Experimental rockers The Mars Volta [ tickets ] support their recently released sophomore set, "Frances the Mute," with a spring tour of North America.

The group launches the run on the West Coast in late April, and dates so far stretch into June. The itinerary is included below.

Released earlier this month, "Frances the Mute" is the follow-up to The Mars Volta's debut full-length, 2003's "De-Loused in the Comatorium." The new set features the cut "The Widow," the music video for which is streaming at the band's website.

"Frances the Mute" marks The Mars Volta's first album without bandmate Jeremy Ward, who served as the group' "sound manipulator," according to a statement issued at the time of his 2003 death from an apparent drug overdose. According to band founders Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala--who formed The Mars Volta after pulling the plug on their previous act, At the Drive In--the material on "Frances the Mute" is based on entries in a diary that Ward once found.

"The story is inspired by a diary that Jeremy found in the backseat of a car while working as a repo man," singer/lyricist Bixler-Zavala said in a press release. "He discovered he had a lot in common with its author. He kept it and let us in on it. The diary told of the author being adopted and looking for his real parents. The names of each song are named after people in the diary. Each person he meets sort of points him in the direction of his biological parents."

"Every work of music or art is going to reflect your experiences and feelings at the time," Rodriguez-Lopez added. "This record was obviously influenced by the trauma of losing Jeremy. But Cedric consciously omitted anything with too much clarity or resolution."