At the Drive In

I think this ATDI reunion is a quick festival moneymaker, but it's still pretty cool.

I think after Frances The Mute, Omar started his release 30 solo alums a year schedule, producing everything himself VERY quickly, including his main band. The music suffered as a result, but there are always great moments. I think if you rounded up all of Omar's best music as a solo artist, you'd have 3 or 4 AMAZING albums, which would be absolutely nothing to scoff at.

  On 1/10/2012 at 8:20 PM, Candiru said:

I think this ATDI reunion is a quick festival moneymaker, but it's still pretty cool.

 

I think after Frances The Mute, Omar started his release 30 solo alums a year schedule, producing everything himself VERY quickly, including his main band. The music suffered as a result, but there are always great moments. I think if you rounded up all of Omar's best music as a solo artist, you'd have 3 or 4 AMAZING albums, which would be absolutely nothing to scoff at.

exactly. there are only about 2 or 3 of omar's solo albums (especially 'calibration') that i think are actually good albums to listen to, but the constant need to record & release some twenty-ish album-long variations on the same themes gets real old. i think this has significantly watered down the mars volta focus and created some overly masturbatory material.

deloused at least seems to have some cohesion between tracks and has some sense of focus. for that matter, i think the same for bedlam in goliath.

^^^Its because Deloused was produced by Rubin and influenced by far more drug use IMO that its remembered the most, its a truely unique and amazing album

To support Mr. Mydooms point about the good members leaving, I believe that the quality started slipping when Omar became too cool to play his guitar parts in the studio (See the RHCP pinch hitter) from Amputecture on, and John Theodore who was literally the backbone connecting TMV from pure prog wankery to a little more groovy, old school rock vibe wasn't happy. You can hear the tension on their new stuff, after Theodores departure and even during Amputecture, that dude wasn't playing what he wanted to most the time in that album and it shows.

I've lost interest now!

  On 1/10/2012 at 4:05 AM, Backson said:

you serious?

 

not what they were but still very good.

Agreed, I've enjoyed all of their albums so far. Some more than others of course, but they haven't fizzled that bad. Octahedron was a nice break from the assault of Bedlam. I never assumed it was a permanent shift in direction.

I'm looking forward to the next TMV album and whatever ATDI does...probably just tour. New material would be cool I guess, who knows though.

their third album was ok. everything after that was shit. bedlam sucked. haven't even listened to octahedron because i know it would horrify me.

i'm not sure if this is good news. i just want another prog opera like frances or deloused. those albums changed my life. tmv used to be my favorite band and they turned to shit because of cedric and omar's egos. they kicked out jon ffs, amazing drummer. fuck them. it hurts to see an awesome band fall apart.

  On 1/11/2012 at 6:04 PM, Hoodie said:

they kicked out jon ffs, amazing drummer. fuck them.

And replaced him by an even better drummer (until 2009).

  On 1/11/2012 at 6:04 PM, Hoodie said:

their third album was ok. everything after that was shit. bedlam sucked. haven't even listened to octahedron because i know it would horrify me.

 

i'm not sure if this is good news. i just want another prog opera like frances or deloused. those albums changed my life. tmv used to be my favorite band and they turned to shit because of cedric and omar's egos. they kicked out jon ffs, amazing drummer. fuck them. it hurts to see an awesome band fall apart.

wow, i totally stand on this.

  On 1/11/2012 at 6:15 PM, ericsosh said:

  On 1/11/2012 at 6:04 PM, Hoodie said:

they kicked out jon ffs, amazing drummer. fuck them.

 

And replaced him by an even better drummer (until 2009).

fail. he was touted as a hero but he failed to deliver. though he is good he is no theodore.

I think that parallels can be drawn between TMV and AE in the sense that the limitations imposed on the groups are what made them do their best work and kept them from spiraling into self-indulgent wank.

For TMV, having the band members from the first album kept the 20-minutes-of-meandering-guitar-noodling and 18 tempo/chord changes per song in check. The songwriting on Deloused is so tight, it feels finely crafted, and not like it was just made up on the spot during the recording session in the studio.

