Frances the Mute

History

Jeremy Ward, audio artist for The Mars Volta until his death, had previously worked as a repo man. One day, Ward discovered a diary in the backseat of a car he was repossessing, and began to note the similarities between his life and that of the author - most notably, that they had both been adopted. The diary told of the author's search for his biological parents, with the way being pointed by a collection of people, their names being the basis for each named track of Frances. Ward was in the process of completing it at the time of his death. Incidentally, Frances the Mute is the first album that Cedric and Omar have made sober.

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The first single, "The Widow", was released in early 2005. However, in December 2004, a full copy of Frances the Mute was leaked to the Internet from the vinyl version. The rip was of poor quality. Encoded as a 96 kbit/s mp3, other versions were reencoded to 192 kbit/s wma from the source mp3, resulting in even worse audio quality. Gold Standard Laboratories issued a statement decrying the Internet release for its horrible sound quality, and suggesting that fans should respect the band's wish to not share the leaked music.

Related Topics:
2005 - 2004 - Internet - Vinyl - Rip - Kbit/s - Mp3 - Wma - Gold Standard Laboratories - Sound quality

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Despite the leak, and others following it, Frances the Mute was released on midnight, March 1, 2005, and sold over 100,000 copies within the first week of release, and debuted at number four on the Billboard Album Charts - no mean feat for a virtually unmarketable album. The title track, "Frances the Mute", which the band has said "decodes" the album's story, was not included in the album, and was released on March 14th, 2005, in the United Kingdom. This release was a three set limited edition, containing a single with a live version of "The Widow", played at The Wiltern in Los Angeles on June 13th, and the unreleased title song "Frances the Mute." Also in the collection is a DVD that includes clips from their performance at the Electric Ballroom in London on July 8th, 2003, "The Widow" music video, and the "Televators" music video. Finally, the last item is a 12" picture disc vinyl single including "Frances the Mute" and a live version of "The Widow," which saw release from Gold Standard Laboratories. A second single, "L'Via L'Viaquez," also from Frances the Mute, and a music video following it, were released in June of 2005. Included on this single there was another unreleased song entitled "The Bible and the Breathalyzer."

Related Topics:
Billboard - Album Charts - United Kingdom - Electric Ballroom - London - L'Via L'Viaquez

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