1.17 A wknd w/ Air Traffic Controller
The Boston band on bagels, bowling, basketball and their show at Mercury Lounge THIS SUNDAY
Sometimes you meet a band from Boston in Austin and then 10 years later they’re coming to New York and so you put them in your newsletter.
And THAT… .is THIS.
Enter: Boston-based indie-pop band Air Traffic Controller!
Nine years after the release of their album Black Box, the band’s record is now (at long last!) available on vinyl for the first time ever.
As a nostalgic—and spooky!—way to celebrate their 2016 LP’s fashionably late entrance into the material world, the band also recently released a horror-ible music video. “This Is Love” is—at 40+ million streams + a whole lotta TikTok fan vids— the album’s biggest track, and when shooting the music video, lead singer Dave Munro had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ~spoiler alert~ be murdered on film.
(Dave: “I couldn’t say no, I mean, offers like that don’t come around often!” Carpe that diem, Dave!)
Having caught Air Traffic Controller at Austin’s Holy Mountain (RIP) back in 2014, we now we suggest you follow our lead just a fewwwww years later…. just a fewwww miles north… in temperatures just a fewwww degrees more freezing… when the band hits the stage at Mercury Lounge THIS SUNDAY NIGHT!
GRAB YOUR TIX HERE! Enjoy the vid featuring flesh-eating demons above. Then read on for a wknd itinerary crafted by the group whose lead singer was, let it be known, at one point actually an air traffic controller. (No posers here, baby!)
Whew. Times are tough, but music is everything. Go forth, take care of each other and have a really really really great weekend <3
[BUT FIRST: PRESS PLAY]
SATURDAY
We wake up on an uncomfortable pullout couch on The Upper West Side. We look at each other in silence. We don’t even have to say it: “carbs”. So, we begin at Broadway Bagel or Supreme Bagel for an everything bagel (not toasted) with lox and scallion cream cheese.
Now we have to exercise. If we want to go light we would take a walk around Central Park, but we don’t want to go light, so we’re going to go play basketball at a public court. This might entail going to Rite Aid and buying the cheapest basketball they have.
Now we’re hungry again so we hit a halal cart and get chicken & lamb over rice. We eat standing on the sidewalk.
After feasting upon chicken & lamb over rice we take the 1, 2, or 3 train then switch to the L to get the East Village. There, we go thrifting. We mostly act like we’re at a museum, gawking at strange items, not buying anything and being a nuisance to the employees. Bobby finally buys a cool jacket. Adam buys a pair of sunglasses and immediately loses them.
Now we want to chill. We head to Tompkins Square Park to lay on a blanket and, as the kids say, “vibe.”
Dinner time. We go to Chinatown and split Peking Duck. No explanation required.
To work off the Peking Duck we walk about 20 min to the Lower East Side to go see live music at a small club like The Mercury Lounge, Arlene’s Grocery, Pianos etc. We also enjoy libations.
The libations have set in. We look to Shangri-Lah (Joe’s Pizza). The crust. The sauce. The cheese. A symphony.
Okay, this is supposed to be a perfect day in NYC, not the cheapest day in NYC. We take a cab back to our crash pad on the Upper West Side. We pretend as though we had any intentions of going to bed right now, and we proceed to Broadway Dive for a nightcap.
SUNDAY
Wake up and check the time, grab anyone’s clothes off the floor and run out the door. Finish getting dressed in the elevator, sprint through the lobby drawing no suspicions. Run two blocks to the van to find zero parking tickets on the windshield, this is going to be another perfect day!
Move the van to an illegal spot right outside our crash pad, hazards on. Run into Broadway Bagel again for the same lox bagel, I’ll toast it this time. We drive to the Lower East Side 8 hours before our gig because that’s how early they need us to load on, soundcheck, load off... Don’t ask.
The staff at Mercury are super friendly (cause it’s early and we’re not in the way yet), we have a wonderful soundcheck, the sound guy is a total pro and has us feeling confident about this show. Soundcheck ends and we have at least 5 hours to kill.
