| Acrobatic Tenement | 1996 |
| El Gran Orgo | 1997 |
| in/CASINO/OUT | 1998 |
| Vaya [EP] | 1999 |
| Relationship Of Command | 2000 |
Post your comments about At The Drive-In
(reviewed by Alex Wilson)
This is the album that showcases the unique sound of ATDI in its full state of evolution. It doesn't hurt that it's a pretty decent album as well. They also established the sonic blueprint that they would take to greater heights with their following album, Relationship Of Command. The band managed to retain the chaotic, rough sound of previous releases but have also wisely gave themselves more power through an emphasis on strong melody.
In a way, this album and Relationship are like two sides of the same coin. Whereas Relationship is, at heart, a big shiny rock record in/CASINO/OUT is probably the record where ATDI's roots in art-punk like Fugazi are the most obvious. The instruments all buzz and bite, and the whole album sounds a smidgen underproduced. The vibe is simultaneously melodic and chaotic, like on the opener "Alpha Centauri." Check out the verse: Rambling, pounding guitars and drums blast away, yet every 4 bars or so, they pull back a little to allow vocalist Cedric Bixler to let out a little melody for maybe 2 seconds, then they go back to rambling and pounding. The contrast is a great hook in itself, and is enough to make the song great, the fantastic chorus notwithstanding.
The whole album is full of great moments like that. "Hulahoop Wounds" is exceptionally catchy yet skewered pop punk that flirts with textural guitar work and odd-time signatures. "For Now…We Toast" has a great, uplifting riff, which is contrast with a powerful chorus and short blasts of dissonant feedback. And "Chanbara," "Napoleon Solo" and "Transatlantic Foe" (and probably most of the rest of the album) are all well-written, emotional rock songs that had become the standard for ATDI by this point.
If I can fault the album, it's in two ways: Firstly, it's a little front-loaded, and suffers from a slump in song quality towards the end. Also, it doesn't seem to have the pure crackling energy or fury of Relationship. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of impassioned playing, yet this album doesn't have the seamless, irresistible mix of energy and songcraft that they'd show on their following album. Still, an essential purchase for an ATDI fan.
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(reviewed by Alex Wilson)
Okay, so I'll cut to the chase: If you've heard in/CASINO/OUT and Relationship Of Command, then this album sounds just like a hybrid of those two, which makes sense for a transitional EP. So, if you've heard later ATDI, then this album isn't going to hold any surprises. But that's not a bad thing at all, because that means that you have another seven tracks of great melodic post-hardcore in your sweaty little hands. Everything that was great about ATDI at this point is shown on Vaya: dexterous, unique and powerful musicianship from every band member, great songwriting and unbridled energy and passion.
In fact, if we were to judge Vaya on songcraft alone, it stacks up exceptionally well. "Rasauche" combines subdued guitar noodling with blasting chords and stuttering rhythms and "Ursa Minor" and "Metronome Arthritis" contains some of ATDI's best forays into post-punk dissonance and contains some short but great electronic samples. Even relatively simple rockers like "Heliotrope" are so well written that they are totally irresistible. It's really a testament to the band's ability as songwriters that, even despite their willfully anti-commercial stance, they couldn't help but cram each track with great vocal hooks and anthemic choruses. And to not say anything about the closing track "198d" would be criminal. The amount of emotion and passion on that track is amazing, and the lyrics, though deeply abstract, are some of Bixler's most affecting. There could be no better way to finish off the album.
Even though it is more consistent and listenable than in/CASINO/OUT, the most annoying thing about Vaya is its length. It's just too bloody short. I know that it's just an EP, but when it's got such great songs, I can't help but feel slightly unsatisfied by it's brevity. And for a simple EP, it's actually quite expensive. However, if you're a fan of ATDI, don't let that put you off. This is some of the best music they put to tape.
