I think its 6.

According to www.allmusic.com, it says:

Group Members

* Jeremy Ward
* Ikie Owens
* Cedric Bixler
* Omar Rodriguez

Ah well there was somewhere I saw that said there were six members... I managed to find this though:
"The Mars Volta have a sixth member who always remains unseen. He engineers the sound effects rife throughout the band's recordings, including the bird sound effects on this song." And that was on songfacts.com or something like that..

Thst description is of Jeremy Ward, who died a couple of years ago. He was Jim Ward from Sparta/ATD-I's cousin. Mars Volta is two full members, and they have been through about fifteen or so touring musicians. I think they're settled with about three others for their live shows now.

Ah right.. I wouldnt know, not a huge fan.

No, nor am I. It's a good album, but they are a disgrace live.

i second intertiatic ESP being the best mars volta song, and probably one of the best songs ive heard in a long time from any band

i think the only band that could challenge them for musical expertease is radiohead. i dont care what anyone says, the widow is just as good as all their other stuff and a lot better than anything they produced as sparta.

"they" werent sparta though. cedric and omar were never in sparta.
inertiatic ESP is awsome, but this is the haunt (of roulette dares) is up there with it.

The Mars Volta!
 

Wow. I really don't know where to post this board, so this forum looks nice. Sooo.... I hear there coming out with a new cd. And a song over a half an hour long. It'll have like 5 songs? YEA! It'll be great! X3