~5/5/02-CD Reviews. These are the first CD's I've ever reviewed. Joy.~

So what does a person do when one of their favorite bands breaks up and reforms into two new ones? Get both their cds and do a review! Huzzah!

By now pretty much everyone in the world with any taste whatsoever has heard of At The Drive In. Their incredible sound has made them near legendary in a very short time. Videos off of their latest release, ”Relationship of Command”, are being played on MTV. Singles are being played on the radio. Their style is being emulated by many bands, and they’re finally getting the attention they so deserve. Unfortunately, they’ve been broken up as a band for a year now, and the ex-members have gone on to do their own projects. Jim Ward, Paul Hinojos and Tony Hajjar have gone on to be 3 members of the group Sparta, while Cedric Bixler and Omar Rodriguez have gone forward with their band-The Mars Volta.

Cedric and Omar have shaped the Mars Volta into something much more experimental than the work they were doing with ATDI. (super music geeks will recognize that their band mate Ikey Owens was also in Long Beach Dub Allstars, while both Ikey and Jeremy Ward along with Cedric and Omar form the band Defacto) and The sound is all over the place, giving off hints of the punk/emo that spawned them, jazz, and electronica. At times it’s readily apparent that these boys were in ATDI, while bits of the third track give more of a dub feel along the lines of DeFacto. Their one CD that’s been released-the 3 song EP "Tremulant"- also has more of an underlying psychedelic feel to it. I can’t really put my finger on it at all. It’s hard to really tell much from a 3 song EP, but I liked what I heard. I don’t think it’s quite up to the quality of the work that was being produced while ATDI was still together, but only time will tell. Perhaps this new blend of styles will gain more of a structure to it’s sound when the full length is released.

Sparta, the other band that has sprung from the ashes of ATDI’s demise produces a sound that will be much more acceptable to many of the bands newer listeners. Their first release is a four song EP entitled “Austere” They stay very true to the sound that ATDI produced, while also adding in more use of drum samples, and keyboards to give a greater electronica feel than was heard in the works of ATDI. This is the band that I think will be getting more radio and video play initially, as they follow the old mold much more than the experimental sounds being put out by The Mars Volta. This is a two edged sword perhaps. While initially sounding great due to being what I expected I start to wonder if perhaps this means that these members of the bands aren’t growing into something new. A section of guitar from the second song on the EP sounds almost exactly like the opening section of “Invalid Litter Department” off of ATDI’s last CD-Relationship of Command. Even still I can’t say this is a bad thing. I really enjoyed “Austere”, much more than I did “Tremulant”. The full length from the band is due this June if all goes well, and it should prove to be well worth your music dollars.

Overall it seems to my ears that both bands have gone on to produce new works that, while they may not stand up as much as their previous outstanding recordings, will prove to be better than the majority of the drivel that is being produced today. I think that the critical “elitists” of the music world are going to praise The Mars Volta and pan Sparta, we’ll see if my predictions are true in the coming year after both bands have released their full lengths. Did you like “Relationship of Command”, but despise the sounds of Defacto? Then I recommend you pick up Spartas “Austere”. If on the other hand you’re more open to a wide variety of sound style then do yourself a favor and pick up Tremulant from The Mars Volta. Now if you’re really smart you’ll pick them both up and decide for yourself.