No, I didn’t actually see At The Drive In live when I had the chance. All my friends raved about them, but I was too busy being a hippy to take much notice. Hell, I was still figuring out the Dismemberment Plan, and all ATDI’s wiry guitars confused and scared me just a little bit. My brain wasn’t ready for their epic assault until a month before they broke up and splintered into Sparta (yay!) and Mars Volta (blech). Then did I actually sit down and check out what all the fuss was about. Man, I must have missed some great 60-person crowd shows. Any case, all the Mars Volta fans who aren’t hip to At The Drive In better be prepared to get their faces ripped off by ATDI with the release of Guitar Hero IV.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 8, 2008 — Huntington Beach, CA

Pick up your guitar and shred along to “One Armed Scissor” by At the Drive-In this summer on Guitar Hero IV. The game will be released this June on all major platforms including Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, PC, Mac and Nintendo DS. At The Drive-In will have their track included along with rock giants such as Aerosmith and Def Leppard.

The track “One Armed Scissor” originally released on Relationship and Command still continues to stand the test of time. It has been recognized by Spin Magazine as one of the “Top 100 albums between 1985 and 2005″ and by Time Magazine as an album that, “deftly combines punk ferocity with artful though sometimes inscrutable lyrics.”

From The Beaumont Club in Kansas City, MO, Jan. 25th, 2007. Photos by Anna Perry. Read a full review of the show, written by Crystal Wiebe, at Synthesis.net. More photos after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not that I’m against scream-y post-jazz prog odyssey nonsense, nor do I find Euro-Fros that offensive, it’s just that in my opinion Sparta wins over Mars Volta in the post-At The Drive-In rock contest. Still, a million and one hipsters in tight pants can’t be wrong, so we’re bringing you some tour dates.

December
31 San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

January
9 South Burlington, VT - Higher Ground
11 New Haven, CT - Toad’s Place
12 Providence, RI - Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel
14 New York, NY - Terminal 5
17 Philadelphia, PA - The Fillmore at the TLA
18 Baltimore, MD - Rams Head Live!
19 Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall
21 Toronto, Ontario - Phoenix Concert Hall
01-23 Detroit, MI - St. Andrews Hall
01-25 Kansas City, MO - Beaumont Club

If you thought “Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt,” “Facilis Descenus Averni” or “Tetragrammaton” were rough ones to wrap your tongue around, just wait until you attempt the pronunciation of new Mars Volta tracks like “Wax Simulacra,” “Aberinkula” or “Askepios” from their upcoming album, The Bedlam in Goliath, due out January 28th, 2008. Because it doesn’t matter if you’re from Mexico, Ecuador or, uh, Austin, TX, a word’s a word, man. You can check out four new videos of the band smiling, headbanging, ruling and drooling here. Me, I think I’ll stick to the whole, “Oh yeah, track 4 rocks, but I think track 7’s subtlety is more an extension of the hook on track 6.”

The band will also be part of an online game inspired by the themes explored in their upcoming album. Check it:

Beginning the first week of January, visitors to the Amazon.com music page (http://amazon.com/music) will be the first to experience “Goliath The Soothsayer,” an online game based on The Mars Volta’s forthcoming The Bedlam In Goliath. The game will be available exclusively via Amazon.com from January 2nd through January 29th, the official street date for the new record. Pre-order is not necessary to play to the game.

“Goliath The Soothsayer” is based on the true story that inspired the narrative laid out on The Bedlam In Goliath. Like previous Mars Volta efforts De-Loused In The Comatorium and Frances The Mute, the album is a thematically linked whole, the songs chapters in a bigger story, inspired by real people, places and events. The Bedlam In Goliath chronicles The Mars Volta’s time with the “Soothsayer” a/k/a the Ouija board owned by vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and its mutation from a source of amusement during the tour supporting the band’s Amputechture album into a malevolent psycho-spiritual force that nearly tore the group apart, collectively and individually.

So, yeah. I feel like it’s probably said a lot on this blog site, but this is on some entirely OTHER shit. Now I know why you guys say that. Hopefully, the Volta never opened the portal to strangers with the Ouija, the consequences of which the following photograph details…