The Airborne Toxic Event
The Airborne Toxic Event |
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The Airborne Toxic Event is an American indie rock band from Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California comprising Mikel Jollett (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steven Chen (guitar, keyboards), Noah Harmon (bass, backing vocals), Daren Taylor (drums) and Anna Bulbrook (viola, keyboards, tambourine, backing vocals). Named after a section of the book White Noise, by Don DeLillo, the group incorporates string instruments and keyboards, along with a standard rock lineup of guitar, drums, and bass guitar.
Initially releasing their debut via Majordomo (an imprint of Shout! Factory) in 2008, the band switched to Island Records, a major label, in 2009.
History
Formation and early history (2006-2007)
During a one-week period in March 2006 while working on a novel, Jollett learned that his mother was diagnosed with cancer, experienced a break-up, and was diagnosed with a genetic autoimmune disease which led Jollett to develop two cosmetic conditions: Alopecia areata and Vitiligo. Spurred by these events in his personal life, Jollett turned from writing prose to writing songs as he realized he was composing an album instead of a novel.[1]
Jollett met drummer Taylor in the summer of 2006 and the two established an immediate rapport. After working on original material together for four months as a two-piece, Jollett asked classically-trained violinist Bulbrook and bassist Harmon to join the band. A situation that Jollett enjoys re-telling with relish. Harmon initially refused. With a background in orchestral and chamber music, Bulbrook since taught herself to play viola and keyboard, while Harmon holds a [[jazz] degree in upright bass he performed for the California Institute of the Arts and taught in East Los Angeles as part of the school’s Community Arts Partnership. He also taught guitar at Arroyo Seco Park (Highland Park, Ca) as part of program "Art In the Park" funded by Lalo Guerrero. Jollett had met Chen several years earlier, when both lived in San Francisco. Chen was at first asked to join as a keyboardist, but revealed to Jollett that he in fact, played guitar and filled the role as lead guitarist.
To supplement his fiction writing, Jollett had earned income as a freelance writer, contributing to organizations such as NPR, Los Angeles Times, Filter magazine and Men's Health. Since the creation of the band, he has continued to write only fiction. Jollett's short story "The Crack" was published in the Summer 2008 McSweeney's issue 27 sandwiched between short stories by Liz Mandrell and Stephen King.[2]
The band takes its name from the postmodern novel White Noise, by Don DeLillo,[3] which won the National Book Award in 1985. In the book, a chemical spill from a railcar releases a poisonous cloud, dubbed by the military as an "airborne toxic event". This serves as a metaphorical device for the novel's themes of mortality and media consumption, as the protagonist Jack Gladney is forced to confront the prospect of his own death.
The Airborne Toxic Event played its first show in Echo Park in the fall of 2006, less than a month after it was fully formed. In December 2006, Rolling Stone named them one of the “Top 25 Bands on MySpace.”[4] They went on to receive positive responses from music blogs and press, notably L.A. Weekly[5] and Los Angeles Times,[6] which named the group one of the top three L.A. bands to watch in 2008. Previous bands to receive this distinction include Cold War Kids and Silversun Pickups.
During the summer of 2007, UK Indie Label Square Records released a 7 inch single of the Airborne Toxic Event song "Does This Mean You Are Moving On?" [7]
In a rare move, during the band's January 2008 residency at the popular Silver Lake venue Spaceland, Los Angeles Commercial Radio stations KROQ, Indie 103 and KYSR all officially added the as-yet-unsigned band's song "Sometime Around Midnight" to regular rotation. Providence's WBRU, Seattle's KEXP, San Francisco’s Live 105, San Diego’s 91X, Boston's WFNX, and Sacramento's KWOD 106.5 also showed significant support for the group.
The Airborne Toxic Event (2008-2009)
On April 24, 2008 the band made its national television debut as the musical guest on the late-night NBC talk show Last Call with Carson Daly.[8] After an extensive courtship from major labels, the Airborne Toxic Event signed with the indie imprint Majordomo Records in April 2008. Their first full-length record was released in the U.S. on August 5, 2008.
