THE MARS VOLTA
De-Loused in the Comatorium .0...
Prog is the romantic comedy of musical genres. Painted from the broadest musical/filmic palette (rock/love), its creators too often get bogged down in detail to celebrate the inherent energy and excitement within.
Prog/rom-com is also generally considered as culturally inferior to its testosteroned-up brethren the action thriller/pub rock. without the visceral thrills of horror/heavy
The hairs apparent to the gods of rock throne
metal, and is shunned as something for the specialist (nerds/girls). This is untrue. Done right, prog is as much of a joy to behold as a brilliant movie is and following this (admittedly tenuous) logic, if Camel or Gong are Pretty Woman or Runaway Bride, then the Mars Volta are clearly The Apartment or The Seven Year Itch. That is, they are truly excellent.
The point of prog was supposedly to take traditional rock structures and monkey around with them - bend them, stretch them - so from this point of view the Mars Volta are prog. Their music is technical, dense and fractious but repeated listens reveal addictive hooks and an emotional punch that doesn't rely on any big lyrical or musical cliches.
Omar and Cedric, who front the Mars Volta, were also the creative force behind At the Drive-In, another crew of pioneers who battered at the flimsy walls of hardcore until they collapsed in on them. The Mars Volta was devised as an opportunity to take these principles even further. It worked. This album was also made as a tribute to a companion of the pair who committed suicide and woven into Cedric’s verbose lyrics is a passionate requiem for a lost friend. The expansive and unpredictable nature of the music only helps reinforce the fact that we don’t know where we‘re going or where we might end up.
This is pretentious, intense and incendiary. And I mean all of that as a compliment. (Mark Robertson)
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HEP JAM VENDETTA .‘."t““...
(verse)
Listen up motherfucker, this is all about the game. Yeah. it may be wrestling but there's
nothing else the same.
Cos this time there's no such thing as
grown men in tights,
Or Iatex- wearing mullet boys,
fightin‘ fake-ass fights.
It's time to brawl, and kill ‘em all, and put the
wrong to rights.
(chorus) Def Jam Vendetta Def Jam Vendetta
Along come the homies and make the wrestling
betta!
(verse)
Battle through these brawlers,
vengeance is your drive.
Rappers both true and take, try to bury you alive. Though flowing fast and looking great,
With kicking beats and moves to rate,
There's nothing more than gaining score
and violent lust to sate.
(chorus) Def Jam Vendetta Def Jam Vendetta
Along come the homies and make the wrestling
betta!
(verse)
So if throwing homeboys up against the ropes, And beating your boy's highest score is the
greatest of your hopes,
DJ Vendetta is going to do you fine. But please don't cry and please don't whine, Or have a moan that you've got a clone for thirty-
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1.x ,TTHE LIST 107