The Bedlam in Goliath

Untitled

The Bedlam in Goliath is the fourth full-length studio album by American progressive rock band The Mars Volta. It was released on January 29, 2008, and January 26, 2008 in Australia through Universal Motown Records. The album debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200, selling over 54,000 copies in its opening week.

Produced by guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez with engineer Robert Carranza, the album's creation process was subject to "bad luck controversy" after the band's bizarre experience with a ouija that Rodriguez-Lopez bought as a gift for Cedric Bixler-Zavala. "Wax Simulacra" was released on November 19, 2007 as the album's first single, coupled with a cover version of "Pulled to Bits", originally by Siouxsie & the Banshees. Vinyl editions of the album include a ouija inside the gatefold, claimed to be the band's own take on the board they previously owned.

Having previously contributed the artwork to the 2006 release of Amputechture, Jeff Jordan was again brought in to handle the illustrations for the album, creating 11 original paintings to coincide with the theme of The Bedlam in Goliath, as well as including a piece from his own gallery. The piece used for the cover is entitled "Agadez". The Bedlam in Goliath is featured in the book 1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die.

Production

Background

On a trip in Jerusalem, Rodriguez-Lopez purchased an archaic ouija-type talking board at a curio shop as a gift for Bixler-Zavala. They would return to their tour bus after shows to play with it during their 2006 tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as it quickly became the band's post-show ritual. Dubbed "The Soothsayer", the board revealed stories, gave names and made demands, as the band was contacted by three different people who appeared in the form of one, who was then referred to as "Goliath". The more the band had interacted with "The Soothsayer", otherworldly coincidences began plaguing the band's experience writing and recording The Bedlam in Goliath: Blake Flemming—their current drummer at the time—had quit mid-tour and left the band with financial troubles; Bixler-Zavala wound up needing surgery performed on his foot due to the shoes he had been wearing, forcing him to relearn how to walk post-surgery; audio tracks sporadically and literally disappeared off the screens; Rodriguez-Lopez's home studio flooded and had been subject to multiple power outages; and the album's original engineer had gone through a nervous breakdown, leaving behind all previous work with no notes as to where anything was. The engineer who quit stated to Rodriguez-Lopez: "I'm not going to help you make this record. You're trying to do something very bad with this record, you're trying to make me crazy and you're trying to make people crazy."

Rodriguez-Lopez was nearly on the brink of starting over from scratch, but instead kept on with the recruitment of Robert Carranza as the replacement engineer, along with assistance from Lars Stalfors and Isaiah Abolin. Midway through the recording sessions, Rodriguez-Lopez broke "The Soothsayer" in half and buried it in an undisclosed location as an attempt to undo the curse and halt the unforeseen tragedies, who ended the ordeal by swearing never to give away the whereabouts of its burial, and also asking the band not to speak of it again during the remainder of the album's production.

The song "Soothsayer" contains field recordings that Omar recorded in Jerusalem. The recordings are a mixture from the Jewish quarter, the Muslim Quarter and the Christian Quarter.

Recording process

Recorded and mixed at Ocean Way Studios in Hollywood and Rodriguez-Lopez's home studio in Brooklyn, New York, song material for The Bedlam in Goliath dates back to April 2006 when demos were first written. Without a stable studio drummer after the three consecutive losses of Jon Theodore, Blake Fleming and Deantoni Parks in a single year, the band was introduced to the 24-year-old Thomas Pridgen, whose youthful presence—as described by Bixler-Zavala—had given The Mars Volta new life. Rodriguez-Lopez worked with Rich Costey to finish the album in a three-week stretch, assisted by Shawn Michael Sullivan and Claudius Mittendorfer as editors.

In an interview, Carranza described the recording process for The Bedlam in Goliath stating that no more than three takes an hour were recorded, as a way to soak in what was recorded and to hear the differences, which in turn improved the general mood and atmosphere of the album's creation. Elaborating on the method, Carranza stated that "when van Gogh was around he wasn't just painting, painting, painting. I'm sure he took a step back once in a while. You should do the same when you're recording."

Eventually the band decided in favor of Wax Simulacra as the first single:

Originally, the label wanted to introduce the LP with the track "Goliath," but the band wouldn't have it. " 'Goliath' is about nine, 10 minutes long, and the end of it is so interesting, we didn't really want it to be used as a single," [Cedric] said. "It kept getting butchered and came off really bad.

