Last night was a wild one for fans of The Mars Volta as they were treated to two large bits of news. First, guitarist/composer Omar Rodríguez-López’ new project Bosnian Rainbows released its first single. Then, over 12 hours later, singer Cedric Bixler Zavala used his twitter account to say this:
A few minutes after that, Cedric then announces his departure from The Mars Volta, effectively ending the band’s 12-year career. In a series of tweets, Zavala lays the blame on ORL’s new venture and his refusal to tour in support of Noctourniquet stating:
Noctourniquet went through a lengthy release process that, in hindsight, reveals the slow unraveling of the rock outfit.
Much of the album was written in 2009 after the release of Octahedron. Zavala, however, took nearly two years to write lyrics for the tracks. The wait burned Rodríguez-López out on the record (something bassist Juan Alderete attested to), which didn’t see the light of day until early last year — two months after Zavala and López announced their reunion tour with At The Drive-In. The long wait also led to a revolt on Facebook where TMV fans bombarded the Warner Records page with demands to release the album.
In March 2012, TMV released Noctourniquet, At The Drive-In performed a few shows through the spring including Coachella, TMV then played a few shows in Europe in support of Noctourniquet, and López, as he explained in our interview, chose to focus on Bosnian Rainbows.
A few months later, here we are living in a world where The Mars Volta no longer exists and Zavala puts his longtime friend on blast with a few personal jabs to boot.
Read more Cedric’s tweets below: