Release Date: Jun 25, 2013
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Electronic, Indie Pop
Record label: Rodriguez Lopez Productions
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With hopes of putting together a more collaborative project, the spearhead behind Mars Volta, Omar Rodríguez-Lopez, put his former group to rest in 2012. Recruiting the help of his bandmate Deantoni Parks, the experimental post-rockers take a backseat to vocalist Teri Gender Bender on their 2013 ode to goth rock and new wave, Bosnian Rainbows. In fact, without prior knowledge, there is very little evidence signifying these members' involvement.
If you wondered what your At The Drive-In reunion tickets were buying, well here’s an answer. Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and the rest were refreshingly honest about their intentions with last year’s festival ramraid: money. Get the cash. Stick it in the bank. Use it to bankroll ….
Over the past decade Omar Rodriguez-Lopez has, probably unbeknownst to many, released a glut of EPs and full-length albums that are eclectic and eccentric—this in addition to his work with The Mars Volta, a band that was either genius or the definition of overindulgent, depending on your headspace. Along with making music that was overly fussy and fatty, Rodriguez-Lopez also earned a reputation for being a dictator in the studio, something he copped to when I interviewed him last year (he refers to that period as “a time of true focus”). Rodriguez-Lopez has since loosened up.
I’d like to think of Omar RodrÃguez-López as the music industry’s Val Kilmer. He’s not exactly below blockbuster fare, he’s erratic and wont to do his own thing (even despite the wishes of his collaborators), he’s been paired up with just about everyone, and he shanks his hair off at random intervals. Ten years ago, he slapped around guitarists worldwide on The Mars Volta’s startling 2003 debut, De-Loused in the Comatorium, and last year he tossed the name in a ditch and let his .357 Magnum fucking rip.
"The world is worthless," announces frontlady Teri Gender Bender on this goth-pop set with ex-Mars Volta guitar hero Omar Rodriguez Lopez. Things don't get much cheerier, and vocal thrills notwithstanding, the songs don't ignite. Rodriguez Lopez is restrained, dishing coiled New Wave riffs. As art-rock abnegation, it's impressive.
Omar Rodriguez Lopez focussing on this album to the detriment of The Mars Volta proved fatal to the progressive trailblazers, with Cedric Bixler Zavala angrily – and publicly – dissolving the group earlier this year. With that in mind, there’s a lot of expectation and emotion bound up in this first Bosnian Rainbows record. How good did the record have to be to split The Mars Volta? How would fans of the former react to it?Well, The Mars Volta, it ain’t.
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