At The Drive-in

haha i forgot about jim tbh. i saw them in may and june and didn't hear anyone talking about jim, much less screaming WHERES JIM?! guess i was wrong about that.

i didn't buy tickets in time so missed out when they were in town ;_;

it felt like an obligation to see them even when i was there. definitely the most depressing/unsatisfying reunion i've ever seen. they're not phoning it in like 2012, but i just kept thinking about that Omar quote from the mid-00s about reforming or re listening to ATDI, he said something to the effect of "it's like looking at your high school year book, what's the point?" that's why i respected Omar and Cedric so much for forming The Mars Volta and continuing on and always trying something new. i was a huge TMV fan, didn't dig the last two records, but that was a band that they could've grown old in. they honestly looked really silly playing ATDI songs, and i got absolutely nothing out of it, it was not thrilling or emotionally potent, it was just this cold, dead feeling. nothing new can come out of it, the scope of ATDI is so much narrower than TMV.

good to know! I've had poor experiences with reformed bands in general but I'm obv still keen to make the mistake

i'm trying to think of good ones i've seen, cant remember... Dinosaur Jr i think is the best case scenario

Mission Of Burma

Maybe that is the difference, there was things left unsaid and undone for Dinosaur Jr. and Mission of Burma, so there was room to grow after reuniting that wasn't there for At the Drive In. Both of those bands dived in head first to create new material and seemingly added quality music to their catalog.

The Pixies seemed to have some energy live when it started, but then it went right back to the same issues that broke them up and now they are just Frank Black and the Pixies.

maybe they can make a good record again, but i think most of the brilliance of ATDI 94-01 was the sheer intensity of the performance. they burned themselves out playing like nonstop for 7 years. maybe they had more music in them, but i don't think they can go farther than those first four TMV records.

new song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-NYWzd7JW8

this sounds great! guessing that's keeley davis on bg vox/guitar, sounds pretty good!

whattttt

that's the way the guillotine claps *clap*

^^^ most in character atdi lyric ever

lol I'm on listen #5 in a row

though really this isn't that different from the Antemasque album everyone slept on

I'm shocked you guys are into this. It sounds like Weird Al parodying ATDI.

ah

honestly who wouldn't give a Weird Al ATDI parody album at least a courtesy listen

The lack of excitement I had before pressing play might say it all, but... eh, it's passable.

honestly who wouldn't give a Weird Al ATDI parody album at least a courtesy listen

Oh I absolutely will it just bums me out

I enjoyed it. Sorry, purists!

Yeah it's good. Could sit comfortably on Relationship of Command.

I was a massive fan of these guys. I even liked the Sparta album a little. This is pure toilet. Yikes. Exactly what my cynical mind expected.

And it would not sit comfortably on Relationship of Command unless we're talking about an expanded version filled with bad b-sides.

guys RoC is a v good album but it's not exactly some flawless monolith

right, that would be In/Casino/Out

horrible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS_IramA9m4

new album is called in·ter a·li·a. tracklist vmic

‘No Wolf Like The Present’
‘Continuum’
‘Tilting At The Univendor’
‘Governed By Contagions’
‘Pendulum In A Peasant Dress’
‘Incurably Innocent’
‘Call Broken Arrow’
‘Holtzclaw’
‘Torrentially Cutshaw’
‘Ghost-tape No.9’
‘Hostage Stamps’

new song is pretty catchy for them

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.