The Mars Volta announce new pop direction on Octahedron

Those Mars Volta dudes are pretty predictable, right? I mean, you just KNOW that there's gonna be a whole lot of prog-wankery, noodling and wails from all corners. They'd never make a P-O-P record, right? WRONG, apparently.

In an interview with DiS - to be published in full next week - Cedric revealed the band's new approach to music in their fifth studio album, Octahedron.

"We always threatened we'd make a pop record. We wanted to make the opposite of all the other records we'd done. Sometimes it's good to get rid of an old audience...because they know what to expect. And I'm sure whatever audience we get from this album, we'll disappoint them with the next."

Sounds like those shows in the summer could be pretty amazing, then.

Octahedron is released on June 22 through Mercury and the band play the ICA on June 18 before returning for an outdoor show at Somerset House on July 13.

What chance of an At The Drive-in reformation though? They're technically still on hiatus...indefinitely.