Themes

Bixler-Zavala incorporated themes and names into the lyrics that were taken from messages given by "The Soothsayer", also including excerpts from poems that were found attached to the ouija, describing a love triangle between a woman, her daughter and a man. Each song reinterprets the relationship in some shape or form, and as a good luck charm to counteract the cryptic themes, Bixler-Zavala incorporated elements of the Afro-Caribbean religious tradition Santería into the lyrics as a "protective skin" to protect the band.

The album ultimately serves as an attempt to artistically reverse their perceived bad luck by "setting traps" for the listeners to use as a way to undo what "The Soothsayer" had brought upon the band. To aid the concept, vinyl editions of the album contain the band's own version of the ouija inside the gatefold.

Promotion

Webisodes

Four webisodes were posted on The Mars Volta's official website, depicting the band in various and sometimes humorous situations.

• "Wax Simulacra" contains live footage of the band performing on their Australian 2007 Tour.
• "Aberinkula" is based around the band playing cards and then performing surgery on a person, finding odd objects inside of the body.
• "Goliath" consists of the band performing on obscure instruments in the middle of a street, with Bixler-Zavala dressed as The Elephant Man.
• "Askepios" is made up of footage of a celebration party that takes place in front of a green screen. Several props and objects appearing in the other videos (including a piñata bearing the effigy of George W. Bush) are passed around and examined during the celebration.

Another webisode for "Ilyena" was posted at Dailymotion, showing footage of the band in a classroom with Rodriguez-Lopez introducing Adrián Terrazas-González, who appears as a police officer to lecture to the class. The last half of the video shows everyone on a rooftop watching as graffiti artists Grey and Thomas Pridgen spray paint their tags on a wall.

Cover artwork puzzle

A scrambled picture puzzle was put up on the official website featuring the front cover artwork for The Bedlam in Goliath. If solved, a free MP3 download of The Mars Volta performing a cover version of "Back Against the Wall" by the Circle Jerks was available. Presently, solving the puzzle no longer gives a promotional code for the free download.

Goliath: The Soothsayer

Based on the events that took place during the creation of The Bedlam in Goliath, the online game Goliath: The Soothsayer was released via Amazon through January 2–29, and later made publicly available at Newgrounds on January 29, 2008. Developed by Leffler Web Design, the game is described as a horror/supernatural "point 'n' click".

File:Tbig flyer.jpg

New Years Eve promo flyer

2008 club tour

A ticket presale was announced on the band's website for a New Year's Eve show at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, California, promoted with flyers that featured exclusive The Bedlam in Goliath artwork illustrated by Jeff Jordan. The band would then announce a following January club tour in 2008 where they would then debut new material from the album for the first time prior to its release.

USB flash drive

The album will be alternatively released on a limited USB flash drive that is designed to resemble a piece of a ouija board, possibly to coincide with the vinyl release of the album. While primarily containing The Bedlam in Goliath in its entirety, the flash drive will unlock a variety of bonus material on the 29th of each month throughout 2008. So far, the future content is confirmed to include webisodes, concert footage, limited edition wallpaper, b-sides and unreleased tracks.

VinylDisc Single

In some U.S. record stores, a free 5" VinylDisc of The Mars Volta's cover of Pink Floyd's "Candy and a Currant Bun" was given away with purchase of the album. The VinylDisc is a new format that has a digital side and a vinyl side. One side plays in a CD player, while the other side plays on a turntable. The vinyl side contains the Pink Floyd cover "Candy and a Currant Bun", while the CD side contains the audio track for "Candy and a Currant Bun" as well as the "Wax Simulacra" video as enhanced content. It also comes with a removable foam spindle insert to switch between CD & vinyl.

Best Buy Exclusive

Best Buy shipped the album with a download code for exclusive tracks, "Pulled to Bits" and "Birthday", as well as a free bonus DVD with 20 minutes of never-before-seen concert footage. However, many of the DVDs were unplayable, the codes expired after a certain amount of time, and the downloads (being in secure WMA format) were not Mac compatible.

Vinyl release

The 2x12" vinyl version of the album was released on June 10th. A 7" vinyl accompanies the double LP. It is in the shape of a planchette, and features a previously unreleased track called "Mr. Muggs", named after Jim Jones' pet Chimpanzee. The double LP is half red and half black.