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(reviewed by Alex Wilson)
It's very rare that an album lives up to all the hype that has surrounded it. At The Drive-In were touted as the saviors of alternative rock in late 2000, yet when I purchased this album, my expectations weren't exactly stratospheric. Boy, was I surprised. Relationship Of Command surely rates as one of the best alternative rock albums of the last 5 or so years. I kid you not. Brutal yet subtle, artsy yet anthemic this was the powerful fulfillment of At The Drive-In's potential and hinted at greater things to come. In true indie-rock style, the band dissolved under mainstream pressure, but at least they left us with one fantastic album.
"Arcasenal" opens the album like a furious manifesto, pounding drums underlying queasy guitar licks. Yet it's when vocalist Cedric Bixler screams "I must have read a thousand faces," that ATDI grip you by the throat and refuse to let go. Like all good opening songs, it provides a great blueprint for the band's sound. Ferocious blasts of guitar compete with a bombastic rhythm sections and Bixler's impassioned yowling. He is the secret weapon of the band. He can be gentle and melodic, or throat-rendingly unhinged. Second track "Pattern Against User" is perhaps even better than the opening track, combining edgy verses with a good alt-rock chorus.
Then comes the single "One Armed Scissor," which combines everything great about the band into 4 minutes of sheer power. Introducing itself with an opening chord volley, it dissolves into a rambling post-punk groove that sounds like it's going to collapse at any moment. And I haven't even mentioned the awesome chorus or bridge sections yet! This song also shows the quality of Bixler's lyrics, clearly personal but also abstract and vaguely political, they imbue the song with a sense of angry melancholy, if such a thing is possible. The band also pushes their sound further than they did on previous releases, such as the quirky hardcore of "Mannequin Republic" or the disco-punk of "Rolodex Propaganda," which boasts wacky guest vocals from Iggy Pop. They even dabble in electronica on "Enfilade," which sounds like a more melodic version of post-hardcore legends Refused.
On every track, each member of the band plays with unstoppable energy. Drummer Tony Hajaar and bassist Paul Hinojos sound like more adventurous versions of Nirvana's Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic and provide a thick and surprisingly complex rhythmic base. Even more impressive is the diverse guitar work of Jim Ward and Omar Rodriguez, whose playing runs the gamut from squalling noise to ethereal clean passages yet never fails to deliver compelling hooks.
Although the consistency of this release is stunning, two tracks stand out in particular as the absolute height of ATDI's achievement. "Sleepwalk Capsules" demonstrates the sheer power the band could summon when just plain-old rocking out. The momentum of this track is striking, with dense yet nimble guitar work and one of Cedric Bixler's most frenzied vocal performances. The best moment of the track is the spacey bridge section, which sounds like Pink Floyd filtered through Fugazi.
This softer approach is taken to even greater heights on "Invalid Litter Department." As tripped-out guitars meld with piano to create a yearning and pensive atmosphere, Bixler delivers a vivid spoken word performance that is effectively married to one of the band's most powerful and memorable choruses. It then comes to a climax at the end, where Bixler screams some of his best lyrics over a grinding guitar riff: "Callous heels, numbed in travel, endless maps made by their scalpels." It's a shattering catharsis, reminiscent of the best moments of great 90s bands like Pearl Jam where angst and hooks meshed perfectly.
Relationship Of Command was so good that it compelled me to look through their back catalogue. Although there were great moments, none of it matched up to the power and heaviness (both sonic and emotional) of this record. It's their most accessible record, yet also their most complex and accomplished. A hell of a ride and highly recommended.
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| De-loused In The Comatorium | 2003 |
Post your comments about The Mars Volta
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
HIGH POINTS: Inertiatic ESP, Televators, This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed, Drunkship Of Lanterns. LOW POINTS: Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt.
