Stones Throw
2009
Old Money
About This Album
Given its range, depth, and breadth, it's utterly fitting that Old Money, the January 2009 offering from the increasingly prolific Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (guitarist, producer, composer, and arranger for the Mars Volta), is his debut for the mind-bending Stone's Throw imprint. On this conceptual recording very loosely based around themes of childhood dreams, nightmares, and colonial capitalism, Rodriguez-Lopez and his musical partners -- who include Juan Alderete de la Peña on bass; Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez on percussion and synths; Deantoni Parks, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and Jon Theodore alternating on drums; and Adrian Terrazas-Gonzaleson winds -- whip up the most ambitious stew he's ever created. As a guitarist, Omar has continued absorbing the knotty winding path blazed by Frank Zappa. He's also learned from him compositionally. This music may sound unhinged, loose, and utterly mind-melting in terms of its madness, but rest assured, it is scripted and recorded quite carefully. Check "Population Council's Wet Dream," as the trio of Omar (on theremin and synths as well as guitar), Alderete de la Peña, and Theodore create a power trio of a track that would not have sounded out of place on either Zappa's Hot Rats or Billy Cobham's Spectrum.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,7 and 9)

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