Track listing

1. "Aberinkula" – 5:45
2. "Metatron" – 8:12
3. "Ilyena" – 5:36
4. "Wax Simulacra" – 2:39
5. "Goliath" – 7:15
6. "Tourniquet Man" – 2:38
7. "Cavalettas" – 9:32
8. "Agadez" – 6:44
9. "Askepios" – 5:11
10. "Ouroborous" – 6:36
11. "Soothsayer" – 9:08
12. "Conjugal Burns" – 6:36

Notes

• An aberinkula is a special kind of drum used in Nigeria. Also, "aberinkula" can be translated as "non-believer".
• Metatron is the name of an angel in Judaism and some branches of Christianity. It is also considered to harbor the voice of God.
• Ilyena is a reference to Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov, which is the birth name of actress Dame Helen Mirren. "I've named a song 'Ilyena' after the real name of the actress Helen Mirren because she is my favorite actress and the song is a little lighthearted and different from the subject matter."
• The word "simulacrum" is used to describe a representation of another thing, such as a statue or a painting; especially of a god. It also describes an image without the substance or qualities of the original. Simulacra is simply the plural form of the word.
• Goliath is a Philistine warrior mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. He is famous for his battle in the 11th century BC that he lost against David, the young Israelite boy who had already been chosen by God and anointed by Samuel to become the King of Israel.
• "Una cavaletta" is said to be a woman who constantly tries to change her lover into some fantasy she has conjured.
• Agadez is the largest city in northern Niger.
• Askepios is named after the Greek medicine god, Asclepius.
• The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle. It is spelled as "Ouroborous" on the album's track listing, but this is likely to be a printing error as The Mars Volta's official website and the ASCAP website both list the track as "Ouroboros".
• The inner booklet features a series of images commonly known as the "Seven Powers of Africa".
• A soothsayer is one who predicts future events based on personal beliefs instead of common reasoning.

Bonus tracks and b-sides

• "Back Up Against the Wall" – 1:34
  • Circle Jerks cover. Previously available on The Mars Volta's official website as a digital download.
• "Birthday" – 4:20
  • The Sugarcubes cover. Available on the Japanese version of the album and from Best Buy as a bonus download.
• "Candy and a Currant Bun" – 2:20
  • Pink Floyd cover. Available on the UK, AUS, and NZ versions of the album. Also from U.S. independent record stores as a VinylDisc single.
• "Pulled to Bits" – 3:27
  • Siouxsie & the Banshees cover. Available on the "Wax Simulacra" single and from Best Buy as a bonus download.
• "Memories" – 3:04
  • Soft Machine cover. Available on the Japanese version of the album and on iTunes as a bonus track.
• "Things Behind the Sun" – 4:07
  • Nick Drake cover. Available on the Japanese version of the album and on iTunes as a bonus track.
• "Mr. Muggs" - 3:15
  • Bonus track on vinyl edition of the album.

Demos

• GetMadRef (Agadez demo)- 5:54
  • Available through USB stick on December 29, 2008.
• Ratiplet For Label (Soothsayer demo) - 4:52
  • Available through USB stick on December 29, 2008.

Chart positions

Chart (2008)	Peak position
US Billboard 200	3
Australian ARIA Album Chart	3
Austrian Album Chart	46
Belgian Albums Chart	35
Canadian Albums Chart	6
Dutch Albums Chart	42
Finnish Albums Chart	9
French Albums Chart	87
German Albums Chart	29
Italian Albums Chart	47
Irish Albums Chart	57
Mexican Albums Chart	47
New Zealand RIANZ Albums Chart	13
Norwegian Albums Chart	10
Spanish Albums Chart	58
Swedish Albums Chart	32
Swiss Albums Chart	57
UK Albums Chart	42

Personnel

• Omar Rodriguez-Lopez – guitar
• Cedric Bixler-Zavala – vocals
• Isaiah Ikey Owens – keyboards
• Juan Alderete – bass
• Thomas Pridgen – drums
• Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez – percussion
• Paul Hinojos – sound manipulation, guitar
• Adrián Terrazas-González – flute, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet
• John Frusciante – guitar
• Henry Trejo – "Because" on "Agadez"
• Nathaniel Tookey – string composition and arrangement
• Sam Bass – cello
• Edwin Huizinga – violin
• Charith Premawardhana – viola
• Anthony Blea – violin
• Owen Levine – double bass