At The Drive-In in Retrospect: ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! (1995)

At The Drive-In’s second release ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! arrived about eight months after their debut EP, Hell Paso.  Those eight months appear to have been spent well with ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! being far superior to its predecessor having benefitted from the extra time spent as a band.  Again, the only band members from the “classic” line-up on this release are Ward and Bixler-Zavala, with the only change being the departure of drummer, Bernie Rincon, who was replaced by Davy Simmons.  However, the music here is much more exciting.  Things were starting to gel at this stage and here is where At The Drive-In began creating their signature sound.

 

The music bursts forth with much more energy than it did on Hell Paso.  If that first release was the sound of a band taking its nervous first steps, ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! is the sound of the band finding its footing and beginning to stand up for itself.  They’ve dispensed with the formulaic trappings that the earlier songs fell into and begun to embrace the odd flourishes that would become their staple in years to come.  The production quality has also been raised, particularly with regards to Bixler-Zavala’s voice, which was lost in the mix a little on Hell Paso.  However, if you’re expecting this to sound anything like Relationship of Command, you’re still going to be disappointed.

 

This EP, while being a huge step forward, is still the sound of a band trying to figure themselves out.  With this release they sound much more fun and happy than the band we know from 2001.  It’s almost as if this was recorded at a party.  There’s a fun energy about it.  There isn’t the aggression of later At The Drive-In, but they’re certainly developing the energy that would make them one of the most powerful live acts in the world.

 

There isn’t really much more to be said about his release.  It’s a huge step up from Hell Paso, but it also serves as a transition to their next recording, which would be their first full-length album, Acrobatic Tenement.  It’s as though this EP was their testing ground.  They were seeing if this new sound would work and if they could capture some of their live energy.  If that was the case, then ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! couldn’t be deemed as anything more than a successful outing.  If you want the true start to At The Drive-In’s sound, this EP is it.

 

By the way, if you’re curious about the title, it roughly translates to, “Alfaro lives, damn it!” and references the extremely left-wing Eloy Alfaro Popular Armed Forces group in Ecuador.  It’s the first indication of the strong-minded political nature that At The Drive-In would develop.

 

Other articles in this series:

 

Hell Paso (1994)

The Return of At The Drive-In

At The Drive-In in Retrospect: Hell Paso (1994)

All great bands have to start somewhere and it was this 1994 release that began it all for At The Drive-In.  Paid for by guitarist, Jim Ward’s college savings, it shows the band still in its formative stages.  Only two members of what is now considered to be the definitive At The Drive-In line-up featured on this EP, those people being guitarist and backing vocalist, Jim Ward, and lead vocalist, Cedric Bixler-Zavala.  With a title that reflected their feelings about their home town of El Paso, Texas, Hell Paso was released not long after their first ever show with the music bearing little resemblance to what would come in the later part of the decade.  It is, honestly, an average listen notable only for what the band would become.

While the music doesn’t match up to the experimental, boundary pushing that made them popular, it did give the first indication of what would become one of At The Drive-In’s staples; odd song titles. They are titles that give very little indication to the nature of the songs.  In a way, At The Drive-In is forcing you to abandon your expectations by giving you very few clues regarding what you might hear.  So it might have been a bit of a disappointing listen back in 1994, as it is now, to hear such straightforward music from the three tracks presented here.

The opening track, Grand Mox Turkin, the track with the strangest title, is probably the most “normal” song here.  It is two minutes and forty-three seconds of straight up, early 1990s punk.  In fact, at times, this track has certain hints of Green Day in it, particularly with the vocal melodies in the chorus.  Only at the 1:30 mark does the track provide something unexpected with a chugging, almost trash metal-like riff, but even this is relatively hidden.  At The Drive-In hadn’t learned how to explore their diverse influences yet and as such, tend to stick to formulas that they know how to work.

Second track, Red Planet, continues in much the same vein with its predictable pop-punk power chords.  Of the three tracks on this EP, this is probably the least interesting.  What it does show though, is that even in their early stages, At The Drive-In were capable of recognising and developing a catchy melody when required, something that they almost avoided in later years.

It’s only on the final track, Emptiness Is A Mule, that the listener is given some kind of indication that At The Drive-In has the potential to be something special.  The multi-tracked vocals that open the song create an almost swirling effect, disorientating the listener before jumping back into “safer” territory with a standard punk riff.  While this introduction is only brief, it does show that there is something different about this band and if they are able to develop it, they just might turn out to be something worthwhile.

Overall, At The Drive-In’s first release, Hell Paso, is fairly amateurish.  And so it should be.  No band is brilliant from the get go.  It takes a lot of time developing a sound and going through different band members before everything clicks and things start happening.  So it was for At The Drive-In.  Hell Paso, does have fairly poor sound quality, song writing that is not quite developed, and a tendency to try and fit in with what was popular in the punk world at the time.  But it does also show the faintest glimmer of potential and just a touch of what was to come.

Next Friday we look at how At The Drive-In developed their sound on their second EP, 1995’s ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo!.  Also, come back tomorrow to get a review of Lamb of God’s new album, Resolution.

Other articles in this series:

The Return of At The Drive-In