bixler, obrien, beckford, carter and collins
halfsie or fullsie
mon 7/14/2008
You may have wondered: are they? A little?
Well, yes. Yes, they are.
Cedric Bixler-Zavala
Age: 33
Lead vocalist for The Mars Volta and now-defunct At The Drive-In. Known for his signature 'fro and spastic dance moves.
Fullsie: Both parents are Mexican.
Soledad O'Brien
Age: 41
Anchor and special news correspondent for CNN. Became famous on geek channel CNET. Full name: María de la Soledad.
Halfsie: Cuban mother and Irish-Australian father.
Tyson Beckford
Age: 37
Model, actor and TV host. Named one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful." Helped make Ralph Lauren hip hop for a minute.
Halfsie: Panamanian grandfather.
Lynda Carter
Age: 56
Actress best known for starring in the '70s TV show "Wonder Woman." Accidental homicide detective.
Halfsie: Mexican-American mother and Irish-American father.
Clifton Collins, Jr.
Age: 38
Actor known for roles in Traffic, Babel and Dead Presidents. Also goes by Clifton Gonzalez to honor his grandfather.
Halfsie: Mexican grandfather.
who's counting
daily dos
fri 4/18/2008
Prog-rockers The Mars Volta are among Rolling Stone magazine's Best of Rock 2008.
The Mars Volta, Beck, Natasha Bedingfield and Blake Lewis.
the music press
tue 1/29/2008
- Prog-rockers The Mars Volta release The Bedlam in Goliath, a concept album inspired by their experiences with an Ouija-like "talking board." "You may scoff and shake your head at their muse," writes the Associated Press, "but the result is a sonic masterpiece." The album has "moments that remind you just how powerful the band can be … but it's exhausting trying to find them," sighs Spin magazine.
- Genre-mashing hipster Beck releases a deluxe edition of Odelay, a two-CD set featuring the original release from 1996 and unreleased material. "[T]he rarities and B sides are so good, they'd add up to Beck's third- or fourth- best album on their own," marvels Rolling Stone. A less enthusiastic The Washington City Paper asks: "[W]as Beck just a hipster doofus who got really lucky with the right producers? Odelay seemingly settled that question for good; too bad its reissue brings it up again."
- British pop singer Natasha Bedingfield returns with her sophomore album, Pocket Full of Sunshine. The Los Angeles Times slams it two-and-a-half stars but gives Bedingfield credit for creating "adult dance pop that's not overly promiscuous, in the sexual or self-promotional sense." Yahoo! Music is bored: "With no risks being taken, the best it can hope for is nice, and very nice though it is, that's never enough."
- Former American Idol contestant Blake Lewis makes his debut with the '80s pop-inspired Audio Day Dream. The New York Times says there's a "little something for everyone … though it probably won’t hold anyone’s focus all the way through." The album gets a "C" from Entertainment Weekly, which pulls no punches: "If Lewis could just find a way to integrate all his early-MTV influences (A Flock of Fat Boys?), well...that album wouldn't be great either — though it'd be less forgettable than this exercise in pop adequacy."
building an army
daily dos
tue 1/8/2008
Check out web videos by The Mars Volta for Wax Simulacra, Goliath, Aberinkula and Askepios, all from their forthcoming album, The Bedlam in Goliath.
The Mars Volta
whodat
fri 1/4/2008
What do you do when your band is called "the next Nirvana"? If you're Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López, you quit and start a new one.
In 2001, the Mexican-American Bixler-Zavala (vocalist) and Puerto Rican-American Rodríguez-López (guitarist) ditched At The Drive-In, a punk-influenced hard rock outfit beloved for its intense live shows, leaving the remaining members to form Sparta. Bixler-Zavala and Rodríguez-López left El Paso, Texas and took their matching 'fros to sunny Long Beach, California where they formed The Mars Volta, a prog-rock band heavy on "experimentation" – something the pair claims was frowned upon in ATDI.
In 2003, The Mars Volta debuted with De-Loused in the Comatorium. Featuring lyrics in Spanish and English, vocals reminiscent of Robert Plant and jagged guitars, the album made psychedelic rock cool again by injecting it with a post-punk sensibility. But just weeks before their first release, one of their members, "sound manipulator" Jeremy Ward, died of a heroin overdose. The duo cite this tragedy as the turning point in their long struggle with some serious drug addictions and have since cleaned up their act. Guitarist Rodríguez-López even gave up alcohol, sugar and caffeine. A sobered Mars Volta returned in 2005 with Frances The Mute and then Amputechture in 2006. Both albums are filled with moody, explosive and dense songs in the vein of '70s rockers Toncho Pilatos, Can and Rush. The lead single from Frances was 12 minutes long.
In the last year, The Mars Volta have toured in anticipation of their forthcoming The Bedlam in Goliath which will be preceded by an online video game (can be played here) and an original poem by Bizarro fiction writer Jeremy Robert Johnson. Either one – or the record – should delight their open-minded fans.
Recommended tracks (iTunes)
wipe your feet clean
daily dos
wed 11/7/2007
Prog-rockers The Mars Volta have announced a new album, Bedlam in Goliath, scheduled for release on January 28 of 2008.
Kat DeLuna, Montéz De Durango, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Bonde do Rolê and Mandisa.
the music press
tue 8/7/2007
- Kat DeLuna releases her debut, 9 Lives, an "eclectic and diverse" album that finds the 19-year-old Dominicana breaking it down "from Spanish, Dancehall to fawwking Opera," exclaims Think2twice. The SF Gate believes the hype: "Unlike most summer sizzlers who fizzle come fall … Kat DeLuna should survive the season's dog days and beyond.
- Agárrese, the new album by duranguense OG's Grupo Montéz de Durango, gets four-and-a-half stars from EsMas.com for its "variety" and for dealing with "difficult social issues." ElPlaneta.com underscores the group's "surprising musical evolution" which "reaffirms why they're the top-selling act in the genre."
- The Mars Volta mastermind Omar Rodriguez-Lopez releases Se Dice Bisonte, No Búfalo, the soundtrack to the film El Búfalo de La Noche. Sputnik Music feels that "Omar should stick to The Mars Volta" because "there are way too many times on the album where the music gets boring, pointless, and repetitious." Webzine Drowned in Sound echoes those sentiments: "Despite the occasional moment of brilliance, there just isn’t enough to maintain interest here."
- With Lasers, the debut album by Brazilian funk carioca dealers Bonde Do Role, should contain just enough "party-starting sex-urge noises" to "get you through a long, hot summer of awkward hook-ups at backyard barbecues," teases Pitchforkmedia. Despite it's "near explosive" energy level, Prefixmag laments that the "party is still too one-dimensional."
- Ex-American Idol finalist and Christian pop singer Mandisa releases her debut album, True Beauty. For The Trades her debut album keeps proving "that it's better to lose on American Idol than it is to win" while Christianity Today is not to keen on Mandisa's "predictable adult-contemporary sentiment," but digs when she's in "her urban-pop turf".
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