When singer-songwriter Dylan Baldi began recording hyper-catchy and often deliriously distorted guitar-pop songs on a computer in his parents’ Cleveland basement, he was doing it alone—juggling every instrument and singing undefinable lyrics that used obtuse abstractions as much as they did teenage diary. The young, once-tuxedoed concert saxophonist started releasing a flurry of lo-fi earworms across 7” singles, cassette splits, benefit compilations, and one album, Turning On. Released by Carpark in 2010, the album will be reissued on vinyl in 2020 for its 10-year anniversary.
With the 2000s coming to a close, blog circuit hype was enough to book the then-18-year-old as the opener at a Brooklyn show with members of the next class of Internet-acclaimed “indie rock” bands. Baldi quickly formed a group with friends from the Cleveland music scene and drove to New York. Amidst a year of touring, Baldi recorded a self-titled album alone, this time in a studio, with a producer, and the backing of Carpark Records.
But forming that initial live band proved to be the key component to the project’s success. Together, as a unit, they shattered blog expectations with the 2012 release of Attack on Memory: an angry, often-in-the-red album composed of vocal-shredding jams about malaise, as well as tightly-wound pop songs about violence and confusion. What followed were brutal albums of hook-filled harshness (2014’s Here and Nowhere Else and 2018’s Last Building Burning) and stunning melodic clarity (2017’s Life Without Sound and 2020’s The Black Hole Understands), each distinctly different.
Cloud Nothings has brought their cathartic live show to stages around the globe, including festivals like Coachella, Primavera Sound, Bonnaroo, and Pitchfork. Home audiences have seen them on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Last Call with Carson Daly, A.V. Club's Undercover series (notoriously reimagining Coldplay's "Clocks"), multiple KEXP sessions, and much more.
Time | Venue | Age | |
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Blaster The Rocketman / The Rectors / Gringo Motel | 7:30pm | Kung Fu Necktie | 21+ |
Time | Venue | Age | |
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PRISM Saxophone Quartet (w/ Special Guests Leyla McCalla, Rez Abbasi, and Steven Mackey) | 8:00pm | Solar Myth | 21+ |
Lights / KiNG MALA | 8:00pm | Music Hall at World Cafe Live | All Ages |
American Aquarium / Justin Wells | 8:00pm | The Lounge at World Cafe Live | All Ages |
Time | Venue | Age | |
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Scott Churchman / Flanafi / Cold Court | 6:00pm | Spruce Street Harbor | All Ages |
Lily Seabird / Mary St.Mary / Shannen Moser | 7:00pm | Ortlieb's | 21+ |
Sloptart / Total Whine / Septic Bath | 7:00pm | Nikki Lopez | 21+ |
ZG Smith | 8:30pm | The Lounge at World Cafe Live | All Ages |
Time | Venue | Age | |
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Nympho (tape release show) / Positronix / Cult Objects | 7:00pm | Nikki Lopez | 21+ |
Haunt Me / Stare Away / Twin Princess | 7:00pm | Silk City | 21+ |
J Roddy Walston / Patton Magee | 7:15pm | Kung Fu Necktie | 21+ |
Courting / Slow Ficition / Friend / Monstera | 7:30pm | Foto Club | All Ages |
Ghostlike / Creek / Farewell Days / Skeever | 7:30pm | Ortlieb's | 21+ |
The Dissidents / Vitriolic Response / Kartel / Noogy / Nightfall | 8:00pm | Cousin Danny's | All Ages |
Pop Baby / Antique / Scuemi | 8:00pm | PhilaMOCA | All Ages |