Is The Mars Volta the new Radiohead?

Following this week’s theme of celebrating 7’s one-year anniversary by turning over the job of critics to readers (see cover story on page 16), here’s an excerpt from an e-mail correspondence with fellow Spokane blogger Luke Baumgarten. The topic is a comparison between bands The Mars Volta and Radiohead:

Luke: “… is The Mars Volta the new Radiohead?”

For that to be true, TMV would have to make meandering but thematically uniform music with cohesive lyrics and a commitment to craft over ego.

(TMV’s second album) “Frances the Mute” shows the exact opposite. It’s an excuse to play around with bleep machines and indulge teenage lust for gnarly guitar solos set against salsa percussion. Formless prog regurgitate.

(TMV band members) Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez have been preoccupied with flexing lyrical nuts since At the Drive-In (a previous band featuring two of TMV’s band members), and now that they don’t have anyone to ruin their fun, it’s all nonsensical poly-syllables and prostitute references.

Further: Radiohead has never written a song title in Latin.

TMV = Radiohead might have worked better just after “De-Loused in the Comatorium.” Now they’re more like Smashing Pumpkins after the Batman and Robin Soundtrack.

Isamu: Interesting point. I’m surprised you don’t find “Frances the Mute” to be “meandering but thematically uniform” (the super-Latin touch being one of many uniform themes throughout the album). You don’t get much more meandering than the opening track.

To me, The Mars Volta came up with a relatively unique sound in “De-Loused,” and then threw all sense of compromise out the window to fully indulge their creativity in “Frances,” winning over fans while giving the finger to contemporary pop music and any radio potential. In my little bizarro world, “De-Loused” is the “OK Computer” that led to the “Kid A” equivalent, “Frances the Mute” (if I were to make a comparison to Smashing Pumpkins, it would be “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”).

Not that TMV and Radiohead sound remotely alike, but the principles and impact seem to be following the same pattern.

Wasn’t “Kid A” just an excuse to play with new toys?

And I’m as reluctant to call (Radiohead’s Thom) Yorke’s lyrics cohesive as I am to say Bixler- Zavala’s are not.

Luke: That’s not a bad analogy really, I get where you’re coming from. Though I think there is a crucial difference. You’re probably right that both bands have had a stepping off point – “Kid A” and “Frances” – distancing themselves from the mainstream, but I think they stepped in opposite directions. Or perhaps, took opposite approaches.

This is my personal thing, but I hate solos (guitar, drum, otherwise) in pop music more than anything. Hate Santana. Barely survived the ‘80s. They’re tangential and destroy a song’s rhythm. They represent the worst of rock star hubris.

I also think there is a difference between lyrics that employ veiled imagery and symbolism and lyrics that stab at poesy with mindless poly-syllabism.

Compare TMV’s “Miranda, that Ghost …” with Radiohead’s “How to Disappear …” Neither song has a particularly explicit intent, but I think the latter actually means something. “Through an ice pick of abscess reckoning” – TMV’s been writing lines like that since At the Drive-In, and it’s a formula that pops up pretty often: Vaguely dangerous implement (icepick) + some sort of wound (abscess) + an accusatory or judgmental noun (reckoning) that sounds good with the first two = an AtDI or TMV lyric.

When you have two egomaniacs like Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez- Lopez constantly trying to one-up each other with ever-zanier instrumentation and ever more ostentatious lyrics, you can never hope to have cohesion. The fundamental difference between them and Radiohead, in my opinion, is that while both bands “(gave) the finger to contemporary pop music and any radio potential,” I think TMV were simultaneously giving each other the finger as well.

Radiohead, even in its most experimental moments, feels like a band. “Frances the Mute” sounds like a Santana album featuring Slash that has been given over totally to the forces of ego and entropy.

Read more on this subject at www.spokane7.com/soundwave. Feel free to drop me an e-mail to weigh in on the discussion. –Isamu