The Airborne Toxic Event life and biography

The Airborne Toxic Event is an indie rock band with five members.Named after a section of the book White Noise, by Don DeLillo, the group is known for its blend of rock music and orchestral arrangements, having performed frequently with the Calder Quartet, a string quartet based in Los Angeles. The group has also played concerts with the Louisville Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

It consists of Mikel Jollett (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Steven Chen (guitar, keyboards), Noah Harmon (electric bass, upright bass, backing vocals), Daren Taylor (drums) and Anna Bulbrook (viola, keyboards, tambourine, backing vocals).

The Airborne Toxic Event played its first show at the Echo, a venue in Echo Park, in October 2006—less than a month after it was fully formed. The show was well attended, and the following month, the band played the CMJ Music Marathon. In December 2006, Rolling Stone named the group one of the "Top 25 Bands on MySpace." The band went on to receive positive feedback and reviews from music blogs and press, most notably the L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times, the latter of 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 the summer of 2007, the U.K. indie label Square Records released a 7-inch single of the Airborne Toxic Event song "Does This Mean You Are Moving On?" To support the release, the band embarked on a ten-day tour of the U.K., playing shows in London and Brighton. Upon returning, the band recorded 14 tracks with producer Pete Min at his home studio in the Atwater Village, Los Angeles, while continuing to perform around Los Angeles. Ten of the tracks recorded at Min’s home would later comprise the band’s debut album.

In April 2008, after an extensive courtship from major labels, the Airborne Toxic Event signed with the indie label Majordomo Records, based in Los Angeles. Soon after that, on April 24, the band made its national television debut as the musical guest on the late-night NBC talk show Last Call with Carson Daly.

On August 5, 2008, the band released its first full-length album, The Airborne Toxic Event, featuring ten of the 14 songs recorded at Min’s home studio at the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008. On August 1, coinciding with the release, the group performed "Sometime Around Midnight" on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Beginning in July 2008, the band embarked on a series of tours in support of the album, which continued for approximately a year and a half. After touring various summer festivals, the band embarked on a North American tour opening for The Fratellis in the fall of 2008.

In January 2009, the Airborne Toxic Event embarked on its first headlining tour, beginning in the U.K., followed by two months in the United States and Canada. Meanwhile, bolstered by an unexpected addition to the playlist at the U.K.’s BBC Radio 1—an unusual occurrence for an unsigned American band—the group released its debut through an independent distributer in the UK on February 9, 2009. Also during this time, the group began performing on television with the Calder Quartet, a Los Angeles-based string quartet featuring Bulbrook’s brother on second violin.

On July 14, 2010, the band announced the release of the documentary DVD and CD All I Ever Wanted: Live From Walt Disney Concert Hall, on September 7, 2010 in North America and October 4, 2010 in Europe. The North American release date was later moved to September 29, 2010. The film premiered at the Vista Theatre in the Los Feliz, Los Angeles on September 2, 2010, at the Sunshine Theater in New York on September 9, and at the Raindance Film Festival in London on September 30.

The Airborne Toxic Event's second album, All at Once, was released on April 25, 2011 in Europe, and April 26 in North America. Written during the latter half of 2009 and most of 2010, the record was produced in Los Angeles by Dave Sardy, who also produced albums by Oasis, Band of Horses, LCD Soundsystem, Wolfmother, and Autolux. An acoustic version of one of the songs from the album, "Half of Something Else," appeared on the soundtrack for the film Going the Distance, directed by Nanette Burstein and starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long.

The band appeared in the season finale of Gossip Girl, “The Wrong Goodbye,” which aired on May 16, playing "All for a Woman" and "Changing." Reaching #4 on the Alternative Song charts, "Changing" was also featured, throughout June and July, on a television trailer for Crazy, Stupid, Love, starring Steve Carrell and Ryan Gosling. On February 1, 2012 the band performed "All I Ever Wanted" with the Calder Quartet on the 30th Anniversary episode of "The Late Show with David Letterman".

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