At The Drive-In

Influenced primarily by the likes of Fugazi and Drive Like Jehu, as well as their native Texas hardcore scene, At The Drive-in crafted epic, post-hardcore and sometimes almost stadium rock-like songs with very complex time signatures and extremely poetic, cryptic lyrics. ATDI's first studio recording was Hell Paso (Western Breed), an EP issued in 1994. They quickly developed a following as intense in loyalty as the band was on stage. At the Drive-In's reputation for super-high-energy live performances outlived the band's career. It was this reputation, the release of perhaps their best-known album, Relationship of Command (2000) and their small hit radio single "One Armed Scissor" (which had a music video in circulation on MTV) that contributed largely to the very positive attention they received in the rock press towards the end of their career. Spin Magazine named Relationship of Command one of their top 10 albums of that year. The band also appeared on Late Night With Conan O'Brien and The Late Show With David Letterman performing their single One Armed Scissor on national television. According to some sources, At the Drive-In struggled to recreate their intense live experience in the studio. At one point they tried to circumvent this problem by recording their second CD, In/Casino/Out (1998), as a live studio album.In contrast to the bands first album acrobatic tenament which although undoubtedly a hardcore punk album lacked the energy seen in later works

Not only notoriously energetic and wild at shows, At the Drive-In were noted by the music press for the afros of Cedric Bixler Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. The hairstyle became synonymous with the pair's image. However, the two have been very vocal about image, Omar said in one interview "I hate photoshoots, I get so bored. The way I look has nothing to do with the music I make, so who cares if I have big glasses and an afro? People should just put on our cd."