The Airborne Toxic Event
(also known as T.A.T.E. or Airborne Tox) is an American rock band from Los Feliz, Los Angeles comprising Mikel Jollett (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steven Chen (guitar, keyboards), Noah Harmon (bass), 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 a major in 2009, Island Records.
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THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT TICKETS
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The Airborne Toxic Event Tickets 9/5 | Sep 05, 2024 Thu, 7:30 PM | | The Airborne Toxic Event Tickets 9/7 | Sep 07, 2024 Sat, 8:00 PM | | The Airborne Toxic Event Tickets 9/9 | Sep 09, 2024 Mon, 7:00 PM | | The Airborne Toxic Event Tickets 9/10 | Sep 10, 2024 Tue, 8:00 PM | | The Airborne Toxic Event Tickets 9/11 | Sep 11, 2024 Wed, 7:00 PM | |
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History
Formation and early history
The band was formed in 2006 by Mikel Jollett. During a one-week period in March 2006 while working on a novel, Jollett learned that his mother was diagnosed with
cancer, he also experienced a break-up and was diagnosed with a genetic
autoimmune disease which led Jollet 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 performance from the
California Institute of the Arts and taught in
East Los Angeles as part of the school’s Community Arts Partnership. 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. Since then, the band has performed extensively in L.A. and become well known throughout the greater
Los Angeles area. 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.
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.
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.
[7] 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.
In August 2008, the band performed a three-song live video set for LiveDaily Sessions, including the songs "This Losing," "Sometime Around Midnight," and "Gasoline,"
[8] which premiered on August 18, 2008.
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.
The video to 'Happiness Is Overrated' was posted on ClashMusic.com on June 12, 2009.
[9]
Discography
Albums/EPs
- Does This Mean You're Moving On?
EP (2007 US, 2008 UK)
- The Airborne Toxic Event
(2008 US, 2009 UK) #108 US, #35 UK, #1 Billboard Top Heatseekers for the week of May 2, 2009 [10]
- Happiness is Overrated
EP (2009 UK, Europe)
Singles
Year
| Song
| Chart peaks
| Album
|
US [11]
| US Mod [12]
| UK
|
2007
| "Does This Mean You're Moving On?"
| —
| —
| —
| non album single
|
2008
| "Gasoline"
| —
| —
| —
| The Airborne Toxic Event
|
"Sometime Around Midnight"
| 115
| 4
| 33
|
2009
| "Happiness is Overrated"
| —
| —
| —
|
"Wishing Well"
| —
| 21
| —
|
"—" 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)
- "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, B.C. 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 the following:
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.
[13]
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,
Illinois in August and
Summerfest at
Henry Maier Festival Park in
Milwaukee,
Wisconsin. The band most recently played at the
Jisan Valley Rock Festival in
South Korea and the
Fuji Rock Festival in
Niigata Prefecture,
Japan.
The group is scheduled to perform at a number of U.K. festivals this summer, including
T in the Park in
Scotland,
Summer Sundae in
Leicester, and the
Latitude Festival in
Suffolk. They are also slated to play at
Oxegen in
Ireland. As for the fall, The Airborne Toxic Event will embark on a second US and Europe tour, and will play in Australia and New Zealand for the very first time. The supporting acts for this tour will be Red Cortez and The Henry Clay People.
The concluding act of their Fall 2009 tour will be a December 4th performance at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California. The band will be performing as part of the West Coast, Left Coast festival.
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,
[14] saying that the band succeeds in synthesizing only the worst aspects of such influences as
Arcade Fire,
Interpol,
Bright Eyes, and
The Strokes. 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".
[15]
References
- Taking the L.A. indie rock scene personally
- 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
- {{youtube|K1x07X-x54E|The Airborne Toxic Event - "Sometime Around Midnight"}}
- Video performance of "This Losing," "Sometime Around Midnight," and "Gasoline" by The Airborne Toxic Event at LiveDaily Sessions
- http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/watch-new-airborne-toxic-event-video
- Billboard - Updated Album Charts from the Most Trusted Music Magazine
- [1] Billboard.com. Retrieved on April 14, 2009.
- "Artist Chart History - The Airborne Toxic Event - Singles" Billboard.com. Retrieved on April 14, 2009.
- 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