Talk To Andreia

[nsalwia]

Who's better? I have a poll up there, but I would also like to hear the reasons why you think that certain band is better. So yeah, vote...

... I think At The Drive-In (ATDI) blows all of them away, but that's just my opinion.
_________________
spent the look in your eyes
soddered on the rise
frayed into it's heart
trust it's all in kind

reap the shedskins
all on our own
infuse the edges
were all in kind

[Jawbreaker]

mars volta... if anything jim and crew were just holding back cedric and omar from their real vision. sparta wanted to play rock music too much, and tmv wanted to make music that didnt make guitar the front instrument. they respected the other instruments just as much, cause all of them tools for expressing an emotion, and none of the isntruments are better than the other. so they only do whats neccesary.

they make music that has so many levels... blows away any normal rock band that arent drying to defy whats normal for music, they arent goin to pin themselves into a corner/genre like sparta. they are true musicians that truly all see eachothers vision. im glad atdi broke up, cause what they were rally tryin to say is finally being put across. even cedric himself said he couldnt stand some of the songs off of relationship of command cause they just werent the feel he wanted.

i know exactly how he feels.

spartas debut was just another rock album, mars volta was just another musical classic up their with the likes of led zepplin and pink floyd.

[nsalwia]

yeah, i just realized, i didn't state why i though ATDI ruled all...

...as for my opinion, i can see what you are saying kris, they [tmv] really aren't my thing. i respect them as musicians, but i personally don't like the music, it doesn't feel right to me, feels too much like a fusion jazz jam band to me. televators is the only song i really like by them, oh yeah and intertia i think, that one is pretty cool to. i will probably end up buying hte album and taking more of a listen to try and hear what you guys are... but im not sure if my stubborn ears will listen, hehe.

...anyways, i think ATDI because they just rocked so hard. when i first heard them, i didn't think to much of them, i probably hated them, sometimes it takes me a while to get used to a band, really hear them [probably how tmv will turn out, don't call me a traitor, that's just how my mind works]. anyways, after really getting into ATDI, i realized how much work jim ward and co. put into that album [relationship of command], they put so much time into getting everything right, and as a bassist, that album is a wet dream for a bassist. he pulls some incredible tunes from out of his ass, alot of neat fills and all around riffs to all of the songs. they really evolved into what their sound should of been in "roc" i believe. they had such a different sound, and i respected that, it was different, but it wasn't too much for the ear to take in, and that's what i loved about At The Drive-In...

...any takers? hehe
_________________
spent the look in your eyes
soddered on the rise
frayed into it's heart
trust it's all in kind

reap the shedskins
all on our own
infuse the edges
were all in kind

[The Cock]

This is such a tough question being an enormous fan of all three of these bands. Sparta definately gets the bottom rung simply because they didn't try anything new and just came out to make a kick ass rock record, which there is nothing wrong with that in anyway shape or form, wiretap scars is amazing but...they just didn't bring anything really new to the table, just killer riffs. At the Drive-In is probably my favorite band of all time, i've never seen a band progress in their particular genre as them and just made the most intense and emotional music i've ever heard. Every member put their soul into the songs and the culmination of their efforts paid off in Relationship of Command, one of the greatest albums of all time. And now, Mars Volta comes around and makes me think that At the Drive-In wasn't that great...Its really frustrating when you love a band so much and think they are tops and then another comes out and just totally changes your perception on music. Mars Volta has come out to make the best record i've ever heard. Its flawless and makes it impossible to skip a track. Cedric is now my favorite vocalist of all time and in the top 5 for lyricist. They came out to just bring back the roots of 70s rock that inspired the current music scene and changed what people thought was rock back in the day. Zeppelin, Floyd, Black Flag, Santana all ring as influences but never the basis of imitation, there is just some thing so electric about their music and i can't put it down. The layerd sounds, gut wrenching vocals, beautiful arrangements and balls out approach to music just destroys anything that has come out in the last decade. Granted, for some this masterpiece may be a little much at first, but how did you feel the first time you heard Floyd or Zep or Abraxas? Give it time, let it sink in and you will never let go of it, I promise. If you compare this first album with wiretap scars or acrobatic tentement then there is simply no comparison and if it is any indication of things to come for Mars Volta, then they will be the greatest band that has ever lived. Although, it just blows me away how much genius can come out of one band such as at the drive-in which is why they get my vote for being the basis for all this wonderful music. Thank you atdi for being the best thing to happen to music....
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The new STYX album is comprable to a parking lot full of whale vomit.

[nsalwia]

I've listened to the entire album all the way through about 3 or 4 times now, and I just don't like most of it. It's too unorganized, and it seems that they are trying so hard to do something different that they just throw things in random places. The music doesn't need to stop every 5 seconds and kick back in, it's pretty annoying. I like 3 songs = Inertiatic, Eiaritarka?, and Televators... other then that, it just seems that they are developing alot of potential to be a great band, but every great band needs to progress, so we will see how far their creativeness can go....


