Cloud Nothings

All Music Guide:

Cloud Nothings' prolific lo-fi pop is the brainchild of Dylan Baldi, a Cleveland, Ohio native who was still in his teens when the buzz about his music started. Baldi was majoring in audio recording at college when he dropped out to focus on his home recordings. After a few months, he uploaded the songs “Hey Cool Kid” and “Whaddaya Wanna Know” to his MySpace page, which led to gigs with Woods and Real Estate, and 2010 singles released via Group Tightener and Old Flame Records. That year, Cloud Nothings also released a split cassette with Campfires and the Turning On EP. On the strength of all this music, Baldi signed to Carpark in the U.S. and to Wichita Records in the U.K.; Turning On was reissued with selected tracks from his other singles. Along with dates with Wavves, Titus Andronicus, and Best Coast, Baldi began work on Cloud Nothings' full-length debut in Baltimore, Maryland’s Copycat Building studio with producer Chester Gwazda. The results of those sessions became Cloud Nothings, which arrived in January 2011. Later that year, Baldi and his band went into the studio with Steve Albini; the result of these sessions was 2012's much rawer, heavier Attack on Memory. That July, the Live @ the Grog Shop EP, which captured a particularly blistering set from Cloud Nothings' tour, was released.

Wikipedia:

Cloud Nothings is an American indie-rock band from Cleveland, Ohio, founded by singer-songwriter Dylan Baldi. It consists of lead singer and guitarist Baldi, drummer Jayson Gerycz, guitarist Joe Boyer, and bassist TJ Duke.

Beginning in 2009, the band originally began as a solo project, with Baldi recording both vocals and instrumentals in his parents' basement, although he performed live with the current band line-up.

The band is signed with Washington, D.C.-based Carpark Records. Their third album Attack On Memory was released on January 24, 2012.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).

History[edit]

In 2009, Baldi spent his first semester as a freshman at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, with a major in saxophone performance. During weekends, Baldi returned to his parents' basement in Westlake, Ohio, to record music using GarageBand. He later created several fake bands, each with their own Myspace page on which Baldi featured his original music. Baldi created the music "for personal enjoyment, to see if I could write a song that was better than the last song I wrote." One of the fake bands Baldi created was Cloud Nothings.

Cloud Nothings' music caught the attention of Bridgetown Records who offered to release the first EP Turning On. Soon after the EP release, underground rock promoter Todd Patrick, from New York City, New York, invited the band to perform at Market Hotel in Brooklyn, New York, opening for the bands Woods and Real Estate. The invitation prompted Baldi to gather a band for the performance in December 2009.

Realizing the potential success of the band, Baldi dropped out of college. He wrote a seven-page e-mail to his parents that explained his decision to work in music full-time. "They were cool with it," explained Baldi. "They trusted me. They've been supportive of me."

Carpark Records signed Cloud Nothings as a one-man band in 2010. Working with producer Chester Gwazda, the band released Cloud Nothings in January 2011. The album received favorable reviews. Pitchfork Media's David Bevan gave the self-titled album a 7.9 out of 10, writing "the result is another fantastic step forward, though not without some growing pains." Meanwhile, NME's Thomas Ward rated the album with a 7 out of 10. Cloud Nothings is "a fun, frenetic and crisp debut that is more resplendent than his lo-fi scuzz."

The band's third album, Attack On Memory, was released in January 2012. It was the first album in 2012 to receive "Best New Music" status on Pitchfork.com.

By December 2012, the band had already begun writing their fourth studio album. In comparison to Attack On Memory, Baldi described the new material as being noiser, less melodic and less straightforward, with at least one song sounding like early Wire.Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).