Cloud Nothings

Published 7:00 am Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Cleveland’s Cloud Nothings is the solo project of one Dylan Baldi, who is nineteen and dropped out of college to focus on writing scrambling, buzzing, lo-fi pop-punk tunes, many of which were composed and recorded in his parents’ basement. Baldi’s full-length debut hyperactively clashes sugary melodies with blasting, spazzing guitars and vocals–kind of like a less-bratty Nathan Williams. His music is adolescent in a lovable, we’ve-all-been-there kind of way; on one song, he petulantly repeats, “I don’t understand at all,” on another, caught in the gleeful grip of first love, he sings, “We never go to bed/ We just stay up and talk instead.” With tunes this promising, who needs textbooks and dorm rooms? With Toro Y Moi, Braids. ERIN K. THOMPSON

Sun., March 27, 8 p.m., 2011