Rockettier Wednesday - The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath - Ilyena

Ok here we go!

RT

Today's band screams for attention, all the way from El Paso, TX. This american band has had participation from active members of the rock music scene such as a LOT of drummers, apparently they don't stand the craziness of this different breed of crazy musicians, and their dearest friends, Flea and John Frusciante, from Red Hot Chili Peppers of course. Also some of their recordings have been played with no underlying track to guide the musicians, only a metronome pulse, forcing each of the musicians to pull out a self-sufficient performance. To me they are pretty accurate.

So... imagine this, you are on the road, touring along Red Hot Chili Peppers, tearing down every venue you play at. After each show you go backstage and come together as a band to play along with a sort of Ouija board or some other sprit connecting device that tells stories... the Soothsayer you call it.

The Soothsayer (connecting device) starts asking the band what they have to offer. This connection that’s set up runs both ways, and the invisible voices begin to speak of their appetites. They threaten oblivion and dissolution, or offer it as seduction. The voices merge as Goliath, a metaphysical unfed saint whose hunger to return to the real world grows more urgent with each connection.

Well wouldn't you try to be carefull with the creepy stuff and close the connection with the spirits you invoke. I probably would but Cedric Bixler Zavala and Omar A. Rodriguez Lopez, being as adventurous as they are when creating music, didn't. They stayed in contact, never offering what the spirits asked for or surrogating themselves. And so Goliath extends his influence. Equipment fails, drummers quit, recording engineer goes inexplicably nuts and studio floods threatening to throw everything to a bottomless precipice. Non-sensical words the board had spoken begin to pop-up in things like mass suicide documentaries... uhhhh. Also the pleads from Goliath sudenly turn into demands and even threats. So you get the idea, things start to become really creepy.

So the band finally starts considering closing the connection. There are a few things you can do to accomplish this. You might want to star by transfering the ownership to someone else, meaning that the poor bastard has to open the connection after you have closed it, or surround yourself with salt, dress white for 7 years, break the board into seven pieces and spray with holy water, or just burry the fuckin thing!!!! The album is based on one of the stories that the board told and therefore has the purpose of lifting the burden that they are carrying by transmiting the ownership to you... muahahahahahaha!!!!! Oh and just to be sure, they burried it. Reminds me of Jumanji... you never know what you may find a few feet under.

Ok so here's the web video that the band is using to promote their album. It's not a great video but it is funny an caricaturesque they way in which they portrait the violent environment in which young people live in.

The Mars Volta - Ilyena

If you are wondering, the writings on the wall are really just the tags, the first is from the artist and the second one is the new drummer's. God that guy can really play!!!

Oh and don't forget to play the point and click thriller game Goliath the Soothsayer to uncover the story that inspired the Mars Volta to produce their The Bedlam in Goliath. It's a real time killer.

See you nexxt Rockettier Wednesday.

Please post comments or suggestions. Rock hard!