Subject: The Mars Volta

• Rocket to Nowhere, Dry Rot, Turbo Knife Fight and Green Fuse @ Larimer Lounge 7/18/07

  July 20, 2007

• Q&A With Cedric Bixler-Zavala of The Mars Volta

  January 23, 2008

• Over the Weekend...Detroit Cobras, Super 400 and Yerkish @ the Falcon

  May 12, 2008

• Over the Weekend...Mars Volta @ the Fillmore

  May 19, 2008

• Critic's Choice

  Ima Robot

  January 15, 2004

• Vices I Admire on the hunt for new bassist

  Angry, artsy rockers Vices I Admire has been banging around northern Colorado for a few years now, and has a fair amount of local acclaim, based on its live shows, an EP and the song "Monster," which has appeared on a couple of compilations. On its MySpace page, the band compares itself to Incubus, Deftones and Mars Volta, and those comparisons might not be far off. However, I also hear a bit of the unhinged creativity that distinguish locals like Yerkish. I have yet to catch the band live, but

  January 18, 2009

• Best Punk Club

  April 4, 2002

• Best Concert (Since March 2003)

  March 25, 2004

• The Beatdown

  July 15, 2004

• Rush

  August 2, 2007

• Inner band tension ends up fueling Solar Bear's creativity

  January 15, 2009

• Critic's Choice

  Golden

  August 8, 2002

• Sparta

  Threes
  Hollywood

  November 16, 2006

• The Mars Volta

  Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez created a spirited affair with The Bedlam in Goliath.

  January 24, 2008

• El-P

  I'll Sleep When You're Dead
  Definitive Jux

  March 22, 2007

• Lullabies For the Deranged

  Wallow in the mire of the year's best scuzz rock.

  January 4, 2007

• The Mars Volta

  Amputechture (Universal)

  September 21, 2006

• Red Hot Chili Peppers

  Friday, August 18, Pepsi Center, 303-830-8497.

  August 17, 2006

• Sparta

  Wednesday, August 2, hi-dive, 720-570-4500.

  July 27, 2006

• Listen Up

  Fast reviews of recent releases

  April 20, 2006

• Gospel

  Thursday, March 30, 15th Street Tavern, 303-572-0822.

  March 30, 2006

• Subtitle

  Tuesday, February 21, Larimer Lounge, 303-291-1007.

  February 16, 2006

• For the record

  Since 2005 has hit the bricks, here's the final word on last year's finest discs.

  January 5, 2006

• Listen Up

  Fast reviews of recent releases

  October 27, 2005

• Nobody

  Thursday, September 8, Fox Theatre, Boulder, 303-443-3399.

  September 8, 2005

• Mars Volta

  Frances the Mute (Gold Standard Labs/Universal)

  March 17, 2005

• On the Down-Low

  Shovel away all that Usher, Prince and Lil Jon you've been jamming and dig this year's buried black-music treasures.

  December 30, 2004

• The Rise

  Reclamation Process (Law of Inertia)

  December 2, 2004

• Sparta

  Friday, November 26, Gothic Theatre, 303-788-0984.

  November 25, 2004

• Kill Me Tomorrow

  The Garbageman and the Prostitute (GSL)

  March 11, 2004

• Lost at Scene

  After spearheading the post-punk revival, GoGoGo Airheart is still on its own island.

  February 26, 2004

• The Mars Volta

  De-loused in the Comatorium (Universal)

  September 4, 2003

• Mars Attacks

  The Mars Volta isn't interested in your expectations.

  July 24, 2003

• Drive Away

  The members of Sparta leave At the Drive-In, expectations and a so-called hiatus behind.

  June 27, 2002

• Meet the Pirate Signal, one of Denver's most compelling hip-hop acts

  June 11, 2009

• The Mars Volta and Yeah Yeah Yeahs to headline Monolith

  Update: Just in case you haven't been keeping tabs, this year's Monolith line-up has been shaping up rather nicely. On May 18, the masterminds of Monolith began revealing the line-up for the third annual two-day indie-centric music festival every two hours on Twitter and Facebook. Some folks found this approach tedious, while others enjoyed the surprise. Either way, we're pretty impressed with the acts that have been announced -- including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Mars Volta, which was just a

  July 15, 2009

• Ascaris considers itself a punk band that plays metal

  June 25, 2009

• Eminem keeps dominating charts at Independent Records

  For the sixth week in a row, Eminem grabbed the top spot at Independent Records for the week ending June 28. Mars Volta's new album, Octahedron, and Mike E. Clark's Psychopathic Murder Mix V. 1 compilation came in second and third while four Michael Jackson albums, including the 25th Anniversary edition of Thriller, nabbed spots in the top ten. See the full breakdown after the jump.

  June 29, 2009

• Regina Spektor top seller at Twist and Shout

  Regina Spektor's latest release, Far, was the top seller at Twist & Shout for the week ending June 28. Local faves Paper Bird's new EP, Sky Underground, nabbed the number two slot and brand new albums from Dinosaur Jr. and Mars Volta also grabbed slots in the top five. See the full breakdown after the jump.

