A Documentary About At The Drive-In & The Mars Volta Is Coming

Omar Rodríguez-López, the guitarist, songwriter, record producer and filmmaker, has filmed over 20 years of footage in his time with the iconic American post-hardcore outfits At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta. He formed both bands alongside vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala.

Now, some of that footage is finally seeing the light of day, as on 28 October, the documentary Omar And Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird will have its premiere at the Raindance Film Festival. You can watch the first trailer below.

The lo-fi-looking trailer is likely a dream come true for fans of At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta, containing archival footage of both bands on the road, flickering doom-ridden imagery, and snippets of both bands' music.

The If This Ever Gets Weird trailer description notes that the documentary will contain hundreds of hours of Rodríguez-López’s filmed footage and offer “a totally unique window into the incredible journey of one of this generation’s most progressive and prolific musical partnerships”.

From blowing up in the El Paso hardcore scene to taking over the globe – The Mars Volta even won the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2009 – this film is one fans won’t want to miss. Hopefully, it will come to streaming services not long after its premiere.

Last year, The Mars Volta reformed and released their first album in ten years, a self-titled LP. Earlier this year, the band released an acoustic version of their self-titled album, Que Dios Te Maldiga Mi Corazón.

“I think that with At The Drive-In, we’ve paved a new direction with this new record that still complements the old,” Bixler-Zavala told Kill Your Stereo after At The Drive-In released their fourth album, in•ter a•li•a. The band went back on hiatus following the release.

Bixler added, “I can’t lose sleep over people who disagree with that. I’m never going to make everyone happy. That being said, I wouldn’t want to go up to some painter and force them to paint the same painting over and over again.”