Omar Rodríguez-López: Last News

William Earl “Don’t you pretend that I’m not alive” were the first words whispered by the Mars Volta vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s during the group’s reunion stop in New York City on Sept. 29. The tour, in support of a new self-titled record that marks the end of a decade-long hiatus for the Texas rockers, is a reminder not only that the group itself is back but keenly aware of their legacy as a taut, adventurous live act ready to blend genres at a breakneck pace. Their first four records, especially their beloved 2003 studio debut “De-Loused in the Comatorium,” have been a gateway for younger generations of prog fans, fresh to polyrhythms and double-digit song lengths. Yet the band’s final two pre-hiatus albums — 2009’s “Octahedron” and 2012’s “Noctourniquet” — felt like a group in need of a break. This year’s comeback album is perhaps their most far-afield, as it’s their approximation of a pop music, with the average song hovering at three minute mark and produced with a flatter palette than previous work.

William Earl At the heart of maximalist rock outfit The Mars Volta are two friends: guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala. The pair met as El Paso high-schoolers obsessed with punk music, and soon began a creative partnership that lasted through multiple bands, scores of albums and hundreds of explosive live shows.

Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird has been released, showing glimpses of the friendship behind the bands The Mars Volta and At The Drive-In. Watch it below.The clip, issued yesterday (October 31) by Oscilloscope Laboratories, comprises a montage of archival footage from the vault of Mars Volta co-founder and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, with narration about his close and prolific – though stormy – relationship over the decades with Cedric Bixler-Zavala.“I’m glad that God has put us in the same place and the same time,” he says.

Omar And Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird, an upcoming documentary chronicling the relationship between The Mars Volta and At The Drive-In bandmates Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López, has been announced.Yesterday (September 13), Cloud Hill Films released a trailer for the upcoming film, which also tells the story of both bands, explored here through footage captured by Omar Rodríguez-López over the last couple of decades.The official description for the film reads: “A film that charts the artistic and personal relationship between two era-defining artists, Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (At the Drive-In/The Mars Volta), told almost entirely through hundreds of hours of self-shot footage filmed by Omar over the last 40 years.”Watch the trailer for Omar And Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird below.Omar And Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird will premiere at the Raindance Film Festival in the UK on October 28. Further information surrounding the film’s release elsewhere has yet to be announced.The trailer and news of the documentary came ahead of The Mars Volta’s US tour kick-off in Minneapolis on Wednesday, September 13.

The Mars Volta have announced that they will release their first album for more than a decade next month.When it was released in 2012, the band’s sixth album – ‘Noctourniquet’ – received mixed although generally positive reviews, but did not match the commercial success of earlier releases. After touring that album, guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López announced that the band had gone on hiatus while, at the beginning of 2013, vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala said that they had broken up.Both Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala have been hinting at a reunion for several years now, but it wasn’t until June this year that they revealed new music – initially as part of an art installation that appeared in Grand Park in Los Angeles, where they unveiled a portion of their first reunion single ‘Blacklight Shine’.A second single, ‘Graveyard Love’, followed, and now with the announcement of the album – to be titled ‘The Mars Volta’ – comes a third, ‘Vigil’.