At The Drive-In, Relationship Of Command (Grand Royale)
It took a while for the significance of this record to sink in. At first, it simply sounded like a great, messy, loud band that would be great to see live, evoking in equal parts MC5 and Fugazi, with a touch of Rage Against The Machine without the overt politics. At The Drive-In has been a hard-touring band for over five years with two full length albums and several EPs already under their denim bellbottoms. What sets Relationship Of Command apart is not necessarily the more detailed production, but the intricate songs, which jump from screaming choruses and high-kicks, to almost progressive, fussy time changes, complex melodies and dense, Burroughsian cut-up lyrics. The result is really a new kind of punk rock that will spawn dozens of imitators, mark my words.
