At The Drive-in

Still wondering what happened to JIM?! last year. Tiniest of tidbits in the NME piece.

okay... this song fucking bangs

song titles vmic

new song sounds even more like Antemasque than the first one did, hoping there's some more expansive stuff in there as well

Well it definitely sounds like the inevitably disappointing follow up to RoC except for some reason it's coming out now instead of circa 2002. Just a blander version of themselves.

i like this record

the mixing/production is weird but someone recently reminded me that their production has almost always been off

they hit a sweet spot with Rich Costey on In/Casino/Out and Vaya, the former of which was recorded live in the studio, but even though he's back on this record it sounds really compressed and loud, like ROC.

relationship of command got that ross robinson stank all over it

New album is great. I am waking up with these hooks and lyrics stuck in my head.

"WHERE'S JIM!?!"

lmao. i was hoping they'd give more of an explanation for his absence in the NYT interview, but it was the same thing - "He just wasn't ready." so bizarre, considering he was the one holding a candle for ATDI all those years when O & C were in TMV and would laugh at Jim when asked about him.

I interviewed the group for the current issues of MOJO and Kerrang! and they said Jim had resisted joining any reunion activity since Omar and Cedric made up in 2014. O & C had even invited Jim to join Antemasque, but he pulled out at the last minute. Finally, last year, they decided that if he didn't want to rejoin they'd do it without him.

I think new one starts a little weak, but dang tracks 4 on are pretty darn good.

Closing track is the best IMO. Couple of songs have a v LZ Presence vibe.

now that's an endorsement!

I listened to the record and it's what I expected: too little too late, & makes me happy they broke up in 2001 so O & C could make 4 or 5 classic records as The Mars Volta. my man Ian Cohen sums it up better than me:

Take a few minutes to reacquaint yourself with the “One Armed Scissor” video. The one shown on MTV, the late night performances, any will do. This was how most of the world was introduced to At the Drive In, and every time, the El Paso band was presented as the most exciting shit imaginable in 2000: the explosive intraband dynamic, their acrobatic musicality, the barely controlled violence of their live performances, the afros. Meanwhile, their first piece of new music since Relationship of Command was premiered with a video that focuses solely on the two things that make At the Drive In seem kinda ridiculous in 2017: the lyrics and their artwork.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/23099-inter-alia/

at the point where i think "tilting at the univendor" is one of the best atdi songs ever

I like this album a hell of a lot, tbh.

It's pretty OK. This has been a weirdly good year for reunion albums thus far.

Gotta revisit but I just can't hang with this. Embarrassing self-parody. As long as they're happy.

The fact that you dislike it makes me like it even more, tbh.

hell yea

The album is awful, but ROC holds up. Gave DeLoused a listen for the first time in ages as we'll and damn it rocks.

Yeah, self-parody is right. The lyrics are worse than usual, and they were always bad. Production does nothing for the songs either.

Quoting Ian Cohen is not going to persuade anyone.

That last track is easily one of the greatest things they've ever done. I have the phrase "innocculated at the liquor store" running through my head at all times. This is definitely one of the greatest albums I've heard all year.

i had been planning to skip it entirely but this thread has pushed me into at least checking it out

This album is far better than I was expecting it would be. Flappy bird is obviously still screaming "WHERE'S JIM!?!" at his monitor all these many months later.

Cedric's shredded voice is the only real bummer for me but I knew to expect that

This bad album made me go back and listen to Deloused, which is great, so I'm ok with it for now.

cedric does pretty ok considering the circumstances

The album is awful, but ROC holds up. Gave DeLoused a listen for the first time in ages as we'll and damn it rocks.

― afriendlypioneer, Sunday, May 14, 2017 2:02 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This bad album made me go back and listen to Deloused, which is great, so I'm ok with it for now.

― afriendlypioneer, Monday, May 15, 2017 4:23 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

did u listen to deloused though. is it great

it's great, but it's not as great as Frances the Mute

Can't get into Frances. Too much bleepy bloopy junk in all the tracks getting in way of the face melting rawk.

The album is awful, but ROC holds up. Gave DeLoused a listen for the first time in ages as we'll and damn it rocks.

― afriendlypioneer, Sunday, May 14, 2017 2:02 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This bad album made me go back and listen to Deloused, which is great, so I'm ok with it for now.

― afriendlypioneer, Monday, May 15, 2017 4:23 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

did u listen to deloused though. is it great

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Monday, May 15, 2017 11:48 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol!

Frances the Mute is TMV's best record and their greatest achievement.

there's a few mars volta threads dudes

calling 4-5 of their records "classics" is a real reach imo, they put out like 2.5 good records

what was good about the last few atdi is that it feels constantly like a prog monster is being born out of the head of a post-hardcore band. idk if it's possible to achieve that tension anymore but imo the new record comes awful close, and i think there are very few bands and even fewer
records that explored this particular sound

also much as i enjoy the mars volta, said tension >>>>>>> anything the mars volta ever did

and, as a huge sparta fan, i thought jim ward was essential to the recipe. turns out, not exactly

in/casino/out? CLASSIC
vaya? CLASSIC
relationship of command? CLASSIC
tremulant ep? CLASSIC
de-loused? CLASSIC
frances? CLASSIC
amputechture? YEP, CLASSIC

i'm out, u can count

lmao ok dude

i too enjoy omar and cedric in the ep format

Listening to this again, and 'Continuum' and 'Tilting at the Univendor' back-to-back is just one mighty fucking slab of rawk.

otm

i mean continuum -> tilting -> governed -> pendulum is a great run

I completely agree. I also have absolutely no complaints about the production of this record at all - it's absolutely what an At the Drive-In record should sound like in 2017, and I think the pristine production values suit the band right now. If the band had hooked up with Ross Robinson again and tried to recapture the intensity of their earlier work as men in their early 40's, that would just be fucking sad to me.

this just sounds like a continuation of the Ross Robinson sound. there was immediacy on In/Casino/Out and Vaya.

This sounds fuck all like a Ross Robinson production.

it's got some of the swimming overdriven quality of relationship of command but otherwise yeah idgi