“I can't sit here and pretend any more. I no longer am a member of Mars Volta,” he tweeted. Sorry folks, it doesn't really get any more directly to the point than that.
Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López were key cornerstones of the band with other musicians coming in and out as revolving members. But it was Rodríguez-López's own musical departure from the Mars Volta that caused the irreconcilable tension.
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See Also:
*Omar
Rodriguez-Lopez Trades in Stormy Dictatorship for Bosnian Rainbows
*Live Review: The Mars Volta at UCI on 01/30
*Release the Sounds: Omar Rodriguez Lopez, 'Xenophanes'
“For the record I tried to get a full scale North American tour going for Noctourniquet but Omar did want to,” Bixler-Zavala tweeted in reference to the band's latest (and last) release in 2012 after adding, “I tried my hardest to keep it going…But Bosnian Rainbows is what we all got instead.”
The last reference is to a newly formed band that Rodríguez-López brought through The Observatory last October. Bosnian Rainbows released their first single “Torn Maps” just before Zavala's announced departure from the Mars Volta. Have a listen to their self-described “alternative pop” vibes here:
Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala, of course, were solidified as an Afro-sporting energetic duo in their previous El Paso hatched band At The Drive-In which disappointingly disbanded after the release Relationship of Command in 2000. A silver lining came in the formation of the Mars Volta soon after which keep the two collaborating together. The tantalizing sounds of the Tremulant EP offered only a hint of the abstracting sounds they would craft later in their debut De-Loused in the Comatorium, an offering testing the outer edges of rock's Dionysian impulses.
During last year's Coachella music festival, At The Drive-In came back for a much hyped reunion show. Bixler-Zavala professed his continued love for the band and seems to have taken a swipe at Rodríguez-López, whose performances were subdued to say the least, further tweeting, “Proof was in MY performance.”
Will there be a similar reunion for the Mars Volta is the distant future? It seems unlikely, at least for the moment. The former frontman, near the end of his tweets, concluded with one of the more memorable departure lines in the history of band breakups.
“What am I supposed to do be some progressive house wife that's cool with watching their partner go fuck other bands?”
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!