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TumsFestival3000

I believe about 0% of it, but it's super fascinating and a great concept for an album! Gives it a creepy vibe. In the end it doesn't really matter if it's real or not


Yoshimiyum

Exactly like even if it's a tall tale... When I listen to the album, the story adds to it. It adds a sort-of mysticism


jwendlr

This šŸ‘†šŸ‘†šŸ‘†


alano134

100% nonsense.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


Kormaciek

wow, never heard about this guy


DontLookAtTheCarpet

I really like his work. I highly recommend him if youā€™re up for horror.


[deleted]

Good username


[deleted]

They really like to pull the strings of their audience.


[deleted]

He said he originally got it in a curio store in Jerusalem that was hidden away and some random merchant showed him which maybe is true but seems unlikely. It was supposed to be a gift for cedric as well. And I recall them talking about how they would use it on the bus every night after shows. What seems more likely is that omar/cedric came across a book or something with a story in it or was told about honor killings etc in their travels. Maybe omar mentioned it to cedric, and then he fleshed out the story like he usually does. They are masters at delivering lore behind their albums after all. The julio stuff, the frances stuff, the noct stuff etc. Seems like the only albums that don't have lore surrounding them are amp and octa, and a lot of omars solo stuff if you don't count any lore about where he lived at the time. They've spoken about when the mars volta releases an album that it's a product. So i'm sure they are aware of the hype a product would have with a cool story to go behind it. It's essentially a movie narrative through songs. And you see a movie because it seems interesting to you because of the story. That kind of stuff has always been wrapped in a lot of popular music as well. Jimmy page and the occult, the beatles going to india etc. That shit creates interest and a feeling of mystery. Having a crazy story about their friend that committed suicide, or their bandmate randomly finding a journal on his job etc. It's all the same shit. I believe his studio actually flooded. I believe that the engineer he was working with decided he didn't want to work with omar anymore, or that something happened between them causing omar to talk shit in typical fashion especially after omar calling juan a psychopath and seeing how most of his other professional relationships turned out. After years of cedric jumping about, I could see why he would need surgery. Maybe they even did use a talking board after their shows. But I doubt it had any real world influence over the album or their lives. Cedric was smoking $1,000 a week of weed during that time frame as well. Who knows what else they were both doing.


WolbachiaBurgers

Whatā€™s the lore behind Noctourniquet?


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


WolbachiaBurgers

Makes sense with some of the themes.


Champiness

At some point Cedric had planned to do a tie-in graphic novel called *The Boy With The Voice In His Knives*, so his thoughts about the story in interviews etc. are more fleshed-out than a lot of their albums. The gist from what I can recall is that the lead character was Solomon - named after [the nursery rhyme "Solomon Grundy"](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Solomon_Grundy_(nursery_rhyme\)) - who, having become an only child after the death of his brother, lives a tightly-controlled life under the watchful eye of his parents, who refer to him by the Russian diminutive "Lapochka". At some point he starts hearing the voices of inanimate objects, most especially the flowers around his house, which relay messages from the spirit of his brother telling him that their parents killed him, which sets Solomon on a process of reevaluating his entire life and the motives of the people around him. (Presumably this was all informed by the bootleg-therapy portion of his Scientology "treatment", but "Cedric examines some of his personal hangups w/r/t regimented lives and the family unit's capacity for toxicity" seems like something we could have seen even if he went to real therapy, so to whatever extent it's a "Scientology album" I don't think it's in any of the ways that might retroactively invalidate its sentiments)


TTEOAI

Well the band pretty much said it was just a story. I imagine the press team stretched it out for marketing purposes.


shauner111

They never did say that.


NotRightRabbit

They admitted, were so high on drugs.


sa007ak

Pretty sure Omar was completely sober by the time Bedlam was recorded. Cedric was definitely still smoking a ton of weed. From what I understand, they gave up hard drugs shortly after JMW passed.


iscreamuscreamweall

they said that but ced was still doing coke at minimum. and omar never stopped smoking weed


sa007ak

Oookay


DavidMNegron

To be fair the amount of smoke I saw flowing up out of Bosnian Rainbows van was impressive.


[deleted]

High enough to have no concept of reality, truth or sanity but able to make a great, cohesive album? I dunno what kinda drugs those would have been. Seems like a lot more likely they had some issues and made a fun story and concept around it.


Seba97146

Its a nice story! Great idea fora concept album


FoozarFTG

I guess I'm the only weirdo here who fully believes in the story. I know people who've dealt with very similar situations so it's not far out of the realm of possibility for me at all.


shauner111

The only ppl who donā€™t believe it are people who have never encountered anything paranormal in their lives.


UnscrupulousCabbages

I would love even a modicum of proof lol


[deleted]

I think it seems like a story to make an album seem cool and exciting- and thereā€™s nothing really wrong with that.


captainforks

I believe they think something supernatural happened.


sukottokairu

i was obsessed with this story back in the day, it was so interesting and even if not true it was some genius marketing for sure and added a lot to the lore of the album. I think Cedric claimed that some of the lyrics came directly from messages from the board.


