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Acrobatic Tenement
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Acrobatic Tenement | ||
 |
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| Studio album by At the Drive-In | ||
| Released | August 18, 1996 | |
| Recorded | July, 1996 | |
| Genre | Post-Hardcore | |
| Length | 32:20 | |
| Label | Flipside | |
| Producer(s) | Blaze James, Doug Green | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| At the Drive-In chronology | ||
| Alfaro Vive, Carajo! (1995) |
Acrobatic Tenement (1996) |
El Gran Orgo (1997) |
Acrobatic Tenement is the debut album from At the Drive-In, released in 1996. It is considered to have a particularly raw sound, and was recorded on the lowest of budgets (believed to be around US$600), but remains arguably one of the band's finest works. The album is often compared with releases from Fugazi and Sonic Youth, due partly to its chaotic and emotionally charged music. It has been speculated that the raw sound usually associated with this album was due to the band recording the album under the influence of marijuana and alcohol, such that the recording session was treated more as a rehearsal. It is possible that time and money constraints prevented re-recording, hence the disc was printed with many of the tracks raw and unpolished.
It is interesting to note that the track Embroglio is about Julio Venegas, an artist with whom the band was close. Band members Cedric Bixler Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez would later craft an entire album based on Venegas with their band The Mars Volta. None of the studio versions of the songs here made it to the 2005 compilation album This Station Is Non-Operational, but a live recording of Initiation was featured.
In 2004, the album – along with In/Casino/Out and Relationship of Command – was reissued by Fearless Records.
- "Star Slight" – 1:18
- "Schaffino" – 2:49
- "Embroglio" – 2:47
- "Initiation" – 3:26
- "Communication Drive-In" – 1:44
- "Skips on the Record" – 3:07
- "Paid Vacation Time" – 3:33
- "Ticklish" – 4:35
- "Blue Tag" – 3:17
- "Coating of Arms" – 2:46
- "Porfirio Diaz" – 2:58
- Cedric Bixler-Zavala - Lead Vocals
- Jim Ward - Guitar, Vocals
- Adam Amparan - Guitar
- Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - Bass
- Ryan Sawyer - Drums
Below is an interview by Buddyhead, where the band answers questions about the album.
Buddyhead - Why are you guys always so bummed out when that album comes up? As far as all your records go, besides the new album on Grand Royal, that's the one record of yours that I'll find myself listening to.
Jim - Something that I have always said about it is that it just has soul. The frustration about it is that we were young and stupid and got incredibly fucked up while we were making it.
Cedric - I was super high when we were doing the vocals and just ad libbing them half the time and writing them down as I was there.
Jim - And drunk… The frustration and dislike would be that if we had known, we could have made it better.
Buddyhead - What was the deal with all of your parts, Jim, being scratch tracks?
Jim - I thought they were scratch tracks, but I was really faded. So, like after all of my parts, I was like, "ok, I'm ready to go back and do them again" and they were like, "no that's it" so I was like, "well… alright."
Buddyhead - Did you want the guitar to be… clean like that all the way through?
Jim - Well some parts were clean, that's… why you so grossed out man?
Tony - Haha, "did you want the guitar to be clean like that?"
Buddyhead - That's why I like it so much… it's really jangly, but in a good way.
Cedric - When I hear it I totally think of old records when they didn't have the right technology like, "yeah that was back in like 78 or sumpthin."
Buddyhead - The bass sounds really dead, like you didn't even put new strings on it.
Omar - I didn't! I'm left handed and I was playing a right handed bass that didn't have the nuts at the top so it was impossible to tune.
Cedric - It was loaned to us by this band.
Omar - It was checkered.
Jim - To me it captured being 18 and making a record in L.A. and being horribly wasted.
Cedric - I sound like a chipmunk on there. Some friends of mine were like, "were you going through puberty?" I was like, no I was already 20, I just sound like a girl.