The penultimate release for the 12 Days of Chartmas, We got some At The Drive-In!
Most of you are aware of their song “One Armed Scissor” (being a disc track in RB3), but the rest of the album is just at awesome. Here we have some tasty tunes from the post-hardcore-post-punk-pre-wattered-down-version-of-this-sound record Relationship of Command. A record that probably marked the highest achievement for At The Drive-In, and a record which paved the way for the Cedric and Omar’s next big project; The Mars Volta. While this record isn’t as proggy or technically challenging as some of their Mars Volta stuff, the intense energy and passion found in The Mars Volta is here and in full force.
At The Drive-In – Arcarsenal
The opening track, and we’re kind of thrown into the deep-end. While not as blunt as a song like Frowndland by Captain Beefheart, once this song gets going it’ll certainly weed out those who can’t handle screams (“BEWARE!! BEWARE!!”). This track has some great high energy accents on the ee’s and ahh’s of the beat, creating an almost bouncing feeling and we get solid juxtaposition of the two guitar parts in the verses. Which makes that main riff even fatter when the whole band (including the bass part) are all in sync.
As far as lyrics I have yet to make heads or tails of what the meaning behind the words might be, and this an opinion I have of the lyrics for the whole album.
At The Drive-In – Pattern Against User
The next song on the album, while maintaining that fast energy, it doesn’t have that in-your-face attitude of the opener. This song definitely has more groove to it and a vocal melody that will surly noodle its way into your brain.
At The Drive-In – Invalid Litter Dept.
Our “mellow” song of the album, featuring a piano intro and bridge (not charted because their are two guitar parts). At 6:05 minutes this is one of the longest tracks here, and it shows that ATDI can take their time and really construct something that isn’t just loud and in-your-face, even if the ending turns into that (and it’s awesome!)
At The Drive-In – Enfilade
This song -unlike many other tracks off this record- I actually can make heads or tails of the lyrics. Now typically I don’t pay attention to lyrics, so I didn’t really know what this song was “about” until I decided to chart it! And yeah, it’s a song about holding people ransom and the perpetrators might actually have gotten away with it(?) What really hooked me with this song is the chorus, that chant/scream “freight freight train” is just so energizing and just gets ya pumped up, and the breakdown before the bridge is just perfect as a “climax” to the song.
At The Drive-In – Rolodex Propaganda
A song done with the fabulous Iggy Pop! For the longest time I thought it was Omar doing the second vocal part here, as the singing style feels very similar to Omar’s guitar playing. Here we get some great call and answer type… verses…? choruses? There’s like two choruses in this song, which is a fun little twist on the arrangement you’d typically see. This song has great tempo and energy, but feels almost poppy when the keys come in. As for the keys part there isn’t enough to justify charting them, if there is enough demand however I can make some alt versions.
And that’s all I have for you guys! A quick note on the charts; At The Drive-In has two guitar players, one panned hard right, the other hard left, and the charting reflects that. Omar’s parts (left channel) are the regular “guitar” chart, and Jeremy Wards’ parts (channel right) are the “keys” part. Certain songs like Arcarsenal and Invalid Litter Dept. have piano in them as well but are not charted due to this reason. However if there is enough demand, I’ll happily make an “alt-version” with the piano parts added to the keys (this also works since Jeremy Ward would play the piano parts live).
Our closing act is SomeOldGuys, on stage at 10:00 PM EST
