The most revered bands in history are usually the ones who just happened to quit while they were at the peak of their career… by choice or otherwise. We remember them for their best work instead of the slow descent into watered down obsolescence that most other bands eventually take. We see them as being incapable of compromise or misstep simply because they never had a chance to make either. We may or may not hold an idealized version of them in our minds, and although we lament their early demise, it is the very thing that makes them seem so dear to us.
At The Drive-In are arguably one of those bands. They self-destructed just after the release of their biggest album of their careers, Relationship of Command, resulting in a clean split down the middle and two new bands that were somehow less than the sum of their parts: The Mars Volta and Sparta. I was actually a big fan of The Mars Volta’s first album Deloused in the Comatorium but over time I lost interest in their prog rock wankery. Sparta represented the more commercial, hard rock side of the band; their first album was listenable, but at times it bordered on generic nu-metal.
I believe it was my cousin who first introduced me to the band by sending me an MP3 of “Napoleon Solo” over ICQ (remember ICQ?) sometime back in the late ’90s. In fact, it could have been one of the very first MP3s I ever listened to. I still remember being blown away by the idea of storing songs in a CD quality digital file. Yeah, that was a long time ago.
So now at Coachella 2012 we’re about to find out if ATDI can live up to the legend that they left in their wake. Despite rumours to the contrary, I never thought in a million years that they would ever get back together, but as worrisome as it is, I know that these guys still have a ton of creativity left. With a decade apart, who knows what they’ll come up with next? I’m excited to find out. All I know is that I was lucky enough to see them three times back in the day (yes, the crappy photo above is one I took myself), and if you missed out back then, don’t miss out this time. They remain one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen.
Omar Rodríguez-López:-
“The fact of the matter is that we’re in our thirties now and that breakup happened ten years ago. As a human being you just don’t want that kind of karma. We did a lot of shit talking, and they did a lot of shit talking, so I just called everybody up and invited them to my house and said ‘hey, listen, we’re in our thirties now, I’m sorry for whatever I said, I’m sure you guys didn’t mean what you said–you guys were upset because I split up the band and we were upset because of whatever. Let’s be friends again. But do I want to reunite and play fucking 15 year old songs? Well, it would be like asking you, ‘do you want to get back together with your first girlfriend?’ You learn some amazing things together, but I just shudder at the thought. We were a band that went out on top, which is good, but it’s just a coincidence. We were also a band that had been together for seven years, and for six of those years played to nobody and had a great time but were also on the verge of splitting up many times before that. It’s an old relationship. People would like to think of it as unfinished business because to them we went out when we were most popular, but that has nothing to do with the creative element. As far as the creative element went, it very much was finished business. That’s why I ended the band! Now, thank god, fucking ten years later, we’re not holding a grudge and we’re all cool with it. People pick up on the difference of attitude and think ‘oh, this could mean a possible reunion’, but that’s just them projecting their own desires upon us.”