Jim Ward, founding member of post-hardcore At The Drive-In, goes country.
Comprising itself of Jim Ward (At The Drive-In, Sparta), Ward's father Jeff, Matthew Schmitz, Chris Heinrich, Gabe Gonzalez, Sleepercar is an alt-country, dynamic experience of pedal steel ("Fences Down") and upbeat Americana from the founding member of a seminal post-hardcore band. The juxtaposition of that last part goes without explanation, but it is rather poetic that the first song on West Texas, and ultimately Sleepercar itself, came from a moment of solitude just before a soundcheck on what became the last ATDI tour.
Wilco references will abound, but fans of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Bruce Springsteen's The Rising should take note. West Texas will be released on Ward’s own label, Civil Defense League/Doghouse Records on April 22nd, 2008.