“Hard-boiled brigands from El Paso, Texas, with MC5 guitars and heads full of revolutionary spleen, At the Drive-In rock like there’s no tomorrow – or won’t be, if some shit doesn’t change fast.”
– Rolling Stone, December 2000
“At times, ferociously intense, other times stirring, it never fails to excite.”
Founded in 1994 in the unlikely musical breeding ground of El Paso, TX, At the Drive-In grew within the relatively short span of six years from an unknown band of teenagers self-releasing a 7” to the newly anointed saviors of punk rock. In spite of the ever-present and unyielding dynamics throughout their first three releases – Acrobatic Tenement (Flipside, 1997), In/Casino/Out (Fearless, 1998), Vaya (Fearless, 1999) – it wasn’t until their fourth LP, 2000’s Relationship of Command (Grand Royal) that the band gained national and mass critical recognition. Placed in critics’ year-end lists in SPIN, the LOS ANGELES TIMES, and ROLLING STONE (Best New Artist), among others, the record was a searing, cinematic, and masterful wall of sound. Broad in scope, refined in musicality, and ardent in its vitality, Relationship of Command brought the adoration of new fans as devoted as those already won by years of non-stop touring and recording.
Four years after At the Drive-In broke rock music fandom’s collective heart with the announcement of their extended hiatus, the now-seminal band released This Station Is Non-Operational. The former band members selected this collection of their greatest hits, B-sides, re-mixes, song covers, and a BBC session. Also included is a DVD/CD-rom containing music videos, desktop wallpaper, buddy icons, and the band’s EPK, Operations Manual, along with a booklet of some 20 previously unreleased photographs.
Relationship of Command is ATDI's battle cry. If there were any straggling semi-fans still wondering the planes of the post-punk wave, unsure weather or not to be captured by the wrath of At The Drive –In, Relationship of Command pretty much seals the deal. There was little in the way of commercial concessions on Relationship of Command, as the album prompted the band to become known globally. Rampaging guitar riffs, turbo-charged drumming, and super-emotive, lung-challenging vocals are the order of the day. The lyrics are often elliptical, and it's sometimes hard to tell what the boys are going on about, it is exactly this that makes the album so brilliant, and it absolutely works to their advantage, allowing the listeners to fill in the blanks. Slightly more refined than some of their contemporaries, but undeniably hard-hitting, Relationship of Command puts At the Drive-In proudly at the center of circa-2000 heavy rock.
Vaya, is a short EP, released in 1999 merely a year before what would become ATDI's last full length record. Vaya, embraces ATDI's overall style while immensely emphasizing the attributes that make the band who they are, including caught-off-guard screeches and tedious, reoccurring riffs. In comparison to their previous works, this release reveals their obvious bottled up restlessness as a pre-curser to what later explodes onto their final full length Relationship of Command.
Recorded live in the studio, 1998's In/Casino/Out finds At the Drive-In refining the restless sound of its debut, Acrobatic Tenement. By simultaneously channeling its concert fury and adding more melody to its hardcore-influenced approach, the Texas-born ensemble succeedes in expanding its palette in terms of both creativity and popularity. This is immediately evinced on the blistering opener, "Alpha Centauri," which is marked by the passionate wail of front man Cedric Bixler-Zavala and the stinging guitar lines of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Jim Ward. While ATDI couldn't easily be pigeonholed, the band's reputation as an early emo act rests, for better or worse, on plaintive tunes such as "Hulahoop Wounds" and the piano-led "Hourglass," a track with lead vocals by Ward. However, those looking for the eccentric, prog-inspired rumblings of what would become Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez's Mars Volta need only hear the jazzy, frenetic "Shaking Hand Incision.
ATDI's debut release Acrobatic Tenement, recorded and released in the summer of 1996, is condidered by many to be their best album overall. This album is for the true die-hard At The Drive-In fan, it is the blueprint to the musical mission they would embark upon in the following years. Acrobatic Tenement is a roughly edited prelude to the band's following five albums, spuing their raw, unorganized and never regretable mind twisting style that to this day still remains untouched by any other musician.
"Embroglio" was written about Julio Venegas, a close friend of the band, who committed suicide in 1996. Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López, as The Mars Volta, would later record and dedicate the album De-Loused in the Comatorium entirely to Venegas.
I thank you kindly for the friendship, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance! Thought I'd just point out that the works featured in my myspace gallery are just small "detail" sections of much larger drawings, all of which are shown in full alongside more of my art in my external website GRANDPASTUDIOS.COM's gallery!! Please take a peek if you have time.
Hey whats up? Check out our tour dates for November and December on our page, and come see us on tour!!!! = Also Check out Our Cover of "I'm on a Boat" by The Lonely Island Boys! Drop us a comment and see whats up! Thanks :) -Broadway-
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