The Bedlam in Goliath
The Mars Volta
UMVD
Since I am, as mentioned above, a child of the 80s, I am a certifiable old fogey who often doesn't quite "get" what the "kids" are "downloading" nowadays. So I can only dimly perceive the appeal of The Mars Volta, which to these ears (plagued as they are with tinnitus and long grey hairs) sounds like a Muppet speedmetal opera about epilepsy. Even in my high school days I wasn't a big fan of whiny-voiced crotch rockers who've listened to way too much Led Zeppelin. Others will hear the excellent guitar playing on this disc, and the interesting prog-rock touches in the disc's dense musical textures, but I swear what I hear is spandex tights. (The lead singer, whose piercing voice keeps straying into falsetto, has got to have some kind of testicular compression going on.) Take your Mars Volta and get off my lawn.