'Hollywood Park: A Memoir' by Mikel Jollett of The Airborne Toxic Event enters The New York Times best seller list at #8

HOLLYWOOD PARK: A MEMOIR BY MIKEL JOLLETT, FRONTMAN OF THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT, ENTERS THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER LIST AT #8

HOLLYWOOD PARK THE COMPANION ALBUM BY THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT LANDS AT #4 AT ALTERNATIVE AND #6 AT ROCK ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS

"a powerful, potent record"

NPR Music

"dangerous, immediate and lyrical"

The Wall Street Journal

"a Gen-X This Boy's Life. Hollywood Park is a triumph."

O, the Oprah Magazine

"an hour of sheer roar-along brilliance. Stupendous"

Classic Rock

"mesmerizing"

San Francisco Chronicle

"arena-rousing music...real emotional traction and heft"

The Sunday Times

"majestic"

Salon

"devastating"

Exclaim!

"a deft, philosophical, poetic lyricist"

The Telegraph

"you'll want this record in your collection"

NME

"powerful"

People

"the must list"

Entertainment Weekly

   

Hollywood Park: A Memoir, the critically lauded debut book by Mikel Jollett, frontman for The Airborne Toxic Event, debuts at #8 on the New York Times Best Seller List. The band's companion album by the same name lands at #4 on the Alternative Chart and #6 on the magazine's Rock Chart. The chart numbers back up this incredible and unique musical/literary achievement that shows the breadth of Jollett's myriad talents and the powerful ways those talents intersect. 

The memoir tells the story of Jolett's traumatic early life. It begins with a four-year-old Mikel and his brother, Tony, being spirited out of the notorious and violent Santa Monica, California cult, Synanon, by their mother. Jollett's life to that point was one with no parents, and no idea of them, as the cult leaders kept children from their families. On the run from Synanon with their damaged and dangerously narcissistic mom, Jollett and his brother embarked on a harrowing journey that eventually led them to Salem, Oregon, where they lived in poverty. It was his father (a former Chico State Penitentiary inmate, who Jollett didn't really know until he was 7) who recognized that young Mikel had special gifts and urged him not to be like any of the other Jollett men, but to aspire to something bigger and better. This put him on a path to getting a scholarship from Stanford (he graduated with honors) and to starting the Airborne Toxic Event which became an immediate sensation the moment they released their first single, "Sometime Around Midnight."

Hollywood Park is easily the most ambitious album ever made by The Airborne Toxic Event; who are, with Jollett, Steven Chen (guitars, keyboards), Darren Taylor (drums), and bassist Adrian Rodriguez. On the album, Jollett's songs give further depth to stories from the book. He weaves musical references ranging from shoegaze to Springsteen into a cohesive aural tapestry, producing an unsparing memoir full of intimate, often painful personal details, that unlock universal coming-of-age themes. With these towering twin works, Jollett has channeled his artistry into a compelling and multi-layered pop-cultural milestone. The album was produced and mixed by the band's longtime collaborator, multiple GRAMMY® Award-nominee Mark Needham (The Killers, Fleetwood Mac).

The tremendous critical praise and chart success for both the memoir and the album, proves that Hollywood Park is Jollett's, and The Airborne Toxic Event's, first true masterpiece.