| Frances the Mute | |||||
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| Studio album by The Mars Volta | |||||
| Released | March 1, 2005 | ||||
| Recorded | July–October 2004 at Avatar Studios, New York | ||||
| Genre | Progressive rock Psychedelic rock Experimental rock Jazz fusion |
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| Length | 76:57 (CD edition) 77:19 (triple vinyl edition) |
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| Label | Gold Standard Laboratories, Universal, Strummer | ||||
| Producer | Omar Rodriguez-Lopez | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| The Mars Volta chronology | |||||
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| Singles from Frances the Mute | |||||
Frances the Mute is the second studio album by progressive rock band The Mars Volta released in the US on March 1, 2005. A studio album is an original collection of new tracks by a recording artist The Mars Volta is the name of a partnership between guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala founded in 2001 Events 86 BC - Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army enters in Athens, removing the Tyrant Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Avatar Studios, formerly known as the The Power Station, is a Recording studio at 441 West 53rd Street in Manhattan, New York City. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous A music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other Progressive rock (often shortened to " progressive " " prog " or " prog rock " is a form of Rock music that evolved Psychedelic rock is a style of Rock music that attempts to replicate the mind-altering experiences of hallucinogenic drugs. Experimental rock or avant-garde rock is a type of music based on rock which experiments with the basic elements of the genre and/or which pushes the boundaries Fusion or more specifically jazz fusion or jazz rock, is a Musical genre that merges Jazz with elements of other styles of music particularly In the Music industry, a record label can be a Brand and a Trademark associated with the Marketing of music recordings and Music Gold Standard Laboratories or GSL was an Independent record label which was founded in 1993 in Boulder Colorado by Sonny Kay In the Music industry, a record producer or music producer has many roles among them controlling the recording sessions coaching and guiding the musicians organizing Omar Alfredo Rodríguez-López (born September 1, 1975) is a Multi-instrumentalist, Songwriter, Lead guitarist and producer allmusic (previously All Music Guide) is a Metadata database about music owned by All Media Guide. Delusions of Adequacy (or DOA) is an online music Zine with an orientation towards Independent musicians DrownedinSoundcom or DiS is a UK based music Webzine financed by artist management company Silentway (who manage Mick Hucknall and Brett E! Entertainment Television (or simply E!) is an American Cable television and Direct broadcast satellite network Kerrang! is a weekly rock Magazine published by Bauer Consumer Media in the United Kingdom. Paste is a monthly Music and Entertainment Magazine published in the United States by Paste Media Group LLC Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork, is a Chicago -based daily Internet publication devoted to music criticism and commentary Playlouder is a Digital music and media company It is a music site which provides news reviews and other related content PopMatters is an international Webzine of cultural criticism Its scope is broadly cast on all things pop culture Punknewsorg is a website founded by Aubin Paul which launched in 1999. Rock Sound is a British Magazine which champions alternative music Rolling Stone is a United States -based Magazine devoted to Music, Politics, and Popular culture that is published Stylus Magazine was an online music and film magazine launched in 2002 The New Musical Express (better known as the NME) is a Popular music Magazine in the United Kingdom which has been The Mars Volta is the name of a partnership between guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala founded in 2001 Live is the first officially released live recording from the band The Mars Volta. Scabdates is the second official live recording from the band The Mars Volta. " The Widow " is a song by The Mars Volta, from their second album Frances the Mute. Events 1489 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. " L'Via L'Viaquez " is the second single from the album Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta. Events 911 - Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Progressive rock (often shortened to " progressive " " prog " or " prog rock " is a form of Rock music that evolved A musical ensemble is a group of two or more Musicians who perform instrumental or vocal Music. The Mars Volta is the name of a partnership between guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala founded in 2001 Events 86 BC - Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army enters in Athens, removing the Tyrant Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The album's lyrics often jump from Spanish to English. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States It displays a deep jazz influence while infusing Latin flavor into many songs, most obviously in "L'Via L'Viaquez". Jazz is an American Musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States Latin music, includes the music of all countries in Latin America (and the Caribbean) and comes in many varieties " L'Via L'Viaquez " is the second single from the album Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta. Originally to be titled Sarcophagus. [1], Frances the Mute sold an impressive 123,000 copies in its opening week and has sold 465,000 copies as of September 2006. The album made multiple "Best of" lists at the end of 2005. [2]
The artwork was done by Storm Thorgerson, who created the cover for the previous album, De-Loused in the Comatorium. Storm Thorgerson (born 1944 in Potters Bar, which was in Middlesex at the time and is now in Hertfordshire) is an English Graphic designer. De-Loused in the Comatorium is the first Studio album by the Progressive rock band The Mars Volta.
Contents |
History
Jeremy Ward, audio artist for The Mars Volta until his death, had previously worked as a repo man. Jeremy Michael Ward ( May 5 1976 – May 25 2003) was the sound technician and vocal operator for The Mars Volta and for Repossession is generally used to refer to a Financial institution taking back an object that was either used as collateral or rented or leased in a transaction One day, Ward discovered a diary in the backseat of a car he was repossessing, and began to note the similarities between his life and that of the author - most notably, that they had both been adopted. The diary told of the author's search for his biological parents, with the way being pointed by a collection of people, their names being the basis for each named track of Frances the Mute. Ward was in the process of completing it at the time of his death.
