| Acrobatic Tenement | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | At the Drive-In |
| Cover: | At the Drive-In - Acrobatic Tenement cover.jpg |
| Released: | August 18, 1996 |
| Recorded: | July 1996 |
| Studio: | Commercial Soundworks (Hollywood) |
| Genre: | Post-hardcore, emo |
| Length: | 32:20 |
| Label: | Flipside |
| Producer: | Blaze James, Doug Green |
| Prev Title: | ¡Alfaro Vive, Carajo! |
| Prev Year: | 1995 |
| Next Title: | El Gran Orgo |
| Next Year: | 1997 |
Acrobatic Tenement is the debut studio album by American post-hardcore band At the Drive-In, released on August 18, 1996, on Flipside.[1] 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.
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.[2] The record was recorded at Commercial Soundworks in Hollywood for only $600 after the band concluded a tour of the United States. 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.[3]
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 [Rodríguez-Lopez]. 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."[4]
Much of the album, particularly the track "Ebroglio," 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.[5]