The Mars Volta

Is anyone familiar with this band? Someone suggested I check 'em out so I added them to my LaLa list and received "Frances the Mute" as an insta-ship. Haven't yet listened to it as of posting this. Just curious what others think of them.

ult

Ive heard of them but not heard them sorry i cant be more help

I saw them doing a live performance on IFC's Henry Rollins Show. It sounded like horrible noise to me. Some may call it avante garde, but it's not something I want to hear ever again.

Heard about 3/4 of the disc at work this morning. A bit to trippy and experimental for me at this time of the day. Might be a cool listen late in the evening while kicking back. I'll have to give that try sometime soon. Some of it reminded me of the more experimental stuff Pink Floyd did in the late 60's (Umagumma, Atom Heart Mother, etc.)

I hate this band. Not because they're crap, but because they could be so good! They have some brilliant songs, but then they go and do that trippy noise nonsense too much. "The Widow" and "L'Via L'Viaquez" are both excellent songs from this album; the others are poo. Or at least mostly poo. I thought the same about their debut. A couple killer songs, a whole lot of nonsense. I haven't tried anything after Francis, though.

MARS VOLTA are okay...

I may be biased from my fierce love of AT THE DRIVE IN...

But I feel "De-Loused" is a much stronger album....

"Frances" is burdened by too much artsy fartsy noodling...and not so solid song writing...they could be the greatest band ever if they stopped believing everything written about them...

I LOVE the 1st 2 albums! But I am a Huge fan of Prog and Non-Commercial/Odd music from Frank Zappa to Ween! They are not an every day listen, but when you're in the mood for someting differant, but very musical, these guys deliver!

I like 'em. A little trippy like ult said, but a good listen. The Latin flavor in the music is interesting.

When we went to see RUSH a few weeks back, they were playing MARS VOLTA over their system before they took the stage which inspired me to dig out the cds...

I still say "Deloused" is a great records and not as weighted ith the soundscapy stuff...but they are definitely good...when they play SONGS.

"Deloused " is the only album I own from them so far and I love it, I can't speak about "Frances" or any of the otherdiscs since I don't own them, but "Deloused" is great and maybe their most straightforward disc, their music is definitely not for everyone and it may take a couple of spins before you like it.

I love them for the most part. I wouldn't have gone with 'Frances' personally as an introduction, as I think 'Deloused..' and 'Amputechture' are the best they have. 'Frances' and the newest one I like the least.