Tribute to My Favorite Band

My school used to subscribe New Straits Times. Every Wednesday they have this column called Youth2 if I'm not mistaken. They have loads of writing competitions of which I always have this feeling I'm good enough for my writings to be published next week.

I might. Who knows. Thing is, I never tried.

But there was this one title which caught my attention. "Your favorite band." I love music, and I listen to mostly rock, so this should not be a problem. But wait, do I have a favorite band? I like Incubus, their Morning View was great. Coldplay is good, too, A Rush of Blood to the Head is legendary. It was a birthday gift from my friend and the CD was constantly in play in my Walkman.

But neither of them are my favorite bands. I like their songs, I like their albums, but I won't be dying to see them live or in person. They are not like Liverpool or Steven Gerrard.

Flash a few years ahead. I love rock songs. All of my albums are rock. But how do I know what songs are good? What albums should I buy? Radios only play mainstream music, of which most of the very good songs are not played (because most bands think those very good songs are not radio-friendly, thus not releasing them as singles).

I visit Billboard Modern Rock Charts (the link is on the right column of this blog) and see which songs in the top 10 or 20 that I haven't listened to. I downloaded it, and (yup, it is illegal, but I hate when these recording companies are saying it is bad for their music, because) if the songs are good then I'll buy the albums.

Oh wait. The story is a bit different.

I watched Billboard Countdown at Channel [V]. That day, it was Billboard 200 (for albums). There was this unknown band, The Mars Volta? They were at number 4 in the debut week for their album Frances the Mute. So Channel [V] played their first single off the album, The Widow. A very spooky melancholic song, but I don't know, it was infectious to me. Then only I checked on the internet, that the song was in the top 10 in the Modern Rock Charts. (As a matter of fact, it was their only song that ever reached top 10 in the Modern Rock Charts.)

So I downloaded it. I liked that song. But I like thousands of other songs, too.

Figure 1: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is the nerdy specky afro guy, Cedric Bixler-Zavala is the fat bearded guy next to him.

It stayed in my playlist as the only song from that band. Two years then, I still liked that song, and came to me that moment that I suddenly thought, "Hell, this song is damn good!" So I went to my favorite lyrics website (azlyrics suck) SongMeanings (I think I should add this link in the right column, too) and checked on The Mars Volta.

At SongMeanings, you are suppose to interpret the meanings of the song. Instead, people often used this feature to give comments on that song. Generally, the more comments for that song, the more people liked it (I don't know what is the most commented song in this site, but Chop Suey has an insane 800+ comments to date). The most commented song for The Mars Volta is not The Widow, but Televators. One guy even said he wanted that song to be played on his funeral. Wow, I would say that would be the highest tribute you can pay to your favorite song.

So I downloaded the song. There were birds chirping in the first minute or so, but then the next four minutes was, well, indescribable. I might be a little exaggerating here, but to me, that song is incredible. Now I have two The Mars Volta songs in my playlist; I absolutely love both of them. Making music like this, their albums must be good, too.

Figure 2: Omar is the lead guitarist, Cedric is the vocalist. The Mars Volta is pretty much only both of them, but they did have some incredible people working for their albums which include John Frusciante, Flea, Jon Theodore etc.

So I went to CDNOW and read the reviews of both albums (Televators came from De-Loused in the Comatorium). Generally, the views were good for both albums. So I decided to buy it. I rarely backtrack time to buy albums of the past, in fact I never did, I always buy the latest album of the band. But these two albums, I think are worth it.

Oh ya, at that time, I wasn't dying of getting Frances the Mute or De-Loused in the Comatorium. I was dying for City of Evil by Avenged Sevenfold. Their two singles that I've heard - Bat Country and Seize the Day - are amazing. Both clocking past 5 minutes and feature insane guitar solos. These guys are good, and judging from the two songs, the album must be great. But I've searched at Tower Records (by the way, they suck) and Victoria Music Centre (these guys are a bit better) but to no avail. This guy from Victoria Music Centre recommended me to go to Pertama Complex and find this music store which sells imported albums.

So, off I go to my quest. I reached there and found the store. Man, it was incredible. I can't name all of the bands, in fact most of them I never even heard their music. But I can tell, these albums are no household names you can find in your normal music store. The store's name is Acoustic something. Go there dude. It's worth it. And their salesmen knows what they're selling.

So I asked for City of Evil. No got, out of stock already. Waking the Fallen? Same. OK, how about Frances the Mute? "Uh, sorry dude, that one is finished, too. But we have their latest album, Amputechture. You have it already?" They released a new album? I don't know that. How did I missed that in CDNOW?

"Oh, OK, I can try."

So I popped in the album, and I was on my way back to my internship place, Kerteh, Terengganu. I don't want to give a review of Amputechture here, but basically I was astonished with their 16-minute song (and a couple more clocking at over 10 minutes). It wasn't very much what I expected, but as time passes, it began to grow on me. I liked it. Eventually, I loved it. I went to YouTube, watching their live sessions. Man, I love these guys! I have to have Frances the Mute and De-Loused in the Comatorium!

Figure 3: The Mars Volta's albums (chronologically from left to right) De-Loused in the Comatorium, Frances the Mute, Amputechture and The Bedlam in Goliath.

I have all of them now, including their latest, The Bedlam in Goliath, released early this year on 29th of January. I love most of their songs. They have completely revolutionized my music taste. Now, three, four-minute songs are so boring to me. I already hate radio, but now I'm disgusted more than ever. Songs that I used to regard as masterpiece are now just good. Their genre is ambiguous - people have failed to categorize their music. But often people would simply refer them to progressive rock. So, maybe I am destined to love progressive rock? Uh, I am not sure of that. I had that thought, actually. So, I downloaded Dream Theater's Under A Glass Moon and The Glass Prison and Tool's Schism, Lateralus and Vicarious. None of them I liked.

The Mars Volta is an acquired taste, as my mom puts it. It is not the type of music you can like on your first listen. They are not Linkin Park, Red Hot Chili Peppers or System of a Down. Most people would describe their music as random guitar solos, heavy drum pummeling and ambient noise. Well, that was my first thought when I bought Slipknot's Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses. Albums like this takes time for it to grow on you. Once it has seeped in, then only you realize, those 'seemingly random noise' are actually artistry of high craftsmanship.

The whole lengthy post is actually to tell that my current favorite song is Wax Simulacra from their latest album, The Bedlam in Goliath. I do not like this album like I do on their previous three albums, but this song stands out (together with the next song in the album, Goliath). I used to update my favorite song in my Friendster profile, but since I found The Mars Volta, my favorite songs seem to be only from them. I just updated my profile recently (only in the Favorite Music section). One of their albums just overtook my used-to-be favorite album that held the throne for three years (I'll pay the tribute to these two out-of-this-world albums later).

Wax Simulacra, together with Televators and The Widow, I think, are the three most radio-friendly songs by The Mars Volta that can be listened by anyone. Then again, my view is biased. I think Wax Simulacra kicks ass, but even after the release a single, it did not feature in the Modern Rock Charts let alone being #1.

Thinking back, wow, how did Channel [V] played them?