Mars Volta lead singer Cedric Bixler Zavala was just one of many great progressive rock bands that performed at the 2009 Monolith Festival, but the future of the festival is in question due to sponsorship, or possible lack thereof, in any case this festival that was held at the world famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre in 2007, 2008 and 2009 was a one of a kind event that will be sorely missed by those looking for leading edge music if the show does not go on. The Monolith group put together a great video of last years festival and I thought you might like to see what a killer progressive rock festival looks like. If you you watch closely you can even see yours truly at the30 second mark.

Monolith Festival 2009 Video from Matt Fecher on Vimeo.

Below are a couple shots from the festival.

Mars Volta

Singing In The Rain

Gregory Alan Isakov

Thao and The Stay Down Get Down

Frightened Rabbit

Hard Core Fans

OK Go

M. Ward

Monotonix

Dandy Warhols

One serious fan

Redman and Method Man

Phoenix

Pirate Signal

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Thomas Mars of Phoenix - Red Rocks 2009

The last minute cancellation of the band MSTRKRFT allowed the indie rock band Phoenix from France to be bumped to the main stage at the Monolith Festival on September 13, 2009. The Monolith Festival is a showcase of the best progressive and Indie bands on tour today. This was just another stop along Phoenix’s SOLD OUT American tour. I had decided not to stage hop at this festival, instead I would just hunker down at the Main stage and shoot whoever came on the stage. Some festivals I try to shoot every band, they are all so good, but in the end I just end up up running around like a photographer with his lens cap cut off. This was a far more relaxing method for covering(partially) a multi-day festival. This was my first time seeing Phoenix and I was very impressed with their stage presence, powerful vocals, musicianship and passion and Phoenix made the best of this opportunity to play the main stage at Red Rocks and proceeded to blow the crowd away with a great performance. The set list included many songs from thier latest CD Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.

Phoenix is a French alternative rockband started during their childhood by Thomas Mars, Deck D’Arcy, Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz in the suburb of Versailles, in the same culture that produced late-’90s bands such as Air and Daft Punk.

Members

Thomas Mars (vocals)

Deck D’Arcy (bass)

Laurent Brancowitz (guitar)

Christian Mazzalai (guitar)

Thomas Hedlund (drums)

Robin Coudert (keyboards)

Beginnings

Phoenix started as the backing band for a remix of Air‘s “Kelly Watch the Stars” single. Soon after, Phoenix released their 2000 debut album United. The name Phoenix was officially chosen in 1996 when Laurent Brancowitz permanently joined the band after the end of the short-lived band Darlin’ he formed with Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, who eventually became Daft Punk.

Following their two singles “If I Ever Feel Better” and “Too Young”, “United” was released in 2000.

The second album, Alphabetical, released in 2004, saw the band reach more mainstream success, with the singles “Everything Is Everything” and “Run Run Run” reaching some alternative pop charts. Hedi Slimane commissioned a special mix of their song “Victim of the Crime” as the soundtrack to one of his runway shows for Dior Homme.

Live! Thirty Days Ago – 2005

Following Alphabetical, the band toured three continents, playing 150 dates. This tour was followed up with a live album, Live! Thirty Days Ago, released only 30 days after the end of the tour.

It’s Never Been Like That – 2006

Phoenix then spent time in Berlinduring the summer of 2005, making use of Planet Roc studios to produce their third album, It’s Never Been Like That.

To promote the release of It’s Never Been Like That, Phoenix toured the United States and Europe in 2006.

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – 2009

In early 2009, it was announced that the band were returning with a new album titled Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, which was released on May 25, 2009^[3]. The album was recorded in Paris by Cassius’sPhilippe Zdar who co-produced and mixed the album.^[4] The track “1901” was released on February 23, 2009, as a free download prior to the release of the first single, and aired for the first time on Australian radio station Triple J.

To promote the album, Phoenix performed “Lisztomania”, “1901″, and “Too Young” on Saturday Night Live on April 4.^[5]. They also performed “Lisztomania” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and “1901″ on The Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.

