Say what you want about The Mars Volta (we here at Prefixmag have said plenty) -- the boys in the band must have balls as big as their 'fros to continue down the ambitious-to-a-fault path of their four studio albums, and that's a good thing. Plus, lead guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez can rage on the six-string like few others in his generation. Ambition and six-strange raging: two qualities that are liberally deployed on Rodriguez-Lopez's new digital-only solo album, Old Money, which dropped today on Stones Throw.

Old Money promises a familiar blend of Floydian ambience, Santana spirit-jamming, and French prog-rock aesthetics, all put to tape by Rodriguez-Lopez and a number of musicians that have contributed to the Mars Volta war cabinet in the past. Early reports indicate a newfound rock 'n roll concision to the ten tracks on Old Money. Whether that's possible for an album loosely based on the concept of exploitative industrialists is purely subjective, so we'll just put it this way: if the album's description of "a potential follow up to the 2006 Volta release Amputechture" doesn't immediately curdle your blood, Old Money is definitely worth checking out. 

Old Money Tracklist:
1. The Power Of Myth
2. How To Bill The Bilderberg Group
3. Population Council's Wet Dream
4. Private Fortunes
5. Trilateral Commission As Dinner Guests
6. 1921
7. Family War Funding
8. Vipers In The Bosom
9. I Like Rockefellers' First Two Albums, But After That...    
10. Old Money

The digital release of Old Money is available now at Stones Throw. The physical album will be in stores on January 27, 2009.