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The Legacy of At the Drive-In

By: Jake Cholak
Staff Writer

When most bands break up, it usually has very little effect on anyone. When At the Drive-In broke up, they took down an entire record label and horrified thousands of adoring fans.

But, they had made it farther than most underground bands ever will. At the Drive-In began as a tiny hardcore band in El Paso, Texas. From that town, according to an article in Rolling Stone, the members of the band could see the slums in Mexico from their houses. In that poor, lower class town, the people had no money and drug use was rampant. It was a white ghetto, and a hard one to escape.

It was this very environment, according to that same article, that made At the Drive-In so driven. Even their first CD Hell Paso, recorded live and unproduced, had a certain fire encoded into its seven inches of vinyl. As the band grew bigger and bigger, they could afford producers, and their passion only became more pronounced the better the sound quality became.

Lead singer Cedric Bixler lends an intensity to the vocals rarely seen in mainstream music, refusing to take the easy path of screaming every word, and instead always striving for variance in his vocals. The result is a very interesting blend of styles that puts more energy in At the Drive-In's recordings than most bands have live.

Then, through an amazing twist of fate, At the Drive-In was finally thrown into the rock spotlight.

Grand Royal Records, home of the Beastie Boys and all of their money, bought DEN Records outright. With that kind of funding, At the Drive-In was able to hire visionary producer Ross Robinson, whose name alone could sell CD's.

With that they attacked their last full length, Relationship of Command. The CD, recorded with their usual fire pronounced through Robinson's brilliant recording and postproduction skills, created a new and brilliant sound for the band.

Praise poured in. Rolling Stone called At the Drive-In the "future of rock," and appearances on late night talk shows like The David Letterman Show gave At the Drive-In one of the most respected names in all of rock.

At the Drive-In released one single, "One Armed Scissor," to high praise. Through their screaming, yelling passion, the band could still incorporate what could only be described as pop hooks. Through the addictive riffs in that song and the repeated screaming of "Cut away/cut away," the band entered a new realm of popularity, making regular appearances of alternate radio and MTV.

Then, for reasons never fully explained, At the Drive-In took a break from touring and recoding, a break they are still on. It basically amounts to a breakup.