  June 29, 2009

• Tangible Stereo

  July 9, 2009

• The Westword.com blog shortcut, July 15 edition

  Danielle Ate the Sandwich -- and then punched it, hard. Put up your dukes. Today in Backbeat Online: • Danielle Ate the Sandwich: Better than a bag of poop on fire! • Last Night: Paul Sprawl at the Laughing Goat in Boulder. • Hearsay bits: City Hall, Speakeasy Tiger, Torch the Wagon, Patrick Porter, Magic Cyclops. • The Mars Volta and Yeah Yeah Yeahs to headline Monolith. • When DJ Dragon wins, everybody wins! Today in Cafe Society: • Tonight: Frasca chef competes on Top Chef: Mas

  July 15, 2009

• Monolith adds more than a dozen local DJs

  DJ Vajra​Just received word from Monolith curator Matt Fecher that the annual fall festival, headlined this year by the Mars Volta and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, has just added more than a dozen local DJs to its lineup. Nationally renown turntablist DJ Vajra heads the roster, which also includes Mu$a, who just performed over the weekend with Pretty Lights at City Hall, Cysko Rokwell of 3 the Hardway, Satan's Eighties Lovechild, Boyhollow of Lipgloss, Klaw, Mike Deez, Metat, Scotty Matelic, Option 4,

  August 24, 2009

• Our top 5 Monolith can't-miss acts

  Photo by Rob Lee​There's roughly a gazillion bands playing at Monolith over the next two days and there's no way you can see them all (see, there aren't a half-gazillion hours in a day), so we've come up with this handy list of five can't-miss acts at Monolith. These are the bands that are worth stopping in to check out even if you don't much care for them -- the acts capable of so much awesome, they might just change your mind, or at least completely fucking blow it. If nothing else, you

  September 11, 2009

• Over the Weekend: Experience the urban-outfitted neon-infested loveliness of Monolith

  ​ Westword's weekend was dominated by Monolith, the annual two-day hipsterfest at Red Rocks that this year featured the Mars Volta, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Phoenix, Chromeo and plenty of other bands. Our stage-to-stage coverage includes photos of the bands from Day One and Day Two, photos of the fans and reviews of the shows from both days. Find it all at westword.com/slideshow and on the Backbeat blog.

  September 14, 2009

• Watch 3OH!3's set from the MTV VMAs

  Okay, if you're like us and were up at Red Rocks for Monolith this past Sunday night watching the Mars Volta confound the audience with its spectacular over indulgence or -- depending upon your perspective -- dazzle the crowd with its awe-worthy musicianship, you missed 3OH!3's thirty second long, blink-and-you-missed-it performance on the VMAs. Good for us, the fine folks at MTV graciously captured the clip in its entirety. If you're not already a card-carrying, dyed-in-the-wool fan of this gr

  September 15, 2009

• Last Night: Juliette Lewis at the Fox Theatre

  Jon Solomon​Juliette Lewis, the Ettes, American BangFox TheatreTuesday, October 6, 2009Better than: Lewis' show with the Pretenders and Cat Power this past August. I wasn't expecting much before seeing Juliette Lewis open for the Pretenders and Cat Power during a ninety-degree afternoon last August at the Botanic Gardens at Chatfield. Sure, some friends had pumped the actress/singer up, saying she put on a phenomenal show at the Marquis two years ago. I still wasn't completely sold, but a few

  October 7, 2009

• Heavy Rotation, our top spins for the week of October 5, 2009

  ​​As music critics, the most common question we get asked (and ask each other, for that matter) is, "What are you listening to?" The pervasiveness of this query is precisely what inspired Heavy Rotation, our latest feature. For the benefit of those who happen to be curious, we've compiled a list of all the things we're listening to this week. Feel free to chime in with picks of your own after the jump.

  October 8, 2009

• The Mars Volta's Ikey Owens stretches his wings in Free Moral Agents

  November 12, 2009

• Q&A w/ Isaiah Owens of Free Moral Agents

  ​Isaiah "Ikey" Owens is better know these days as the keyboardist of the Mars Volta. His versatile and creative musicianship, though, was honed in the '90s when he played with Sublime and later Long Beach Dub Allstars. Ikey first played with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala in the dub project De Facto before being invited to join the Mars Volta as a live keyboard player once Omar and Cedric's notable previous band, At the Drive-In, dissolved. Throughout the past decade, Ikey h

  November 13, 2009

• Breaking: Monolith Festival on the ropes

  ​Just received word from Josh Baker, co-curator of Monolith, that the future of the indie-centric festival is uncertain. (Read Baker's full statement after the jump.) Although the turnout for this year's festival seemed to increase slightly from year's past and the lineup itself seemed more solid than ever, with headliners like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Mars Volta, the picturesque annual two-day outing at Red Rocks is now finding itself in the precarious position of having to seek new invest

  November 18, 2009