During this time he frequently collaborated with his friends and future bandmates from El Paso, which included people such as Paul Hinojos, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Julio Venegas and the late Jeremy Ward.

With the help of Bixler-Zavala, he was able to return to El Paso where he could begin to reclaim his life from addiction and join At the Drive-In as backup vocalist and bass guitarist.

After several years and two more critically acclaimed albums, for a variety of reasons, Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala left At the Drive-In and the band went on "indefinite hiatus".

The remaining members, Paul Hinojos, Tony Hajjar, and Jim Ward went on to form Sparta while the duo focused on other projects.

[14] They refocused their efforts on the dub outfit called De Facto, which also included Jeremy Ward and Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, and which they had started years before while still in At the Drive-In.

On May 25, 2003, less than a month before the release of their first full-length album, De-Loused in the Comatorium, bandmate and close friend Jeremy Ward was found dead of a heroin overdose.

This event, coupled with the memories of the suicide of his friend Julio Venegas years earlier, finally convinced both him and Bixler-Zavala to quit using opiates.

During the early years of the band he also worked on a low budget movie called A Manual Dexterity which starred Jeremy Ward.

Conflicts over ownership of certain footage and Rodríguez-López's reluctance to revisit the project which featured his late friend Jeremy Ward were both cited as reasons for the delay.

On January 23, 2013, The Mars Volta officially announced that they had broken up, following a series of tweets posted by Cedric Bixler-Zavala stating that he had departed the band.

[17] On June 18, 2022, The Mars Volta revealed the coordinates to a location in Los Angeles, California, where fans were allowed to preview new music from the band.

This was followed up by the release of the single "Blacklight Shine" and a tour announcement, marking both their first new music and first live shows in ten years.

The Quintet also performed live with Damo Suzuki, parts of which were recorded and incorporated into a 25-minute EP titled Please Heat This Eventually, which was released in 2007.

It featured performances by Mars Volta members Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Marcel Rodríguez-López, Juan Alderete, Adrián Terrazas-González as well as cameos by Money Mark, John Frusciante, and Jon Theodore.

The Quintet later resurfaced in 2007, now known as "The Rodríguez-López Group" to perform on the "white" stage at the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan on July 28.

Rodríguez-López also created a video for "Asco Que Conmueve los Puntos Erógenos", from Xenophanes, and posted it on YouTube on November 30, 2009.

The trio features Rodríguez-López on acoustic guitar, Ximena Sariñana on vocals and Aaron Cruz on upright bass.

[25] Recorded in El Paso and Zapopan, the other titles include Corazones, Blind Worms Pious Swine, Arañas En La Sombra, Umbrella Mistress, El Bien Y Mal Nos Une, Cell Phone Bikini, Infinity Drips, Weekly Mansions, Zapopan, Nom De Guerre Cabal, and Some Need It Lonely.

On April 8, 2014, Omar announced a new musical project called Antemasque with former At the Drive-In and Mars Volta bandmates Cedric Bixler-Zavala (vocals) and David Elitch (drums) as well as Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

[30] As of 2018[update], both Bosnian Rainbows and Antemasque have essentially been put on hold due to touring commitments of At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta.

Beginning in his At the Drive-in days he started to document many kinds of things: live shows, sound checks, dressing rooms, hotels, airport lounges, sightseeing, encounters with colleagues.

Rodríguez-López's first photo book, Hunters in High Heels documenting the years from 2000 to 2006, was slated to release in 2013 but was since postponed indefinitely due to unknown reasons.

Rodríguez-López's compositional and playing style is characterized by, among other factors, riffs, melodies based in minor modes, changing meters, unresolving dissonances (in particular a heavy use of the tritone), chromatic passages, and lengthy improvisation.

In the progressive rock genre in which The Mars Volta are often categorized, he has professed that he "like[s] a lot of those groups, particularly King Crimson and early Genesis.

[35] He has also named Siouxsie, Missing Persons, Wayne Shorter as being among "all the greats" along with Steve Reich, Tangerine Dream, Tchaikovsky, Tom Petty and Marvin Gaye.

He also recorded De-Loused in the Comatorium with a Gibson SG II from the early 1970s which he also used in live improv shows with Flea and John Frusciante.

During The Mars Volta's final shows and At the Drive-In's reunion tour, Rodríguez-López switched back to a full-sized Ibanez Jetking guitar, although retaining his preferred single-pickup and volume knob configuration and 24" neck scale.

While performing with Bosnian Rainbows, Rodríguez-López began to use a mid-1960s era left-handed Supro 3/4 scale guitar with a single pickup in the bridge position.

[39] It has an okoume body in an angular shape with a laser-etched floral pickguard, and two custom humbuckers featuring two volume knobs with a tethered tone circuit, which creates variations in treble response when the pickups are set at different levels.

[6] In the documentary film Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird, Rodríguez-López discussed instances of homophobia that he suffered as a result of his "fluid" sexuality, and opened up on having been in a romantic relationship with bandmate Jeremy Michael Ward which was kept in secret.