I'll start this review by saying I'm not greatly familiar with At The Drive-In - I've only heard a few songs from Relationship Of Command and wasn't very impressed, but this album, from the offshoot Mars Volta side project that energed after their demise (most notably featuring main songwriter/guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and vocalist Cedric Bixler, as well as the unfortunately late keyboardist Jeremy Michael Ward - who died shortly after the album was finished), may cause me to re-evaluate that opinion, because De-Loused In The Comatorium is really very interesting. What does it sound like? Well, actually really close to progressive rock filtered through unbelievably insane yet tight post-hardcore energy (the energy level on here actually eclipses any prog band I know of!) and jazz influences, actually, along with spaced out, 'astral' guitar noises and effects. Plus, Bixler quite often takes on a somewhat Geddy Lee-esque wailing style as opposed to his screaming on ATDI stuff, and it can often come off as pretty grating to some people. The melodies and arrangements are often quite complex and adventurous, often so unconventional they're difficult to remember (and the completely confusing titles don't really help either).
There's also a general concept here that's "inspired by the life and times of Julio Venegas", a friend of the band who committed suicide, but if I weren't told that in the liner notes, I'd be really hard-pressed to figure out what almost all of these often completely nonsensical-sounding, cryptic lyrics are on about, though the 'loss' theme is a bit more understandable in a couple songs. But to heck with the concept - if you hear the over-the-top 'NOOOOOOOOW I'M LOOOOOOOOOOST' shrieking vocal on "Inertiatic ESP" (after the brief, really haunting keyboard/vocal introduction "Son Et Lumiere") and are turned off, you'll probably be annoyed by the album. As for my reaction to it, I happen to think amongst the unbelievably off-the-wall energetic playing that it's awesome, but maybe that's just the Rush fan in me getting excited. There's lots of really smart rhythmic playing, excellent guitar and keyboard work and catchy melodies on this song to dig into though, and it's easily my favorite on the album.
The remainder of it is hard to describe song-by-song, though, since the vocal hooks and crazy guitar fireworks go all over the place like mad, and most of the songs fit nicely into the formula I mentioned in the opening paragraph, but besides "Inertiatic ESP", I'll point out some stuff that stands out most to me, like the high-speed Latin-style rhythms and disturbing repeating vocal effects of "Drunkship Of Lanterns" (one of the tightest grooves for sure), the wobbly, dramatic rocker "This Apparatus Must Be Unearthed" (some of the most resonant lyrics can be found here, especially in the 'I've been waiting for so long...' chorus), some outstanding, fiery guitar soloing in "Roulette Dares (The Haunt Of)", and the majestic acoustic/keyboard atmosphere of "Televators", one of the rare times the band departs from their crazy energetic onslaught, but it provides a climactic, gently emotional power to the album - it's hard not to be overwhelmed at least a little by the opening verse in particular: 'Just as he hit the ground / They lowered a tow that stuck in his neck to the gills / Fragments of sobiquets / riddle me this three half eaten corneas who hit the area'. Uh... yeah.
Elsewhere, Bixler proves he has quite a good vocal range in "Eriatarka", the 12 minute centerpiece "Cicatriz ESP" has probably some of the most epic vocal hooks (especially the awesome repeated 'I've defected' line) and one of the more bizarre arrangements, in all of modern art rock, with some more great soloing (Omar-Rodriguez Lopez is the driving force in both songwriting and playing on almost all of these songs, after all), though I must say, the point where the music just winds down and gets interrupted in the middle by a free-form avant garde 'trippy' guitar soloing fest - also featuring John Frusciante - is too distracting for my tastes (almost like their analog of King Crimson's album-ruining "Moonchild", though thankfully not that horrid, aimless or overlong), during which I just want the song to get back to its' excellent original state already, which it eventually does for a rousing finish.
That particular section as well as the dull 8 minute closer "Take The Veil Cerpin Taxt" (typically great energetic playing, but the arrangement drags too much and the vocal melodies are even more unmemorable than anything else here), are the only real weak points on De-Loused, though - well, other than the fact that it can be quite hard to get into, and it's not the most memorable experience ever in terms of instrumental and vocal melodies. But I do think this album, for all its' inaccessibility and occasional pretentiousness, is somewhat sonically adventurous - actually much more so than what any prog band, old school or new school, happens to be doing at this point in time. Plus, the energy level on display here has very rarely been matched in modern rock. Maybe an even better album is in store for them at some point. And remind me to try and reassess At The Drive-In again.
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