For AE, having gear from the 90s forced them to make actual beats and melodies, and their albums felt soulful and emotive, not like the software-tech-demo sound for their later albums of randomly generated music.

i also feel like tmv's first two albums had some really solid backstory in that they were both dedicated to friends that had passed on. maybe that gave them the extra emotional energy to push them from "just ok" into "wow."

with bedlam, they made some shit up about a voodoo doll they bought in an egyptian market or some place, i don't even remember. definitely couldn't recreate the magic of the first two. and at least amputechture still had jon. because:

  On 1/11/2012 at 6:15 PM, ericsosh said:

  On 1/11/2012 at 6:04 PM, Hoodie said:

they kicked out jon ffs, amazing drummer. fuck them.

 

And replaced him by an even better drummer (until 2009).

jon was a lot more than just a drummer. he kept omar in check. do you see what happens when omar is not in check? have you heard his solo stuff?

also, check out this alternate cover art for amputechture:

http://www.smnnews.com/board/showthread.php?t=155042

this band was one of the biggest disappointments ever to me, but i still love them because they introduced me to good music and a totally different culture than what i had been exposed to at the time (i started listening to them in middle school). the first forum i ever posted on was a mars volta forum. seriously, i owe them a lot, so it's extra sad that they are terrible now.

They really haven't fallen off that much, though. Their seams started to show a little bit, but Octahedron is a tight, melodic album and Bedlam in Goliath pairs well with Mastodon. That album totally destroys, actually.

You want to hear a band that has fizzled out, check Interpol. Fuck.

at the drive-in are a superior band to TMV please take that discussion into a new thread.

Time hasn't fared well on ATDI's music

relationship of command is their masterpiece, not sure what you are talking about.

It sounds dated (in the bad way), strained, etc. It was great at the time, but I wouldn't wanna hear it now - only twelve years later. The production is pretty dismal, maybe that's the main problem.

i don't like "good" rock production. not talking about ADI in particular, you just made me think.

specially drums, clean drum production isn't my thing.

I like the "proper" production, whatever that means. Misfits and Burzum have the proper production for their music, so do Pink Floyd and whatever.

ATDI's energy isn't properly conveyed by Ross Robinson's production, it makes them sound screechy, tinny, whiney and even sloppy. A better/proper production would turn all that into energetic, charming, pointed and free flowing instead.

  On 1/13/2012 at 11:04 AM, AcrossCanyons said:

at the drive-in are a superior band to TMV please take that discussion into a new thread.

lol you are always wrong about everything.

also, don't try to bogart my thread

  On 1/13/2012 at 5:20 PM, essines said:

  On 1/13/2012 at 11:04 AM, AcrossCanyons said:

at the drive-in are a superior band to TMV please take that discussion into a new thread.

 

lol you are always wrong about everything.

 

also, don't try to bogart my thread

hot newsflash: watmm member "essines" has enough sand in his vagina to cover canada twice over.

i apologies for wanting to discuss at the drive-in in an at the drive-in thread.

In/Casino/Out was a live studio album, but it doesn't sound as gnarly as Relationship of Command.

Opinions and everything, but like, shit.

in/casino/out is effing awesome, miles ahead of relation of command (imo). also, that alternate cover for amputechture is way cooler than the final thing (last tmv-related post)

  On 1/13/2012 at 5:43 PM, AcrossCanyons said:

  On 1/13/2012 at 5:20 PM, essines said:

  On 1/13/2012 at 11:04 AM, AcrossCanyons said:

at the drive-in are a superior band to TMV please take that discussion into a new thread.

 

lol you are always wrong about everything.

 

also, don't try to bogart my thread

hot newsflash: watmm member "essines" has enough sand in his vagina to cover canada twice over.

 

i apologies for wanting to discuss at the drive-in in an at the drive-in thread.

Right, that's why you're an idiot. because you're discussing a band in a thread. Not because you're just lobbing mounds of shit about in said thread. apollogy not accepted.

my favorite band for years. yayayayaoooooooiiiaaaa!

Cedric and Omar have PhD's in kicking ridiculous amounts of ass. Let it be known.