At The Drive-In, one of the most influential bands of the past 15 years, have announced their reformation today, January 9th 2012, confirming rumours that have been building persistently in recent weeks despite previous news of upcoming new material from their follow-on projects Sparta and The Mars Volta. The group confirmed the news with a Tweet on their official account which read, ” To whom it may concern: At The Drive-In will be breaking their 11 year silence This Station Is .Now.Operational” echoing the message on their official website.
Formed in 1993 by guitarists Jim Ward and Cedric Bixler-Zavala the group were considered a major influence on the post-hardcore genre, with furious live shows progressed upon with a thrilling musical dexterity that saw their stock rise steadily over three studio albums, 1996’s ‘Acrobatic Tenement,’ 1998’s ‘In/Casino/Out’ and ‘Relationship Of Command,’ released in 2000. Their split in 2001 came as a shock to many who saw ‘Relationship.’ as their best and biggest album yet, being the first to breach the US Billboard 200 and gaining them live televised slots on the likes of ‘Late Night With Conan O’Brien’ and the ‘Late Show With David Letterman.’ The group’s official line was “After a non-stop six-year cycle of record/tour/record/tour, we are going on an indefinite hiatus. We need time to rest up and re-evaluate, just to be human beings again and to decide when we feel like playing music again,” and they split into two with guitarist, drummer Ward and Tony Hajjar forming Sparta and Bixlar-Zavalar and Omar Rodriguez forming The Mars Volta.
However in recent years the group have suggested they might reform, with Bixlar-Zavalar hinting to Drowned In Sound that “It might happen, we just have to iron out a lot of personal things,” back in 2009. An odd rumour sparked up just after Christmas claimed the band were to play in Russia this year, and even if that does not come to pass, the news that they’ll definitely be playing somewhere this year has sent Twitter into raptures.
The band has launched a new website here as well as a twitter account, which you can find here.
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