bright idea to compile all this data and do a full scale dissection of the entire “De-Loused in the Comatorium” album (TMV’s first proper album…still my #1 personal favorite album of all time). The result was a 15 page, single-spaced essay. Yup, you read that right. Nope, that was not homework for a class. Do you see how much I truly love their music? I’ll even admit it: I once sat down and jammed along with the entire album from start to finish on my trumpet.
TMV opened up avenues for me. I wanted to hear every band that sounded remotely close to TMV, so I branched out. I remember scanning the Wikipedia page for TMV and seeing the name “Pink Floyd”. For me, that name had been an enigma for years. I would always hear or see their name mentioned, but I felt like there was this invisible veil of mystery surrounding their music that I could not penetrate. This time I took initiative. I asked my dad about them, and he simply said, “Go buy ‘The Wall’ and ‘Dark Side of the Moon’. I have no idea why I don’t own those two albums. I will give you money. Go.” I came home from the mall and put “The Wall” into my stereo system into my room. I was apprehensive, but I really ended up liking it even on a first listen. “Dark Side of the Moon”, not so much. I put it on my iPod anyways. I ran every morning between 7:00 and 8:00 am, and for whatever reason “Dark Side” became my soundtrack for this. I have fond memories of running in the shimmering morning heat and listening to the tracks “Breathe” and “Us and Them”. I was starting to put the pieces together on my own, but I finally read a website that interpreted the meaning behind “Dark Side”. The woven together tale of life, death, and madness became lucid to me. After reading this interpretation, “Dark Side” instantaneously rocketed above “The Wall” for my favorite Pink Floyd album (and it still remains that way today).
From there I was doomed. I was desperately addicted to TMV and Pink Floyd. After figuring out what “progressive rock” was, I began to absorb recordings by Yes, ELP, ELO, King Crimson, Jethro Tull, and Dream Theater. From there my musical world only continued to blossom.
Interestingly enough, I don’t feel that I’ve pushed their music so hard to my friends in the last 5 years. I’ve been very pushy with some other groups such as Porcupine Tree, The Beatles, and Radiohead (as I’m sure some of you can attest). About a month ago, I realized that I had forgotten how truly great TMV is. I want to smack myself for not pushing their music to everyone on the planet. I want every person on every inch of the earth to hear their music. I want nothing more for TMV to sell themselves out, so long as it gets more people to listen to them. Let me tell you why I think they are awesome:
· They seamlessly blend styles together in their music. It doesn’t sound cliché or forced, nor does it sound like they are just creating a ‘caricature’ of these styles (Porcupine Tree can be guilty of this sometimes). They assimilate these styles into their own sound.
· Their use of contrast is spectacular. They can flip a switch between lush and intimate to angular and incendiary. If you want a great example, listen to the shifts in “Roulette Dares”.
· Their music is enormously complex, yet beneath it all there is an undercurrent of energy pulled from raw punk rock. Whereas many people are turned off by how depressing Radiohead or Pink Floyd sound, many people are turned off by how uncontrollable TMV sounds.
· Each one of their albums has been wildly different. “De-Loused in the Comatorium” introduces their punk/progressive style laced with a deep storyline. “Frances the Mute” is a full on jam session. “Amputecture” is an aural puzzle, whereby the listener is encouraged to synthesize haphazard pieces into a whole. “The Bedlam in Goliath” is a relentless hurricane of sound from start to finish. “Octahedron” is as close to a conventional ‘pop’ album as TMV can get.
· Their music rattles me deep to the core. It is emotive, provocative, and wildly expressive. I feel like it gets inside the nooks and crannies of my existence as a human being. Lines like “the earth that held us was no island” or “everybody hangs like dead leaves” give me the shivers.
· Their music takes me on a journey. While other kinds of music do this, I feel that the environment TMV creates is much more confusing, surreal, and untamed. You have to create your own map through the music, and in the process you discover something about yourself.
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