So here I am, probably their new fan :)

I listened them during all January and still I can't stop.
People told me Octahedron is easier for getting into them but I didn't want to start with easier album. So I had it chronologically how albums were released.
I still remember my feelings when I listened Deloused for the first time. "Oh my, what a crazy loud band? What is it?!"
I thought they will be too big mess for me. But not. Slowly I am discovering feelings of songs, melodies and something inside them.
Now I would say its one of the most original bands :afro:

I have a question for fans. I mean real fans who like them and listen to them for some longer time. How are they live? How are their concerts?
I read a lot of critic comments, even from their big fans... So I don't know how it is...

I saw them on the Frances the Mute tour. It was like I was transported back in time and got to see Led Zeppelin.

I only barely started listening to them ,too, in the last year. I really liked a few songs and I can tell they have that music magic. But, I'm sort of getting turned away from them because its coming across to me as "angry" music (and I always judge music by the feeling. So, I'm not sure that I am going to pursue them anymore. They might just get a tip of the hat and walk on.

Hmmm... Good to know :)

Well, during listening of their first album for the first time, I thougt I will have headache all the time from their music :D
For sure they aren't band for everyday listening. I mean, you just can't be in mood for them everytime, they are too unique for liking them every day.
I just started so I listen to them a lot now but... as time goes, of course I listen many many bands. But when some band is so good, I always come back to listen to them from time to time again and again. (This is for me for example Pink Floyd, The Beatles, R.E.M., The Doors and so on...) Slowly I have a feeling Mars Volta will be in this group of all-time favourite bands that I will enjoy from time to time but always.

I love the way you described that. Mars Volta makes sense now.

But, i wouldn't list them in the same category of "now and then" as Pink Floyd or The Doors. I can take them anytime, where as Mars Volta- its just so intense.

I've always been enthralled with Mars Volta. Firstly, they're an incredible band. Secondly, they somehow have accumulated a massive fanbase for their style.

They are one of those bands like Tool that seem to do everything wrong to acquire a casual rocker audience, but acquire a fairly decent one. Mars Volta are not a household name, but definitely not stuck in the underground.

To this day, I'm confused what exactly they have done beyond other experimental progressive bands that has brought them to this point of recognition. They are in no way even close to being the first, and as good as they are, they are certainly not the best. They're weird as all hell, but generally accepted by an audience that fears weirdness.

Maybe it's the guitar work, I don't know, all I know is that I appreciate a band like Mars Volta infinitely for exposing such experimental rock to a mainstream audience.

The Mars Volta for mainstream audience? I don't think so. Well, it depends what is exactly mainstream. Pop fans who never tried some experimental music probably won't like them.

I needed to have some listening experience to appreciate them. Three years ago I would stopped and call them just crazy bunch. But now I love their weirdness.

Well, I wasn't so accurate. Of course TMV aren't in cathegory like Pink Floyd, The Doors and so on. They are their own cathegory but with this I wanted to say they can have special place in my music library and / or in music history.

sillysillymary thinks mood of their music is angry. I would say it makes your heart beating and it push energy to you in such a way that you aren't always ready for it.

This is great interview with Omar - Interview: The Mars Volta - ARTISTdirect News

I think it helped that the main creative force of the Mars Volta were in a fairly popular hardcore band before starting it up.

Despite begin very progressive, they still have a very hard rock approach to things. Not to mention they have kind of a mystique around them. Especially around the Bedlam in Goliath...they supposedly had a bunch of stuff with a Ouija board go down.

Honestly, I wouldn't have cared if every album after Deloused was total crap. Just for that album, they go down as one of the most epic bands ever in my book.

First single off the new album


I don't know about it yet, it definitely has its moments, but it feels a little too disjointed. Hopefully it will grow on me.

Can't help but agree, it sounded like they were taking cues from one of Les Claypool's more... eccentric works. Personally I didn't like Bedlam in Goliath at all, was rather disappointed by it given how much I love Meccamptechture.