Acrobatic Tenement
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| Acrobatic Tenement | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | August 18, 1996 | |||
| Recorded | July 1996 | |||
| Studio | Commercial Soundworks (Hollywood) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 32:20 | |||
| Label | Flipside | |||
| Producer | Blaze James, Doug Green | |||
| At the Drive-In chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Consequence of Sound | C+[2] |
| Drowned in Sound | 10/10[3] |
| Pitchfork | 6.5/10[4] |
Acrobatic Tenement is the debut studio album by American post-hardcore band At the Drive-In, released on August 18, 1996, on Flipside.[5] The album was reissued by Fearless Records in 2004, along with the band's subsequent albums In/Casino/Out and Relationship of Command, and was re-released again in 2013.
Only one track from Acrobatic Tenement appeared on the band's 2005 retrospective compilation album This Station Is Non-Operational, with "Initiation" appearing as a live BBC recording.
Then bass player Omar Rodríguez-Lopez has noted that the recording of Acrobatic Tenement was the band's first time recording at a twenty-four track studio, that they only had a total of three days in the studio, and the band engaged in alcohol and cannabis use, all of which he argues had a detrimental effect on the album.[6] The album has been noted for its lack of guitar distortion, due to guitarist Jim Ward believing that his distortion-free recorded parts would not be used for the final master.[6][7] Acrobatic Tenement was recorded at Commercial Soundworks in Hollywood for only $600 (equivalent to $1,203 in 2024) after the band concluded a tour of the United States.[3]
Acrobatic Tenement was initially released on August 18, 1996, exclusively on compact disc through the Los Angeles–based independent record label/fanzine Flipside, after some of its editors saw the band perform in Los Angeles.[8]
Reflecting upon the aftermath of recording Acrobatic Tenement, frontman Cedric Bixler recalled in 2013: "Before [the album's release], the band had broken up. We did a U.S. tour and we decided to split up. I always needed Jim to be there, but he'd had a falling out with Omar. We'd made a bunch of dumb moves at the time—kicked the drummer [Ryan Sawyer] who was on the record out, and then the other guitar player [Adam Amparan]—but then Tony [Hajjar] and Paul [Hinojos] came and played. Omar switched to guitar at the time, because he played bass on that album, so when we played live, it was a lot different."[9]
Much of the album, particularly the track "Embroglio," was inspired by the life and suicide of Julio Venegas, a friend of the band. Venegas' death later inspired the concept album storyline of De-Loused in the Comatorium, the debut album by Bixler and Rodríguez' subsequent project the Mars Volta.[10]
