Thirty Seconds To Mars most nominated rock band for 2011 MTV VMA Awards

Thirty Seconds To Mars is the most nominated rock band for the 2011 MTV VMA Awards which will take place on August 28th in Los Angeles.

The band picked up 3 nominations for their controversial and sexual short film Hurricane including Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Direction for Bartholomew Cubbins, the band's long time collaborator.

Thirty Seconds To Mars - Best International Band + Best Single @ Kerrang! Awards

Both a censored and explicit version of the video can be viewed at the band's website. The band won two previous VMA awards, last year the group won the award for Best Rock Video for the Bartholomew Cubbins directed short film The Ride for their #1 smash "Kings & Queens" and in 2006 they won the MTV2 award for "The Kill."

"It's incredibly humbling and exciting to be acknowledged, especially for a very controversial clip like 'Hurricane,' that was banned from a lot of networks to start with. It's great to have it come full-circle and be recognized in this way," explained frontman Jared Leto to MTV News upon hearing about the nominations.

Thirty Seconds To Mars - Hurricane screening at Museum of Sex + MTV Unplugged

Thirty Seconds To Mars has also been nominated for a 2011 Teen Choice Award in the Choice Music: Rock Group category. The Teen Choice Awards will be given out on August 7, 2011 in Los Angeles. Fans can vote at teenchoiceawards.com.

The band will release a digital EP with 4 tracks from their recent MTV Unplugged performance prior to the VMAs on August 23rd. The set will include "Hurricane," "Kings & Queens," "Night Of The Hunter" and their inspiring rendition of the U2 classic "Where The Streets Have No Name."

Unplugged: Thirty Seconds To Mars premiered July 20th across MTV Music Group's multiple platforms and screens.

"Hurricane" unplugged is now in music video rotation on MTV's AMTV, MTV2's AMTV2, mtvU and MTV Hits. A 30-minute special will debut on Palladia, MTV Networks' high-definition music channel on Friday, July 29th at 9pm with an encore at midnight.

Thirty Seconds To Mars will finish the current European, Russian and South East Asian leg of the Closer To The Edge world tour on August 27th and will fly directly to Los Angeles to attend the VMA's.

The group will play 3 U.S. shows on September 2nd in Highland, CA, September 3rd in Las Vegas, NV and September 4th in Lake Tahoe, NV before heading to Japan later in the month.

The trio will wrap the world tour in November after shows in Latvia, Lithuania and a 10-date stint through France.

A complete list of tour dates can be found on the band's website at thirtysecondstomars.com.

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