Sparta

Sparta is made up of Jim Ward, Paul Hinojos, Tony Hajjar from the band At The Drive-In, and Matt Miller, who was in a few unknown bands before Sparta. They are described as Indie Rock by the media, but can easily be described as a cross between At The Drive-In and Taking Back Sunday. They had a somewhat small following amongst the Emo croud/scene, but have a decent sized underground following from At The Drive-In fans.

They've only had two albums, and in my opinion, the first one was terrible (except for a select couple of songs), but their latest album, Porcelain, is quite unique and amazing. Also, Porcelain was basically about the death of Jeremy Michael-Ward (vocalist and guitarist Jim Ward's cousin, and sound manipulator for the Mars Volta), just like the Mars Volta's album Frances the Mute was. However, the Mars Volta is athe more popular of the two ATD-I groups, thus making Porcelain not quite as popular as anything the Mars Volta has done.

If you have the cash to lay out for it (it's only about 10 bucks or so), I reccomend picking up Porcelain.

Breaking news: Paul has recently quit the band. This is confirmed on the band's website, spartamusic.com. Paul has had major back problems lately, so this may relate to that, but nothing can really be confirmed yet. Some say that Paul is going to join The Mars Volta either as secondary guitarist or sound manipulator, though I definitely doubt the former. Would seem like a betrayal to me. It sucks to see a great musician like Paul leave the band, but I'm sure Sparta will stay together and find a new guitarist soon enough. The band even mentions that they are working on their next project on the website.

quote:

Originally posted by Volt Breaking news: Paul has recently quit the band. This is confirmed on the band's website, spartamusic.com. Paul has had major back problems lately, so this may relate to that, but nothing can really be confirmed yet. Some say that Paul is going to join The Mars Volta either as secondary guitarist or sound manipulator, though I definitely doubt the former. Would seem like a betrayal to me. It sucks to see a great musician like Paul leave the band, but I'm sure Sparta will stay together and find a new guitarist soon enough. The band even mentions that they are working on their next project on the website.

I read this earlier today. However, I doubt he'll join the Volta.

And I'm looking foward to their next album. I hope it's as good as Porcelain.

quote:

Originally posted by Bleedthrough And I'm looking foward to their next album. I hope it's as good as Porcelain.

If Jim grows his hair out it's destined for greatness.

quote:

In a move certain to inspire speculation and rumors, Sparta guitarist and former at the drive in member, Paul Hinojos, has quit Sparta and has joined the Mars Volta, effective immediately. Assuming the sound manipulation duties of the late Jeremy Ward, Hinojos' role within the band will initially be confined to the off stage audio acrobatics that Ward (who died in 2003) had become reknowned for. Volta band leader Omar Rodriguez - Lopez is adamant that Hinojos will eventually share the stage with his bandmates during live performances. "My time with Sparta has run its course, and simply wasn't fun anymore," commented Hinojos in los angeles last week. Hinojos, who in 2003 joined the mars volta briefly after Wards untimely death, decided to accept the open invitation from Rodriguez Lopez to rejoin the band at his leisure. "We've been friends since we were kids, played in bands together for years, and Paul was close to Jeremy," commented omar, "its always been clear to me that Paul was the only person wod be appropriate to take Jeremy's place and fill what we feel is an integral role within the band" Hinojos rejoined Omar and co. midway through their current us tour, although out of courtesy it was decided to leave it to the Sparta camp to make the initial announcement of pauls departure.

Traitor haha