Their track “1901″ was used for the theatrical trailer of the film New York, I Love Youand has been featured in commercials for the 2010 Cadillac SRX. “Lisztomania” was used for a Where The Wild Things Are trailer, the season premiere of Cougar Townand was also featured in the season 6 finale of HBO’s Entourage.

An excerpt from “Love Like a Sunset” can be heard in the Ghost Town episode of the tenth CSI:Crime Scene Investigation season.

A clip of “Lisztomania” can be heard in the Entourage Season 6 Episode 12 “Give A Little Bit”.

They are about to start a sold out American tour.

For a complete set of photos from this performance see the Flickr set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gonzoshots/sets/72157622253282659/

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The Mars Volta

I was warned to watch out for Mars Volta’s lead singer, Cedric Bixler Zavala by another photographer in the photo pit, “he likes to kick photographers and their camera and lens”, I shrugged this comment off until I noticed Cedric walk on stage and immediately kick a fan (air blowing device not admirer) from the mid stage area to the very back of the stage. At this point I wandered to the far right side of the stage, a safe distance and yet still close enough to get some good shots of this temperamental artist, besides I had never seen so many photographers in a photo pit before, there must have been 30 or more and was not about to go and try to push and prod my way through those heathens just to get kicked in the camera. Rolling Stone voted The Mars Volta as the best Prog Rock band of 2009.

Omar A Rodriguez-Lopez – Guitarist

Cedric Bixler Zavala – Singer

The eighteen or so years that Omar Rodriguez-López and Cedric Bixler Zavala have spent making music together have been a prime example of the theory of musical evolution, a journey of exploration that’s seen the duo refuse to stand still, maturing and growing ever bolder in their art.

From Omar’s first joining their previous group, El Paso’s lauded and lamented At The Drive-In, and progressively pushing that band in more experimental directions that ultimately pulled it apart, to Omar’s composing of epic scores and Cedric’s creation of lyrical novellas to complement them resulting in The Mars Volta’s first two albums, theirs has always been a partnership that has prioritized challenge over contentment.

“The only objective, throughout, has been to always move forward,” says bandleader Omar, speaking from the recording compound in Mexico from which he currently helms The Mars Volta. “To always make the next album sound different to the one that came before it, to always be evolving.” ….Care to read more?

The Mars Volta is an American Grammy Award-winning rock band from El Paso, Texas, formed in 2001 and currently based out of Mexico.^[1] Founded by guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala. The band incorporates various influences including progressive rock, experimental rock, jazz fusion and Latin/Salsa into their sound.

They are known for their energetic and improvisational live shows, as well as their concept-based studio albums. In 2009, the band won a Grammy in the “Best Hard Rock Performance” category for the song “Wax Simulacra.”^[2] They were named rock music’s “Best Prog-Rock Band” of 2008 by Rolling Stone magazine.

Band name

Cedric Bixler-Zavala stated in an interview: 
The Volta is taken from a Federico Fellini book about his films, what he characterizes as a changing of scene, or a turnaround; a new scene to him is called Volta. Y’know, changing of time and the changeover.

And Mars, we’re just fascinated by science fiction so and it’s something that ultimately looked as in anything I write, its meaning is always up to the listener. As the way we write songs and words, if it looks great on paper then to us it’s like painting, so if it looks good meaning the second then people usually have a better interpretation than we ever would.

The definite article “The” is used to distinguish the band from a group of European techno artists that previously used the name “Mars Volta.”

History

The roots of The Mars Volta are found in the band At the Drive-In.^[5] ATDI members Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez formed an experimental, dub reggae-influenced side project called De Facto, which featured Bixler-Zavala on drums, Rodriguez-Lopez on bass, Isaiah “Ikey” Owens on keyboards, and Jeremy Michael Ward on vocals, loops and sound effects.

Due to creative differences and discomfort with mainstream success,^[6] Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala quit At the Drive-In in 2001. The remaining members of ATDI formed Sparta. By the time bassist Eva Gardner joined De Facto, they had changed their name to The Mars Volta. During 2001, the band recorded two songs with drummer Blake Fleming and producer Alex Newport, which became their first demo.

