Feature: At the Drive-In takes critical success in stride

Since the late-summer release of their Grand Royal debut, "Relationship of Command," emo-core punkers At the Drive-In have become media darlings. Critics have compared the El Paso, Texas, band to genre forefathers the MC5 and do-it-yourselfers Fugazi.

All that is great, according to bassist Paul Hinojos, but he and the rest of At the Drive-In try not to pay too much attention to the media's response.

"We try not to think about ... the articles and stuff," he said. "We're grateful for it, but if you start thinking about it, it's bad news for the band. If you think about it too much, then it'll get to your head. A lot of that stuff is just hype. I think people should just come to the show and get whatever they get out of it."

"Relationship of Command," At the Drive-In's third album, is at times poetic, at others a raging, vivid tour of vocalist Cedric Bixler's mind. In "Arc Arsenal," he sings about revolution deferred: "Must have read a thousand faces/Must have robbed them of their cause." And "Pattern Against User" tells the story of youths and their deteriorating relationship with elders in command: "Are we just infants/That are ripe for the training ... This institution/Limps with the cane of suspicion."

The album, Hinojos explained, is based on the horrors he and the rest of the band--guitarist Omar Rodriguez, drummer Tony Haijar and guitarist/keyboardist Jim Ward--witnessed growing up in the U.S.-Mexico border town of El Paso.

"El Paso's a poor town. It's a big city on the border of Mexico. There's a lot of weird things [there]. There's a lot of homeless people. It's a third-world country right next to the U.S. When you're growing up, you don't think about it until you visit other parts of the world. I think it shows in our music: Where we come from and the experiences that we've seen.

"I remember we would go, when we were teenagers, across the border, because you can drink when you're 16, 17. I remember coming back and over the bridge [and] you'd see all these people waiting to go to work, and they'd be asleep on the sidewalk--like hundreds just lined up [for] any chance they could to make a few hundred dollars. Growing up, I think it shapes your attitude on life. El Paso's one of the biggest drug ports in the world. When there's a changing of the drug cartel, there's a lot of bloodshed."

To share its message, At the Drive-In recruited producer Ross Robinson (Korn, BBMak) to turn the knobs for "Relationship of Command."

"He taught us how to put the energy that we have live and put it to tape. It was really cool [and] something that we were never really able to do. With past records, we didn't really have a lot of time. We [said], 'We'd better get this right, because we're gonna run out of money and time.' It was always real stale. This time, he made it really loose. If we made a mistake, he was like, 'Don't worry about it. Just play what you feel and let all your emotions just come out on tape.'"

One of At the Drive-In's heroes, fellow punk rocker Iggy Pop, unleashed his rage on "Rolodex Propaganda." Hinojos missed the session, though. Pop was scheduled to come in twice and didn't show, then arrived unexpectedly.

"When he came up, we were already done tracking all the music. We were tracking the vocals. He just popped in one day and hung with the other guys. I hear he's a really nice guy and down to earth. No ego, just really cool."

On some level, Hinojos seems pleased that the critics are giving "Relationship of Command" positive reviews.

"We're proud of it. We put all our emotion out there. Maybe it's the timing, and maybe people are just wanting something different than what's out there right now," Hinojos said about the success. "It's hard to say. Hopefully, it's the music."