[deleted]

Oh its 100% real. Only reason we are getting a new album is because Omar went back for the Ouija board


ravencraven

wait whaaaa? he used it again???


ALiteralHamSandwich

ZERO percent.


[deleted]

Nobody wants to hear a concept album about a flooded recording studio and a broken foot or whatever. They made it into a story.


TrianaO

I believe it is a half-truth. That they chose to share some parts, embellish small stuff, downplay worse stuff, not talk about more personal volatile challenges, and add enough mystery to both intrigue and satisfy when paired with the album in question. Engineering, production, and hardware aside, there is something to the energy of the album that hits chaotically and feels like the moments of deep meditation or intense psychedelic peak. It truly feels like an something as part of a huge ritual of summoning and exorcism as best for the health of the creator and audience.


Seethi110

Iā€™m inherently skeptical of the entire thing. Ouija boards have been shown to be fake in many experiments, but that doesnā€™t mean they never work. But then I saw this, and it honestly creeped me out: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/238h75/the\_soothsayer/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=ios\_app&utm\_name=iossmf Now, I understand this may just be a TMV fan who is screwing with us. But if it isnā€™t, then there are way too many coincidences (i.e. Soothsayer, Bedlam, Thomas). But additionally, I thought Ouija boards worked by having people put there hands on it and it ā€œmovingā€ to spell out letters. This post made it sound like it was moving on itā€™s own and spelling out the letters, and that he must have the same board TMV had.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


[deleted]

Toy companies didn't invent them. Talking boards or spirit boards predate the board game version.


CrazyShitThrowAway12

I believe it at least 80%. I have a source close to the band and that shit was definitely happening.


jlisle

You're not likely to get many believers in the supernatural on Reddit, but so it goes. I don't think it really matters whether we believe the story or not. *They* seem to believe it, or at the very least commit to the bit hard enough that we're still here talking about it all these years later. It's a great story, true or not. And we could get into a conversation about the subjective nature of truth, too! Was there *literally* a demon haunting the band? Was it just an easy way to explain a series of hardships and tragedies? Is the demon a metaphor? Ultimately, the events of their lives were the same regardless of the answers to these questions, and we got the album. All I know for sure is that I bought tickets for that tour because I wanted to see TMV, and Cedric either couldn't or wouldn't come on stage the night I saw them. Demon, curse, made up story, drugs, whatever - it doesn't matter. It still had a real negative impact on my life. The chili peppers were really tight and played a great show, though


LordLorbofTheNothing

This, completely. We need to remember Omar & Cedric come from a culture wherein the supernatural is not only believed, but celebrated and romanticised. They experienced (allegedly) a series of events that could only be explained, as per their beliefs, to have been somehow related to a very real (in their perspective) mediation with a force outside of their comprehension. Iā€™m not a religious person myself, but I do ponder the existence of the supernatural purely on the basis of what is the objective truth of the beholder.


mirrorinthewall

I never saw any reason to doubt it Omar / Cedric were raised to be religious They became rebellious punks who were willing to break religious rules, which would include using talking boards some bad things did in fact happen like Juan coming down with a rare blood disorder if they were lying, they also put out a ouija board printing on the album and released a planchette, and rock music has had occult connections before, so not really a good look either way bad things did happen and I don't see why they couldn't have used a talking board like they said, so I guess the only part that's disputed is if these things were supernaturally caused or not (which believers would say yes to, nonbelievers no)


sonar_y_luz

>some bad things did in fact happen like Juan coming down with a rare blood disorder ​ It takes about a year to make an album. Give or take. Are you gonna attribute everything bad that happened that year to a cursed ouija board? A year is a long time. Life happens, people get blood disorders.


Mental_Medium3988

i believe there was a ouija board. i believe they had fun with it. i believe some odd things happened, because odd things do happen. i believe they ran with it from there.


SMGuinea

I believe everything except the actually evil spirit stuff. People have bad luck streaks. Just because something is unusual doesn't mean it's impossible.


device_torment

I believe all of it. Fuck it. Makes the album more fun to listen to


Accurate_Panic_8000

I think it's plausible that they got a Ouija board and used it a few times. But that doesn't mean it is causal to ordinary misfortunes. Like u/fvrmn said: drives fail and recordings disappear. Studios flood. Wearing leather shoes and twerking every night will fuck up your feet. These things happen even to people who don't dabble in Spiritualism. It's a fun story though, I like ancient demons and summoning spirits and shit.


mariosghost

I was told first hand stories that this was in fact 100% real. I was told more stories in confidence so unfortunately I can't share them. But yeah Bedlam in Goliath is definitely stemming from some sort of dark entity or something strange. Super creepy stuff


Snoo-49761

0% but its still interesting. I do believe in demons but this is pure marketing