Owl City Returns To #1 On Billboard Charts

Debut Single “Fireflies” Shows No Signs of Slowing Down

New York, NY – Universal Republic Records’ basement launched phenomenon Owl City reclaimed the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart this week after originally hitting the #1 position two weeks ago with the smash hit “Fireflies.” The song continues to break boundaries at radio as it is top 10 at both Top 40 and Hot AC formats along with impressive showings at Alternative, Triple A, and Rhythm Crossover making it one of the most requested songs in the US. “Fireflies” also sold an amazing 200,000 digital singles this week bringing sales totals over a million. Combining an impressive radio story, huge sales, a #1 song, a sold out tour in the U.S as well as sold out shows in Asia this month are all parts in making Owl City the artist development story of 2009.

A self-described ‘shy-kid’ who first arrived on the music scene in 2007, Universal Republic Records has successfully translated Young’s hypnotizing songscapes into mainstream captures of everyday life, connecting with radio, digital and video audiences across the U.S. Owl City’s magical mix of lively-digital rhythms and lush melodies first hatched in the basement of his parent’s house is perfectly portrayed in his debut video for “Fireflies,” which depicts the affable singer performing the song in dreamy basement environment. The video is closing in on an incredible 13million views on YouTube, and surging in X-LARGE rotation on VH-1, and other video and digital platforms.

With Ocean Eyes on its way to gold status Owl City just wrapped a highly-praised sold-out U.S. tour – ‘Imagine if Nine Inch Nails traded dark for light…’ raved Livedaily.com about Young’s recent Hollywood show. ‘If such a remarkable transformation took place, it would sound, look, and feel a lot like Owl City.’ People who missed this past U.S. tour can catch Young’s energizing show next year when Owl City hits the road again in January before touring Europe in February and then Australia and New Zealand in March.

Hailing from the small Minnesota town of Owatonna, Minnesota, (population 22,000), Young’s songs convey a singular simplicity that has rocked the 24/7 non-stop-chatter of an ultra-competitive music world. Calling his homemade-basement studio ‘the cave,’ other songs on the new album include “Vanilla Twilight,” which is also climbing up the iTunes singles chart and “Cave in,” “Umbrella Beach,” “Dental Care,” among others.

Owl City Hits #1 On Billborard Charts

Photo By: Pamela Littky

Universal Republic Records’ basement launched phenomenon Owl City scored the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart this week, following up his #1 single score on iTunes last week with the smash hit “Fireflies.” The song is breaking boundaries at radio as it forges toward the upper tier at Top 40 and Hot AC formats along with impressive showings at Alternative, Triple A, and Rhythm Crossover. Combining this impressive radio story, a #1 song in North America, a sold out tour and huge sales are all parts in making Owl City the artist development story of 2009.

The near-platinum “Fireflies” also sold an amazing 200,000 digital singles this week, serving as a multi-genre calling card for Owl City/alias Adam Young giving him a 12 point leap into the Top Ten of the Nielsen Soundscan Top 200 Albums Tally via his Universal Republic debut album Ocean Eyes (jumping from #20 to #8).

A self-described ‘shy-kid’ who first arrived on the music scene in 2007, Universal Republic Records has successfully translated Young’s hypnotizing songscapes into mainstream captures of everyday life, connecting with radio, digital and video audiences across the U.S. Owl City’s magical mix of lively-digital rhythms and lush melodies first hatched in the basement of his parent’s house is perfectly portrayed in his debut video for “Fireflies,” which depicts the affable singer performing the song in dreamy basement environment. The video is closing in on an incredible 8.5 million views on youtube, and surging in X-LARGE rotation on VH-1, and other video and digital platforms.

With Ocean Eyes on its way to gold status (rolling past its 9th consecutive week of sales momentum in a listless album sales climate), Owl City is also winding down a highly-praised sold-out tour – ‘Imagine if Nine Inch Nails traded dark for light…’ raved Livedaily.com about Young’s recent Hollywood show. ‘If such a remarkable transformation took place, it would sound, look, and feel a lot like Owl City.’ The tour is hitting Austin, TX on October 30th and skidding into Houston, TX, on Halloween night.

Hailing from the small Minnesota town of Owatonna, Minnesota, (population 22,000), Young’s songs convey a singular simplicity that has rocked the 24/7 non-stop-chatter of an ultra-competitive music world. Calling his homemade-basement studio ‘the cave,’ other songs on the new album include “Vanilla Twilight,” which is also climbing up the iTunes singles chart and “Cave in,” “Umbrella Beach,” “Dental Care,” among others.

