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Omar Rodríguez-López

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Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

Omar Alfredo Rodriguez-Lopez (born September 1, 1975 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico) is the lead guitarist and composer for the progressive rock group The Mars Volta.

Biography

Rodriguez-Lopez grew up in El Paso, Texas, but spent some of his childhood in South Carolina, where he got in touch with friend Cedric Bixler Zavala who suggested he come back to El Paso. With the help of Bixler Zavala, he was able to make it back to El Paso where he joined At The Drive-In as backup vocalist and bass guitarist. After receiving a record deal with Flipside Records and recording Acrobatic Tenement with the band, he became their full-time bassist before switching to guitar. While in At The Drive-In, he held some odd jobs, including a telemarketer for AT&T. He also worked as a secretary and sold acid and other various drugs.

Omar started his music career at 15 years of age when he became the singer for the El Paso hardcore band, Startled Calf, from 1990 to 1992. Rodriguez-Lopez has spent most of his career working with, and often living with his close friend, Cedric Bixler Zavala. While still playing in At the Drive-In, they formed a dub reggae outfit called DeFacto. In 2001 both left At the Drive-In, which they had been part of since 1993, on "indefinite hiatus" to form The Mars Volta. In addition, Cedric appears on Rodriguez-Lopez's A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume 1, the soundtrack to Rodriguez-Lopez's film. The release of this film is postponed indefinitely.

Rodriguez-Lopez's compositional and playing style is characterized by, among other factors, unresolving dissonances (in particular a heavy use of the tritone), chromatic passages, serial composition and lengthy improvisation. He is also known for his vast array of effects pedals. Rodriguez-Lopez claims to be ignorant of any music theory.

Rodriguez-Lopez's style has been likened to that of King Crimson's Robert Fripp (who also uses tritones abundantly). It is likely that Fripp has had a considerable influence on Rodriguez-Lopez. However, Rodriguez has cited salsa pianist and bandleader Larry Harlow as his primary influence. Rodriguez cites the comedian Lenny Bruce, the film-maker Werner Herzog and the New Age anthropologist Carlos Castaneda as three other important influences.

Other notable comparisons can be drawn between Rodriguez and guitarist John McLaughlin of Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles Davis fame. It is very likely that Rodriguez was influenced by McLaughlin as evident in his abundant use of complex time signatures and frequent meter changes in his playing. Many jazz and rock elements originally fused by pioneers such as McLaughlin are present in Rodriguez's playing as well.

Rodriguez-Lopez is credited as writing all the music heard on The Mars Volta's 2005 release CD, Frances the Mute, as well as acting as record producer, arranging and recording all of the music. He also produced the first and only LP from the defunct LA-based band Radio Vago.

Rodriguez-Lopez's playing style has been acknowledged by guitar legends such as Joe Satriani and Kirk Hammett.[citation needed]

The Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quintet

The Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quintet is a side project of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. Taking some free time out of his busy schedule with The Mars Volta, Rodriguez-Lopez plays live shows with his quintet. A self-titled album exists, recorded mostly in Amsterdam. The album, Omar Rodriguez, features long, improvisational songs with Dutch titles.

Omar's latest work is a collaboration between him and Damo Suzuki entitled "Please Heat This Eventually". The collaboration features members of Omar's Quintet and will be released under Omar's GSL recordings on special edition 12" vinyl in December 2006, a proper release will come in early 2007.

Members

Criticism

Rodriguez is seen by some as overly controlling in recent years, as evidenced by his increased prescense in the band's sound and album production. Critics cite the dominating sound of Rodriguez's guitar in both live performances and in the studio, as well as the fact that he writes and arranges the music for and has produced or co-produced all of The Mars Volta's albums.

The liner notes of Amputechture state that, "The partnership between Omar Rodriguez-Lopez [who wrote and arranged all of the music and directs the group] & Cedric Bixler-Zavala [who wrote all lyrics and vocal melodies] is The Mars Volta. These compositions are then performed by The Mars Volta Group", inciting controversy among the fan community. This controversy doesn't make sense when you take into consideration artists such as Mozart or Martin Scorsese. We hear music by artists that were never able to record their music, only write it but we still call it Mozart's music and we rarely refer to the contemporary players (unless of course they do something radically different.) Also no film is known by every person that made it possible, instead (like Omar) the film is known by the director's name.

Discography

Solo / Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quintet

With Startled Calf

With At The Drive-In

With DeFacto

With The Mars Volta

Guest Appearances

Equipment

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Omar Rodriguez-Lopez with equipment

With The Mars Volta

Live:

  • Amplifiers:
    • 4 x Orange AD140HTC into 4 x 4x12 Orange Cabinets (lately the orange fleck covering has been stripped off the heads and cabs)

(Omar has a huge range of effects pedals which he uses both live and in the studio. The above is a list of identified pedals, however the list is not complete and may never be complete.)

Studio:

De-Loused In The Comatorium

Frances The Mute

With At The Drive-In

With Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quintet

With DeFacto

  • Basses
    • Fender Jazz basses (Omar used a black with white scratchplate model and white with red tortoise-shell scratchplate model)
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