...as for this being the best album you ever heard, that's straight up blasphemy in my opinion... The Wall, Dark Side of the Moon, Physical Graffiti, Led Zepplin? come on, i think Mars Volta is alright at best, but nothing compared to the above.
_________________
spent the look in your eyes
soddered on the rise
frayed into it's heart
trust it's all in kind

reap the shedskins
all on our own
infuse the edges
were all in kind

[James]

Christ. I just don't get it. Comparing any of these 3 bands to anything Zeppelin or Floyd did is ridiculous. I think ATDI was a solid band, but it isn't anything Rage didn't do much much better. Sparta is just a rock band, certainly not a bad thing but I do prefer ATDI. As for Mars Volta.... they seem to be doing different things for the sake of being different. It's quite obvious omar just doesn't have a feel for creating music. There's no reason to have 5 ultra-fast parts and 5 incredibly slow parts in the same song, let alone every song on the album. He's lucky that Cedric is around to save his ass, because there are some amazing vocals that I do like a lot more than anything Cedric did in ATDI. From what I've heard and seen so far, the only good live one is Sparta. ATDI from what I've seen is just awful. I can't imagine how terrible Mars Volta is. Best rock record of the year easily goes to the Deftones. I just wish they'd get rid of Stef, he holds everyone back. I love Cedric's vocals, but I still gotta give Chino the nod. I guess it's the difference between being a bigger Cure and Smiths fan or a classic 70's rock fan. Cedric doesn't sing anything in his vocal riffs truly original. Chino never sings in line with the music and always has a way of singing a song that nobody else could think up. And lyrically, I think we could all agree there isn't a contest.
_________________
i left the horizon
curled up and frozen still
the tilting of the hourglass
with all this time to kill

[Jawbreaker]

while sparta is a decent rock band, THAT IS ALL THEY ARE! the lyrics are decent, but the music itself is unoriginal. its just rock n roll, and there aint anything wrong with that, but when your comparing it to bands like ATDI or TMV its almost unfair.

Atdi took normal old punk rock/hardcore and put a major spin to it. they put creativity into punk. punk is a pretty boring genre. they are like blackflag on acid. they took a genre plagued with millions of horrible bands and made themselves stand out. they had an amazing live show, ive got a million videos to prove that, its too bad i didnt get to see them.

then there is The Mars Volta.

try to put them in a genre... no go ahead, ill give you a minute.

it would almost be unfair to cram them into a genre, and put a limit on their sound. they are a rock band, but thats about as far as you wanna take it in classifying. i know off the biggest guitar message board i read, harmonycentral.com alot of fans of dream theater, rush, and YES are all loving this band because their compositional skills. they are able to make such complex music just like dream theater or rush. they are the bastard step child of prog rock.

i heard someone complain about how their are five million different parts to one song. well, if anything this is a good thing. by never repeating their last part, they are telling a story with their sounds and words, showing progression. fallin into the rut of verse chorus verse chorus is so common these days. a song is essentially a story, a message or something. i almost dont understand songs where they just repeat the chors over and over again through the song. it just seems contrived and played out.

i can only dream of being half the musician omar is. omar wrote every song on the cd, except with some help from cedric on drunkship and apparatus (in my opinnion the two weakest on the album)

omar is brilliant. and im right there with some of you; i listen to atdi and watch their live vids and i think, god omar why are you so horrible at guitar, and cedric why are you so un focused and your vocals sound like shit? why dont you sing? your voice is just bratty. while those are also some of the reasons i love this band. and then they released deloused and its like, whoa. omar your guitar work is so amazing on this record, its so different than everythign out there, and copmletely different from everything atdi ever put out. and then cedric comes out with the sexiest voice ive ever heard. its just so beautiful.

speaking of their live shows; this has always been my feel on live shows. id rather see a song by destroyed and then rebulit live then just hera them play the songs as if they just hit play on a cd player hooked up to the PA. i have a recent mp3 of The Mars Volta playing take the veil cerpin taxt live and its like 14 minutes long. it sounds just like the record and then right in the middle, they just jam like their fuckin phish or something for like 6 minutes. and then they bring it all back to end it perfectly.

its almost unfair to compare atdi shows to tmv. with at the drive in, omar struggled like a young kurt cobain tryin to play his little fender. i actually have a video of them playing and half way through one armed scissor, he takes his guitar off and throws it into the crowd. and he just dances around with a tamborine for the rest of the song. on another video i have, cedric at one point gets on the ground durin the chorus and lik ehumping the ground and rolling around.

now, i see videos of the mars volta and its like a complete 180. omar is so focused now. he just stands there and gets his shit done not missinga note while maintaing some energy, although its only half of what he had in atdi. with cedric, his stage presence is all different now, the songs dont call for humping the ground. its a much more mature effort than atdi. he focuses on the vocals alot now, its like singing is the most important part to him, not his stage presence. now he dances like a mother fucker, and itll be a trip to see them play live.

oh yeah, and someone also mentioned something about how there is no need to have starts and stops, like in cicatriz at 5-9 minutes. but you gotta remember this is a concept album, and they are not just tellin the story with their words, they are not just using their music as a vehicle to get the words across. the lyrics, the music, they all have a purpose, there is a reason why things are the way they are. its a story, and everything relates to the other, if their is a big open spaced part in the song, read the lyrics that came just befor eit, and find it in context with the story and it will make sense.

thats about all i can say. deftones are good. they are a rock band. every "rock out" song they have is very similar to the one before it. if you listen to aorund the fur there are like 4 songs that all start out the same with that droning phased/flanged guitar sound kinda like in Lotion. Digital Bath and Rx Queen are sickly alike. adrenaline is like one long song.

the new one i have to give it to them is pretty diverse, but its still obviously deftones, its got the deftones sound, and the "rock out" songs are nothing new. they havent realy changed things much.

and as good as the deftones get, well never forget mini magget.

CAUSE BACK IN SCHOOl!!!!!!!!!!!

-kris

[Jawbreaker]

oh yeah and saying cedric doesnt singin anything truly original....

how many vocalists do you knwo could pull out a line like,
"Transient jet lag ecto mimed bison
This is the haunt of roulette dares
Ruse of metacarpi
Caveat emptor....to all that enter here"

and still make it sound like it was just meant to be that way.

pshh, i could sing that in a minute, just give me a riff to sing over.

or, Trackmarked amoeba lands craft
Cartwheel of scratches
Dress the tapeworm as pet
Tenticles smirk please
Flinched the cocooned meat
Infra-recon forgets "

[James]

Sounds oddly like a drug addict to me.
And from what I've heard Omar wrote all the lyrics anyway.

It's just preference overall I guess. I love focused music with everyone playing off of each other for the good of the band. Mars Volta is more along the lines of a jam band with everyone showing off their skills instead of working together. I think Cedric is an amazing singer for sure. And I'm psyched that Omar and Cedric got their shit together live. I think we can all agree that they sucked hardcore ass live in ATDI. If ATDI were as big as creed, they would've been sued every show. Not to say the Deftones haven't had their share of bullshit live because I can attest to it. But the Deftones in the past (and especially recently) are sounding amazing and it's always insanity when they take the stage. I'm not quite sure what you're talking about when you say Digital Bath and Rx Queen sound alike. Quite honestly I can't find one similiarity besides the fact that they're on the same record. Back to School was a colossal nightmare I think we can all agree too. Even Chino openly states that was the worst move of his career.

For some reason I just find the drums really annoying on the Mars Volta as well. Whoever is on drums is way too sporadic and doesn't have any stability which is required since Omar is all over the place on guitar. Having dynamics in a song is awesome. Zeppelin was amazing at it. Recently I think the Smashing Pumpkins are the only band to master it (Thru the Eyes of a Ruby). But with Omar it just feels forced when he slows everything down. I think "Ticks and Leeches" has the worst example of bringing a song to a halt at the worst possible moment (tool/lateralus). Omar just doesn't have a feel for doing it. It fucks up the flow and makes everything sound scattered. I love bands that don't conform to the verse/chorus/verse thing. The reason most bands do is because it usually always works. If you're gonna be original it's gotta sound like it flows. Radiohead does that better than anybody, "Paranoid Android" is a perfect example.

The Deftones just keep shocking me. Stef still writes the most retarded guitar riffs over and over. He just refuses to have any desire to grow or evolve. But Chino keeps making things sound amazingly fresh. And when Chino does write all the music and vocals (Digital Bath, Rx Queen, Knife Party - I think, Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event) I think the Deftones are better than anyone in music right now. But if they would ditch Stef they could really start growing. Chino is an unreal vocalist, Abe is a killer drummer, and Chi just has a feel of how to complement songs.

And lets not take potshots at Cobain. I don't think anyone is going to mention any current band alongside his name. Because nobody is worthy of it.
_________________
i left the horizon
curled up and frozen still
the tilting of the hourglass
with all this time to kill

[Jawbreaker]

kurt was a whiny heroin addict.

some music is created for those who can comprehend and take more in, mars volta is one of those bands; you really gotta be able to take in so much complexity. if not, stick to riffrock like deftones.

cedric and the late jeremy ward wrote all the lyrics. omar was the brains behind the actual music.

the drummer jon theodore is an accomplished drummer who went to haiti and studied sacred polyrhythms. i dont think i could ever question his drumming. his drumming really sets the moods for all the songs. everythin he plays is neccesary, and without his drumming, the album would have lost half its feel. he never shows off... he leaves tha tup to mike portnoy.

there are two types of people in this world...

those who like pink floyd pre gilmour, and those who like pink floyd post barrett... where do you stand?

[James]

Alright man, I'm about done talking about this. I said before we probably just had differences. No offense, but Mars Volta isn't comparable to Jesus Christ in it's godlike message and complexity. They have their unique style and are original at times, but I just don't get trying to throw these guys in with the likes of Jimmy Page and David Gilmore. It's irrational. I keep hearing about the complexity. There's more going on in 1 Smashing Pumpkins or Hum song than there is on the entire Mars Volta album. I certainly don't see a Zeppelin or Floyd like career in their future, and that's what it takes to be compared with the likes of legends. Something Cobain didn't have trouble pulling off better than anyone in the last 25 years.
_________________
i left the horizon
curled up and frozen still
the tilting of the hourglass
with all this time to kill

[Ryan]

[The Cock]

Wow, this is getting a little too intense...Being a fan of all these bands that are being discussed, Mars, Deftones, Nirvana, Floyd, Zep, etc., its not really right to compare them...I'll start with mars, we all know that i love them to death and that i think they are amazing in every way shape and form, just beautiful amazing music. I agree with some of the people's complaints about them, but frankly, i really don't care and it doesn't affect what i take out of it. Yes, at times it sounds unorganized, but at the same time, all the songs have such build up and they change them up so much that these small moments of "noise" are sort of like hints at greater things to come and when you hit the part in the song with the really amazing flow, vocals, whatever, it makes it sound that much better. Its just all built up so well i can't even fathom. You just have to have a tremendous amount of patients with this band. Just like Floyd, Sigur Ros, Godspeed, live Zep, etc...Ok, the Deftones, no one can talk shit about them...in their catagory, they are by far the best straight up rock band out and blow every other hard rock preformance i've heard away, even live, and i've seen alot of shows. Its completely different than mars because they are much more focused on flow and driving simplicity than something like mars with many different instruments and effects and shit like that. Brilliant group. The reason Mars keeps getting compared to zep and floyd is simply because they are approaching thier music in the same fashion, they don't sound like either bands, they just have that feel of doing something really complex, putting a shit load of emotion into it and just rocking your socks off. Cedric totally sings like Plant and i think that is the biggest similarity. Thedore is alot like bohnam with his insane use of fills and bare bones set. Mars Volta is also EXTREMELY fusion jazz influenced and i know alot of you guy don't like that kinda stuff, which i'm totally into, so i can completely understand you not really liking it. Its just not your thing and the way that we look at music i'm sure that when you hear mars its like "what the fuck?" But i'm glad you took a listen and that you can respect what they're doing. I still think that nothing i've heard since atdi or rage or deftones has had this much energy and intensity. When i listen to it, i just want to jump off something and scream my lungs out. I can't contain myself and i'm sure when i see them live i'm gonna nut everywhere. So maybe its just me and kris but whatever, i love it to death and i can't get enough. And yes, portnoy totally just shows off and isn't half as good as everyone thinks he is. Gene, Max, and Buddy are all amazing too. Thedore's style is just really different and i think flows very well with the music. And i was listening to it this morning and trying to think of what other kind of style would fit, and i honestly can't think of anyone else, except bohnam, that could do it. So that's my peace, lets stop the hating on all these great bands and look for the positive stuff in thier art and not what we can find wrong with them or how else they could play their stuff. Cause they are what they are and you need to take the music as is and find what you love in it, cause if you're constantly looking for shit to not like and change in the music you listen to, then you'll never like anything except the small group of bands you base all your comparison off of and miss out on alot of great stuff...unless someone starts talking about R.E.M., i hate those motherfuckers.
_________________
The new STYX album is comprable to a parking lot full of whale vomit.

[Jawbreaker]

im just gonna leave it at this... the reasons you dislike it are the exact reasons im in love with it.

unstructured at first. if they stuck to normal song structures, it would just be atdi 2. who wants to make something so plain and simple as playing verse chorus verse chorus music. they wouldnt be doin anything revolutionary in music; tryin to make people look at music differently and influence future musicians to create something truly ground breaking.

the great thing about not having a set structure is you never bore the listener. you are forever intrigued by them because of their ability to change it up and stay strong and flow.

i dont believe multiple layers of guitars makes a band complex (pumpkins, hum). the complexity is in the songwriting and the structure. not if they have one hundred layers of a different guitar riff... then it just becomes muddy mushy noise.

im done though. some minds just cant handle their music.

[Jawbreaker]

and "monster" by r.e.m. was fantastic