The Airborne Toxic Fantasy: Choosing the Dream Setlist

By Glen

Every fan of every band has a wishlist – some more realistic than others.

Seeing the band in that certain venue. Meeting the singer. Hearing that song. These are the attainable ones.

Then there’s the pie-in-the-sky fan fictions: Watching them record. Starring in their next video. Getting pulled up on stage to fill in on guitar.

A private gig.

Picking the setlist.

With their residencies and their orchestra performances and their acoustic sets and their full album performances and their 30 Shows in 30 Days tours and many other stunts, The Airborne Toxic Event does better than most groups at making fan dreams come true. And they’re doing it again.

If you follow Airborne on social media, you’re no doubt aware that they’ve been pushing fans in Buffalo and Philadelphia to Shazam their latest single, “One Time Thing,” with the promise of a meet and greet for the fan in each city who does it the most.

On Tuesday, they took things to the next level with this announcement:

Okay Philadelphia. Thanks so much for flooding us with your “One Time Thing” Shazam screenshots over these past few weeks. In light of your intense participation and general awesomeness, we’ve decided to up the stakes and offer the TOP 20 Shazamers (is that the right word?) FREE TICKETS to a PRIVATE SHOW in PHILLY. Plus, bring three of your best friends, on us.

Not only that… We’re going to make this even more interesting by letting the top Shazamer PICK THE SETLIST.

Here’s what you need to do:

Keep Shazaming “One Time Thing” and send the screenshots to shazamTATE@gmail.com for a chance to win. Remember: each screenshot must show a different time in order to count!

Let’s do this.

Private show? Check. Pick the setlist? Check!!!

After my raging envy subsided enough to allow me to think straight, I got to daydreaming: what songs would I choose if I won this contest?

There are lots of ways I could go, but one thing is clear: this is a time to swing for the fences. Asked by one fan if even a rarity like “Tokyo Radio” is fair game, The Airborne Toxic Event answered in the affirmative.

@jetpackcobra @Shazam thems the rules

— Airborne Toxic Event (@Airborne_Toxic) September 9, 2015

That being the case, my list is light on classic cuts and heavy on songs that would rarely – if ever – be heard under normal circumstances. There were some tough choices: it pains me to leave off “Wrong,” “One Time Thing” and “Dope Machines,” as I’ve fallen in love with all three, but I’ve had several opportunities to see them live and probably will do so again. “Does This Mean You’re Moving On?,” “Happiness,” “Missy,” “Numb,” “Graveyard…” All are highlights of any TATE gig, but all fall by the wayside here. I did squeeze in three staples, though – just so we all know it’s really an Airborne show.

We don’t yet know how many songs the winner will get to select. I’ve gone with 20 here, which is probably a little too generous – but hey, it’s my fantasy. Here’s my setlist:

1. This is Nowhere: Duh.

2. Echo Park: The Airborne Toxic Event has played almost every song in their catalog in the past year. This is one of two times I will push them beyond those limits.

3. This Losing: A too-rarely-played classic.

4. Poor Isaac: Heard it soundchecked just prior to its release on Songs of God and Whiskey, and it was smokin’.

5. A Letter to Georgia: Is it too much to ask the Calder Quartet to sit in on this one?

6. Safe: A top-5 Airborne song for me; a Georgia/Safe/All I Ever Wanted combo would be a masterclass in orchestral rock.

7. All I Ever Wanted: One of only three “standards” on my list. It’s not a TATE show without it.

8. The Thing About Dreams: The quartet of My Childish Bride/The Thing About Dreams/Something You Lost/Chains that was featured during last spring’s Dope Machines Tour was jaw-droppingly gorgeous, and palpably different from anything I’d experienced at previous Airborne gigs. I didn’t quite have room here for all four, but almost…

9. Something You Lost: When they performed it in San Francisco last March, I saw Mikel’s heart actually exit his body. Half of it burst out through his guitar; the other half escaped through his tremoring vocal cords.

