So I started listening to The Mars Volta today.

[Jono2]

needless to say,

kickass.

[Riosan]

I really don't care for their music at all. It's just stringing noise together for unnecessarily long periods of time.

[Kaz]

The Mars Volta philosophy is "the more obscure the music is, the better."

Both lyrically and instrumentally, of course. Mars Volta songs are not meant to be understood. That's one criticism I have for them. And honestly, The Mars Volta has the tendency to go "out of tune," so to speak, using instrumental combinations that sound bad together because it's "avant-garde." The vocalist tends to clash with the instruments as well. Nothing really fits right. And when it does fit right, it doesn't last long. They always feel the need to screw it up somehow.

Needless to say, The Mars Volta is not my type of progressive rock at all.

[Silly_Penguin]

Awesome. I have to disagree with Riosan and Kaz, since i personally love the band! ;D

[Kaz]

Awesome. I have to disagree with Riosan and Kaz, since i personally love the band! ;D

I don't see how you can disagree with this:

The Mars Volta philosophy is "the more obscure the music is, the better."

Both lyrically and instrumentally, of course. Mars Volta songs are not meant to be understood. And honestly, The Mars Volta has the tendency to go "out of tune," so to speak, using instrumental combinations that sound bad together because it's "avant-garde." The vocalist tends to clash with the instruments as well. Nothing really fits right. And when it does fit right, it doesn't last long.

Anyone with ears can hear it. It's up to you if you like that sort of thing, though.

[Zovistograt]

The Mars Volta is the only American rock band I currently love.  Others are just meh to me.


Perhaps what I love the most about it is...hmm...how should I put it...

The Mars Volta philosophy is "the more obscure the music is, the better."

Everything Kaz hates about TMV I love, strangely.  I love their weird "out-of-tune" guitar riffs.  I love how the lead vocals go through you at a marked intensity.  I love the crazy jazzy journeys into the unknown.  And I absolutely love it when the music gets really odd.  I suppose it's my eternal craving for really strange music, breaking out of the horrid normality and genericness of most American rock bands.  TMV really brings something special to me.  I love to be taken on a philosophical and spiritual (and demented) journey in both the music and the vocals themselves.  As for the lyrics, they actually DO mean something, Kaz.  They're just extremely intricate riddles and plagued with metaphor and symbolism.  Their albums tell amazingly dense stories that are really fun to piece together if you take the time.

[Kaz]

As for the lyrics, they actually DO mean something, Kaz.  They're just extremely intricate riddles and plagued with metaphor and symbolism.  Their albums tell amazingly dense stories that are really fun to piece together if you take the time.

Of course they mean something, but the obscurity leads me to believe that the songwriters must be extremely pompous if they expect anyone to take the time to bother with understanding them. If the extra work just to understand a song is something you enjoy, then go for it.

[Zovistograt]

As for the lyrics, they actually DO mean something, Kaz.  They're just extremely intricate riddles and plagued with metaphor and symbolism.  Their albums tell amazingly dense stories that are really fun to piece together if you take the time.

Of course they mean something, but the obscurity leads me to believe that the songwriters must be extremely pompous if they expect anyone to take the time to bother with understanding them. If the extra work just to understand a song is something you enjoy, then go for it.

I consider it intellectual poetry.

[Silverhawk79]

I really don't care for their music at all. It's just stringing noise together for unnecessarily long periods of time.

Is that why you asked me for 2 of their albums?

[Metalbott]

I love their music, but I've seen interviews; they are pretentious as intercourse .