Of all the names the El Paso music scene is known for, Jim Ward ranks up there quite highly. He was one of the founding members of At The Drive-In, Sleepercar & he's had a very successful solo career. He also owns the Eloise restaurant on Shadow Mountain But let's not forget about his project after he left ATDI: Sparta. The rock band formed back in 2001.

Sparta has definitely seen its share of fame & notoriety in the mainstream. You might remember hearing one of their songs be featured the 2007 film, The Invisible (and it was featured in the Madden NFL 07 video game).  And they've had a handful of singles that charted like "Breaking the Broken" & "Cut The Ribbon". In fact it's already been 20 years since their first album, Wiretap Scars came out.

Recently Jim Ward released his album Daggers last year & I had to pleasure to interview him for that Sunday's Q Connected. Sparta actually recorded an album in 2020 called Trust the River. Unfortunately it was released before the pandemic so they couldn't properly tour for that release...

They're going on tour with The Get Up Kids this year & it was announced today that Sparta WILL be having a new album, their 5th one simply called Sparta, in October.

And to follow up with the announcement, they put out not one,

but TWO new singles to hype up the release.

This is the not the only time we'll see some new material from former members of At The Drive-In; as The Mars Volta will release THEIR new album in September.

I'm very happy to see Sparta still active, making new music & more importantly sharing their love for music on the road. Hopefully we can see a show in El Paso after the new album drops.

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