History Music / AtTheDriveIn

* EnnioMorriconePastiche: According to Omar, "Non-Zero Possibility" is a subtle one. He also called it "the best thing we ever did".

* ChurchOfHappyology: Bixler Zavala was briefly a member sometime around 2013-2015, but by 2018, he'd become a harsh critic, calling it a "[[https://twitter.com/cedricbixler_/status/950194678749712386 modern-day ''[[Literature/TheHandmaidsTale Handmaid's Tale]]''" and [[https://twitter.com/cedricbixler_/status/950188448404602880 accusing it of covering up]] the sexual assaults of his wife and others.

* ChurchOfHappyology: Bixler Zavala was briefly a member sometime around 2013-2015, but by 2018, he'd become a harsh critic, calling it a "[[https://twitter.com/cedricbixler_/status/950194678749712386 modern-day ''[[Literature/TheHandmaidsTale Handmaid's Tale]]'']]" and [[https://twitter.com/cedricbixler_/status/950188448404602880 accusing it of covering up]] the sexual assaults of his wife and others.

* ChurchOfHappyology: Bixler Zavala was briefly a member sometime around 2013-2015, but has since left; by February 2018, he'd become a harsh critic, as evidenced by his [[https://twitter.com/cedricbixler_ Twitter feed]].

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Like Music/TheMarsVolta, their lyrics (and, for that matter, song titles) average a large number of syllables per word than the average rock band's. In particular, there tend to be a rather disproportionate number of medical and scientific terms in their lyrics and song titles.

** Much of ''Acrobatic Tenement'' was evidently a response to the life and suicide of the band's close friend Julio Venegas. Music/TheMarsVolta's ''De-Loused in the Comatorium'' and (probably) "Concertina" would later return to this subject.

* LoudnessWar: As with Music/TheMarsVolta, most of their albums are clipped. Probably unsurprisingly, it got worse on their later albums; ''Relationship of Command'' is a lot louder than ''In/Casino/Out''.

* AdultFear: "Enfilade" seems to be about a child kidnapping in which a mother is threatened with the loss of her child's life if the ransom isn't paid on time.

* ShoutOut: Many of their lyrics and album/song titles are references to popular culture, though the latter don't always line up with the subject matter.
** "Napoleon Solo" is named the eponymous character of ''Series/TheManFromUNCLE'', but he doesn't have anything to do with the song, which, as mentioned above, is a GriefSong in response to a car crash that killed two friends of the band.
** "Porfirio Díaz" facetiously inverts Creator/KarlMarx's "Workers of the world, unite!" into "Rich kids of the world, unite!"

** "Porfirio Díaz" facetiously inverts Creator/KarlMarx's "[[Literature/TheCommunistManifesto Workers of the world, unite!]]" with "Rich kids of the world, unite!"

* ShoutOut: Many of their lyrics and album/song titles are references to popular culture, though the latter don't always line up with the subject matter. "Napoleon Solo" is named the eponymous character of ''Series/TheManFromUNCLE'', but he doesn't have anything to do with the song, which, as mentioned above, is a GriefSong in response to a car crash that killed two friends of the band.

* WordSaladLyrics
** WordSaladHorror

** "Invalid Litter Dept." is written about a series of real-life rapes and murders in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, which is just across the Rio Grande from the band's hometown of El Paso, Texas. The song explicitly condemns the Mexican police, called ''federales'', for their inaction in solving the crimes.

* SpokenWordInMusic: Music/IggyPop issues a faux-ransom phone call at the start of "Enfilade". (He also provides backing vocals on "Rolodex Propaganda", which are not so much an example of this trope).

Following the dissolution of the group, Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala would go on to start the prog-rock band Music/TheMarsVolta, while Ward, Hinojos, and Hajjar formed the the alternative rock band, Sparta. In 2012, the band temporarily reformed to play a series of live shows, though no new material was produced. The band reunited again in 2015. Rodriguez-Lopez has indicated that the band has written new material; they released the single "Goverened by Contagion" in December 2016. A new album, ''Inter Alia'', was released in 2017.

* GratuitousJapanese: "Chanbara" ("チャンバラ") is probably a reference to the Japanese name for the genre dubbed "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai_cinema samurai cinema]]" in English-language media. Creator/AkiraKurosawa's films like ''Film/SevenSamurai'', ''Film/{{Rashomon}}'', ''Film/ThroneOfBlood'', ''Film/Yojimbo'', and ''Film/{{Ran}}'' are no doubt the best-known exemplars of the genre in the West. Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala are well-known cinema buffs (as also evidenced by the Creator/FedericoFellini reference in Music/TheMarsVolta's name).

* BilingualBonus: Like SpiritualSuccessor Music/TheMarsVolta, they use Spanish occasionally. Translations and explanations of EP titles incorporating Spanish:

* GriefSong: "198d" and "Napoleon Solo", as mentioned below under RealLifeWritesThePlot.

** "Napoleon Solo" is an elegy for two friends of the band who died in a car accident.

** ''Diamanté'' means ''I Shined Like a Diamond''. (In French, it could also mean just ''diamond''.)

** ''El gran Orgo'' means ''The Great Orgo''; it's a reference to a character in Creator/AlexanderJodorowsky's film ''Film/SantaSangre''.

* ''El gran orgo'' (EP, 1997)

* ''Inter Alia'' (2017)

* NewSoundAlbum: In contrast to the more straight forward punk they recorded previously, ''In/Casino/Out'' features some more traditionally alternative rock tracks, more emphasis on the guitars, and more variation rhythmically. ''Relationship of Command'' increased the PsychedelicRock influence on their sound, and foreshadows the breakup of the band due to CreativeDifferences (see the trivia page for more on that).

* ProtestSong: "Invalid Litter Dept.", as noted below.

* WordSaladLyrics

''At the Drive-In'' were a PostHardcore band from El Paso, Texas that were formed in 1993 by vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitar Jim Ward. For the first few years of their existence, the band gradually built up a cult following, mainly due to the intensity of their live act.

Following the dissolution of the group, Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala would go on to start the prog-rock band Music/TheMarsVolta, while Ward, Hinojos, and Hajjar formed the the alternative rock band, Sparta. In 2012, the band temporarily reformed to play a series of live shows, though no new material was produced. The band reunited again in 2015. Rodriguez-Lopez has indicated that the band has written new material; they released the single "Goverened by Contagion" in December 2016. A new album is planned for release in 2017.