page_title: The Mars Volta
section_title: The Bedlam in Goliath (2008)
hierarchical_section_title: The Mars Volta / History / The Bedlam in Goliath (2008)
caption_attribution_description: Omar Rodríguez-López, lead guitarist for the Mars Volta, playing at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul, Minnesota.
context_page_description: The Mars Volta was an American progressive rock band from El Paso, Texas, formed in 2001. The band's final live lineup consisted of Omar Rodríguez-López, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Juan Alderete, Marcel Rodríguez-López, and Deantoni Parks. The band formed following the break-up of Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala's previous band, At the Drive-In. They were known for their energetic live shows and their concept albums.
  In 2009, the band won a Grammy Award in the Best Hard Rock Performance category for the song "Wax Simulacra". In 2008, they were named Best Prog-Rock Band by Rolling Stone magazine.
  Following a run of reunion shows with At the Drive-In, the Mars Volta entered a hiatus in September 2012. Omar Rodríguez-López and Parks then formed a new project, Bosnian Rainbows. Four months later, the band formally broke up. Bixler-Zavala and Alderete subsequently formed a new band, Zavalaz. Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala eventually reunited in 2014 for a new project, Antemasque. At the Drive-In reunited again in 2015 before splitting in 2018.
  Comments from the pair have indicated that they plan to reunite The Mars Volta in the future.
context_section_description: In 2007, Thomas Pridgen became the new permanent drummer for the band. Pridgen's first full-time appearance was at the March 12 show in New Zealand, where the band debuted the song "Idle Tooth" which was later renamed "Wax Simulacra" for the forthcoming album. After shows in New Zealand and Australia, the Mars Volta toured a few West Coast venues as the headliner, then entered the studio to record their fourth LP, The Bedlam in Goliath. One of these performances was captured in a live concert DVD (which remains unreleased) shot by director Jorge Hernandez Aldana.
  Despite finding a permanent drummer and getting the band back on track, the recording and production of the album was reportedly plagued by difficulties related to a bad experience with a Ouija board purchased in a curio shop in Jerusalem. According to Rodríguez-López, their original engineer experienced a nervous breakdown, his studio flooded twice, and both he and mixer Rich Costey claimed that various tracks would disappear at random.
  On November 5, 2007, the Mars Volta released a document by Jeremy Robert Johnson titled, "The Mars Volta's Descent into Bedlam: A Rhapsody in Three Parts." The document includes a history of the band and describes the obstacles and inspirations they encountered in the creation of The Bedlam in Goliath. On November 20, 2007 "Wax Simulacra", the first single from the forthcoming album, was released with a cover of "Pulled to Bits" by Siouxsie and the Banshees as the b-side.
  The band kicked off their supporting tour with a December 29, 2007 "secret show" at the Echoplex in Los Angeles, California, followed by a special New Year's Eve performance at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. That night they played their first ever acoustic set, which included six songs and a live performance of "Miranda, That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore". The band then departed on a club tour of the U.S. east coast throughout January, with an album release show at San Diego's Soma, followed by another month's worth of European dates from mid-February to mid-March.
  On January 2, 2008, the Mars Volta released an online game called "Goliath: The Soothsayer", based on a true story that inspired their forthcoming album The Bedlam In Goliath. The album chronicles the band's purported experience with the "Soothsayer", a Ouija board owned by vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and its transition from a source of fun on tour to a psycho-spiritual force that almost tore the band apart. The game was available for a limited time exclusively via Amazon.com.
  On January 17, 2008, the band made their U.S. network television debut, performing "Wax Simulacra" on the Late Show with David Letterman (Rodríguez-López, Bixler-Zavala and Hinojos had appeared on the show with At the Drive-In in 2000). On January 22, they made a surprise appearance at Toronto, Ontario, Canada's MTV Live studios, where they performed "Wax Simulacra" and an extended version of "Goliath." In late January, the new album debuted at a career-best No. 3 on the Billboard 200.
  The song "Wax Simulacra" won the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. It was the band's first nomination and win. The band members thanked their families and Bixler urged people not to forget the memories of the recently departed Lux Interior and Ron Asheton.
caption: Omar Rodríguez-López playing at the Roy Wilkins Auditorium in Saint Paul, Minnesota on April 21, 2008.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot S5 IS", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2008:04:21 19:45:14", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Tag 0x1001": "3264", "Image Tag 0x1002": "2448", "Image ExifOffset": "266", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3454", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5857", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/10", "EXIF FNumber": "7/2", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:04:21 19:45:14", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:04:21 19:45:14", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "53/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "207/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2448", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3264", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2448000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "43520/3", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera"}