At the dawn of the new millennium, At The Drive-In were unquestionably the most exciting band on the planet. Their 2000 masterpiece Relationship of Command had brought post-hardcore, art punk, cryptic lyrical flights of fancy and utterly chaotic live shows to a rock scene that had become bloated with childishly wacky pop-punk and dunderheaded nu metal.
They captured the imagination of fans, were loved by their peers (the album was released on the Beastie Boys' record label Grand Royal), by critics and turned up on mainstream TV shows like Late Night with David Letterman and Later... with Jool Holland (famously causing a kerfuffle by losing their shit and stealing Robbie Williams chair). They looked set to make rock’s mainstream as redundant as Nirvana had made the hair metal bands of the 1980’s.
