The Ataris Albums (7)
'Welcome the Night'
Release Date 2/6/2007
Tracks 13
Label Red/Sanctuary
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
The Ataris couldn't have picked a more appropriate title for their fifth record, Welcome the Night: almost every note sounds as if written at the midnight hour by frontman Kris Roe as he was locked in his apartment alone during a self-imposed exile. The guys parted ways with Columbia following the completion of Night (their long-delayed follow-up to 2003's So Long, Astoria), and wound up creating their own Isola Recordings (with distribution through Sanctuary) to finally bring the album to the light of day. In the meantime, the group inflated to a staggering seven members (including a cellist and pianist), and together the Ataris are now apparently infatuated with their Smiths collections and overall love of lush and moody alternative rock. They are hardly recognizable as the same band documenting Black Flag stickers on Cadillacs just a few short years ago, and the difference is not just in Roe's noticeably richer vocals. Layers of sweeping arrangements and dynamic buildups over lyrics of longing and snapshots of yesterday suggest that the Ataris now need to be seen as serious rock musicians free from the constraints of pop-punk. This is grown-up angst, and the opening "Not Capable of Love" is surprisingly melancholic in its reflections of life and relationships in the years since those doe-eyed beginnings. "I'm not capable of love/That kind of love/That I felt when I was 21," Roe achingly sings wrapped in a dark envelope of yearning. The added depth of instrumentation gives Welcome the Night a lonely sort of warmth that was never really present in the band's prior work, and it's a nice feel. Songs like the nearly hopeful "The Cheyenne Line" and wounded "From the Last, Last Call" -- the latter using light acoustics for reflections through stained glass -- are well-crafted balances of hidden pain and muted radiance. But elsewhere, the Ataris seem to get too wrapped up in their seriousness to notice when things get a tad too melodramatic for their own good. Though it's nice to see the band reaching for something unexpected (and hitting the mark dead-on several times), even those good intentions can't unfortunately hide the fact that by Welcome the Night's end, it's really just become a murky sea of mournful strings, gentle percussion, and hushed lines of regret that simply float away into the darkness. ~ Corey Apar, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Kris Roe, leader of the Ataris, would seem a little young for nostalgia, but So Long, Astoria (its title referring to Astoria, OR, the town in the 1985 film The Goonies) is his musical version of a memory play, a series of reflections on his youth in the late '70s and '80s. Roe, who grew up in Anderson, IN, and moved to Santa Barbara, CA, to pursue his rock & roll dreams, reminisces fondly about adolescence in songs like "Summer '79" and addresses his own young fans in "My Reply." The Ataris' fourth full-length album of new material and their major-label debut on Columbia Records, So Long, Astoria is, musically, a collection of speed punk tunes, similar to the work of Green Day and blink-182. Roe's lyrical identity makes the band's songs stand out; his sentimentality stands in contrast to the music's aggression. Includes a cover Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer" as a punk anthem, revising the famous line about the "Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac" by referring to Black Flag instead. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Following up their breakthrough 1999 release Blue Skies, Broken Hearts...Next 12 Exits, Kris Roe and his band, the Ataris, offered up the dynamic, dangerously non-punk End Is Forever in early 2001. Along with singer/guitarist Roe, Chris Knapp (drums), Marco Pena (guitars), and bassist Mike Davenport wind their way through an expanse of post-grunge alternative and emocore more musical than anything the Ataris had previously released. Listeners familiar with the group's earlier recordings probably won't be too surprised by End Is Forever as Roe's quickly developing, gifted writing had always been the outfit's defining factor, making the transition away from punk's noisier elements predestined. Purists already dismissive of the entire emo genre will be mortified by Roe's polished heart-tugging trilogy "Giving Up on Love," "Summer Wind Was Always Our Song," and "I.O.U. One Galaxy" that opens the disc. Things degenerate further for credibility-obsessed punk fans when Roe and Co. kick out some old-fashioned big rock on tracks like "Road Signs and Rock Songs." Listeners anxious about the Ataris unavoidable flight to the punk genre suburbs won't have to read between any lines to figure where the band was heading when they produced this 2001 release. After End Is Forever, all that remained to be seen is just how far the quartet's undeniable mainstream appeal would take them. ~ Vincent Jeffries, All Music Guide
'Blue Skies, Broken Hearts...Next 12 Exits'
Release Date 4/13/1999
Tracks 14
Label Kung Fu
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Possibly the most country-sounding record title in punk rock history, Blue Skies, Broken Hearts...Next 12 Exits proved to be the breakout disc for Santa Barbara punkers the Ataris. Sporting fine production thanks to Lagwagon's Joey Cape, this follow-up to the band's surprising debut solidified the Ataris' position among the leaders of late-'90s pop-punk. The tempos settle down a little on this 1999 release, giving songs like "I Won't Spend Another Night Alone" more of an alt-rock feel, but the tight compositions never stray too far from the group's post-revivalist, almost emo punk. When Cape takes a chance by adding a melodic cello line to the acoustic "My Hotel Year," the Ataris almost dare the punk community to question their integrity but, with its one-and-a-half-minute running time and furious guitar strumming, the track maintains the record's intensity and never panders to the listenership of complaint-saturated soft rock, which somehow became known as alternative in the mid-'90s. True to form, the Ataris give solid performances of first-rate pop-punk material on this, perhaps their best release. ~ Vincent Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The Ataris arrived on the pop-punk scene in an "emo"-tional way with Anywhere but Here. Echoing the likes of Green Day, the Ramones, and the Vandals (whose guitarist Warren Fitzgerald produced the album, and whose founder, Joe Escalante, signed them to Kung Fu), the Ataris put an upbeat spin on their social instabilities. Kris Rowe sings of young love gone amok over catchy, bouncy pop-punk in album that's more raw and pure than later recordings. Recording 20 tracks showed the Ataris weren't afraid to take chances, like covering the infectious "Boxcar" by vaunted Jawbreaker. ~ Ron DePasquale, All Music Guide
