Alan Palomo's third album under the name Neon Indian VEGA INTL. Night School almost didn't happen when his laptop was swiped after a night of drunken debauchery. On the final night of his tour for 2011 album Era Extrana he got very, very intoxicated and ended up losing his keys and pounding on his own door at 7:30 in the morning to no avail, passing out outside of his apartment. When he finally woke up, two year's worth of demos and almost every idea for his second album was gone, along with his laptop.
"My roommates were asleep," Palomo told SPIN, "At some point I just nodded off on my stoop. It was the most Behind The Music moment that's ever happened to me. But when I came to, someone had swiped my laptop."
Unfortunately for Alan, he wasn't quite at Behind The Music status yet in his career when his laptop was stolen and the effects of adding time onto his third effort could have been devastating. But - at least in his interview - the artist seemed the take the whole debacle in stride and worked hard to recreate what he had built in the remaining time that it took to complete the project after returning to college and film school for awhile.
"I'm glad that I just walked away relatively unscathed - just missing, you know, a couple hours of music," he said.
Three years later, he has completed the long-awaited VEGA INTL. Night School to be released under Mom + Pop Records and Diffuser posted performances of new material at their gig at La Semana de las Juventudes Fest in Mexico City (Aug. 21.) Neon Indian performed leading singles "Annie" "Slumlord" and "Street Level" at the festival before moving on to a tour date at Los Angeles' FYF Fest.
The tour is scheduled to continue through mid-November, with additional dates at musical hotspots Webster Hall in New York City (Oct. 14), Thalia Hall in Chicago (Oct. 17), Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin (Nov. 7) and Republic in New Orleans (Nov. 8). VEGA INTL. Night School is scheduled to be released and available for purchase on Oct. 16 coinciding with their tour date at Populux in Detroit.
