I-Empire

Limited colored vinyl LP pressing. In early-2005, with Blink-182 on a break, Tom DeLonge came to a crossroads. Rather than do a solo album or another version of his well-reviewed side project, Box Car Racer, DeLonge decided to start a new band. He recruited BCR guitarist David Kennedy, bassist Ryan Sinn (The Distillers), and drum god Atom Willard (Rocket from the Cryptl, The Offspring) to form Angels & Airwaves. 2006 debut, We Don't Need to Whisper, wasn't the pop-punk hard candy that fans might have expected from DeLonge. Instead he mixes guitars and electronics on the epic scale of U2 or Peter Gabriel, and tells a cohesive cinematic story with it's 10 atmospheric tracks. 2007 follow-up I-Empire, now with Matt Wachter (Thirty Seconds to Mars) on bass, debuted in the Top 10 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and successfully builds on the ambitious sonics and concepts of it's predecessor. The double album yielded a trio of widescreen singles with "Everything's Magic," "Secret Crowds" and "Breathe" and is augmented further here via acoustic versions of "The Adventure" and "Good Day."