10. Chains: Could become a crowd favorite if it was played more frequently. Chains has everything you want in a TATE song.

11. Change and Change and Change and Change: After a relatively downbeat portion of the show, Change and Change would bring the energy right back up through roof.

12. Cocaine and Abel: My favorite of the six SOGAW songs I have yet to see live.

13. Dublin: Surprisingly not played during the Such Hot Blood show at last year’s Fillmore residency; it was the highest song left on my wishlist after that extravaganza.

14. This is London: Supremely underrated. Love the lyrics, and the driving beat rocks louder live than it does on the album.

15. The Fifth Day: What can I say? I wish they would play it Every. Single. Show. I’ve been lucky enough to catch it three times, which is more than most can say, but never enough. The desperate harmonies at the end would lead perfectly into the viola that opens…

16. Sometime Around Midnight: See #7.

17. Innocence: It’s criminal how rare it’s become. If I went to an Airborne show and they only played Innocence, I would leave happy.

Encore

18. Strangers: Another SOGAW favorite that I hope to experience live someday. And I think it would fit hand in glove with my next selection.

19. The Way Home: Lyrically, this song means more to me than any other. My story… and a kick-ass tune to boot.

20. All At Once: One more must-have from the standards list. One of the greatest songs ever written, IMO, it would bring a cathartic end to what would surely be the most emotional show of my life.

So there it is: my once-in-a-lifetime, perfect TATE show. What would make your list? Let us know below!

P.S. If you are entering the contest, be sure to copy crowdsourcing@thisisnowhere.com on the e-mails you send the band, and we’ll enter you in our Dope Machines vinyl contest. Though you can enter TATE’s contest as often as you like, for ours it’s just once a day.

P.P.S. If you read this and you ultimately win the right to pick The Airborne Toxic Event’s setlist, I would love to hear from you if you’d care to share your thought process with the fan community, and/or if you want to tell us about your experience after the fact. Drop me a line!

Glen is the founder and editor of This Is Nowhere. He’s grateful for an understanding wife and kids who indulge his silly compulsion to chase a band all over the Pacific Northwest (and occasionally beyond) every time the opportunity arises.

Toxicity 81

Have you Shazammed The Airborne Toxic Event today?

By Glen

The waning days of summer can mean only one thing: The Airborne Toxic Event’s fall tour is almost upon us! While you wait for that, we present some ruminations on Airborne’s place in today’s music scene, and all the latest news from The Bulls.

TATE, Shazam, and the State of the Music Industry

Last week, The Airborne Toxic Event announced a contest in which they asked fans in Buffalo and Philadelphia to regularly Shazam new single “One Time Thing,” dangling a chance to hang with them backstage as enticement. That announcement came hot on the heels of the launch of our own Shazam contest, in which we’re giving away a copy of Dope Machines on vinyl. (And yes, there’s still time to enter both contests, so we’ll forgive you if you pause your reading now to quickly Shazam the song.)

Why all the sudden fuss about Shazam, you ask? Well, as we explained briefly in our contest post, Shazam has very quickly become a key – perhaps the key – to success in the popular music scene. My TIN cohort Julie has been doing extensive research on the subject and educating me along the way, and what we’ve learned has been eye opening.

For the user (Joe Music Fan), Shazam is a music discovery tool. The app allows you to instantly identify any song you hear, anywhere… on radio or television, in a store or on a crowded street or in your friend’s living room, in your car or bleeding through the wall of your apartment. No more waiting for the song to end in hopes that the DJ mentions the title or artist; now you need simply hold up your phone and hit ‘Shazam,’ and you get not just the name and artist, but lyrics and links to purchase the track. Beautiful, right?

Music industry insiders use Shazam in an entirely different way. The data collected from millions of Shazammers around the world allows them to predict with pinpoint precision which songs are going to hit, and which are not. This then allows them to focus their efforts around music that has ready made hit potential. Radio stations use this information to form their playlists, and concert promoters use it to choose which acts to bring to town.

