I don’t care about Airborne Toxic Event as a band (I don’t care about most bands, so nothing specifically against these guys), but I do think this recent kerfluffle they’ve puffed up with Pitchfork proves that there are still ways for indie rock bands–especially those not subject to Brooklyn’s non-stop, barely-filtered publicity machine–to imaginatively try and separate themselves from the ever-growing, ever-similar stack. Ian Cohen’s Pitchfork review slagged the band with a 1.6, which is one thing. The band fired back with a lengthy, passive-aggressive missive on its website, which is the second thing.

Leader and band-former Mikel Jollett understands how the media works, of course: Wikipedia tells us that “Jollett had earned income as a freelance writer, contributing to organizations such as NPR, Los Angeles Times, Filter Magazine and Men’s Health” (He also named his band after a quote from a Don DeLillo novel, which is just as annoying as the myriad of bands from a while back named “Lot 49″ or some bullshit. We get it. You took L238.) Perhaps even unconsciously, and definitely more interestingly, Jollett (and, um, the band’s publicist) might also have been influenced by the current, soul-assassinating strategies of the RNC re: Sarah Palin. Essentially: take whatever is slung in your direction, no matter how based in factitude it might be, and immediately play the victim of some tyrannical, elitist institution. What comes of this, or what is the third thing? Let’s let Google Blog Search tell us the third thing, which is cleverly coded, absolutely free publicity for your debut album (am I in there now too? Dammit).