We will release their much anticipated first full length record, Where Were You When I Happened, on CD in Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) it's available in all other territories thru Drag City.

From now on all Omar Rodriguez' future releases will be available world wide thru Rodriguez Lopez Productions, the people that brought you Willie Anderson are still responsible for the European part of the operation.

New Earth Group's Choca, self-released a record under the name Choca Alcazaba, titled Reverse Bad Energy. As always you can get it thru New Earth Groups Myspace

First of all, thanks to everyone who made it to one of European Omar Rodriguez Group w/ Zechs Marquise shows! Especially everyone in Athens and Moscow!

Zechs debut album, Our Beautiful Stranded Night Mare, came out on the first day that the tour started, March 15. The vinyl version, a beautiful double gatefold LP (!!!), came actually from the pressingplant on the morning of the first show in Vera, Groningen. It might take a little while till everyone will be able to order the record in his or her own country. Since everything was so rushed so Zechs Maruise could have it with them on the tour. But we pulled it off.

Also available now is The New Earth Group's live album TAM BOE MAN. You can order it directly from the band thru their Myspace site. DO IT!

From both records a new song is uploaded on our Myspace.

And last but not least. Some of you may have seen that Rodriguez-Lopez Productions is coming with its first release El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez-Lopez in May. We are planning to make this record, and all following on Rodriguez-Lopez Productions, available overhere (read Europe). More news on that soon....

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Monotonix played SXSW, watch this....

All tourdates for Omar Rodriguez Group and Zechs Marquise are (finally) updated. That means that London venue is announced and even a show in Greece (!).
Also two songs have been uploaded from recently released ORL records, Despair and Megaritual.
We are planning to have all records for sale on upcoming tour!!!
People have been asking about ordering records from us directly. We're working on it. In the meantime you should be able to order records in alle European countries thru good recordstores and mailorders. Serious, just ask for it.
We are happy to announce we will also be releasing Zechs Marquise debut album, Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare. We are doing all we can to get it out before their European tour starts.
Also coming up is a live record from New Earth Group. Recently recorded in Groningen at the Noorderslag festival. The band made a huge impression on a lot of people who were unfamiliar with them untill than. This record will make the already legendary show available for the masses.
Thanks for your patience...
Willie Anderson

Monday March 9 NL Groningen Vera
Tuesday March 10 BE Brussels Botanique
Wednesday March 11 UK London Dingwalls
Thursday March 12 FR Paris Point FMR
Friday March 13 SW Fribourg Fri-Son
Saturday March 14 GR Athens Anclub
Sunday March 15 GE Berlin Festsaal Kreuzberg
Monday March 16 GE Hamburg Ubel und Gefahrlich
Tuesday March 17 GE Cologne Gebaude 9
Wednesday March 18 NL Amsterdam Melkweg

Support on all shows: Zechs Marquise (http://www.myspace.com/zechsmarquise)

January 26, again two new records (CD/LP) by Omar Rodriguez will see the light of day in Europe. Artwork and music will be disclosed soon.

WAR12: Despair
1 In Einem Jahr Mit 13
2 Liebe Ist Kalter Als Der Tod
3 Satansbraten
4 Angst Essen Seele Auf
5 Martha
6 Rio Das Mortes
7 Warnung Vor Einer Heilgen Nutte
8 Chinesisches Roulette
9 Lola
10 Angst Vor Der Angst
Written, Performed and Produced by Omar Rodriguez Lopez