The lineup for their first public show at Chain Reaction in Anaheim, California was Rodriguez-Lopez, Bixler-Zavala, Owens, Gardner, Ward, and drummer Jon Theodore. This lineup recorded three more tracks with Alex Newport, which became the EP Tremulant, released as a limited edition in early 2002.

Since the demise of At the Drive-In, Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala found themselves once again starting from the ground up, touring and performing in smaller venues. In their early years The Mars Volta were characterized by chaotic live shows and very heavy drug use.^[6]

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In August I saw Matt Ward at the Rocky Mountain Folks festival and in September I saw him again at the alternative music festival held at the infamous Red Rocks Amphitheater near Denver. What a day, the most beautiful venue in the world and one of the most talented musicians, singer songwriters to appear on the music scene in decades along with his band, Michael Coykendall (acoustic guitar), Adam Selzer (bass and electric guitar), Scott Mcpherson (drums), Nathan Anderson (keys and guitar), this was almost too much for my senses to handle, but somehow I managed.

It didn’t matter that it had been raining, it didn’t matter that it was cool, maybe even cold and it didn’t matter that most of the younger crowd I mentioned him too had never heard of M. Ward, nothing mattered except the amazing sonic wave that emanated from the stage on this cold September day in the Red Rocks of Colorado, the sound of M. Ward.

NPR.org is offering an exclusive live stream of M. Ward‘s new album, Hold Time. Hold Time will be released on February 17, 2009, but the CD and LP are available for pre-order now in the Merge store and you can listen to the entire album for free right here.

The songs of singer-guitarist M. Ward seem to drift in on the crackling radio waves of a distant time. Warm and intimate, his largely acoustic and usually spare arrangements are a tribute to what Ward sees as the greatest era for American music: the 1950s and early ’60s, when singers like Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison infused country-rooted pop with honesty and romance.

Ward’s latest album, Hold Time, continues this tradition, with a gorgeously produced mix of finger-picked guitars, upright bass and shuffling rhythms, all tied together by his achy voice.

The new disc was mixed by producer and multi-instrumentalist Mike Mogis, with guest appearances by Lucinda Williams, Zooey Deschanel (She & Him), Rachel Blumberg (The Decemberists) and others. Though it mostly features all-new songs, Hold Time includes a handful of cover tunes, including Don Gibson’s “Oh Lonesome Me” and “Rave On,” made popular by Buddy Holly.

“I think the songwriting style of (Buddy Holly’s) period was superior,” Ward says in an interview with All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen. “There was a certain amount of joy in it, no matter how sad the song is. You get joy in listening to these Buddy Holly or Roy Orbison sad lyrics. I’m attracted to songs that have balance between the darks and the lights and giving them all equal opportunity.”

Listen M. Ward’s unreleased album Hold Time for free here.

M. Ward tour dates available here.

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OK Go

The L.A. based band OK Go braved a cold and rainy Colorado day to play their hearts out to hearty group of fans at the world famous Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison Colorado.

For a complete set of photos from this performance see:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30893898@N08/sets/72157622407688616/

OK Go is a collective made up of these four parts:

Damian Kulash: Vocals, Guitar

Tim Nordwind: Bass

Dan Konopka: Drums

 
Andy Ross: Guitar, Keyboards

It’s winter in Malmö, the Swedish industrial town where OK Go has come to record their second album for Capitol Records. The band is excited but wary. They’ve just spent two exhausting years touring the globe, and another six months back home, writing and rejecting more than sixty new songs. The writing process was grueling, but fruitful: OK Go came up with a collection of demos so strong they grabbed the attention of super-producer Tore Johansson, the hugely sought-after man behind Franz Ferdinand’s debut album and the Cardigans’ hits.

Tore’s first words are gruff. “When you are finished with a take,” he tells them in his half-menacing, half-hilarious Swedish accent,” I will not come running into the studio smiling and waving my arms like some American producer. If I say something is OK, it is perfect. If I say nothing, you will do it again until I tell you stop.” Tore spends ten minutes deriding the cookie-cutter slickness of America, home of editing systems smarter than the people who use them. It will be much simpler here, Tore assures them. “You will go into a room together and you will rock.”

 
And rock they did. The result is Oh No, an album that absolutely explodes out of the speakers. Where other bands bomb out or bloat up on their second albums, OK Go has tightened the screws and trimmed the fat, delivering a stripped-down, revved-up forty-two minutes of wild, propulsive rock and roll. It’s a worthy follow-up to their 2002 debut, which established OK Go as expert craftsmen of intelligent, ultra-catchy rock songs. If that album was the mischievous class president-smart and popular and sexy, and not as innocent as he seems – then Oh No is the same kid after he’s spent a lurid summer in bedrooms and bar fights all over town.
 

There’s a rougher grit to Oh No. From the chaotic torrent of crashing guitars that launches “Invincible,” the anthemic lead track, to the acidic chorus of “The House Wins,” the album’s stinging final song (“You don’t have to be alone to be lonely.. you might as well give in”), the album surges with electricity. It’s in the center-stage cowbell and cocky classic-rock riff of “Do What You Want,” and the feverish, new wave rush of “Here It Goes Again.”

But that energy doesn’t obscure the wit, melody, and unabashed joy that brought the band this far. “A Good Idea at the Time” delivers a swaggering, line-for-line response to the Stones classic, “Sympathy for the Devil,” transforming those famous “ooh-oohs” into tortured little taunts. Right on its heels is “Oh Lately It’s So Quiet,” a beautifully delicate – and unstoppably sexy – ghost story. Just a few songs later, we’re taken somewhere else, slinking across the dance floor to the sleazy disco-era Clash beat of “A Million Ways.”

Anyone who has witnessed the exhilaration of the band’s live show will recognize the frenetic drive at the heart of Oh No. “We wanted to make an album that sounds like our band, and not a heady, self-conscious studio project,” says lead singer Damian Kulash. “Everyone tells us rock and roll is a shadow of itself – a sad old milk cow smiling at the farmer every morning. We still see a bucking bull smashing around the stable.”

The band’s energy doesn’t stop at the edge of the stage or the end of the disc. From the influential how-to guide they published for bands hoping to unseat President Bush (you should have seen the avalanche of hate mail that won them), to the monthly column they wrote for a Japanese rock magazine, to their tour of America as house band for public radio program This American Life, OK Go always seems to find a new corner of the world to explore and make their own. With Oh No, they’re coming after yours.

The boys have been nominated for this year’s Video Music Awards, in the category of Best Video (That Should Have Won A Moon Man).  And MTV has kindly stacked the deck in our favor, by putting the boys up against a bunch of unknowns and never-wases like Dr. Dre, Radiohead and the Beastie Boys. It’s an uphill battle so we need you to vote as much as you can, as often as the Internet allows you.  Do it for us, do it for you, do it for the littluns.

OK Go is a rock band originally from Chicago, now residing in Los Angeles. The band is composed of Damian Kulash (lead vocals and guitar), Tim Nordwind (bass guitar and backing vocalist), Dan Konopka (drums and percussion) and Andy Ross (keyboards, guitar and backing vocals), who joined them in 2005 in replacement of Andy Duncan.

The original members formed as OK Go in 1998 and released two studio albums before Duncan’s departure. The band is notable for their unusual fashion sense and their energetic music videos — in particular, those for their two most successful singles, “A Million Ways” and “Here It Goes Again“. The latter won a Grammy Award for “Best Short-Form Music Video” in 2007.

Formation

The band’s singer, Damian Kulash, met bassist Tim Nordwind at Interlochen Arts Camp when they were 11. Damian was in for graphic design, Tim for music. They met over a game of Ping Pong in which Damian won. The band name comes from their art teacher, saying “OK…Go!” while they were drawing. They kept in touch after camp, often exchanging mixtapes which influenced each other’s musical taste and their future sound. They met the band’s former guitarist and keyboardist Andy Duncan in high school, and drummer Dan Konopka in college. OK Go was formed in 1998.

