just heard the new album:
better than Francis the Mute, maybe on par with Deloused, maybe even better. i need to listen to it some more to let it sink in. bixler does a lot of spanish vocals which are pretty cool. lots of santana-like guitars, plenty of horns and keyboards as well. has a 70's funk vibe to it. very good album.

I personally like Frances The Mute better.
and I'm a die hard Mars Volta fan.

You probably cant understand the singer cause.. half the time he's singing spanish. So yeah, that could do it.

In my never ending quest to dig up old threads

I saw these guys play with System of a Down (pre- this new album). They do indeed rock. Live, they are amazing - to the point where System of a Down don't even sound like they know how to play their instruments in comparison. I absolutely love SOAD though. But I highly recommend Mars Volta live - I kinda wish they would stop touring with other people so they could do a longer set.

they're starting their own tour in 07

Frances, I think, is still my favorite, but Amputechture is certainly an impressive effort. I like that they didn't do a concept album, and made each song more individual. It's different. I like that.

The whole album is actually a story, I dunno what it's about but it has religious views in it.

HINTS:

Song titles

tetragrammaton
day of the baphomets
asilos magdalena
meccamputechture - mecca is in the name

Lyrics

"Bare them sevens, three to a pall" - vermicide - 7: the number of God

"They went and built a capsule in the cyanide pond
Where the holiest of water would have you to drown" - meccamputechture - talking about churches

"Humans as ornaments" meccamputechture - saying that the church is all about image and the very religious catholics are just ornaments of it

just look in each song and you will see references to the church and sanscrit stuff

by the way I like De-loused better

I found out that Amputechture is not a story but the whole album is a criticism of religion (mainly Catholicism), I'd suspect that the different songs are criticisms of different parts and I don't mean to start a religious battle but at the years I spent at a Catholic school I would agree with what they said. Like "humans as ornaments"; that's pretty much what the students at my old school were, we had to follow restrictions on stuff that even affected us out of school such as hair. I'm glad I got taken out, and I have improved tremendously at guitar and my creativity and vocals has just increased a lot. But back to the "humans as ornaments" thing I just don't think it's really right at all. One time they forced all the boys to cut their hair and in a day or two their was a tour of the school and I would say stuff to the parents like "this school is corrupted, don't put your kids here".

That school reminded me of the dark ages, we would get into trouble for slight criticisms of the school, it's crazy. I got suspended for 3 days just for saying I would look back on my time at the school as the worst years of my life. And you might hear the "we would never force our beliefs on anyone" thing but the beliefs are forced on us, heavy too. In our religion class we learned about other religions and how they are wrong. My school must be twisted, well I do live in the richest county of my state (maryland) and I'd think they would be top notch but they (as in the arch diocese) could be crazed on money.

The school really detested rebels. When people would act rebellious they would try to turn the students peers against them, of course none of the kids cared but it is pretty low, especially for someone who is all about serving Jesus.

The catholic church is messed up, it doesn't deserve it's name "catholic" means universal but they close themselves to other religions.

good rant, there's a lot of truth in there.
but about the album, its definitely my favorite mars volta record, and one of my favorite "guitar" records even. i thought they did superb with it overall.

Thanks, they also didn't let the girls where make-up either because they would look like the kind of girls who care about studies and not their appearance. They won't let us have mohawks or anything that is punk or biker looking or anything that would make us look like a rebel. The girls also can't wear eyeliner cause that can make them look gothic and that might drive parents away from applying their kids. It's funny how they try to explain the stupid rules though.

I asked (to the principal): "how come the boys have to have their hair above the eyebrows and can't let it go over the ears"

The principal said: "we want everyone to feel equal" (she also paused before she said it)

Hair length doesn't intimidate people, if that was true everyone would feel like nothing compared to hippies.

If I were to ask them (which I won't) why the girls couldn't wear make-up they would probably avoid it in the easiest way possible, saying "you're a boy, why are you asking?"

I probably believed in God more than any of those teachers, I was an athiest, then agnostic and then when I questioned everything I came to my thinking how there is a God.

I don't believe that the Messiah was the son of God, I believe it was the prophet that would make the biggest effect. He had called God father but everyone does so that doesn't mean anything.

I believe that life is for peace, love and happiness(I'm a hippie who doesn't do drugs).

The church is for: peace, advertising and image.

War sucks, and life is just about having fun and letting go.