On the Business of Burning
Oh, I absolutely love the digital age. I think the digital age is an incredible movement. I'm really excited that I could be a part of it. I come from the old school from before the Internet, buying records and putting them onto a cassette, you know. We come from a completely different mindset and to see an explosion of creativity and ideas is incredible. To me, a release isn't really a release unless it's on vinyl. So for me that's the true form. But I'm not a purest. I don't look down on digital releases and all that.

As far as leaks and everything like that, I think it's great. I don't care if people "steal" our music. You can't really steal our music because I'm making our music to be heard. If you can't afford to buy our music, by all means take it. It's more important that you listen to it than it is that we make money or that some corporation somewhere makes money off of it. There has to be a balance between business and just enjoyment.

The only thing that sucks is--I work really fucking hard on these records and spend a good portion of my life losing sleep over them and [it bugs me] to know that there are inferior versions that get out there, like on Frances. When Frances was getting ready to come out, they were playing it for interviewers and press people and somebody snuck into the room and recorded it on a little cassette tape from his pocket, and this is the version that leaked. And for how hard I worked to make it sound the way it does, to think that that's what people are listening to, it absolutely kills me. And it's something I have to let go of. So that's the only thing that bums me out.

But as far as people just downloading music and "stealing" music, it's not stealing. Take what you want. The people who are going to need the record, like you and me, the people who are going to want to hold the artwork and read the lyrics and look at every little liner note and understand what this thing is about, we're always going to exist, we're always going to be here. The people who don't need that stuff, it's music to them...it's just a number inside of their computer, they're always going to be that way.

So please, by all means, take our music and have it playing through your speakers and enjoy. We're not fascists. This isn't Nazism. We're not trying to convert everybody and say, "No. You should always enjoy music with the liner notes and with the lyrics and with the artwork because it's a part of it." You and I know that it's a part of it but that's our religion. We have our religion and they're going to practice something else over there and let them practice it. And if we can meet on one point, if we can agree on one thing, which is the music, then all the better, you know. Something positive is coming out of it.

Omar Rodriquez-Lopez
The Mars Volta

taken from mp3.com interview: www.mp3.com/features/stories/10757.html

Bedlam in Goliath in stores now!
or burn it from your homie if you can't afford it...

From the back side of a clock's face, its hard to see what time it is.
When you're just a kid, it's hard to see the signs ahead
'cause you're going too fast
with your feet of lead on the pedal-to-the-metal thrill ride.
From side-to-side you swerve without a wheel guide.
The train glides off the track and begins a step slide
down the mountain bluff face.
This is no race, there's plenty of space
to chase after deep dreams,
to split the seams of the fabric of our existence.
So don't give in to the pissing contests of the misunderstood.
Go ahead, file this under "it's all good."
Start a mission to go deep into the woods
and bring books back to the trees
with pages and pages of apologies from the humans.
They keep taking and taking and taking and took
Until...

Look, we can better
this with letters
from go-getters
hoping to net
a nice catch-and-release
of our piece of mind.

(This was written in a you write a little, I write a little, you, me, etc fashion with Ryan Mason...a creative firecracker cohort of mine.)

A lift-off into infinities.
A 21-gram salute to all that was
more importantly, to all that will be.

The audience feels sorrow.
The actors find solace.

What act are we in now, anyway?
Has there been an intermission?
Can this tragedy play out forever?

Enter silence.

Where's the score?
There's no more orchestra!
All seats left vacant.

Performances throughout the years
have cursed me with profound fears
of facing my internal character
...of facing my infernal character.

But there's no one here,
save for me.

**Save ME**

Do I keep reading my lines?

"Not anymore.
The curtain is down.
The lights are up."

Thankfully,
Blissfully,
I fall outside of myself
and into everything.

The news tonight was about...

Murder
War
Sadness
Rainstorms
...(a moment of clarity)
a segment on charity.
Despair
Disaster
Disease
Dis-ease.

Fuck you very much, Mr. Anchorman
Your forecast is partly insignificant
with a chance of mind-clouds.
His un-seeing, our un-believing.