So, it’s easy to understand why The Airborne Toxic Event wants fans to Shazam up a storm. They’ve never bought into the classic indie rock line of thinking that sees success as dirty. They’re not going to sacrifice their integrity as artists to achieve it, but neither are they going to shy away from using the tools available to them to get their music heard. And no one should begrudge them this.

What pisses me off is that the system seems rigged against Airborne and other bands of their ilk. A comment from TIN reader Susan on our contest illustrates the problem: “I’m used to using the app to ID songs I don’t know… not ones I play continually!”

I’m with her. Frankly, it never occurred to me to Shazam TATE. There’s no need to identify songs I could sing in my sleep. I would guess that most established fans of this (and any other) band are in the same boat.

And therein lies the problem: if Airborne fans aren’t Shazamming the band, who is? It’s a vicious cycle: the fans don’t Shazam, so radio stations don’t pick up the song, so new listeners who might be given to Shazamming it never hear it, so promoters don’t think anyone cares about the band, so fewer shows get booked.

The problem is compounded by the fact that Airborne audience demographics likely skew a little older than the typical Shazam user, and by the fact that Mikel Jollett does not go out of his way to write radio/Shazam friendly material (a factor which is a major positive in my book). Consider his comments when Darren Rose asked him last year if he cares about radio singles:

No. I mean, yes and no. Here’s my thoughts on that: No, because you can’t write a radio single… I can’t do that. We’ve never been that kind of band. Our songs that made it on the radio were never really intended that way… You just have to write a lot of music, and sometimes you write something that’s really great. And if something’s really great, people will play it because it’s great… I don’t want to be known for something that’s kind of superfluous. There’s bands now, and I won’t mention them, who are on the radio, and I wouldn’t want to play their songs… It’s not my thing, and I wouldn’t want to be a musician if it meant I’d have to sing their songs… I really believe that great music rises to the top.

It’s an admirable stance to be sure, and I don’t think many Airborne fans would have it any other way. But it does put the band behind the eight ball given the current industry landscape. In a time when a song is made or broken in its first ten seconds (after which very few people will Shazam it), it becomes very difficult for artists of depth to get noticed. And that just sucks.

Nevertheless, it’s the way the game is played now. Many have commented on the sparseness of The Airborne Toxic Event’s tour schedule this fall, compared to previous album cycles. The truth is, we’ve been terribly spoiled by the band’s relentless touring in the past, and we can’t expect it to continue forever. So, if you want TATE to come to a venue near you… SHAZAM! Otherwise, they’ll forever find themselves on lists like this one: Gigwise’s 24 Brilliant Artists Who Deserve to Be So Much Bigger.

For Openers

Enough of that nonsense; on to happier subjects, like the fall tour. The opening acts have been set for most of the non-festival dates. In Buffalo, Boston, New York City and Philadelphia, it will be Dreamers. In Los Angeles, it will be Australian folk duo The Falls. They seem pretty excited.

WE’RE GONNA PLAY @TheWiltern ​with @Airborne_Toxic!! THE WILTERN!!!! WITH THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT!!!! pic.twitter.com/Pkbh47OWfD

— FALLS (@The_Falls) August 19, 2015

Stampeding Bulls

While the rest of her Airborne bandmates have seemingly enjoyed a quiet summer, Anna Bulbrook has been devoting every spare moment to her band The Bulls. Their debut EP Small Problems drops a week from today, but we’ve already reviewed it. Spoiler: it’s brilliant.

Meanwhile, the band has been generating an impressive amount of press of late. Here’s a roundup:

New song “Rumors” premieres on LA Times.

DOA reviews “Rumors,” saying, “‘Rumors’ is as equally strong as the previous two singles and rides on the wave of a driving bass line that propels the song forward. Sharp, New Wave guitar riffs slice through the dreaminess of Anna’s cool-tone, but sweet vocals. A restless rhythm builds up from the flexible bass line and addition of bright synth note plinks and shaken percussion as Anna questioningly posits ‘Is the rumor true?'”

