At the Drive-In Album: “This Station Is Non-Operational”

First and foremost, I must extend massive kudos to Fearless Records for seizing control of the ATDI musical empire from the defunct Grand Royal company and continuing to enhance the band's legacy. Their catalog is too influential to be unceremoniously buried in a dusty vault somewhere.

Like most hardcore ATDI fans, the thirst for ANY uncovered or remastered material is undeniable, irrefutable, and insatiable, despite the fact the band has dissolved and forged ahead with Sparta and The Mars Volta. As the old adage explains, the sum of the parts is not greater than the whole, and I believe ATDI fits that statement like a full five-finger glove. This sonically pleasing compilation is evidence of that.

Just taking a quick gaze at the tracklist would make most ATDI fans salivate. You get tantalizing selections culled from *most* of their albums, rare compositions previously only available on vinyl (or in illicit mp3 form), and a bonus DVD featuring long forgotten videos and the treasured "Relationship of Command" documentary / press kit. These is no doubt this release will be pleasing, even temporarily soothing, to the ATDI fan that is perpetually yearning for more. But will it be enough?

A four star rating seems trifling, despite the fact this compilation will be taking up residency in my CD player for an extremely long period of time. There is something intrinsically unsettling about this release that leaves me still unsatisfied and unable to drive the final nail in the ATDI disbanded coffin once and for all. I believe this confounded sensation stems from the odd inclusions and, more critically, exclusions. The fact there lacks a single representation from "Acrobatic Tenement" ("Initiation" here is the Lamacq version) is disconcerting. The omission of "Invalid Litter Dept." is downright perplexing, especially if this CD was released purportedly as a career retrospective.

However, despite these minor grievances, I covet this CD for many reasons, most notably the previously unreleased "This Night Has Opened My Eyes." Who knew that ATDI could pull off this uncanny Smiths cover with such ease, grace, and (...gulp...) authenticity?! The other rarities are tasty treats, allowing me to replace the inferior mp3 versions I once had to download due to lack of turntable ownership. Finally, the mastering is impeccable, especially with the some of the older material. All the tracks are normalized to a consistent volume, making the disk a coherent, pleasurable listen from start to finish.

To truly capture the visceral essence of ATDI, I would have suggested a few ideas to Fearless during the planning phases. While the DVD is an exercise in nostalgia, I would rather see a 2-disk set with disk 1 encapsulating additional album material and disk 2 exclusively devoted to the rare gems. This way, disk 2 could include some of the tracks that simply could not make it due to space limitations, such as "Catacomb, "Catacombs", "Extracurricular", the remaining Lamacq tracks, as well as some other live material.

Review by Tyler Wagnon:

There can never be enough praise given to At the Drive-In. They were probably the most influential indie band since... I don't know maybe The Pixies or Pavement.

With that being said, this collection/greatest hits is completely inadequate. It is basically a few tracks from each release, a couple rare tracks, and a DVD with music videos. It's an insult to ATDI's legacy if you ask me. However, trying to sum up their career in 18 tracks would be basically impossible unless it were a complete discography.

At the Drive-In is an amazing band and deserve to be in every music fan's collection, but please buy the albums instead because each track is indispensable. Sorry Fearless, you can't just release some half-a$$ collection with ATDI's name on it and expect it to be worth anything.

First of all, I think it's important that you sepperate the fact that yes, At The Drive-In has split into two different bands. If you have heard either Sparta or The Mars Volta's work, you should regard At The Drive-In as a complete and seperate band, because it is. While it's important to know that they started with ATD-I, it's hard to hear it as a new sound if you've already heard the new work.

I think "This Station is Non-Operational" is great for people just getting into ATD-I or that want to learn about a band that inspired another band or if you want to hear previous works from members of Sparta or The Mars Volta. Everybody says "Relaionship of Command" is their best work, but I disagree. It's just a continuation of their previous album, "in/CASINO/OUT".

All and all, this album is great and a good listen. It DOES leave out some of the best songs and tracks from other albums like "Acrobatic Tenement" (except for the BBC session of Iniatiation), but I think it's worth it - especially if you're a first time listener of the band.

Now, I am a HUGE ATDI fan, but fans alike will agree this product is missing the magic of ATDI.

Curious as I was, I popped the DVD in fist. The DVD contains music videos for "One Armed Scissor" Invalid Litter Dept." and Metronome Arthritis". Now, I've seen the first two music videos before, but what they've done with the "One Armed Scissor" video is that they totally redone it, consisiting of entirely of rare live performances, so that was a treat. "Metronome Arthritis" seemed like a boring b-movie student film. It was nothing but recycling symbolism at a slow frame rate.

Also on the DVD was a selection called "Operations Manual" which was a very short behind-the-scenes look of the guys recording their albums and their El Paso legacy. The music during this selection consisted of annoying RoC loops. There was no real insight on the band, and no real interview, just quick little saysings"

Also there's a discography.....not even worth selecting that. All togeter, The DVD will only entertain you for about 20 minutes or less. Th

The CD though is medicore in selection. It does feature live, rare and cover tracks, but this CD's main goal was to highlight the band's diversity and sheer rawness, and didn't show their melodic side (honest to a fault, give it a name, winter month novelty, schaffino to name a few) in fact, i don't think there are any "el gran orgo" tracks on this cd...except for fahrenheit.

Overall, what this CD needs is more polish, more bonus content, and a couple more tracks to make me grin when I hear it.

If you were a radio sucker like I was back in the 90's, you more than likely missed out on great bands like Modest Mouse, At the drive in, among countless others on the indie scene. Well ATDI is now Sparta and The Mars Volta (for the music noobs). This is an outstanding tribute which holds some of their best elements that helped them craft their relentless sound. Any fan or introductee of ATDI should pick up this prverbial aural encyclopedia of the silohuette of one of the best things that ever happened to rock.