The Maneater recommends Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s Calibration as a worthy listen and, (not) surprisingly, they said that Glosa Picaresca Wou Men is the most listenworthy track on it.

Another common collaborator of Rodriguez-Lopez’s, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist John Frusciante, brings forth the best effort on this album. Oddly enough it is not for a guitar solo, but for lead vocals on “Glosa Picaresca Wou Mên.” His haunting vocals fade in and out only revealing certain lyrics, such as “I know where I’m at/I know where I’m at.”

Maybe Frusciante knows, but anyone listening has no clue where they are.

You can read the whole review here. And here’s another one, from URB magazine, where the reviewer is quite puzzled with the song’s ending.

“Glosa Picaresca Wou Men,” featuring the Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante, is a treacherous, chaotic and frankly, enjoyable journey, until it stops prematurely: a cliff-like fall with zero slope, right into the next track.

You can read the whole review here.

Slightly off-topic:
If you’re interested, a video was released for the title song.

Purchase links:
You can buy the CD by clicking here or have a look at the list of retailers in USA.
If you can’t get it physically, there’s a digital version, too.
Alternatively, if you’re not keen on Mr. Rodriguez-Lopez’s music and you would only like to hear John’s singing on Glosa Picaresca Wou Men and decypher its lyrics, click here to buy the song.

The long-expected and much promoted solo effort of The Mars Volta’s guitarist and mastermind, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, is finally seeing the light of the day in USA today. Beta Records’ MySpace page will host a listening party at 7 PM PST (GMT -9), so if you can make it there, click on their link for more information. I assume the “live TV” module on their page would broadcast it, though.

N20 records posted numerous bulletins prompting fans to physically buy the CD. However, it’s not possible in everyone’s case and I sense many people are interested solely in one song, so I listed all possible links for you.

Purchase links:
You can buy the CD by clicking here or have a look at the list of retailers in USA.
If you can’t get it physically, there’s a digital version, too.
Alternatively, if you’re not keen on Mr. Rodriguez-Lopez’s music and you would only like to hear John’s singing on Glosa Picaresca Wou Men and decypher its lyrics, click here to buy the song.

And, if you haven’t got The Bedlam In Goliath yet, click here for information on how to obtain it.

So…the initial dillema of where John exactly is on the album hasn’t been exactly solved, as it’s more complex than it looks like. Here’s what Omar Rodriguez-Lopez said to Harp magazine; which will hopefully clear everything up for people wondering where John is on The Bedlam In Goliath:

“John’s our secret weapon,” Rodriguez-Lopez says. “He’s always willing to allow me to utilize him in whatever way we want. On this record, he learned and memorized, down to the nuances and the odd way of picking, certain solos that I did, and turned them into parts. He would learn an entire solo in like 40 minutes and then double it, perfectly. That’s a sound you can’t get by just stereo-imaging a solo; it’s a different hand playing the guitar. So on the record, generally when you hear a guitar solo on the left, it’s me. On the right, the same exact solo is being played, but it’s John.”

I’m trying to find volunteers with good hearing sense and guitar knowledge to haunt down and list all of John’s contributions to the album, hope that happens soon. John’s playing was also. recognised by many people with good ears on the track that appears on the Japanese edition of TBiG - a cover of Nick Drake’s Things Behind The Sun.

And here’s a somewhat negative bit focusing on John from a review, written by David Hyland, for KCRA:

It’s no wonder then that the band’s maddening musical zigzags have attracted the Red Hot Chili Peppers eccentric guitarist John Frusciante. The screwball axe slinger sat in for most of the Mars Volta’s last record and now stands in as a semi-member of the group. One expecting to hear Frusciante’s soulful fretwork on “The Bedlam In Goliath” are in for disappointment. His playing is like all the sounds that main composer Rodriguez-Lopez pulls and distorts from the band’s toolbox, whose only purpose is to serve the greater whole.

A couple of more (positive) reviews on John’s playing on TBiG can be found below.

continue reading » »

The eagerly expected new CD of The Mars Volta is out today and, as it’s been the case ever since their 2003 debut album, John is a contributor. According to an interview that Omar Rodriguez-Lopez gave to the February issue of the eminent German magazine Musikexpress, John learned all solos by heart and can be heard through the right speaker, which makes the sound atmospherically thighter… and weird. It’s still unclear which exact track he’s on, so if anyone has the album yet, please do read the credits and help out.

To buy the album the old-fashioned way, go to your local record store or, if you live in the middle of Nowhere (and your owners are called Eustace and Muriel ^_^), click here to buy the album online. If you’re eccentric and you like your media delivered in unusual and unexpected ways, the album is also available on an USB stick, which is a fan’s access to monthly updates such as B-sides, exclusive wallpaper, webisodes and live material. Or, as an alternative to both of these options, download the album in mp3

You can also play Goliath, The Soothsayer, here to see what inspired creation of the album.

Some reviews of the album are below. I’ll be adding more as I stumble accross them, you’re more than welcome to submit your own review.

continue reading » »

(Many thanks to wonderful Tihana for heads up!)

The Balkans-wide famous Croatian radio, Otvoreni Radio’s playlist is full of John’s collaborations. And you can help make it even better, by voting, if that’s your idea of popularising music and making it heard and discovered by new people.

For the last week, the absolute number one on the foreign charts has been (surprise, surprise!), Wu-Tang Clan’s excellent The Heart Gently Weeps, featuring Dhani Harrison, Erykah Badu and our man.

At the same time, the new entry on the position 27 is Dave Gahan’s Saw Something, yet another song featuring John.

To vote for any of the songs and ensure their higher placements for the next week, go here, and click the songs’ names, then wait for the next page to load. You can vote four times a week from one IP. The weekly votings ends at midnight, GMT +1, every Wednesday.

P.S. If you still didn’t determine what’s your favourite cover song of 2007, go here, I’ll keep it open for a couple of more days.

According to Calibration’s MySpace project page, the album will be out in USA on 05th February and 25th February is the release date for Europe. To remind you again, John is one of the guests on this piece, he contributed his vocals to the song Glosa Picaresca Wou Men, to which he also contributed the lyrics. You can help promote Calibration in your part of the world by downloading the flyer [right click, save target/link as...], printing it out and giving it to people whom you want to get interested in it. Simply said, spread the word!

Also, this is what Omar Rodriguez-Lopez said in an interview with Dutch magazine Oor:

In the meanwhile you’re working on the next Mars Volta album and there are multiple solo releases on schedule. There is still enough music in Omar Rodriguez?

For sure! For the next year I’ve planned eight new solo records. The only other one musician I know that worked like this, is John Frusciante. Whom you, by the way, can hear on the new album. Anyway, I’ve got enough to tell, although my present mood is kinda mellow. My next writings won’t be as crazy as Bedlam.

(Once again, Melissa is the one to thank for this blurb!)

Dave Gahan’s song, Saw Something is finally accompanied by a music video. It was too optimistic to think John could be in it because he plays the guitar solo on the track; but this is a great way for those who have not heard the song yet to finally hear it and decide if John’s solo matches the end of the video. Enjoy!

(from davegahan.com)

And, while we’re at it, a poll. What was your favourite collaboration John did in 2007?

 Loading ...

If you can’t remember what some of the songs on the list are, look further through this news item for explanations.
continue reading » »