Fans of The Mars Volta will undoubtedly be aware of Omar Rodriguez Lopez's visit to Israel in 2006, an event with great influence and repercussions on that band's 2008 album, The Bedlam in Goliath. Returning with a "talking board" which he presented as a gift to his songwriting partner, Cedric Bixler Zavala, the pair soon found themselves at the center of a series of strange and somewhat negative phenomena resulting, as Rodriguez Lopez has insisted, from the presence of the board as well as the overwhleming darkness of his life during the post-Israel months. Prior to beginning the studio sessions for Bedlam..., Rodriguez Lopez recorded Despair, a nihilistic and disturbing meditation on his experiences in and around Jerusalem culled from field recordings and studio experimentation. A nightmarish pastiche of drones, noise, feedback, and unrecognizable audio hallucinations, Rodriguez Lopez has, appropriately, compared the experience of listening to the album as not unlike that of a "bad acid trip". Cryptic titles such as "Liebe Ist Kalter Als Der Tod" and "Angst Vor Der Angst" provide little clue for the non-German speaker of what the various compositions have in store, an intentional suggestion of the disorientation and anxiety housed within the record's grooves. Despair challenges the listener and will no doubt be devisive amongst Volta fans.

WAR13 - Megaritual
1 A Device Imagined to Turn
2 Screaming Babies Inside Out
3 At the Push of a Button
4 Bells at the Slipstream
5 Good is Repaid with Evil
6 Panta Section
7 Hands Vs. Helix
8 Dispanec Triage
9 Dead Hisses to Match Our Own
OMAR - GUITAR, BASS, PIANO, SYNTH
MARCEL - DRUMS, PERCUSSION, PIANO, SYNTH

Megaritual does not appear in the dictionary, nor on wikipedia. The concept, however, is gaining momentum amongst conspiracy theorists and those fascinated by the social, political, and other real-world consequences of events that, at face value, seem too massive in scope to be the result of design. However, as religious fundamentalists find proof of "intelligent design" abundant in the world around them, so too do those who acknowledge the idea of the megaritual as inherent to the society we live in and, indeed, the universe we occupy. There comes a time when coincidence, happenstance and the arbitrary nature of "chaos" simply do not provide adequate explanation for the myriad spokes of the web we inhabit. When the concept is applied to nature and the rhythms of the planet, the cosmos, and the vast, uncharted depths of the human subconscious, it would seem that viewed in a certain light, every aspect of our physical and psychological realities is megaritual.

Megaritual is the final album in the series initiated and recorded by Omar Rodriguez Lopez in Amsterdam. Committed to tape in 2006 and mixed the following year, the album features nine instrumental tracks performed solely by Omar and his brother, Marcel. Accomplished multi-instrumentalists, there are few moments on the album that do not give the impression that the duo are in fact a "full" band, though perhaps not one as populated as The Mars Volta. Opener "A Device Imagined to Turn" rocks and rumbles in a similar manner to that band's anthemic "Goliath"; the somnambulant "Bells at the Slipstream" and "Good is Repaid with Evil" combine piano and synth melodies in a manner recalling Vangelis' soundtrack for Blade Runner; album closer "Dead Hisses to Match Our Own" stomps and wails in psychedelic abandon. Megaritual is another compelling and unpredictable entry in the growing Rodriguez Lopez canon, sure to satisfy the casual passerby and the committed fan alike.

Available in Europe September 22.
Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus (CD/LP WAR11)
"Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus" is one of four solo albums completed in 2001 by OMAR RODRIGUEZ LOPEZ, upon disbanding AT THE DRIVE-IN. Simultaneous to launching the massive undertaking that would become THE MARS VOLTA, Rodriguez Lopez (as well as his usual cast of co-conspirators) spent much of that year in his Long Beach studio, Anikulapo, blowing-off the proverbial steam resultant from the previous few years of endless touring. Indicative of Rodriguez Lopez's habit of constantly shuffling ideas and compositions amongst his various outlets, the record features tracks that were intended for eventual use by THE MARS VOLTA but reassigned, for one reason or another, and prior to the release of this album, unknown to the public. Featuring nine tracks, "Absence..." was tracked at Doug Messenger's North Hollywood studio only a few weeks after Rodriguez Lopez recorded A Manual Dexterity Soundtrack,Vol. 1 there, and is comparable to that project in both sound and atmosphere.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Minor Cuts and Scrapes in the Bushes Ahead (CD/LP WAR11)
Minor Cuts and Scrapes in the Bushes Ahead is the newest in a series of selectedly-archival solo releases made available by Omar Rodriguez Lopez of The Mars Volta. Recorded in 2001-2002, shortly after completing the Tremulant EP which would be The Mars Volta's debut, the forgotten album was initially made available only to friends on the then-surfacing minidisc format. Comprised of approximately 10 mostly instrumental tracks, Minor Cuts... occupies some realm between Rodriguez Lopez's familiar rock/jazz/Latin hybrids (The Apocalypse Inside of An Orange) and the more form-less audio canvases of his experimental solo releases (Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus). Travelling from one imagined dreamscape to another, the listener experiences what might be considered a variety of soundtracks to a night's worth of dreams, as well as a few nightmares. The sometimes-menacing juxtaposition of the various collaged sounds provides for surprisingly "visual" audio, while the melodies and fleeing structures remind one that there is indeed some vague, distant element of The Mars Volta present here. "Electrodorphines" pairs haunting Eastern tones and sunbursting Moog flourishes over acoustic guitars and the sound of warfare; "Pawn Shop Blues", the album's most straightforward track, is low-fi funk peppered with the unmistakable anti-soloing Rodriguez Lopez is famous for; brief album closer, "Atrotecism Fenleon", is a rare and exceptional treat: a radiant sixty-second window on the past, featuring the vocals of the late Jeremy Michael Ward. Minor Cuts... often achieves a sense of timelessness, enabling it to compare to some of the most enduring work of artists as varied as Brian Eno, Throbbing Gristle, and John Frusciante.

Willie Anderson is distributed in Europe by Konkurrent from Amsterdam

Two hours of radio with some New Earth Group songs and Vincent's favourite tracks:

New Earth Group on the radio

The self-titled collaborative album between OMAR RODRIGUEZ LOPEZ (of THE MARS VOLTA) and his late bandmate, JEREMY MICHAEL WARD, will come as something of a departure for fans of Rodriguez Lopez's vast catalog of rock-oriented albums. Originally recorded in 2001, after the dissolution of AT THE DRIVE-IN and prior to the "Tremulant" EP which would announce the arrival of THE MARS VOLTA to the world at large, the Rodriguez Lopez/Ward collaboration is a playful, abstract concoction of manipulated sounds and processed, unrecognizable recordings of household objects, everyday activities, passing dialog, and similar ephemera. Ward (who passed away in 2003), sound manipulator for TMV as well as a founding member of the dub-devoted DE FACTO project, was a fixture at the band's Long Beach compound/studio, Anikulapo, and arguably as potent a partner in crime as Rodriguez Lopez's more well-known collaborator, Cedric Bixler-Zavala. Originally issued as a limited edition (200), minidisc-only release and distributed amongst friends, the album has never enjoyed widespread availability until now. Comparable to the work of minimalist composer Steve Reich, Rodriguez Lopez has stated that the album is representative of his concept of artistic freedom, as well as illustrating the cross-dimensional elements linking his various solo projects (namely the A Manual Dexterity soundtrack) and his more "traditional" work with DE FACTO and THE MARS VOLTA.



In the next couple of weeks the CD and LP will be available everywhere in Europe...
In the rest of the world this record will be available from Infrasonic Sound

..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oZobeGaFqs

Monotonix are on a world tour and will be in Holland and Belgium for some dates as well. Don't miss them.

18 mei - Ekko, Utrecht (NL)
26 mei - Willemeen, Arnhem (NL)
02 juni - Bitterzoet, Amsterdam (NL)
07.juni - T' Slot, Wortel (B)
08.juni - La Zone, Liege (B)
09.juni - Sub071 Upstairs, Leiden (NL)

Their debut EP is out now on Willie Anderson Recordings in Benelux (distributed by Konkurrent) and DragCity in the rest of the world.