Glacially Musical gives thumbs up to the EP. “The songs sound absolutely phenomenal. The guitar tones are brittle and gritty. The bass guitar has a strong, dirty grit to it, and the drums fit in the to the tracks like they should. This album is upbeat, peppy, and poppy. Here and there, twinges of sadness rear their heads, but only as if they’re being shouted down by laughter.”

Grimy Goods spared few superlatives in their coverage of The Bulls’ #GIRLSCHOOL residency. “Bulbrook’s vocals are pitch-perfect to the point they almost sound auto-tuned. Bulbrook was a triple threat, alternating from guitar to violin, all while slicing up the crowd with her voice.”

Finally, and most significantly, the LA Times ran a full-length feature and interview with Anna yesterday. The biggest revelation is that she and partner Marc Sallis will be headed back to the studio in September and October to continue work on their first full-length album. This would seem to suggest that the large gap in Airborne’s touring schedule during the early fall will not be filled with shows, or at least not entirely.

The article also reveals a great deal about how Anna got her start in songwriting, the genesis of The Bulls, and the sense of purpose she feels as a female artist: “Once we committed to doing the #GIRLSCHOOL angle, it really started to feel important to me in a deep way,” Bulbrook said. “It wasn’t just a chance for the Bulls to grow. I thought of the mission quickly, and then I realized afterward how much it meant to me.”

Toxic Gold

With The Airborne Toxic Event hitting the stage at Riot Fest Denver in a week’s time, here’s a look book at their last appearance at that festival, back in 2013. This is “Safe.”

Glen is the founder and editor of This Is Nowhere. He’s grateful for an understanding wife and kids who indulge his silly compulsion to chase a band all over the Pacific Northwest (and occasionally beyond) every time the opportunity arises.

Shazam “One Time Thing;” Win Dope Machines Vinyl

Win me.

UPDATE: This contest is now closed. The winner is: Lori Mislin. Congratulations, Lori!

Everyone likes a win/win/win situation, right?

Over the past few weeks, The Airborne Toxic Event has begun to make an impact in some markets (particularly Philadelphia and Buffalo) with “One Time Thing,” arguably the catchiest song of their career.

You may have noticed the band frequently asking fans to “Shazam” their songs since the release of Dope Machines. Things change quickly in the music industry, and Shazam* has rapidly become arguably the most important factor in the success of an artist. Radio stations and other industry insiders monitor Shazam activity to determine what’s hot and what’s not, and use this information to determine what gets played on the radio and – critically – which bands to bring to town for live shows.

Simply put, if you are clamoring for The Airborne Toxic Event to play your city, the very best thing you can do is to Shazam their music, and encourage others to do the same.

That’s why we are asking TATE fans everywhere to make a concerted effort to Shazam “One Time Thing” frequently over the next month. If you do:

• It’s a win for the band, who will get a small slice of the recognition and success they so richly deserve;
• It’s a win for you, because the more TATE gets on the Shazam map in your region, the better the odds that you’ll get to see them in person; and
• It could be a double-win for you, because we’ve got a vinyl copy of Dope Machines to give away to one lucky Shazammer!

Here’s how this will work. From now through Sept. 15, every time you Shazam “One Time Thing” and fire us a screen capture, you will receive one free entry into the draw for the Dope Machines vinyl. You can enter up to once a day, and we encourage you to do it daily. You can send us your screen capture by tagging us on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

On Sept. 16, we will compile what we hope will be thousands of entries and randomly select a winner. Happy Shazamming!

*If you’re not familiar with Shazam, it’s a mobile app that recognizes the music around you. When you hear a song playing, whether it’s on your device, computer, TV, CD player or radio, you can hit the Shazam button to instantly identify the artist and song. So, just cue up “One Time Thing” and Shazam it!

Please note that to use the Shazam app, you need an iPhone, iPad, Android device or Windows phone. It is also possible to emulate an Android device on your PC, if you do not have a smartphone. Click here for more info.