The Mars Volta, the prog rock giant that was formed out of the remains of At The Drive-In, puts full effort into their new live album "Scab Dates". The tracks were recorded on dates between May 2004 and May 2005 on guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's mobile studio. Twenty-one different people contributed to the live performances, and you can tell by the amazing sound of this album.
1. Abrasions Mount the Timpani (4:07) *3 out of 5* A loud guitar screech opens up the album, followed by a bunch of noise and some Spanish spoken words. At about a minute in you can hear some timpani hits. There's a crowd cheering at 1:39, which must signal the band taking the stage. You hear some instrument checks and very cool techno keyboard sounds for the rest of the song, and thats about it. Very creative, but mostly just a track recorded with them setting up.
2. Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt (5:56) *4.5 out of 5* After the sound-checking of "AMtT", "Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt" from De-Loused bursts in. Its shorter than the normal version because it is broken up into different parts over three tracks. You hear some very nice basslines courtesy of Alderete, and Cedric's vocals sound good. very interesting stuff on the guitar from Omar. The song starts to slow at about 3:40, and then there is some woodwind work. Some nice guitar sounds come in at 4:35, with a guitar solo at 4:55. The rest of the band comes in at 5:17, and end the song on a very loud note. Very good song.
3. Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt: Gust of Mutts (2:34) *4 out of 5* Another cool sounding part to Take The Veil, with a cool scratchy guitar intro. Cedric sings weirdly in this song, in a good way though. The drumwork is very nice on this track. It sounds very experimental, and leads into the next part extremely well.
4. Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt: And Ghosted Pouts (4:52) *4.5 out of 5* Starts off with more cool guitar effects. Cedric has some more extremely high pitched "oohs" until about 1:30, where he sings normally until 1:55, where the song stops for about five seconds, to branch into a slower part, with some nice guitar by Omar. Cedric starts singing again at 3:14, and at about 3:25, the whole band starts to go pretty crazy. The song ends very nicely with everything perfectly in unison.
5. Caviglia (2:45) *3.5 out of 5* Starts off with some more sound. Cedric sings some stuff in what seems to be Spanish at around 1:20, with just effects going off behind him. Seems to be another experimental track, ending with nothing too special happening.
6. Concertina (4:17) *5 out of 5* Busts right through from the last song, but quiets down within the first five seconds. Omar's guitar is wailing the whole time until the chorus. The chorus is filled with all different things on all instruments, the drums especially. The second verse is like the first verse musically, but through most of it the vocals are in Spanish. The chorus comes around again the same as last time. Some horns start to come in during an instrumental part at 2:30, where the drums are certainly kicked up a notch. The vocals come back in, still as good as before. The vocals trail off near the end, and you can hear cheering.
7. Haruspex (5:23) *5 out of 5* More experimental stuff (with AMAZING drumming by Jon Theodore) until about 1:35, when Cedric lets out some powerful vocals, to bring in part of the song. They seem to keep the experimental stuff going, with great guitars and drums after Cedric sings again at about 2:25. At about the 3:05 mark, you can hear the up-front keyboard sound, which is extremely good. Another break-like part around 3:50, with some more keyboard stuff around 4:10, which lasts for the remainder of the song, with some vocals from Cedric near the end.
8. Cicatriz (8:16) *5 out of 5* The final part to this CD is the part "Cicatriz" which is divided among five tracks which makes up more than half of the album (about forty-two minutes). There's what seems to be a nice opening to the song until the 1:30 mark where more sound come in. But at 1:49, the whole band literally EXPLODES back into the song. Its a little hard to understand Cedric's vocals at that point, but the music is so great it doesn't matter too much. The great musicianship continues on through the verse, but quiets a bit so you can hear the vocals. It goes back into the intro part, which then at 3:13 starts a mind-blowing guitar solo from Omar, which goes on until about 3:57, which is when the keyboard solo-like part seems to come in. Some great keyboard work by Ikey until 4:33 where Cedric's vocals come back. This time backed with amazing drumming from Theodore. This branches off into another solo-type portion by Omar at around 5:10. Cedric's vocals come back in at about 5:50, and the song slows down once again. Some more instrumental stuff at 6:10, and that goes on until the seven minute mark, when Cedric's vocals start to come in. He continues on with Omar still shredding away, and the amazing guitarist continues with an effect on until about 8:05, and the song breaks into its next portion. This song is long, but if you have enough patience to sit through it, you will love it. Best song on the CD by far.
