Artist: THE MARS VOLTA
Album: SCABDATES (CD)

Year: 2005
Media type: CD

Scabdates is the second official live recording from the band The Mars Volta. It was released on November 8, 2005 and features music recorded between May 2004 and May 2005 during the 2004-2005 tour in support of Frances the Mute.

While the disc contains twelve tracks, only three of the band's songs are represented; many of the tracks constitute expansions on musical themes which appear elsewhere in their work, or entirely new segments altogether. For example, the lengthy exposition on "Cicatriz," which combined with its introduction "Haruspex", comprises 48 minutes of the disc and incorporates into its lengthy jam themes which would later be used in "Cassandra Gemini" (the performance excerpted here was recorded on May 12, 2004, almost a year before Frances the Mute was released). Oddly enough, while the renditions of "Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" and "Cicatriz" are much longer than their album counterparts, the Scabdates version of "Concertina" is actually 37 seconds shorter than its Tremulant EP counterpart.

The Mars Volta have freely encouraged the trading of bootlegged live performances, but Scabdates was lauded by many fans for its superior sound quality and for being the first official recording that captured the Volta's lengthy experimental workouts during live performances. IGN however, described the experimentation as "sonic meandering which some regard as genius and others find to be a futile exercise in pretentious instrumental masturbation." No matter what one thinks of the band's avant-garde style of jamming, it is undeniably the source of the definitive split between the fans and critics of live Mars Volta performances.

While the material on Scabdates is drawn almost entirely from live performances, the music doesn't appear exactly as performed; Part IV of "Cicatriz" incorporates a full eight-minute, psychedelic sound collage of many other Mars Volta live performances (notably, performances of "Eunuch Provocateur" and "Cassandra Gemini") that was not featured in the original performance, along with edited recordings of what sounds like Omar laughing, Cedric and other people talking, coughing, laughing, etc. A voice can be heard saying "Don't you remind me of Jeremy", referring to former soundman Jeremy Ward. "Abrasions Mount the Timpani" also features sound samples of mewling babies and airliner announcements that Omar recorded while on the road with the band. The album ends with Cedric thanking the audience by telling them to "go home and take a bath."

TRACKLIST:

"Abrasions Mount the Timpani" – 4:07
"Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt" – 5:57
"A. Gust of Mutts" – 2:34
"B. And Ghosted Pouts" – 4:52
"Caviglia" – 2:46
"Concertina" – 4:17
"Haruspex" – 5:24
"Cicatriz" – 8:16
"A. Part I" – 2:34
"B. Part II" – 7:39
"C. Part III" – 4:29
"D. Part IV" – 20:00

LINE-UP:

Omar A. Rodriguez-Lopez
Cedric Bixler-Zavala
Juan Alderete
Jon Theodore
Isaiah Ikey Owens
Adrian Terrazas-Gonzalez
Pablo Hinojos-Gonzalez
Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez