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Artist News
The Mars Volta liquefied
By Aly Barchi | Published on Friday 25 January 2013
At The Drive-In’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala has revealed that his other band, prog oddities The Mars Volta, has been… well, disbanded, for real this time. He blames estranged TMV/ATDI guitarist Omar Rodriguez Lopez’s lack of enthusiasm toward The Mars Volta for its demise.
Not that this is a colossal shock; Rodriguez-Lopez first placed TMV on hiatus back in November after the release of 2012’s ‘Noctourniquet’ LP, saying at the time: “I don’t know [if the band will reunite], and I’m not insecure enough to have to ask myself that. It’s like, we’ve done that for ten years, eleven years. Now we’re all doing different things, and everything that we’re doing informs how we express ourselves, and so if that happens then it happens and if it doesn’t it doesn’t”.
Finalising his and Rodriguez-Lopez’s Mars Volta split via a series of tweets, Bixler-Zavala said: “Thank you to all Volta fans you deserved more especially after the way you rooted for us on this album. I tried my hardest to keep it going but [Rodriguez-Lopez’s new band] Bosnian Rainbows was what we all got instead. I can’t sit here and pretend any more. I no longer am a member of Mars Volta … For the record I tried my hardest to get a full scale North American tour going for ‘Noctourniquet’ but Omar did not want to”.
He added he was “still in love” with his and Rodriguez-Lopez’s original collaboration, At the Drive-In, who after an honorary (and well-paid) live reformation last year, haven’t done much else besides declining to make an LP together.
Bixler-Zavala ended the Twit-diatribe with: “To be clear I’m not angry I just wanted to be honest with the people who have allowed me to make a living playing music. What am I suppose to do be some progressive house wife that’s cool with watching their partner go fuck other bands? We owe it to [our] fans to tour”.
Considering the number of projects Bixler-Zavala is involved with outside The Mars Volta, that last jibe about Rodriguez-Lopez’s apparent ‘infidelity’ doesn’t make much sense. Especially since, whilst saying all the above, Bixler-Zavala also happened to note that for his next project he’ll be working alone, with a new solo album in the pipeline.
