At The Drive-in

Jim Ward, [only 27]
http://www.dotmusic.com/news//May2003/news29560.asp
Jim Ward, guitarist for At The Drive-In, sometime member of The Mars Volta and lead singer with Sparta, has been found dead at his home in California.

Mars Volta Member Dies

Jeremy Ward, sound/vocal manipulator for At the Drive-In offshoots the Mars Volta and De Facto, died of an apparent drug overdose in his Los Angeles home on Sunday. He was 27 years old. The Mars Volta had just returned to L.A. to rest between legs supporting Red Hot Chili Peppers' North American tour. Jeremy was the brother of Sparta frontman/ex-ATDI guitarist Jim Ward.

http://www.punknews.org/article.php?sid=6163&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Reformation talk: http://www.nme.com/news/at-the-drive-in/45300

The only thing more surprising than this prospect, I'd say, is that of scores of self-important retards making out like it's somehow their fucking business if a band chooses to get back together to play their own music. Pretty sure that won't happen though

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

That's right on the cusp between amazing and unwatchable. I gave this one big points in the metal poll, has eff all chance of placing though I'd guess.

At The Drive In aren't as good as my memory made them out to be, but that's not important - what happend to 'Scott'?

imagine if relationship of command had had a decent producer behind it :(

'Enfilade' is a great song. I didn't know it was so embarrassing to like ATDI back in 2001.

That Arcarsenal performance is still amazing

RoC is good, and Enfilade & Catacombs are particularly awesome (the dub middle 8 in Enfilage = wow, still), but yeah, Ross Robinson totally lost the really fucking wild, live but bizarre edge that Vaya has. I still dig Vaya out quite often and play it.

I hardly play Vaya, I really like Relationship much much more. But In/Casino/Out might be my favorite ATDI-record. Still love this band dearly, and I'm glad I got to watch them live at their final show (@ Vera, Groningen in 2001).

did anyone watch that '250 episodes of later with jools holland' on saturday? It was basically showing classic performances. At The Drive In's amazing performance consisted of jumping about , doing crazy stuff and stealing the other acts' furniture. The next act on was Robbie Williams who began his act with about ten seconds of silence before he said "Can my mate have his chair back please?" It was pretty funny.

timely revive -- been listening to these dudes a lot lately. I don't really get the hate for Relationship of Command's (admittedly glossy) 'modern rock' production (especially now that we're almost 10 years removed from that sound dominating the airwaves); if nothing else, it makes the crunchy moments really fuckin' CRUNCH, no?

this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He6zvRwVW6Y

http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/breaking_news_at_the_drive_in_to_reunite

For some reason that link is really slow on my computer.

http://atdimusic.com/

Can't get that site to load, the atdimusic one, but I'm cautiously excited about this. Saw them in the Courtyard Cafe in Urbana opening for Get-Up Kids back in like '99 and it was a really fun show.

yesss. saw them on the '99 guk tour too at college park md. my standard story is how atdi opened and guk fans tried holding the front to keep their spots for later but they couldn't deal once atdi started their set.

I like both At The Drive-In *and* The Mars Volta (especially the first two Volta albums), and while this is undoubtedly good news and it's great to know the band are on speaking terms again... the big question is WHY they're doing this and WHY now?

It's startling to see the amount of people on the internet getting excited about this, because as revered a band as they were/are, they were never really what I'd call a 'massive band'. I don't have a problem with this, of course, because it's going to be interesting for me to see what becomes of this, but the reactions are interesting to say the least.

they were never really what I'd call a 'massive band'

i don't know, making it to grand royal can probably be called "massive enough" - like weren't they doing stadiums at that point?

without any actual evidence whatsoever i've always blamed that signing for the breakup

I went to that show specifically to see GUK, but was so blown away and exhausted by the ATDI set that I ended up leaving 3/4ths of the way through the GUK set.

Honestly I think a lot of the attention in 2012 is coming from younger Mars Volta fans who've always been hearing "man ATDI was amazing live" from the oldsters.

...that's actually probably true and doesn't bode well for the shows but i'm probably still going for it

i was one of those younger mars volta fans! was aware enough to notice "one armed scissor" on mtv2, loved de-loused and haha wiretap scars. eventually checked out relationship, never looked back except for when phil freeman compared amputechture to fusion-era miles davis (he's sort of right, i like that record now)

cut yr ribbon as it follows u

still love u wiretap scars

man I was a big ATDI fan as a kid

and, uh, coincidentally I'm in my mid-20s now and fond of nostalgia. gee wonder why ATDI is reuniting??

in/casino/out better than relationship of command btw

Honestly I think a lot of the attention in 2012 is coming from younger Mars Volta fans who've always been hearing "man ATDI was amazing live" from the oldsters.

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, January 9, 2012 8:04 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not on my fucking Facebook wall it isn't

Well obvs not all, I just meant that I'm sure that was feeding into it. Basically its not ALL 30-35 year old dudes who saw ATDI back in the day.

regarding how "massive" they are, fwiw Alternative Press said they had either song of the decade or album of the decade.. i forget which

<3 Vaya, and some of it still holds up well

RoC is boooring. It's all about Acrobatic Tenement

They just announced a club date in town tomorrow. Should I try and get tickets?

Tickets are already gone.

So far they are just doing a couple Texas club shows and a bunch of festivals, right? Would love to see these guys again, tbh.

just a warm-up last week in Austin, this week in Dallas, and Coachella (though maybe other festivals too). I think it's a smart way to see if you want to do more or not without committing too much in advance.

I think they're also set for Reading and a couple other overseas festivals. Basically I'm hoping for a tour because I'm not going to go to Lollapalooza or w/e just to see them.

me either. I never saw them the first time, and if my early afternoon hadn't been crazy I would have tried to get tickets for tomorrow night's show.

I saw them twice back in college, and they were excellent. The first one was by accident, I went to see The Get-Up Kids with no idea of who the opener was. There was about 20-30 people in the student union for the show and they just went nuts.

still good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vii1UduMPZY

Was reading an interview with Cedric and Omar and they flat out said the main reason they got back together was because "Coachella threw an absurd amount of money at us to play". I think I appreciate bands being honest about why they are doing these reunion tours.

do most bands actually make a lot of money on reunion tours vs just getting back together for the sake of it? every reunion isn't a megafest-throwing-money-at

I think they make decent money, I just meant that in ATDI's case that they're pretty open that it was all thanks to Coachella $$$. I wonder how much they made for just that festival.

not all reunited bands make the same amount of money, but it seems like nearly all of them make better money for those shows than they did back when they were originally together, or with whatever 'current' project they'd been focusing on before the reunion

like even if a reunited band isn't headlining huge festivals, they're probably selling out multiple nights at larger clubs or the same venues they'd struggle to fill before