"One Armed Scissor" is the debut single by American post-hardcore band At the Drive-In, released in 2000 from their album Relationship of Command. It was the first At the Drive-In song to be played regularly on a number of radio stations, and is considered to be one of the first emo songs to have achieved mainstream success. The song reached No. 26 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and No. 64 on the UK Singles Chart. It was also the encore song of their 2016 reunion tour.

Background

According to a Channel V interview, a one-armed scissor is a mixture of "red bull and vodka", and that the song is about their tours told from the omniscient character named the one-armed scissor who sees their hardships they deal with while on tour. This song, along with the B-side "Incetardis", was selected to be put on the compilation This Station Is Non-Operational, which itself was named after one of "One Armed Scissor"'s lyrics.

Videos

The music video for this song contains all footage from live shows and the road in general. A second version of the video was also released with the Fearless Records compilation This Station Is Non-Operational containing more live footage, as well as studio footage.

Track listing

In popular culture

Charts