OFF: The Mars Volta and more

[Paul Mather]

On Fri, 2005-03-04 at 12:04 +0100, Alex S. Garcia wrote:

> > I read great stuff about Mars Volta on Jambase.com and gather they're
> > gonna be at Bonnaroo this year, but haven't yet actually heard their music!
>
> I've only heard three songs (singles) by them so far and I'm extremely excited
> about this band. I'm looking forward to buying their CD's.
>
> On a side note, one of these songs ("Intertiatic ESP") reminded me SO much of
> Led Zeppelin, it was eerie.

There are a couple of live shows and live DVDs up on the EasyTree
BitTorrent site (http://www.easytree.org).  I just grabbed the
2005-02-23 Paradiso, Amsterdam show from there, along with a DVD of an
appearance at the 2003-08-29 Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands.

I've listened to the Paradiso show and give it a thumbs up.  The
previous comparisons posted here seem fairly accurate.  I'm definitely
going to hunt out their studio releases, because it'd be great to hear
this material recorded properly.  (There's usually a lot going on at
once, often frenetically so, and the audience recording doesn't really
do it justice, IMHO.)

You can also apparently grab MP3s of The Mars Volta shows, demos, etc.
from http://www.thecomatorium.com/.  Take a look in the "media" section
of the site.

Cheers,

Paul.
--
e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa