VMP Magazine

One of the most memorable — and provocative — moments of GoldLink’s At What Cost happens in an instant while the album is still beginning. As “Meditation” comes to an end, the song gives way to a crowd of people talking over it, evoking a typical night out at the club. Suddenly, a gun gets cocked — “Oh, shit!” someone yells as the gun fires. The music comes to an abrupt end. The night is over. Just another weekend in D.C., where things can take a turn for the worse in a matter of seconds.

The Mars Volta. If you’re a fan, then you — like me — understand what it’s like to attempt to try to get someone into this band. For one, progressive rock isn't an easy genre to get into. It’s often intentionally made to be inaccessible — these long, epic sonic journeys test one’s patience in hopes that they recalibrate the listener and expand their musical palette. This can absolutely be said for the Volta, a group that took the prog rock foundation of groups like Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa and King Crimson, and defined — and redefined — the genre for the aughts. Volta’s leaders, Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, have never shied away from their self-indulgence with this band. They make what they want to hear; if you stick with them, cool — if not, well, that’s alright, too.

2001 was expected to be At The Drive-In’s breakout year. Following the release of Relationship of Command in 2000, the popularity of “One Armed Scissor” even led some to refer to the group as “the next Nirvana.” Although the group had announced an “indefinite hiatus” in February, it was clear that by the end of the year, Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala weren’t interested in getting the band back together for the foreseeable future. Instead, the pair wanted to further explore the experimental and progressive ideas they advocated for as part of At The Drive-In. And by the end of 2001, their new band, The Mars Volta, had already played a string of live performances, most notably a sold-out show at Los Angeles nightclub the Troubadour in November. Winona Ryder and Courtney Love were reportedly in attendance, as were fans earnestly — or tauntingly — hoping to hear the band’s founders, Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala, play “One Armed Scissor.”