Owl City Announces 2010 Tour Dates

Owl City announces his first few weeks of 2010 tour dates in support of his incredibly successful label debut – Ocean Eyes – out now on Universal Republic. MySpace will offer an exclusive ticket pre-sale beginning October 16th and running through October 23rd for the tour dates. The tour kicks off January 21st at the Beaumont Club in Kansas City, MO and sees Owl City with full band in tow heading through the Midwest, Southeast and up the East Coast through mid-February. The short US tour will include special guests Lights and Deas Vail and sees the band hitting some of the smaller markets not visited this past fall. In addition, the 2010 dates come on the heels of Owl City’s first trek to China and Japan and comes before the band will make their live debut in Europe as well as Australia where they’ll be hitting the road with Cobra Starship.

All of this follows Owl City’s Fall 2009 headlining tour of North America, which has sold out in advance in every city, and earned him a cover of Pollstar (out 10/9/09) after less than a year of touring. In addition to his success on the road, “Fireflies” (the first single off Ocean Eyes) has been climbing the radio charts. As of last week the song reached #27 on Commercial Alternative, #22 on the Top 40 chart and #11 on the Hot 100 – earning him a cover of HITS (out on Wednesday 10/21, dated Friday 10/23, the new and developing artist fall special issue). To top that off, Z100 in NYC added “Fireflies” last week and the video for the song hit the Top 20 on VH1. You can also see the video on MTV, MTV2 and Fuse and the album and single sales go up each week. The album sold 16,727 this past week (#35 Billboard / +26% from LW) and has scanned 115K copies since release. The single sold 124,865 this past week (+83% from LW) with a total of 386,488 sold since release, making this artist one of the biggest gainers on the charts each week.

Adam Young started Owl City in the basement of his parent’s house in the small town of Owatonna, MN. He began capturing the hearts and ears of many with his first self-released, digital EP Of June back in 2007. Soon after, in 2008, he self-released the digital full-length Maybe I’m Dreaming and quickly became a MySpace phenomenon. He amassed millions and millions of plays and profile views and the word began to spread. The excitement was building for his Universal Republic debut Ocean Eyes and sales were amazing out of the gate with the album debuting at #27 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart. Having not played out before February 2009, Owl City hit the road and soon spring and fall tours were completely sold out as fans clamored to see the live versions of their favorite songs. Along with the omnipresent hit “Fireflies,” the sky is now the limit for Owl City.

Jan. 21st Beaumont Club Kansas City, MO
22nd Diamond Ballroom Oklahoma City, OK
23rd Pageant St. Louis, MO
24th Egyptian Room Indianapolis, IN
26th Majestic Madison, WI
27th 20th Century Cincinnati, OH
28th Newport Music Hall Columbus, OH
29th Recher Theater Towson, MD
30th NorVa Norfolk, VA
Feb. 1st Music Farm Charleston, SC
2nd Freebird Live Jacksonville, FL
3rd State Theater Tampa, FL
4th Culture Room Ft. Lauderdale, FL
5th House of Blues Orlando, FL
6th Melting Point Athens, GA
8th Workplay Birmingham, AL
9th Varsity Theater Baton Rouge, LA
10th Rev Room Little Rock, AR
11th Valparaiso University Valparaiso, IN
12th Notre Dame South Bend, IN
13th Messiah Univ. Grantham, PA
14th Univ. of Maryland Baltimore, MD

Owl City – Ocean Eyes

Written By: Darwin Green
(Reviews Editor)

Label: Universal – Rating:

So, it’s been said before, but the obvious reference here is Postal Service. But while Postal Service has deep pathos and dark themes, Owl City differs in that the songs are breezy, fun, and light-hearted. It’s like someone delivered Postal Service some Zoloft and told them to attend therapy until they felt “the light.” This is not a bad review. Replace Royksopp with Postal Service in the above sentence and it would still be the same.

All the songs on this album are so upbeat, whimsical, and emo that it’s the perfect music to put on in lieu of a friend if there was no one there to talk to about some problem. It’s like sailing through various shades of happy, major key tonalities, complete with moments of happy-hardcore, disco, emo female vocals, pop entrenched songwriting structures, and a sunny, beautiful album cover to boot. What could be more “perfect” than this?

Put this on at the beach and the theme of the album becomes apparent. Indeed, Ocean Eyes has a strong ocean motif with songs like “The Saltwater Room,” “Umbrella Beach,” “Tip of the Iceberg,” and “Tidal Wave.” Its sunny disposition represents the meeting of sea, sun, and beach very well. I can practically smell the sunscreen worn while lead musician Adam Young wrote these songs.

Songs like “Meteor Shower” and their single “Fireflies” capture a naïve and lovely ethereal romanticism. The production on the former puts the listener under a star-speckled sky with the feeling like paradise is only a car ride away to the nearest open sky with one’s significant other, and continues through the rest of the album.

Like Owl City? Then you might like: Postal Service, Hot Chip, Hellogoodbye.