The line-up for this year’s Coachella festival was announced yesterday. The list is pretty amazing, what with Radiohead, The Black Keys, Dre and Snoop, The Hives and a very long list of bands and artists that are sure to have the festival sell out quick and fast.
Of the entire line-up, and it is a deep, deep line-up, the two eye-catchers come from bands that fans have long wanted to reunite, one of which has sworn up and down for more than a decade that they were over forever: At The Drive-In and Refused.
The post-punk heroes, each of which has had a somewhat profound affect on punk and music as a whole, will play their first shows together at the gigantic festival.
At The Drive-In gained popular attention once Grand Royal Records (AKA The Beastie Boys) signed them and got “One-Armed Scissor,” from their pretty widely loved album “Relationship of Command” on MTV. Then the band splintered into the prog-metal mindfuck of The Mars Volta and more straight forward rock of Sparta. While TMV will release a new album this year, Sparta hasn’t put out a new album since 2006, though they’ve been playing live recently.
ATDI getting back together is not the most shocking thing though since they’ve been teasing it for at least two years. The problem with the band was that Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez felt held back, so they left and formed another band, in addition to writing, recording and releasing about 10,000 projects a year.
Refused, on the other hand, imploded and swore they’d never come back after their ground-shaking The Sound of Punk To Come changed the face of hard music - at least in retrospect. The album turns from melodic to blistering hardcore on a dime, with a series of political statements that show the band’s preference for socialism over pure capitalism, and is universally lauded for sounding so unlike anything else at the time, despite hardcore not being a new idea.
Of the entire line-up, and it is a deep, deep line-up, the two eye-catchers come from bands that fans have long wanted to reunite, one of which has sworn up and down for more than a decade that they were over forever: At The Drive-In and Refused.
The post-punk heroes, each of which has had a somewhat profound affect on punk and music as a whole, will play their first shows together at the gigantic festival.
At The Drive-In gained popular attention once Grand Royal Records (AKA The Beastie Boys) signed them and got “One-Armed Scissor,” from their pretty widely loved album “Relationship of Command” on MTV. Then the band splintered into the prog-metal mindfuck of The Mars Volta and more straight forward rock of Sparta. While TMV will release a new album this year, Sparta hasn’t put out a new album since 2006, though they’ve been playing live recently.
ATDI getting back together is not the most shocking thing though since they’ve been teasing it for at least two years. The problem with the band was that Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez felt held back, so they left and formed another band, in addition to writing, recording and releasing about 10,000 projects a year.
Refused, on the other hand, imploded and swore they’d never come back after their ground-shaking The Sound of Punk To Come changed the face of hard music - at least in retrospect. The album turns from melodic to blistering hardcore on a dime, with a series of political statements that show the band’s preference for socialism over pure capitalism, and is universally lauded for sounding so unlike anything else at the time, despite hardcore not being a new idea.
Check out “The Deadly Rhythm.” Yeah, hardcore from an album whose name is stolen from an Ornette Coleman classic (“The Shape of Jazz To Come”), and a song that samples Bo Diddley’s “I’m A Man,” but sounds like getting your face kicked in, rebuilt and then kicked in again. Punk. As. Fuck.
These bands matter, and now they have returned. This is a big deal people. Melodramatic enough for you?
These bands matter, and now they have returned. This is a big deal people. Melodramatic enough for you?
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