9. Cicatriz Pt. I (2:33) *4 out of 5* A slower part of the Cicatriz portion, with some nice guitar, bass, and keyboard work throughout. Cedric's vocals sound extremely good on this song as well. It starts to speed up near the end when Omar breaks into another solo, which through more than half of it, Cedric sings over. The track ends with more great keyboard work.
10. Cicatriz Pt. II (7:39) *5 out of 5* You can hear people clapping along to the beat at the beginning of the song. Alot quieter vocals by Cedric with a single guitar riff repeating in the background until more instruments start coming in at 1:35. A great vocal by Cedric at 2:13. Then, what sounds like a dying guitar riff occurs afterward. The band keeps going with the keyboard mimicking the guitar riff. Another solo at 3:32 by Omar, this one with just the repeating guitar riff in the background. Definitley thinking outside of the box when he used this solo, which goes on for a while, even after the drums come in. The solo finally ends at 6:48, and the guitar makes some pretty interesting sounds again. And end with every instrument crashing into each other.
11. Cicatriz Pt. III (4:27) *4 .5 out of 5* Seems to be another track that just makes everything come together. The insanity of Omar's guitar continues on into this song, and continues throughout, despite the lowered speed and volume of everything else. Cedric's vocals sound better on this song possibly than any other song on the album, probably more so because it gets more of a spotlight part. Bridges into the last part of the song at the end.
12. Cicatriz Pt. IV (20:00) *4 out of 5* The twenty mintue monster "Cicatriz IV" starts out with some cool keyboards and uses lots of sound effects and spoken word during a portion of the song where the instrumentation is brought down. It does this numerous times, only to break into the music again. What you can hear behind the spoken word sounds good, but its still very hard to hear behind it. I don't know if the guys did this on purpose, but I personally don't like it. You can hear some nice horn work at 2:45. The spoken word is still continuing on, covering up most of the music. It was tolerable at first, but after five minutes, it starts to get annoying. It continues until about 9:30, where the drums crash in to start a cover-up on the spoken word. Its still there, but its a lot less obvious than before. At around 10:45, when Cedric starts to sing, it seems to have disappeared completely, and the music is faster paced. At about 12:20, a breakdown like section music-wise comes in. It continues like this until about 16:30 where it starts to speed up. Everything seems to have come in by the 17:05 mark, speeding up again. Some more up-front keyboards at around 17:40, which last for a good 45 seconds, until Cedric's singing comes back in. I must say that Cedric's vocals sound better live than recorded. Especially at the vocal high point during the last minute of the song. The set ends with the crowd cheering and Cedric saying "Thanks for coming out everybody. Now go home and take a bath!" If it wasn't for the spoken word in the first ten minutes, this would probably be a five rather than a four.
This album is the live album of the year. In fact, its probably in my top five favorite albums of the year now. Its truly amazing from start to finish. The good parts outweigh the bad so much. Its not quite a perfect album, but it's extremely close.
Recommended Songs
Concertina
Haruspex
Cicatriz
Cicatrix Pt. 2
Overall Rating: 4.5/5
The Mars Volta is (the eight more known members)...
Cedric Bixler-Zavala: Vocals
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez: Guitars
Jon Theodore: Drums
Isaiah Ikey Owens: Keyboards
Juan Alderete de La Pena: Bass
Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez: Percussion
Adrian Terrazas Gonzalez: Flute, Tenor Sax, Bass Clarinet, and Additional Percussion
Pablo Hinojos-Gonzalez: Sound Manipulation