For the entire month of November, 2008, the band toured the UK playing every night throughout the country. The tour was deemed the "30 Show in 30 Days" tour.[9] Every Tuesday the band performed in London at the Dublin Castle.
On Dec 6, 2008 iTunes named Sometime Around Midnight the #1 Alternative Song of the Year on their Best of 2008 list.[10] The Boston Herald named the band's album as "The Debut Album of the Year."[11]
The band performed Sometime Around Midnight on Late Show with David Letterman with the Calder Quartet on Friday, January 16, 2009.[12] The performance garnered attention world wide and propelled the single into the top 10 on the US Alternative Radio Chart.
With an unexpected addition to the playlist at BBC Radio 1 in the UK, the band released their debut through an independent distributer in the UK on February 9, 2009.
On March 10, 2009 U2 played some of their favorite songs on a radio program hosted by Shirley Manson of Garbage. Bass player Adam Clayton chose "Sometime Around Midnight" as his choice, commenting that he felt he would be listening to their album the rest of the year. U2 played the recording of the song in stadiums before they entered the stage during the U2 360 tour.
During the summer, The Airborne Toxic Event performed at some of the largest festivals in the world including Coachella, T in the Park, Fuji Rock, Reading & Leads, and Oxygen Festival.
"Sometime Around Midnight" ended 2009 as the #10 Most Played Song at Alternative Radio for the year. The song peaked at #4 and sold over 400,000 copies in the US. The band's debut album spent 8 weeks at #1 on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart (53 weeks in total on the chart) and has sold over 200,000 copies domestically and 300,000 worldwide.
On December 4, The Airborne Toxic Event ended 2009 with a sold out performance at the Frank Gehry designed Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The show was presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and was the last of 354 shows performed by the band on their debut album cycle. The band was accompanied by the Calder Quartet as well as the Lalo Guerrero Children's choir, The Belmont High School marching Band and a number of guest musicians.
All I Ever Wanted: Live from Walt Disney Concert Hall (2010)
On July 14, 2010, the band announced the release of the documentary DVD and CD All I Ever Wanted: Live From Walt Disney Concert Hall, slated for release on September 7, 2010 in North America and October 4, 2010 in Europe. The film premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in London on September 30, 2010.
During September and October, in support of the DVD release, the group performed a limited North American and UK acoustic tour with the Calder Quartet. The sold-out 9 date North American and 3 Date UK tour consisted of "nontraditional" venues including the Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington D.C., Town Hall in New York City, Trinity Church in Toronto, the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, and the Union Chapel in London. In John Earls News of the World review of the Union Chapel show, he wrote "Debuting seven terrific new songs to make the heart soar, Toxic's stirring tunes certainly get in the bloodstream."
All at Once (2011-present)
On February 19, 2010, the band posted a video on their website that showed them working on their second album with their producer. The video ended with Mikel playing a sample of one of the songs that he and Noah are currently mixing for the album. The album is tentatively scheduled for release in the first part of 2011.[13]
In their October 9, 2010 issue, Music Week stated "The LA group's new material is the sound of a band defining their identity. Produced by Dave Sardy, this is confident, ambitious and radio-freindly."
On December 19, 2010, The Airborne Toxic Event announced a February 2011 residency tour of Europe. The band will be playing every Monday in Amsterdam, Tuesday in Berlin and Friday in Paris. The month long tour will also hit other cities in Germany, UK, Belgium and Switzerland.[14]
On January 21st, 2011, the band announced via their website that their second album will be titled 'All at Once' and will be released on April 25th (Europe) / April 26th (North America). The first single off of the album is called 'Changing', and was made available on the website as well. The single was officially released on February 1st.[15]
The band performed with the Colorado Symphony on January 22.
Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US Rock |
BEL | UK | ||
| 2008 | The Airborne Toxic Event
|
108 | 35 | 70 | 35 |
Extended plays
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 2007 | Does This Mean You're Moving On?
|
| 2009 | Happiness Is Overrated
|
Live albums
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 2010 | All I Ever Wanted: Live from Walt Disney Concert Hall
|
Singles
| Year | Song | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US Adult |
US Alt |
BEL | UK | |||||||
| 2007 | "Does This Mean You're Moving On?" | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | ||||
| 2008 | "Gasoline" | — | — | — | — | — | The Airborne Toxic Event | ||||
| "Sometime Around Midnight" | 115 | 27 | 4 | 29 | 33 | ||||||
| 2009 | "Happiness Is Overrated" | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| "Wishing Well" | — | — | 21 | — | — | ||||||
| "Does This Mean You're Moving On?" (re-release) | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| 2010 | "Neda" | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single | ||||
| 2011 | "Changing" | — | — | 32[22] | — | — | All at Once | ||||
| "Numb" | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| "—" denotes a release that did not chart. | |||||||||||
Music videos
- "Does This Mean You're Moving On?" (2007, Directed by Jason Wishnow)
- "Sometime Around Midnight" (2008, Directed by Jason Wishnow)
- "Gasoline" (2008, Directed by Billy Johnson)
- "Sometime Around Midnight" (2009, New Version, Directed by D.J. Caruso)
- "Happiness is Overrated" (2009, Directed by Jon Danovic)
Live performances
The band has played extensively throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. The group has supported Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, The Fratellis, Silversun Pickups, Ima Robot and Razorlight.
The Airborne Toxic Event played the CMJ Music Marathon in 2006 and 2007, Brighton's 2007 The Great Escape Festival, and Austin's 2008 South by Southwest Music Conference. In the fall of 2008, the band embarked on a U.S. tour with The Fratellis and Electric Touch. During that year, the band also performed at a number of festivals, including Live 105's BFD in Mountain View, California, the San Francisco and Philadelphia installments of the Download Festival, the Monolith Festival at the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado, the Virgin Festival in Toronto, the Capitol Hill Block Party in Seattle, and the Pemberton Festival in Pemberton, British Columbia. The band also played two shows in London, UK, in July. In addition, the group performed at Edgefest in September 2008, hosted by the Phoenix, Arizona radio station The Edge 103.9.
The band played a "30 Shows in 30 Days" U.K. tour in November 2008, which included a month-long residency at the Dublin Castle, located in London's Camden Town. The other cities visited on this tour include Derby, York, Birmingham, Northampton, Leicester, Aldershot, Yeovil, Hayle, Southampton, Liverpool, Carlisle, Middlesbrough, Manchester, Hull, Leeds, Oxford, Brighton, Nottingham, Barrow-in-Furness, Stoke-on-Trent, Cardiff, Bristol, Sheffield, Preston, Dundee, Glasgow, and Fife.
The Airborne Toxic Event has performed frequently on late night talk shows. Along with their television debut on Last Call with Carson Daly, the band performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on August 1, 2008, on the Late Show with David Letterman on January 16, 2009, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on April 14, 2009, and on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on May 14, 2009. Additionally, on May 20, 2009, an entire episode of Last Call with Carson Daly was devoted to The Airborne Toxic Event, featuring interviews and excerpts from a show at the Glass House in Pomona, California.[23]
They went on an extensive tour of the UK, France, and North America that stretched from January to April 2009. For the North American leg of the tour, they were supported by the Henry Clay People, from Los Angeles, Alberta Cross, from New York, and Rademacher, from Fresno, California.
During late April and early May 2009, the band toured throughout the UK and mainland Europe, playing such cities as Berlin, Hamburg, Hasselt, Cologne, Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Coventry, Dublin, and London. On the same tour, the group supported Razorlight for two dates, at the O2 arena and the Manchester Evening News Arena (M.E.N. Arena).
The Airborne Toxic Event was among the bands performing at the 2009 South by Southwest Music Conference and also played the main stage at the 10th anniversary edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2009. In addition, the band played at the 2009 Sasquatch! Music Festival in May, held at the Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington, and played at Lollapalooza at Grant Park in Chicago in August and Summerfest at Henry Maier Festival Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.They played at The Crofoot in Pontiac/Detroit Michigan and sold out the show. There next stop from there was Chicago. The band most recently played at the Jisan Valley Rock Festival in South Korea and the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan.
The group performed at a number of U.K. festivals in the summer of 2009, including T in the Park in Scotland, Summer Sundae in Leicester, the Latitude Festival in Suffolk, and Oxegen in Ireland. In the fall of 2009, The Airborne Toxic Event embarked on a second US and Europe tour. They were also due to play in Australia and New Zealand for the very first time, but this was cancelled due to Mikel contracting bronchitis. The supporting acts for this tour were Red Cortez and The Henry Clay People.
The concluding act of their Fall 2009 tour was a December 4 performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California. The band performed as part of the West Coast, Left Coast festival.
The band played a New Year's concert in Chicago at the River East Arts Center on December 31, 2009.
On January 30, 2010, the band headlined a show with the Louisville Orchestra at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Acts as part of the "Strings Attached" concert series.
The band will be performing at the well-known Voodoo Experience held at City Park in New Orleans, Louisiana over Halloween weekend 2010.
Pitchfork Media controversy
Upon release of The Airborne Toxic Event's self-titled 2008 album, Ian Cohen of Pitchfork Media gave the album 1.6 out of 10.0,[24] writing that "what ties the LP together is quite possibly the most unlikeable lyric book of the year, rife with empty dramatic signifiers, AA/BB simplicity, and casual misogyny," and "This represents a tipping point where you almost wish Funeral or Turn On the Bright Lights or Is This It? never happened as long as it spared you from horrible imitations like this one, often sounding more inspired by market research than actual inspiration."
The band released a statement saying they do not take reviews too seriously and criticized Pitchfork for basing their critiques on "a band's ability to match a certain indie rock aesthetic" rather than a band's other merits, and claiming that much of the review "reads less like a record review and more like a diatribe against a set of ill-considered and borderline offensive preconceptions about Los Angeles".[25]
References
- ^ Bronson, Kevin (2007-08-25). "Taking the L.A. indie rock scene personally". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-05-29. [dead link]
- ^ The McSweeney's Store: Issue 27
- ^ Music Vice - interview with the band discussing the origins of their name, among other things
- ^ Rolling Stone Declares the 25 Best Bands on MySpace : Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily
- ^ LA Weekly - Music - The Airborne Toxic Event - Alie Ward - The Essential Online Resource for Los Angeles
- ^ "Buzz Bands: Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ http://www.myspace.com/video/theairbornetoxicevent/the-airborne-toxic-event-does-this-mean-you-39-re-moving-on/10262076
- ^ The Airborne Toxic Event - "Sometime Around Midnight" on YouTube
- ^ http://www.theairbornetoxicevent.com/news/november-uk-tour-30-shows-in-30-days.html
- ^ http://www.theairbornetoxicevent.com/news/news-itunes-1-alternative-song-of-the-year.html
- ^ http://www.instantencore.com/buzz/item.aspx?FeedEntryId=121413
- ^ Airborne Toxic Event - "Sometime Around Midnight"
- ^ http://www.theairbornetoxicevent.com/news/studio.html
- ^ http://www.theairbornetoxicevent.com/news/new-shows-announced-multiple-european-residencies-in-february-plus-a-special-performance-with-the-colorado-symphony-in-denver-jan-22-2.html
- ^ http://www.theairbornetoxicevent.com/news/new-single-second-album-release-details-radio-session-tonight-colorado-symphony-tomorrow.html
- ^ "The Airborne Toxic Event Album & Song Chart History: Billboard 200". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 2011-02-07.
- ^ "The Airborne Toxic Event Album & Song Chart History: Rock Albums". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 2011-02-07.
- ^ a b "Discografie The Airborne Toxic Event" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 2011-02-07.
- ^ a b Zywietz, Tobias. "Chart Log UK – Chart Coverage and Record Sales 2009 and Special Single-File Version". Zobbel. Retrieved 2011-02-07.
- ^ "The Airborne Toxic Event Album & Song Chart History: Adult Pop Songs". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 2011-02-07.
- ^ "The Airborne Toxic Event Album & Song Chart History: Alternative Songs". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 2011-02-07.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Carson Daly tonight… | The Airborne Toxic Event
- ^ Pitchfork: The Airborne Toxic Event
- ^ TheAirborneToxicEvent.com - An Open Letter to Pitchfork Media from the Airborne Toxic Event, 2008