Taking Sides: The Mars Volta vs. Sparta

Although the Mars Volta can be fucking tedious and onanistic, I think they're more interesting than Sparta. Sparta sounds kinda dime-a-dozen to me.

I have always liked both bands.

I bought the new Mars Volta yesterday. It's good but not much different from their other stuff.

Actually, I'm starting to get tired of the Mars Volta thing. It just seems like TOO much going on the whole time. Can actually cause headaches.

More interesting yes but I'm not sure anymore if that's enough anymore.

Hate 'em both, passionately.

Yeah Mars Volta is interesting. But I agree, too much is going on at once, especially Wax Simulacra.

Still, they are better than Sparta.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eik6dKEljtE

Still love this song.

Those first two Sparta records are great, though they sound exactly like what I imagined At the Drive-in would minus the Mars Volta fellows. Meaning pretty straightforward emo.

Are they? I bought Wiretap Scars but never really listened to it much. This would've been sometime between 2002 and 2004.

Yeah, I think so. Punk rock with oblique yet really bright melodies, sometimes given to slow grandeur, lyrics that seem to severely engage with nothing--these are the hallmarks of mid-'90s emo.

Or perhaps you were asking if they were great? Because: Yeah, I think so. I checked Wiretap Scars out of the library back in 2003 and endured some intense inner wrecking to "Collapse" and a few others. Porcelain is more pretentious but also more consistent.

Yeah, I was asking about your claim that they were great. Hm. I really like "Cut Your Ribbon," so maybe I should go back and revisit that record.

weird wrecked 2010-me is still very right about those first two sparta records

threes is only half-good though, overwhelmed by u2-isms i.e. half-written songs

Mars Volta is trying... Although they are also trying my patience. I liked the debut album but that was pretty much it. Saw them a handful of times but only once - a show where they played their songs relatively straight - was captivating. Other times they went off into Grateful Dead jammy bullshit and bored me.

Whereas Sparta seemed too formulaic for my tastes and didn't even manage one album that I liked and were always boring.

So... Mars Volta wins by attrition.

guess i find trad emo pretty compelling.

rocked both the mars volta EP and sparta album really hard in 02. was kinda over them both by 03. friends mocked sparta for being so emo, and i was like whatevs man!!!! cut your ribbon was definitely my shit, i'd probably give the sparta record a nostalgia listen before the MV

just watched that cut your ribbon vid up there, yep, it still rules

The only record I really like at this point by either band is Porcelain.

SpartaVEVO

porcelain is really great. "hiss the villain" is probably their fiercest non-"cut the ribbon" song and the extended coda of "from now to never" is just gorgeous imo. only real flaw of the record is the strange reedy guitar tone, an unwelcome shift from all the gorgeous tones on wiretap scars

i say "gorgeous" a lot in reference to sparta apparently

haha this song is so awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSdxLcJNnho

lmao this thread sure is a trip

anyway been enjoying threes a lot lately, "erase it again" is my favorite sparta song. porcelain still kind of a masterpiece for what it is

wtf at my last post, Porcelain rules!!

I need to give Threes another shot; it left absolutely no impression at the time. Also they have a couple odd loosies they've released over the last few years, I hope they can make a proper comeback sometime

err by which I mean Wiretap Scars rules, I already got Porcelain right

Yeah, I think so. Punk rock with oblique yet really bright melodies, sometimes given to slow grandeur, lyrics that seem to severely engage with nothing--these are the hallmarks of mid-'90s emo.

― Brad Nelson (BradNelson), Tuesday, June 29, 2010 11:20 AM (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

getta load of this asshole etc.

loolll I don't have the courage to even read any posts I made that long ago

cranking "Breaking the Broken," Jim is not really a "good" singer in like any sense but has a strangely comforting presence?

i love his voice sooo much

also i'm glad you came around to wiretap scars, the soundtrack of me playing pokémon in high school

lmao I literally bought in on release day, or at least week, I think? I remember it came out at a special discounted "these won't move otherwise" major-label-dump price (see also Source Tags and Codes). but of course my HS ears were more impressed by Deloused in the Comatorium

no idea why i was so mean to threes upthread. well, idk, it really isn't as good as porcelain and it's sooo weird, a lot of the arrangement choices smack of identity crisis (gospel choir on the last track!). and yet... most of the songs are pretty strong

(gospel choir on the last track!)

lmao please strike this from the record, it is not a "choir," it is merry clayton, i'm a dumbass

it's still a very odd choice but she sounds great

I'm retrying Threes for the first time since it came out - yeah, not sure why I recoiled at the time, this is perfectly nice!

new Sparta album! new song!

https://youtu.be/D5NdMveyam8

kinda underwheling and Jim sounds weird but it's nice that they're back

*underwhelming

seconded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTh_B76-LVM

this is the best sparta song

I think "Collapse" is my single fave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIaTkZEJNNM

oh this is much better. video is lol

oh yeah this is much more my speed

You know what ATDIverse band I loved? Antemasque. no one seemed to vibe heavy with that album but me.

they recorded a second album that never came out

aw mannnnn

the new Sparta won't kick Porcelain off its pedestal but it's pretty solid, with a few surprises ("spirit away" sounds like....Madrugada??)

I dimly recall being disappointed in first alb or ep, but will check this. Even more dimly recalled covering MV in Voice---thought there was more? They were crammed into the word limit with several other bands---this does get their appeal (to me):
,,,Mars Volta. Whose big bananaspots slip electrically elsewhere: through stabs
of light (purple bursts of trans WhoZepYesRush-
QueenQueensJaneRageSystemRedHotFugaziSantanaAtTheDrive-InEmoScreamo trajectory),
which nevertheless tend
to bounce off crystalline towers of voice, on account of "Joycean wordplay" in
the midst of Revelation. It's a challenge, but appropriately so. For inst.
(one of their easier pieces), song-title "Cicatriz esp" can refer to headshrink
and/or vaccination mark: Either way, you're in goood hands, Mr.
De-loused at the Comatarium blackhole-visionary guy. Whose defiantly
creative/self-destructive internal cosmography (runs) rings through
ricochet-maze/shields of gloved ones Mars Volta's implosively arty art. Once, before
artist-junkie-De-Loused dedicatee Julio Venagas woke up and finally succeeded in killing
himself, he and MVs/ex- At The Drive-Ins Cedric and Omar were friends, and it shows.

Then I 2011 Pazz & Joo Top Tenned Omar's Telestrion, said this in blogged ballot comments:
Thought I had more about Omar Rodriguez Lopez and Telesterion, but it's sharp-edged, fluid (sawtooth waves employed?), analog musk, more astute than noodley, any purple more blended than The Mars Volta's reigning peacock screams. Latin rock with jazzy tendencies, rec to fans of early Santana, Rock En Espanol, whatever just went out of print on Shadoks. A personal Best-Of; you can stream it on Spotify, and a ton of his other albums here:
https://orlprojects.bandcamp.com/

(Zechs Marquise,Omar's younger brothers' band, also has a 2011 album. Getting Paid. It's uneven, but worth checking out here: http://zechsmarquise.bandcamp.com )