Sometimes you find a song that can affect you that no matter what you do, you have to be a pussy and tear up. It can pinpoint exactly what you’re feeling and you can relate what the singer’s trying to get across to you. Sometimes it doesn’t have to be happy. Sometimes it doesn’t have a hook. Sometimes it’s just fucking good. And it will always be good.
THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT
If you have not yet heard of this band, you will. They have a huge following from LA and they have now reached the East Coast. A few weeks ago they were the featured band on Letterman, and their single “Sometime Around Midnight” has had huge radio success, being in regular rotation on KROQ before the band was even signed. Their self-titled debut may put some people off that heard the single though. The whole record centered around heartbreak and coping contains 3 chord punk songs very sarcastic, biting, and bleak. Joe Strummer could’ve written the music, Robert Smith the lyrics, except it’s good. I swear.
Founded in 2006, frontman and novelist Mikel Jollet sat down to write a story about the experiences he had just had: mother diagnosed with cancer, a bad break-up, his diagnosis of a genetic Autoimmune disease. The story ended up becoming the lyrics to this energetic debut. The entire record runs just under 40 minutes, each song with as much punch as the next one.
Strong points:
Wishing Well: Opening the record, this song keeps building with strong dynamics, and a yearning to lose yourself in the moment. Jollet sings “…You wanna run away, run away, just get on the fucking train and leave today…like you were just a wish that could turn out well…”
Papillon: Jollet makes the listener known that he is a mess even if the music is the happiest it can be. It even gets a fun keyboard interlude! “You say ‘How are you holding up my friend? Are you sitting around getting drunk again?’ And I hear the desperation of those lines. The wasted hours. All this wasted time. ‘Oh yeah. I’ve been just FINE!’
Gasoline: This is probably deemed the second single as well it should be. It’s probably the catchiest track on the record, besides its first single. “And these years I’ve seen so many imitations turning green. Each like the last, they go right past like credits on a screen. But your memory blazes through me burning everything like gasoline.
Happiness Is Overrated: Starting off with a surf guitar and an over-dramatic over sarcastic vocal, this song like the last, keeps the theme going. It sadly loses my interest half-way through. As does the rest of the record.
Sometime Around Midnight: starting with an overpowering string section, the guitars soon come in hollow and thin while Jollet pulls you in with the first line, the song buildng until it hits the ceiling and you feel like you’ve become the story itself. “And it starts sometime around midnight, or at least that’s when you lose yourself for a minute or two… You just have to see her, you just have to see her, you just have to see her, you know that she’ll break you in two.”
Innocence: The song takes awhile to kick in, with another sad string arrangement, and is the longest track on the record, (there’s a longer version on their acoustic series). The opening line…“Well I lost my innocence today…” ending the record just as depressing as it began.
If it weren’t for the amazing words and voice of Jollet, or the catchy melodies of the band, I might fail this record and deem it emo. But it passes for the sheer emotion and energy by the band. It is a solid debut effort similar to Oasis’ “Definitely Maybe” or Blur’s “Leisure”. This band has potential to be bigger than they already are.
Check this performance. I mean…even Letterman was floored?!
And the violinist breaks a string towards the end. That is motherfucking badass!
