This Station is Non-Operational

For a band that couldn’t find a chorus in, well, a box full of choruses, At the Drive-In (which gave birth to the Mars Volta and Sparta) had feral energy to burn. And while that lack of tunes may be beside the point, this comp — This Station is Non-Operational — (plus DVD) of their proggy punk shouldn’t be such a slog. There’s no denying the kicky thrill of ”One Armed Scissor,” the closest they ever came to a ”hit,” but the clumsy Smiths cover and the dubby remix track smack of filler from a group that should have abhorred the term.