In December 2004, a full copy of Frances the Mute was leaked to the Internet from the vinyl version. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks A gramophone The rip was of poor quality. Ripping is the process of copying audio or video content to a Hard disk, typically from Removable media or media streams. Encoded as a 96 kbit/s MP3, other versions were reencoded to 192 kbit/s WMA from the source mp3, resulting in even worse audio quality. In Telecommunications and Computing, bitrate (sometimes written bit rate, data rate or as a Variable R or f b MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a Digital audio encoding format using a form of Lossy data compression Windows Media Audio ( WMA) is an Audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. Gold Standard Laboratories issued a statement decrying the Internet release for its subpar sound quality, and suggesting that fans should respect the band's request not to share the leaked music. Gold Standard Laboratories or GSL was an Independent record label which was founded in 1993 in Boulder Colorado by Sonny Kay Sound quality generally is the quality of the audio output from various electronic devices
The first single, "The Widow", was released in early 2005 and the album Frances the Mute was released on midnight, March 1, 2005, and sold over 100,000 copies within the first week of release, and debuted at number four on the Billboard Album Charts. See Billboard (Turkish magazine Billboard is a weekly American Magazine devoted to the Music industry The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard The title track, "Frances the Mute", which is purportedly meant to be track one on the album and, according to the band, "decodes" the album's story, was not included in the album, and was released on March 14th, 2005, in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located This release was a three set limited edition, containing a single with a live version of "The Widow", played at The Wiltern in Los Angeles on June 13th, and the unreleased title song "Frances the Mute. " Also in the collection is a DVD that includes clips from their performance at the Electric Ballroom in London on July 9th, 2003, "The Widow" music video, and the "Televators" music video. The Electric Ballroom is a performance venue (primarily for rock bands and indoor market located at 184 Camden High Street in Camden Town, London London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Finally, the last item was a 12" single pressed on marble green vinyl[3] including "Frances The Mute" and a live version of "The Widow," released by Gold Standard Labs. Only approximately 10,000 were pressed.
A second single from the album, "L'Via L'Viaquez" was released in June of 2005. " L'Via L'Viaquez " is the second single from the album Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta. Included on this single there was another unreleased song entitled "The Bible and the Breathalyzer. "
Frances The Mute debuted at No. 4 on The Billboard 200 and has sold nearly 465,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The album was the band's career best at No. 4 until their fourth album The Bedlam in Goliath came out almost 3 years later on the Billboard 200 at No. 3
Sound
Frances the Mute is comparable to The Mars Volta's 2003 release De-Loused in the Comatorium, with its cryptic, verbose lyrics, largely improvised musical interludes and highly layered instrumentals, although the progressive rock influence is stronger on Frances the Mute than it was on De-Loused in the Comatorium. De-Loused in the Comatorium is the first Studio album by the Progressive rock band The Mars Volta. An instrumental is a Musical composition or recording without Lyrics or any other sort of Vocal music; all of the Music is produced by Progressive rock (often shortened to " progressive " " prog " or " prog rock " is a form of Rock music that evolved The band's musical influences are more prominent; the guitar solo on "The Widow" seems inspired by classic rock, and much of the album has a psychedelic feel to it. Psychedelic music is a term that refers to a broad set of popular music styles genres and scenes that may include Psychedelic rock, psychedelic folk, Psychedelic Perhaps due to inspiration from such Pink Floyd albums as Meddle, ambient noise plays a larger role on Frances the Mute than it does on De-Loused in the Comatorium. Pink Floyd are Meddle is an Album by English Progressive rock band Pink Floyd. De-Loused in the Comatorium is the first Studio album by the Progressive rock band The Mars Volta. "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore," for example, begins with 4 minutes of coquí frogs singing while a thick soundscape is slowly built from Cedric Bixler-Zavala's voice and synthesizers. See also the Wikipedia article about the Common Coquí (Eleutherodactylus coqui This article is about the block cipher algorithm For the ultrafast laser pulse measurement technique see Frequency-resolved optical gating.
Another distinct aspect of Frances the Mute is that the songs often move through several rather different stages. For example, "Cygnus. . . . Vismund Cygnus" begins quietly with a lone acoustic guitar eventually joined by Cedric Bixler-Zavala softly singing. Cedric Bixler Zavala (born November 4, 1974 in Redwood City, California) is the lead singer and lyricist of The Mars Volta, and The song then turns into something resembling a chaotic hybrid of funk and metal, with Bixler-Zavala singing some of the lyrics in Spanish. Following this stage of the song, it shifts yet again, this time into a rhythm in 29/16 accompanied by a guitar solo. This stage builds to a crescendo of jazz fusion, followed by a jam in 10/8. The song ends with a barrage of ambient noise and strange sound effects.
