Big Bands on Campus

Sparta

When on-the-verge aggro-rockers At the Drive-In broke up in 2001 -- after six years of relentless touring, sweat-drenching live shows, and pressure-piling hype -- guitarist Jim Ward went on a well-deserved three-month sabbatical. It only took a few weeks in the kitchen for him to start getting restless. ''I was just doing housework, doing the dishes,'' says the 26-year-old El Paso, Tex., native. ''You forget how boring regular life is. You're so used to doing something you love.'' Luckily, two of his former bandmates -- guitarist Paul Hinojos and drummer Tony Hajjar -- were equally driven to resume rocking, and together with bassist Matt Miller, they sparked Sparta, just one of two new bands to form from the remains of At the Drive-In (Omar Rodriguez and Cedric Bixler are currently recording with their jazz-rock hybrid the Mars Volta).

Drawing on material many of them had been working on individually during Drive-In downtime, the quartet found themselves at Hinojos' mother's home turning out demos for the songs that would eventually make up ''Wiretap Scars,'' their DreamWorks debut. ''We took over the living room for a week,'' says Ward. ''It was totally like being in a high school band, but [with] really good gear.'' Perhaps not surprisingly, the cuts culled from those sessions retain the tunefully spastic post-punk sound of Ward's former outfit: ''It does have a very At the Drive-In sound,'' says Jessica Filipi, music director at WNRN in Charlottesville, Va., which quickly put the band in rotation. ''We're getting a lot of calls [asking], 'Is this new At the Drive-In?' A lot of people are still confused.''

Such puzzlement likely stems from the suddenness of ATDI's split; the group's fanbase was just beginning to swell when they unexpectedly went on ''hiatus'' in March 2001. Ward has already grown weary of the comparisons between Sparta and his beloved alma mater. ''You definitely get tired of it,'' he says. ''I'd rather talk about the band I'm in now. But I understand that's where we come from, and it's a totally legitimate question. I'll always be proud of [At the Drive-In]. I've seen enough success to last me for the rest of my life.''

That doesn't mean he's ready to go back to doing chores just yet, with Sparta setting off this fall for its biggest U.S. tour to date, an itinerary that includes many college-area stops. It's fitting for a group whose lead singer considers himself a student of the road, his most recent education coming from Charles Romalotti's punk-rock novel ''Salad Days'': ''It's about a young punk learning how to network,'' Ward says. ''I've never [had to do] that before.... I'm still learning. The older you get, the less you know.'' Sounds like a lecture straight from Rock & Roll 101.