OK Go’s most frequently cited musical influences are Pixies, The Cars, Cheap Trick, T.Rex, Queen, Prince, The Zombies, and bands from the Washington, D.C. punk rock scene, especially Fugazi and Shudder to Think. They share management with They Might Be Giants, with whom they toured before signing to Capitol Records in 2001.

The band’s unique part-glam, part-geek rock fashion sense has also gotten a lot of attention. They are known for combining loud, clashing patterns and wearing waistcoats, sweater vests, ties, dress shirts, suspenders, dress pants, and an unusual amount of jewelry, particularly brooches. Some have noted similarities between their style and that of Weezer, They Might Be Giants, but the band have said in interviews that their influences were Oscar Wilde, David Bowie, “Republican assholes”, and “other people too wealthy to know how crazy they look”.

The band also served as the house band for public radio program This American Life on the show’s fifth anniversary tour. The band performed an early predecessor to their wildly successful music videos– a choreographed dance to the song “C-C-C-Cinnamon Lips” created for the cable access show Chic-a-Go-Go. Ira Glass, the show’s host, wrote their first official bio, calling them “living catnip” and describing their songs as “part indie rock, part stadium rock, part straight up pop with the occasional whiff of Weezer or The Cars or Elliott Smith“.

Breakthrough

After OK Go’s exposure on This American Life and their relationship with They Might Be Giants, the band released its self-titled debut album in 2002. In the United Kingdom, “Get Over It” debuted at No. 21^[1], in the singles chart on March 16, 2003, and the band performed it on that week’s edition of Top of the Pops. Also that week, the single’s video was named video of the week by Q magazine. The single was featured in the EA Sports video games Triple Play 2003 and Madden NFL 2003. Also, their song “Do What You Want” was featured in the video games EA Sports NHL 06, Guitar Hero On Tour, and Burnout Revenge, while their song “Here It Goes Again” was featured in Rock Band.

The band contributed a cover of “This Will Be Our Year” the Zombies classic, as the lead track of Future Soundtrack for America, a political benefit album put out by Barsuk Records in the fall of 2004. Lead singer Damian Kulash also became somewhat politically active during that election cycle, writing a heavily downloaded how-to-guide entitled “How Your Band Can Fire Bush” for bands hoping to help unseat President George W. Bush.

In 2007, OK Go wrote the fight song for the Chicago Soccer Team, Chicago Fire S.C.. The song was offered on the team’s official website as a free download. Also in 2007, OK Go covered the Pixies “Gigantic” for American Laundromat Records “Dig For Fire – a tribute to PIXIES” CD.

[edit] Music video fame

The band’s second album, Oh No, was recorded in Malmö, Sweden, and produced by Tore Johansson (The Cardigans, Franz Ferdinand) in the fall of 2004. After recording, in 2005, Andy Duncan left the band and was replaced by Andy Ross, who auditioned for them in Los Angeles. The album was released in August 2005.

Oh No gained popularity for its first single, “A Million Ways”, thanks to its video, which proved to be a viral Internet phenomenon in the fall of 2005. The ultra-low budget, long take video featured the band in their back yard performing a dance choreographed by lead singer Kulash’s sister, Trish Sie. Using a camera borrowed from a friend, the video was produced for under ten dollars, and was apparently released without the knowledge or consent of their label, Capitol Records. By August 2006, the video had become the most downloaded music video ever with over 9 million downloads.^[2] The band performed the dance live on British TV show Soccer AM.

