Prog rockers the Mars Volta will release their sixth album, titled Noctourniquet, on March 27. The album will be a concept album about a character based on the Superman villain Solomon Grundy and the Greek myth of Hyacinthus. The album will be the band’s first new album since 2009’s Octahedron, and all music was written by co-founders Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez.

In related news, Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez’s former band, At the Drive-In, announced recently that it will reunite at this year’s Coachella Music and Arts Festival, which is to be held over two weekends this April. At the Drive-In endured an apparently nasty breakup 11 years ago, and all band members told various interviewers in the intervening years that a reunion was unlikely. But the band sent a not-so-cryptic Tweet the day before the Coachella lineup was announced that suggested the band would be getting back together. And sure enough, there they were the following day on the Coachella official lineup.

A Mars Volta song, “Zed and Two Naughts” will be featured on the new baseball video game, “MLB 12: The Show.” That song also is listed on a tracklist of the new album posted at RollingStone.com. According to a press release, the new album will, “trace a narrative journey with a defined protagonist, this time inspired by disparate elements including 1980s U.K. alt-rockers The Godfathers, Superman comic nemesis Solomon Grundy and the Greek myth of Hyacinthus.

The Mars Volta formed the same year At the Drive-In broke up. While Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez worked on this new project, the remaining members of At the Drive-In went on to form Sparta. The Mars Volta released their first EP, Tremulant, in 2001, and went on to record debut album De-Loused in the Comatorium with legendary producer Rick Rubin.

The Mars Volta, progressive alternative rockers, just as their tour is about to kick off has expanded their headlining US outing backing “Octahedron,” their newly released album.

The Mexico based, Texas born group will start their summer and fall tour on August 29, appearing at Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, followed by several stops on the West Coast before they head east. Seven shows at last check have been added. These include shows in Toronto on October 4, in Montreal on October 5, and three East Coast shows.

“Octahedron” was released in June. It is the fifth studio album for the band and debuted on Bilboard’s 200 at No. 12. The new album follows “Bedlam in Goliath,” their album from last year which featured the single “Wax Simulacra,” which won a Grammy award.

Before the new album was recorded last year, Omar Rodriquez-Lopez, frontman for The Mars Volta, pared down the band to a line up of six. He relieved Paul Hinojos, guitarists, as well as Adrian Terrazas-Gonzalez, saxophonist and percussionist, from their duties with the band, according to the website for The Mars Volta.

2010 Mars Volta Concert Tour
August 2009
29 – San Francisco, CA – Outside Lands Festival
30 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium

September 2009
1 – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
2 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl
4 – San Diego, CA – SOMA San Diego
5 – Phoenix, AZ – Dodge Theatre
7 – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s Ballroom
8 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
10 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
11 – Chicago, IL – Congress Theater
13 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
14 – Kansas City, MO – Midland Theatre
16 – Dallas, TX – Palladium Ballroom
17 – Houston, TX – Verizon Wireless Theater
19 – San Antonio, TX – San Antonio Municipal Auditorium

October 2009
4 – Toronto, Ontario – Kool Haus
5 – Montreal, Quebec – Metropolis
8 – New York, NY – Roseland Ballroom
10 – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory
11 – Baltimore, MD – Sonar