Sparta has spent its life as a band living in shadows, be it of either influential, innovative bands such as At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta or in the death of Jeremy Ward, the sound manipulator for The Mars Volta and the cousin of Sparta lead singer Jim Ward.
But with the release of Threes – a dark, politically and emotionally charged album – Sparta has come out into the light. Sporting a harder sound than the band’s last release, Porcelain, Sparta’s aptly titled third album shows the band moving away from their original punk- and emo-based sound while still remaining grounded in alternative rock.
“We got a loft in El Paso, Texas, and did two two-month writing sessions, then did half the recording in [Seattle] and half of it in Malibu,” explains Matt Miller, the bassist for the band. “We really took our time with this one.”
It was necessary for Sparta to take their time because between Porcelain and Threes, two major changes happened in the band. Keeley Davis (formerly of the Washington-area band Engine Down) was added as a guitarist and backup vocalist after Paul Hinojos left the group to fill Jeremy Ward’s position in The Mars Volta, which has “brought a breath of fresh air to the band,” Miller says. The band has also switched from Geffen to Hollywood Records, a change Sparta delights in, Miller says.
“[Geffen was] a horrible label,” he says. “Dreamworks got bought out by Interscope, who put us on Geffen, and we didn’t want anything to do with them,” he says. Instead, Miller adds, “Hollywood actually wants us to put out our best record.”
Threes opens with “Untreatable Disease,” which sets the standard for the rest of the album: intense but still melodic. “Disease” begins with a soft, spoken introduction before racing into a storm of guitar and impassioned vocals. The album then moves on to “Crawl,” in which Ward screams the catchiest chorus on the album: “The difference between finding what you love and loving what you find is killing us right now/Living as one means dying as two/We both know this can’t go one.”
Although Miller’s favorite song on the album is the slower-paced “Unstitch Your Mouth,” the album’s first single is the politically motivated “Taking Back Control.” The song is a plea to our generation, begging the nation’s youth to stop the wars ravaging the Middle East. Ward sings, “The future needs/All these wasted seeds/Don’t let it go/We’re taking back control,” and his words seem like a rallying cry to end violence in the world. As Texans, Miller says Sparta is angry with President Bush’s legacy, but didn’t intend for the album to have such overt political messages.
“It just grew into that,” he adds. “If U.S. politics weren’t so crazy, no one would be writing political songs.”
The message in “Taking Back Control” is especially poignant for Sparta drummer Tony Hajjar; the band is releasing the short film Eme Nakia, a narrative about the Hajjar’s family’s struggles, along with Threes. The Hajjar family escaped from war-torn Lebanon when Tony was five, and his mother died of cancer when he was 14, causing his father to leave the family. Tony’s older brother, only 18 at the time, took responsibility for the family.
According to Miller, it was Hajjar who first proposed doing a short film, but Jim Ward came up with making it about Tony’s life.
“Having a rough childhood is something a lot of people can relate to,” Miller explains, “and that’s really what it’s about.”
The film was made before this past summer’s war in Lebanon, says Miller, who says the production was a group effort: “We all helped out. It was about Tony’s life. Jim chose the soundtrack, which has some of our songs on it.”
But Threes is not all public appeals – “The Most Vicious Crime” and “False Start” are catchy, screeching songs destined for radio airplay.
“Transitions” is the closing song on the album and also the one in which Sparta moves farthest from its roots, almost entering prog-rock territory. The song wraps itself around the listener with vocals from gospel singer Merry Clayton (most famous for background vocals on the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”), whose soulful voice works wonderfully.
“She had worked with Ray Charles for 15 years, and we knew that [“Transitions”] would be kind of a jam, and we decided to have this soulful part at the end. Joe Chiccarelli, our engineer, suggested her, and after that it was just a matter of finding her phone number,” Miller says.
Even with all these highlights, the album does have its weak points. As is the case with many post-hardcore acts, the vocals are sometimes incomprehensible, and the lyrics are sometimes repetitive and weak. Also, Sparta certainly has the ability to experiment more without getting strange – “Transitions” is proof of that – but they don’t use that ability to its full potential.
Sparta is best known to some as the band with the guys who used to be in the band with the guys from The Mars Volta. For his part, Miller – who was not even in At the Drive-In – is tired of the constant comparisons between the three acts.
“It’s been six years. We’re two totally different bands. There’s nothing there,” Miller says. “People need to get over it. People write these criticisms and comparisons because it’s an easy story to do.”
Even if Miller and the rest of Sparta may never rid themselves of comparisons to The Mars Volta, they are certainly doing their best to make those comparisons more positive with Threes.
Contact reporter Kevin Robillard at diversions@dbk.umd.edu.