The nontraditional video for “A Million Ways” is not without precedent for the band. Previous oddball video efforts featuring OK Go include their Ping Pong Instructional Video and the Federal Truth In Music Project. They also performed a choreographed dance for the song “C-C-C-Cinamon Lips” at shows after the release of their first album. It was based on N’SYNC dance routines, which they had developed for the cable access show Chic-a-Go-Go, which required bands to lip-sync their songs.^[3]

On July 31, 2006, the band released a video in a similar vein for “Here It Goes Again” featuring an elaborately choreographed dance on treadmills, also directed and choreographed by Trish Sie. This video was viewed by over one million people on the media site YouTube in the first six days. As of July 2009, the original video upload for “Here It Goes Again” has been viewed over 47 million times, putting it in 42nd place for the most views of any video and 29th place for most viewed music video as well as the 7th most favorited video and the top favorited music video of all time on YouTube. If the statistics for all copies of the video on YouTube are tallied together, the video has been viewed many more times. The band has worked with both world-renowned and relatively unknown directors including Francis Lawrence, Olivier Gondry (brother of Michel Gondry), Brian L. Perkins, Scott Keiner, and Todd Sullivan. On August 23, 2006, Damian Kulash appeared on The Colbert Report to talk about the unconventional popularity achieved with “A Million Ways” and “Here It Goes Again”. The latter video won 2006 YouTube Award in the Most Creative category.^[4] Emcee Common references the video in his song “Drivin’ Me Wild” (“She was the type to watch Oprah and the Today Show, be on the treadmill, uh, like ‘OK Go’”).

In OK Go’s choreographed videos, their bassist Tim Nordwind lip-syncs instead of their lead singer, Damian Kulash, following the format from the dance choreographed for the song “C-C-C-Cinnamon Lips”, which Tim sings. On August 31, OK Go appeared live at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards performing their treadmill routine for “Here It Goes Again”. Since the VMA performance, sales of the album & single have increased, especially on the iTunes Music Store where, as of September 5, 2006, the single has reached #11 and the album #2. On November 7, 2006, OK Go released a deluxe limited edition CD/DVD of the album Oh No. The DVD contains their music videos (dancing and playing instruments), a video of 180 fans performing the “A Million Ways” dance for a YouTube contest, previously unseen footage, and a behind-the-scenes look at their treadmill rehearsals for the “Here It Goes Again” video and for the MTV VMAs.

In May 2006, they toured with Panic at the Disco; in September they were in the U.K. supporting Motion City Soundtrack, and continued their U.S. tour supporting Snow Patrol into Spring 2007.

On January 12, 2006, OK Go made a guest appearance on the NBC show, Las Vegas. The episode, entitled “Fleeting Cheating Meeting,” incorporated many songs from their Oh No album. The music video for “Here It Goes Again” was also parodied in a Simpsons episode aired later that year.

On February 11, 2006, OK Go and Trish Sie took home a Grammy award for “Best Short-Form Music Video” for their viral music video, “Here It Goes Again”. This video has around 47 million hits on YouTube, making it one of the most viewed.

In 2008, Damian Kulash said that the band hadn’t produced the YouTube videos as part of any overt, “Machiavellian” marketing campaign. “In neither case did we think, ‘A-ha, this will get people to buy our records.’ It has always been our position that the reason you wind up in a rock band is you want to make stuff. You want to do creative things for a living.”^[5]

After visiting New Orleans in 2006, the band recorded an EP with New Orleans funk rock band Bonerama, to raise money for musicians who were still displaced by the 2005 Hurricane Katrina. The EP, entitled You’re Not Alone, was released on February 5, 2008.

On October 12, 2008, OK Go announced that they had finished writing new songs for their third album and are currently in the studios in upstate New York with producer Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, MGMT).^[6] The band will preview their upcoming album on a short sling of dates on the Eastern Coast of the U.S. this March, starting in Philadelphia on March 6, 2009 at the TLA Theatre. They have stated that these songs are the “danciest, most anthemic, most heartbroken, and honest songs”, of their career, and the album itself takes a much more funky, dancy, yet melancholy sound to it, drawing influence from Prince. The album is tentatively titled The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Color of the Sky and is currently expected for release in September 2009. On May 7, a song from the album, titled “Skyscrapers”, was released for streaming online.^[7]

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Redman

Here are a few more Monolith photos until I can get complete performance sets up. Stay tuned for band by band postings.

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