Skip to main content

Cloud Nothings

55
Cloud Nothings

Cloud Nothings

Who doesn't love some good ol' lo-fi pop-punk? I know I do, that's why I quickly became a fan of this band. It all started for me with 2011's self-titled (but already second[!]) album, Cloud Nothings. Then came the one-two punch of 2012's Attack On Memory and 2014's Here and Nowhere Else. Since then we have gotten the Wavves collaboration album, 2015's No Life for Me, as well as 2017's Life Without Sound and 2018's Last Building Burning. This is an intense band with intensely catchy garage-rock songs. Cloud Nothings is the brainchild of Dylan Baldi, a Cleveland native who was still in his teens when the buss about his music started. The band began in 2009 when Baldi started recording songs in his parents' basement when he would return home from college on the weekends. After uploading songs "Hey Cool Kid" and "Whaddaya Wanna Know" to his MySpace page, a promoter asked Cloud Nothings to open a Brooklyn show for Woods and Real Estate, thus suddenly turning Baldi's imaginary bands to become a real thing. Baldi assembled a lineup for that December '09 gig, dropped out of school, and the rest is history. He released a flurry of singles in 2010. Once the self-titled album was released in January of 2011, Baldi was on everyone's radar, even mine! This was just unmistakably great music. What started off as a one-man band became one of 21st century's most consistently good rockin' bands. Once Baldi recruited other members to give his music more heft, as he did on the heavier follow-up (2012's) Attack On Memory, Cloud Nothings really came into their own. The band figured out how to mix hardcore intensity with deceptively sweet melodies. Something they have perfected with their later albums. All or nothing... It's...
Cloud Nothings

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Band

19 The Band The Band First known as the Hawks, the Band got their initial fame as Bob Dylan’s backing band. Remember when Bob Dylan sold out and went electric, angering fans so much that they called him “ Judas ”? Well, you can thank all of that to the Band. For a band that sounds so fucking American (seriously- no band has done the whole Americana roots music better than the Band) it’s pretty funny most of them were Canadian. After finally branching out on their own in 1968, the Band would release some of the best music ever recorded… and if you thought the Beatles had a hell of a run- check out the Band’s discography: 1968’s Music From Big Pink , 1969’s self-titled The Band , 1970’s Stage Fright , 1971’s Cahoots , 1972’s live-album Rock of Ages , 1973’s Moondog Matinee , 1975’s Northern Lights -Southern Cross , and 1977’s Islands. Lynard Skynard may have taken the crown for greatest southern rock band, but for a band full of Canadians and Americans, the Band really embraces a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Crystal Castles

61 Crystal Castles Crystal Castles If you ever wondered what it would sound like if the video-game character Mario was catapulted through a plate-glass window- you'd get close to describing Crystal Castles. Cut up vocals and soothing waves of synth, live shows known for "fan riots, crowd surges, and metal barriers destroyed" Toronto electronic-punk-bleep-pop duo Crystal Castles is music that could only be made in the post-modern / post-millennium era, with a fan base that remembers the 8-bit era. Some dance music is meant to be played in the dark, but few dance bands bring their own darkness. This is dance music for sociopaths. Crystal Castles is the brain-child of Ethan Kath. The band began as a Kath solo project in 2003, but the producer recruited a 15-year-old Alice Glass to add vocals. Glass recorded rough soundcheck vocals for five tracks, which were secretly recorded by an en engineer, and Kath uploaded the material un der the name Crystal Castles. After rele...
Post a Comment
Read more

FKA twigs

99 FKA twigs FKA twigs FKA twigs is the brain-child of Tahliah Barnett. Under her stage-name of FKA twigs (which I'll just refer to her as twigs from here-on-out) she has released three EP’s (2012’s EP1 , 2013’s EP2 , and 2015’s incredible M3LL155X EP )  and two albums (2014’s LP1 & 2019’s Magdalene ). With someone with such a small catalogue, it's amazing how dense and rich this music is. Before Billie Eilish made the whole whisper-singer mainstream last year, twigs was already releasing down-tempo-trip-hop-whisper-sung music back in 2012. That is when she released her debut, EP1 . twigs hqd been studying dance since the age of six, but deep down, she knew she always wanted to be a recording artist so she eventually left the dancing behind (in a way [dance has always been a big part of her project]) to focus on her music project. However, limiting to just a music project is doing it an injustice in labeling. It’s more of a visual-dancing-art project. Ever ev...
Post a Comment
Read more