Cloud Nothings

When they dropped their third LP, Attack on Memory, in January of 2012, Cleveland trio Cloud Nothings cemented their position as one of indie rock’s most exciting prospects, but I’m still not convinced that anybody really saw April’s Here and Nowhere Else coming. Put simply, it’s one of the records of the year; an absolutely furious half-hour exercise in channeling raw punk energy into a straightforward rock and roll template. Veteran producer John Congleton sat behind the desk on the sessions, but frankly, I’m not sure anybody else was needed; between the three of them, Cloud Nothings poured more than enough vigour into the album. Needless to say, it’s a joy to behold live, especially when the band tap into the progressive stylings of the seven-minute-plus ‘Pattern Walks’ or the breezy-then-aggressive ‘Psychic Trauma’. Frontman Dylan Baldi’s delightfully unrefined vocal style comes to the fore on stage, but the real star is the drummer, Jayson Gerycz, who plays with such unbridled ferocity that at points, you wonder if he’s going to generate enough energy to send himself into orbit. Mark my words when I say that Here and Nowhere Else is going to go down as a classic of the genre; you should catch Cloud Nothings live while you can, because if they carry on at this pace, they won’t be playing intimate rooms for much longer.