After a string of brilliant albums, some devastating deaths, a breakup, and a reunion, The Mars Volta has shared the definitive story of the boundary-pushing experimental Latin post-hardcore psych-rock group with a new documentary. Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird profiles the lifelong artistic bond between Mars Volta leaders Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala and is now streaming on-demand on Veeps.
A film 40 years in the making, Omar and Cedric consists of camcorder footage Omar began shooting as a child and continued all the way through the band’s ups, downs, and ultimate reconciliation. Directed by Nicolas Jack Davies, the film features new voiceovers by Omar and Cedric as viewers are given a fly-on-the-wall view of the pair’s musical path through the decades.
Growing up in El Paso, TX in the ’80s and ’90s, Omar and Cedric found each other in the city’s burgeoning punk and hardcore communities. As Omar set off on a cross-country hitchhiking journey of self-discovery, Cedric co-founded seminal post-hardcore band At The Drive-In and eventually lured Rodríguez-López back to El Paso after his travels led him down a dark path of addiction. Together, they left At The Drive-In just as the band began to achieve widespread popularity and started from scratch with The Mars Volta. As Omar and Cedric explain in the film, their goals for starting the new band were to honor their Latin-American heritage and honor their dead.
After exploding onto the scene with its 2003 debut De-Loused in the Comatorium, The Mars Volta perseveres through the tragic death of co-founding sound manipulator Jeremy Ward. Omar and Cedric find an acceptance and understanding with The Mars Volta they were unable to achieve in At The Drive-In. The toxic stench of machismo and slam-dancing from At The Drive-In shows was replaced with reverence from fans who embraced the group’s ambitious compositions and Latin-American influence. Critical and commercial acclaim followed through the 2000s with Frances the Mute, Amputechture, The Bedlam in Goliath, and other groundbreaking releases.
The film does not shy away from showing the fraught dynamics that ultimately tore The Mars Volta apart. As Omar became increasingly encumbered by his responsibilities as the group’s key instrumentalist and producer, Cedric sought help for his substance abuse issues through the Church of Scientology. In the film, Omar does not hold back from sharing all the ways he was let down by Cedric, who in turn offers no excuses and laments how he cut his best friend out of his life at the behest of Scientology. After Cedric’s wife Chrissie Carnell-Bixler went public with her accusations that actor Danny Masterson sexually assaulted her and the Church of Scientology deterred her from reporting it, the couple eventually break from the church, Omar and Cedric reconcile, reunite At The Drive-In, and—finally—The Mars Volta.
Check out the trailer for The Mars Volta documentary Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird and stream the film on-demand via Veeps. The Mars Volta will go out on tour in spring with Deftones and Fleshwater. Find tickets and tour dates on Ticketmaster or try the secondary market.
Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird | Official Trailer