Album A Day: The Airborne Toxic Event – The Airborne Toxic Event

Artist: The Airborne Toxic Event
Album: The Airborne Toxic Event
Release Date: August 5, 2008

OK, I’ll ask. Where the hell have The Airborne Toxic Event been all my life? I only heard “Wishing Well” for the first time during a car ride last night, and it’s one of those moments where a song/band had me at ‘hello’. You ever discover something that you absolutely love, but have the hardest time explaining why it is you love it so? That’s The Airborne Toxic Event for me. The lyrics are a cross between the nostalgia of Bruce Springsteen and the stream-of-consciousness of someone like Third Eye Blind, while the music is by-the-book garage rock. To say the least, a strange combination of influences, all jumbled together with a guy who sounds like Tal Bachman (remember that song “She’s So High”?) to create something way more awesome than the sum of its parts. To cement my love for them, they got verbally thrashed by Pitchfork, and then turned around and bitchslapped them in return. Pitchfork hates them, and I can’t get enough of them. Success, indeed.

Usually when I do my Album A Day post, I listen to the album once, then write about it (or write as I listen, depending on my mood). I finished listening to the album in its entirety an hour ago. As I write this, I’m going back for seconds. There’s so much jangly pop, rambling lyrics, and dry vocal delivery that I need to hear it again. The Airborne Toxic Event is kind of like that middle-of-nowhere diner in some podunk town just off the highway. By all accounts the food there should suck and you should walk away feeling like you were just poisoned. But in reality, it’s like gourmet freakin’ cuisine. There’s no explaining how they did it, but The Airborne Toxic Event have won me over in a way few bands can.

The Airborne Toxic Event – Sometime Around Midnight [iTunes] (YSI)

==TJ==