Track listing
This is the finalized version, as it was intended to be released on all formats - the original leak, vinyl version, iTunes Store version and some audio files can be found with this track listing. The iTunes Store is a software-based online Digital media store operated by Apple Inc This is also written on the back of the CD cover, which has led to much confusion among first time listeners when they discover the album has 12 tracks. Due to disputes with Universal Records, "Cassandra Gemini" was arbitrarily split into eight tracks on the CD version, spanning tracks 5-12. The song was not split along its five movements lines, although the entirety of "Sarcophagi" is within the 12th track.
On vinyl, "Cassandra Gemini" was split among two sides. Each side except the final side of the vinyl ends with a locked groove, repeating either a sound effect or a bar of music endlessly until the needle is lifted. In Musical notation, a bar or measure is a segment of time defined as a given number of beats of a given duration
- "Cygnus. . . . Vismund Cygnus"1 – 13:02
- "Sarcophagi"
- "Umbilical Syllables"
- "Facilis Descenus Averni"2
- "Con Safo"
- "The Widow" – 5:51
- "L'Via L'Viaquez"3 – 12:22
- "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore" – 13:10
- "Vade Mecum"4
- "Pour Another Icepick"
- "Pisacis (Phra-Men-Ma)"
- "Con Safo"
- "Cassandra Gemini"5 – 32:32
- "Tarantism"
- "Plant a Nail in the Navel Stream"
- "Faminepulse"
- "Multiple Spouse Wounds"
- "Sarcophagi"
Notes
- 1 Latin for "Swan"; it is also a constellation. " The Widow " is a song by The Mars Volta, from their second album Frances the Mute. " L'Via L'Viaquez " is the second single from the album Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta. Cygnus (ˈsɪgnəs Swan, Κύκνος) is a northern Constellation.
- 2 Latin for "The easy descent into Hell".
- 3 "L'Via L'Viaquez" was misprinted as "L' Via L' Viaquez" on the back and in the liner notes of Frances the Mute.
- 4 Latin for "Go With Me". A Vade Mecum is also a handbook or something always carried on a person.
- 5 The official spelling for the song title is "Cassandra Gemini"; despite the typo "Geminni" printed on all parts of the CD packaging, the MusicBrainz database, the vinyl release of the album, and the band's official site all list the track as "Gemini". MusicBrainz is a project that aims to create an Open content Music database A vinyl compound is any Organic compound that contains a vinyl group (also called ethenyl) &minus C[[Hydrogen H]] =CH sub>2
Japanese bonus DVD
- "Frances the Mute" – 14:36 (audio only)
- "In Thirteen Seconds"
- "Nineteen Sank, While Six Would Swim"
- "Five Would Grow and One Was Dead"
- "Drunkship of Lanterns (live)"
- "Cicatriz ESP (live)"
- "Televators (live)"
Best Buy Exclusive
The Best Buy version of the album included a download card for one bonus track:
- "The Widow (Live Acoustic)"
Personnel
- Omar Rodriguez-Lopez – guitar, producer
- Cedric Bixler-Zavala – vocals
- Jon Theodore – drums
- Isaiah Ikey Owens – keyboards
- Juan Alderete – bass
- Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez – percussion
- Flea – trumpet on "The Widow" and "Miranda, That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore"
- John Frusciante – first two guitar solos on "L'Via L'Viaquez"
- Larry Harlow – piano, treated clavinet on "L'Via L'Viaquez" and "Cassandra Gemini"
- Lenny Castro – additional track percussion
- Adrián Terrazas-González – tenor sax, flute on "Cassandra Gemini"
- Salvador (Chava) Hernandez - trumpet
- Wayne Bergeron – trumpet
- Randy Jones – tuba
- Roger Manning – piano
- Nicholas Lane – trombone
- William Reichenbach – bass trombone
- David Campbell – string arrangements
- Larry Corbett - cello
- Suzie Katayama – cello
- Violins:
- Fernano Moreno
- Erick Hernandez
- Diego Casillas
- Ernesto Molina
- Joel Derouin
- Roberto Cani
- Mario De Leon
- Peter Kent
- Josefina Vergara
- The Coquí of Puerto Rico
Singles
- "The Widow" (2005)
- "L'Via L'Viaquez (2005)
Charts
Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | European Top 100 Albums | - |
| 2005 | The Billboard 200 | 4 |
| 2005 | Top Canadian Albums | 6 |
| 2005 | Top Internet Albums | 4 |
| 2005 | UK Albums Chart | 23 |
| 2005 | Norway Albums Chart | 1 |
| 2005 | ARIA Album Chart (Australia) | 9 |
| 2005 | Austrian Album Chart | 43 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | "The Widow" | European Hot 100 Singles | - |
| 2005 | "The Widow" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 26 |
| 2005 | "The Widow" | Modern Rock Tracks | 7 |
| 2005 | "The Widow" | The Billboard Hot 100 | 95 |
| 2005 | "The Widow" | UK Singles Chart | 20 |
References
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic