After a week of hellish transition from night worker to day, I’m finally back amongst the living, ready to enjoy life’s simple pleasures – dinners not in front of a computer screen, the occasional evening out to see a band, and the novelty of actually sleeping when it’s dark out. Meanwhile, The Airborne Toxic Event have been in a whirlwind of their own, revving up to introduce the world to their new album, All At Once.
Since first hearing Airborne’s music in January ’08, it’s been fascinating, exciting, humorous, and at times a little harrowing to follow their steady ascent from indie band lugging their own equipment into small clubs to international artists on a major label, 300,000+ sales of their debut album, and multitudes of fans crashing their site in a desperate clamor for presale tickets (theairbornetoxicevent.com is down for the weekend as it gets moved to a larger server).
There’s all sorts of cool stuff going on. The Origins Tour will see them playing 5-night marathon residencies in London, L.A. and NYC, starting from the smallest venue played in that city steadily moving to the largest, with a “secret show” for those who purchased season passes to all four [sorry, those special passes are all gone, but you can still get tix for select individual shows.]. Then there’s the new album, All At Once, with an April 18 release in the UK and Europe, April 26 in the U.S. The Bombastic video series – acoustic versions of all 11 songs from the album – are being released once a week leading up to the release date, and will be included in a special deluxe CD/DVD version of the album (along with the official videos for “Changing” and “Numb”). To top it all off, they’ve embarked on an eclectic and ambitious “Song Of The Day” series for the entire year on the band’s twitter, courtesy of Mikel. Anna, not to be outdone, has started her own “Book of the Week”. Awesome. That should keep everyone busy for a little while.
All At Once
UK/European release: April 18
U.S. release: April 26
track listing
1. All At Once
2. Numb
3. Changing
4. All For A Woman
5. It Doesn’t Mean A Thing
6. The Kids Are Ready To Die
7. Welcome To Your Wedding Day
8. Half Of Something Else
9. Strange Girl
10. All I Ever Wanted
11. The Graveyard Near The House
Produced by Dave Sardy (Oasis, Band of Horses, the Ting Tings, Twisted Wheel) and featuring The Calder Quartet.
Performances
Tickets are still available for the larger shows in L.A. and NYC, plus other cities on the tour. A Ticketmaster presale with digital album bundle is available through Friday, February 25th for certain shows; the general sale begins Saturday, February 26. | Ticketmaster | The band’s presale (some shows still available, pre-order the CD or CD/DVD, avoid Ticketmaster fees).
Europe & UK
April 4-12 (Nottingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds, Dublin, Portsmouth, Rotterdam, Nuremberg) | UK tickets
Origins Tour
April 18-22 London, England (secret show | Dublin Castle (150 c) | Barfly (200 c) | King’s College (500 c) | Koko (1400 c))
April 25-29 Los Angeles, CA (Satellite, formerly Spaceland (260 c) | Troubadour (500 c) | El Rey Theatre (900 c) | The Music Box @ Henry Fonda Theatre (1300 c) | secret show)
May 2-6 New York City, NY (Pianos (140 c) | Mercury Lounge (250 c) | Bowery Ballroom (500 c) | Webster Hall (1400 c) | secret show)
Ticketmaster (presales on now; general sale 2/26) | band’s presale – direct link to store
U.S. Tour
Sat May 7 – Philadelphia, PA – The Trocadero
Sun May 8 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
Wed May 11 – Boston, MA – House Of Blues
Thu May 12 – Montreal, QC – La Tulipe
Fri May 13 – Toronto, ONT – Opera House
Sat May 14 – Cleveland, OH – House Of Blues
Sun May 15 – Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall
Tue May 17 – Minneapolis, MN – The Varsity Theater
Wed May 18 – Chicago, IL – Metro
Fri May 20 – Kansas City, MO – Beaumont
Sun May 22 – Austin, TX – La Zona Rosa
Tue May 24 – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
Thu May 26 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Culture Room
Fri May 27 – Orlando, FL – The Social
Wed Jun 1 – Salt Lake City, UT – Club Sound
Thu Jun 2 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
Tue Jun 7 – Vancouver, BC – Venue
Wed Jun 8 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox SODO
Thu Jun 9 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
Sat Jun 11 – San Diego, CA – House Of Blues
Ticketmaster (presales on now; general sale 2/26) | band’s presale – direct link to store
The Bombastic
A weekly series of one-shot, one-take acoustic versions of every song on the new album, leading up to its release, posted Mondays on various sites to be announced, and Tuesdays on the band’s official site. Week #1 was the title track “All At Once,” which features The Calder Quartet, the Lalo Guerrero Children’s Choir, and music students from the Plaza de la Raza Community Center in East Los Angeles, all of whom performed with Airborne at the Disney Hall Show (and once again directed by Jon Danovic).
Mikel’s Song Of The Day
follow them on Twitter to keep up with the latest news and the latest song suggestions.
Thus far…
“Atlantic City” – Bruce Springsteen | “Two Doves” – Dirty Projectors | “Daughters of the Soho Riots” – The National | “Ek Shaneesh” – Das Racist | “Basic Space” – the xx | “A Whiter Shade of Pale” – Procol Harum | “Love Is All” – The Tallest Man On Earth | “Crown on the Ground” – Sleigh Bells | “Our Riotous Defects – Of Montreal | “Why Can’t I Touch It?” – Buzzcocks | “Anthems For A Seventeen-Year-Old Girl” – Broken Social Scene | “Changing” – The Airborne Toxic Event | “Colorado Girl” – Townes Van Zandt | “Bankrobber” – The Clash | “To Kingdom Come” – Passion Pit | “Walt Whitman’s Niece” – Billy Bragg & Wilco | “North American Scum” – LCD Soundsystem | “Strange Vine” – Delta Spirit | “King of Carrot Flowers” – Neutral Milk Hotel | “Sigh No More – Mumford & Sons | “Boots of Spanish Leather” – Bob Dylan (here’s Joan Baez’s cover – great) | “The Way that he Sings” – My Morning Jacket | “Midnight Train to Georgia” – Gladys Knight & The Pips | “Come on Feel the Illinoise” – Sufjan Stevens | “Heartbeats” – The Knife | “You Oughta Know” – Das Racist | “Next Time Around” – Little Joy | “Shadow People” – Dr. Dog | “Martha” – Tom Waits | “Eraser” – No Age | “Born Slippy” – Underworld | “Two Weeks” – Grizzly Bear | “The Rat” – The Walkmen | “Details of the War” – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah | “3rd Planet” – Modest Mouse…
Anna’s Book Of The Week
An unofficial series, prompted by fan request. Here’s what we have so far…
“The Corrections” by Jonathan Franzen (wikipedia) | “Sixty Stories” by Donald Barthelme (wikipedia)
Where Are They Now?
The band’s currently immersed in their month-long circling European residencies (I question the wisdom of starting each full week of shows in Amsterdam, after a weekend in the city’s cafes, but so far, there’s been no word of casualties). They finish off the month in Holland, Germany, Switzerland and France. If you find yourself in any of these locales, here’s a great chance to catch the band in a small, intimate show!
Mon Feb 21 – Amsterdam, Paradiso
Tue Feb 22 – Berlin – White Trash
Wed Feb 23 – Frankfurt – Das Butt
Thu Feb 24 – Zurich – Hafenkneipe
Fri Feb 25 – Paris – Fleche D’Or
Mon Feb 28 – Amsterdam – Paradiso
Whew! Did I miss anything?
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Sharon & Ethan
We just got our tickets…. see you there