The Mars Volta is a musical group who always inspires me to be creative. Their music is an amalgamation of a number of disparate musical elements from musique concrete (using recorded sounds as raw material), prog rock, afro-cuban, salsa and punk. Lead vocalist and lyric-writer, Cedric Bixlar Zavala composes verses in English, Spanish as well as Latin, often times blending two or more words together to form new ones. The group is lead by the maestro Omar Rodriguez-Lopez who has produced or co-produced all of the band’s albums. He’s known for his love of experimentation; as a producer he doesn’t allow the other band members to hear each other’s part while recording. I really like that idea because typically music is a very collaborative process and Omar denies them that so they’re forced to create in isolation which makes for interesting results. The Mars Volta is always going against the grain when it comes to trends. Their songs are extremely long; as opposed to the standard three minute radio song, the track Cassandra Gemini from their second album Frances the Mute is over thirty-two minutes long. Their music is extremely self-indulgent; some tracks will stop abruptly and go in to six minutes of “noise”.
Much of the meaning behind their music is left ambiguous and open to interpretation. That resonates particularly strongly with me because I enjoy art work that challenges the viewer/listener to generate a completely subjective response to what their experiencing which is usually entirely new and something which no one could have predicted. In this way meaning becomes infinite.
P.S. if you’re in to sound design, intermedia, performance art, conceptual art and installations you might like the band The Knife. Check out their live performance in Gothenburg, Sweden on Youtube, especially the songs; We Share Our Mother’s Health, Heartbeats, and Silent Shout.
Some other things that inspire me:
Tricky (Musican/artist/actor) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV1G8v0j28I&feature=related
One Day as a Lion (band: Zac De La Rocha, Jon Theodore) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mKtt7F0rPU
The Knife (Swedish brother/sister duo) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7seDfyXGOw&feature=related
TV on the Radio (band)
Takashi Miike (Director) Graveyard of Honor, The Audition, Ichi The Killer, Full Metal Yakuza etc.
David Lynch (Director) Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks etc.
Robert Standish (Contemporary photorealist painter)
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I actually have a poster of One Day as A Lion on my wall back home. I got it at Vans Warped Tour two summers ago. Good taste, Nate.
ReplyDeleteI love your taste in music! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHey I just checked out we share our mothers health and heartbeats... Those are pretty sweet videos and I enjoy the beats in both. They are a little bit out there but I enjoy things outside the norm. Cool suggestion.
ReplyDelete(brandon r) i like mars volta. i love tv on the radio. sometimes i wonder what other people listen to when they are doing creative work. lately, i find myself listening a lot to final fantasy, grizzly bear, and always...velvet underground.
ReplyDeleteI think that the idea of band members not being able to hear each other's parts as the music is being produced is a really interesting idea Seems like that could have a huge change in the effect and direction of the music. I'm fan of TV on the Radio so I'll have to look up the other bands you posted.
ReplyDeleteI actually really enjoy Mars Volta. I find their music very interesting and catchy. I also like artwork that lets the viewer think and have their own interpretation.
ReplyDeleteEven though I'm not all that into Mars Volta, I can definitely appreciate all of the time and hard work that they put into their music. If you haven't heard them already, I think you should check out Godspeed You!Black Emperor. They've got a similar feel with multi-part and lengthy pieces. Definitely one of my favorites.
ReplyDeletei love art that encourages the viewer to interpret for themselves.
ReplyDeleteI dont know this band and havent heard their musics before, but your idea about the similarity between music and art interpretations is really interesting
ReplyDeleteMars volta and godspeed you black emperor are both pretty rad.
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