Click here for photos of Cloud Nothings at 2015 80/35 Festival in Des Moines, IA
Click here for photos of Cloud Nothings at 2014 NOS Primavera Sound in Oporto, Portugal
Click here for photos of Cloud Nothings at SXSW 2014 in Austin, TX
Click here for photos of Cloud Nothings at Terminal 5 in New York, NY on October 15th, 2012
Click here for photos of Cloud Nothings at 2012 Beacons Festival in Skipton, U.K.
Click here for QRO’s review of Cloud Nothings at Cargo in London, U.K. on May 9th, 2012
Click here for photos of Cloud Nothings at CMJ 2011 in New York, NY
Click here for photos of Cloud Nothings at Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, OR on March 25th, 2011
Indie-rock and punk aren’t exactly at their peak at the moment, but there are still acts putting out solid new material – and not just legacies from the twentieth century. Cleveland’s Cloud Nothings have been doing it for coming up on a decade, but still feel young on Last Building Burning.
Admittedly, Last Building does definitely hew to their prior work in records like last year’s Life Without Sound (QRO review), 2014’s Here and Nowhere Else (QRO review), 2012’s Attack On Memory (QRO review), and 2011’s self-titled debut. But it’s a strong style, an emotional call from frontman Dylan Baldi in pieces such as “Leave Him Now” and closer “Another Way of Life”, plus “Dissolution” (though that song is marred by going into an extended punk jam – total track time almost eleven minutes – that can work live, but is unnecessary and indulgent on record). And the band again also pulls off sadder loss in “Offer an End” and the resigned “So Right So Clean”.
Indie-punk still has its place in today’s sonic landscape, for all of those who feel disaffected less by grand concepts of society and politics than the personal failings of life, and is delivered by the likes of Cloud Nothings.
