Michael Angelakos was a student at Boston's Emerson College when he started writing the songs that would become his band Passion Pit's 2008 debut EP Chunk Of Change. Since Angelakos actually started Passion Pit at Emerson in 2006, he's now celebrating Passion Pit's 20th anniversary. He's not the only one celebrating the anniversary; the city of Boston has officially declared today, July 24th, to be Passion Pit Day.
Right now, Passion Pit are on their 20th-anniversary Pretty Penny Tour, and they hit Boston's House Of Blues tonight. In recognition of what Angelakos has accomplished, the Boston City Council has passed a resolution: "The Boston City Council honors Passion Pit for their influence on the indie electronic pop genre and celebrates their 20th Anniversary tour by recognizing July 24th, 2026 as Passion Pit Day in the City of Boston."
In a press release, Angelakos has this to say:
When I was 10 years old, I told my father that I wanted to move to Boston. He had been working there, flying back and forth from our home in Bound Brook, NJ. When I was 17, I told my parents I wanted to go to college in Boston, and at 18, I made that a reality. But it was at age 19 that I began a musical project, Passion Pit, that was the result of my incredible friends and community, a way to entertain and connect — to give it all a feel, and to of course have fun.
It was Boston that supported us as we began to somehow ascend in the music world. It was Boston that provided the world in which Passion Pit's tonality and core soul is based in, one steeped in history, yet extraordinarily mindful of the present, and now more than ever, focused on the future. Now at 39, 20 years after it all started, I am profoundly moved to receive this honor from the City of Boston.