We contemplate a group nap, but I jokingly say something about this being “ the city that never sleeps,” plus we’re hungry again. We’re back on the sidewalk, phones out, Yelping, Googling, but we can do this someplace better. So we stroll into El Nuevo Amanecer, a traditional Mexican spot, not because we want to eat a meal there, we just want to loiter for a bit while we figure out our next move. So we ask for some waters, then chips and guac, which are great, so we start ordering a bit more when Emi shouts out - ooh let’s go bowling! We down our water and chips, tip them well, and head over to The Gutter L.E.S. which has food and a couple open lanes for us to have another bite and spend some quality time.
We get back to Mercury and spot some friends and fans in line outside, and one of them gives us a box of homemade muffins and other baked delights. Joe kindly says he cannot wait to dive into these treats tonight, we realize he meant that literally as he eats a huge frosted muffin right outside the venue. We chat with our beloved New Yorkers for a bit and then frantically scramble our gear back on stage, linecheck quickly, and then put on the best show of our lives.
As the show ends we quickly go from being total rock stars, signing merch, posing for pics etc., to becoming absolute nobodies who need to clear our shit out of the club ASAP. This is honestly part of the Mercury experience we’ve come to expect and secretly enjoy. A few more hugs out front and we’re hungry again. We discuss an amazing burrito place in the neighborhood, but no one can remember what it’s called or if it’s still exists, so we walk in that direction down Ludlow and the smell from the Creperie lures us in. We can’t decide whether to go sweet or savory with the crepes. So we go “family style” and a split them up with a dull knife. We regret this, kind of. We head back to our crash pad covered in crepe fillings. Throw our clothes in a plastic shopping bag, brush our teeth for bed, change our minds and head over to Broadway Dive for one more NY memory.
MONDAY
We sleep in, no parking ticket, lox bagel again, untoasted. Run into the Cork and Barrel for a bottle of wine for our gracious apartment hosts. We haul out. Traffic is not bad cause it’s a holiday. Perfect.
.See you next time NYC!
With Love,
ATC / Dave, Adam, Bobby, Emi, Joe
Itinerary above written + submitted by Air Traffic Controller. Follow the band at @atcmusic, buy music on bandcamp and add their songs to your Spotify playlists now!
Feature image (provided by the band): Allison Tulk
MORNING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Today we were stoked to launch our live session with UK band SPORTS TEAM! The sesh was filmed al fresco in Astor Place by BdBK bffs I Know We Should back in November when Sports Team had crossed the pond for a US tour during which they were robbed at gunpoint… at a gas-station Starbucks in California… at 9 a.m. But that’s a different story. Watch here!
NY 4 LA! From January 27-29, EV venue Berlin, Heaven Can Wait and Bowery Electric are hosting a series of benefit shows to support Los Angeles fire-relief efforts. Performers include GIFT, Big Girl, 95 Bulls, Torture & the Desert Spiders and more more more. Tickets start a $20 and are on sale now via each venue’s website.
In addition to Sweet Relief—who we mentioned last week—Musicares is also helping LA artists in need. From the org: “We can consider emergency funds related to evacuation and relocation costs, instrument replacement/repair, home damage, medical care, mental health services, & other essential living needs. Reach out to our team:
💌 musicaresrelief@musicares.org
📲 1-800-687-4227”+ If you want to support Musicares’ work, you can donate here
The SAVE OWL initiatives continue! Next up: A two-night benefit show featuring his insanely sick bill on February 1 and 2!
RELEASE RADAR
New(ish) stuff from (mostly) local (/once-local) artists we love… listed in no particular order whatsoever — & now embedded 4 extra watching/listening ease.
“Ordinary Silence” // The Bird Calls
“Alkaline” // Panik Flower
“Agreeing to be Agreeable” // Grass Fed
THE SETLIST by Bands do BK is a reader-supported publication that’s freeeee. BUT! If you want to become a paid subscriber to show some love and support the work BdBK is doing… well, hey. That’d be pretty rad of you. <3