A beginner’s guide to post-hardcore

Welcome to the first instalment of this weekly guide to the darker side of alternative music. What better way to start than with the news that the almighty At The Drive-In have reformed after a ten-year hiatus. Those of you familiar with this band will probably be losing your noggin right now, but for those of you who aren’t, I’ll give you a little insight into why At The Drive-In are so important.

As a new band from El Paso, Texas, playing to tiny crowds (tiny in number, not like playing to dwarves or anything weird), little did they know that they would become the fathers of modern alternative rock music. Throughout the lifetime of the band, they released a multitude of timeless records, culminating in the incredible Relationship Of Command. While their music is truly inspirational, the things they are perhaps most famous for are their stage antics and drug abuse. These things cannot be put into words and so to see them in action I suggest following the Recommendation at the end. Their notoriety caused them to lead the 90s post-hardcore movement to fight the generic music heard every day on radios worldwide. They used the sheer power of their music to start winning this war but like the true drug-addled lunatics that they were, they committed an act of friendly fire in one of their final shows when front man Cedric Bixler-Zavala criticised fans of the band for “slam-dancing” and continued to bleat like a sheep at them. But no harm was done as this was the At The Drive-In they knew and loved.

Whether they’ll be the same now is a different story but I’m sure any fans of the band will join me in hoping they’ll come back exactly as they left: a bunch of nutters. I urge you to try your hardest to use your laptop for something other than a wanking aid and check out some of At The Drive-In’s music or at least the Recommendation below.

Remember to come back every week and if you’ve got exams coming up just remember we’re all dead at the end of the year anyway so fuck it. Good old Mayans, always making everything better. Happy 2012.

Writer’s Recommendation:_ Get on YouTube and watch At The Drive-In’s live performance of ‘One Armed Scissor’ on Later with Jools Holland. Poor old Jools looks mortified._