Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Mars Volta




and if it's long the rest here.

Guess this is what would have happen if The Santana Band in the 60's had taken a bunch of uppers instead of smoking pot. How is it possible to feel totally tired after only 2 and half minutes?

6 comments:

dRchunkerton said...

imo, the mars volta have passed through to the "total bullshit" arena of music making. at least stagefright had "monkeybrains teacherfucker".

Herbert Frundle IV said...

wow chunks. have you even listened to the album to be callin out like that? the AV Club ain't a bible fool.

dRchunkerton said...

my problem with the mars volta is now and always has been that, TO ME, it seems to be music made 'arty' and obtuse simply for the sake of being arty and obtuse, instead of you know, for fun or listening. I listen to more than my fair share of music that could be called pretentious, but IN MY OPINION these artists are expressing real color and feeling as opposed to just playing there instruments real crazy for a few minutes.

i guess what set me off so that i made the inital comment was listening to this coked-up retard with hipster glasses talk them up for two fucking hours at cuizine the other night. he would not shut the fuck up about 'important music' like mars volta and bright eyes, etc (incidently the bright eyes song he asked me to play was pretty good, on first listen anyway). He kept saying "everyone should listen to this and learn from this." fuck man i don't want to learn from music, i just want to have fun. i don't think the mars volta is having fun...i imagine them somewhere stroking thier chins while imaging some super pretentious concept for their next album, spelled out with assinine precsion in the liner notes...'a man from the future with no tounge tastes the dinner of this great grandfather, but is mute and can express his satisfation and describe his meal only trough morse code to a retared child who forgets the whole thing, but then farts this album out a in dream.'

as for listening to the album, you got me i haven't really. i was done after the last one, lest they changed direction, and between the write ups and the youtube clip, it would seem to me they haven't.

Herbert Frundle IV said...

to me, they have changed course. I think the new album manages to balance perfectly recognizable song elements (like the first album) with the more spread out jazz structure, without having the immediately radio friendliness of the first. i know "radio friendly" is a stretch, but they had singles that were catchy and played.

Granted, i've always viewed them less Santana and more Mahavishnu Orchestra/John Mclaughlin. Instead of just incorporating latin rhythms into a jam format like santana, actual Jazz Fusion though thats an icky and incorrect term i know.

I've always avoided jazz fusion, other than the afforementioned shit, because of the pretentious bullshit of rock guys trying to be better than all the other rock guys by attempting to play jazz and not really pulling anything off but noodling over a rhythm.

Mahavishnu, and then Mars Volta, are the only two occurences i've come across that seem to me to actually play jazz form and structure, and get me excited as hell when it comes on, played with instruments old jazz dudes were just too pissy to touch despite their intentions of exploring sound.

Miles Davis, Ornette Colemen and a bunch of others after already changing things in big ways made the forays into and started the way for, but still couldn't really shake the limitations of already changing perceptions once. Those guys took off where they left off, and I think Mars Volta did the same, even if it took 20 yrs for somebody to come along and get it right again.

not for everybody, but if you liked any aspects of the earlier albums, give it a go. you can always delete it, but i think you'll be surprised.

Just to encourage you, there are no 5 min long segments of birds chirping.

dRchunkerton said...

okay, i value your opinion, so i will borrow the album off the internet for arguments sake.

i hear the mahvishnu orchestra connection for sure. i think it's the context that turned me off- somewhere between the ridicoulus alubm concepts, the hypgnosis alubm art, the write ups describing them as "big-haired and big-brained" and of course the coked-up dude the other night, i became repulsed.

we've seen in the past how the fans can really make you hate something. nu-hippies turned bland, noodling but mostly inoffensive jam band music into the the object off my derision. or maybe not...i really do detest alot of that stuff. sometimes it's hard to track down the source of my anger.

Rickles said...

this reminds me of an old lesson. don't let the duchebags get you down. just cause some asshole like something doesnt mean its shit. i've met so many stupid people who like radiohead, that doesnt change what i think of them. chunks stop drinking haterade.