Philly pedal-mashers Nothing basically deserve credit for kicking off the recent boom in heavy shoegaze, and they're about to return with new music for the first time in a while. The band's last non-collaborative album was The Great Dismal, which came out almost exactly five years ago. In the time since then, Nothing teamed up with Full Of Hell for the excellent collaborative LP When No Birds Sing, and they kicked off their series of shoegaze-centric Slide Away festivals. (They've got Hum and Chapterhouse reunions coming up at next year's edition.) Now, Nothing are ready to return with a new LP called A Short History Of Decay, and that appetizing image that you see above is the cover art.
A Short History Of Decay is Nothing's first LP for new label home Run For Cover. This time around, the band includes two guitarists, Doyle Martin and Cam Smith, who are also in Cloakroom, as well as former Best Coast bassist Bobb Bruno and Manslaughter 777's Zachary Jones on drums. Frontman Nicky Palermo, the sole constant member of Nothing, wrote and produced the new LP with a longtime collabotor, Nicholas Bassett of the divisive shoegaze band Whirr. Nothing recorded at the Sonic Ranch in Texas. Mary Lattimore contributes to a couple of songs, and corridos musician Ricardo Ayub Chavira adds brass to one track.
On A Short History Of Decay, Nicky Palermo writes about getting older and about the onset of essential tremors, a neurological condition that runs in his family and that's apparently come to affect his singing voice. In a press release, Palermo says, "It’s another thing that just makes you think, 'My body’s in a decline right now. Things are starting to fall apart." The record literally ends with a song called "Essential Tremors."
There's a whole lot of My Bloody Valentine in lead single "Cannibal World." It's a bleary, urgent rush of noise driven by a looped-up breakbeat that Zachary Jones constructed from his own drums. The Ben Ditto-directed video is full rot imagery, some of which appears to be AI-generated. Below, check out the song, the album tracklist, and Nothing's upcoming tour dates.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Never Come Never Morning"
02 "Cannibal World"
03 "A Short History Of Decay"
04 "The Rain Don't Care"
05 "Purple Strings"
06 "Toothless Coal"
07 "Ballad Of The Traitor"
08 "Nerve Scales"
09 "Essential Tremors"
TOUR DATES:
2/08 - Tokyo, Japan @ UNIT *
2/09 - Tokyo, Japan @ FEVER
5/15 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount ^
5/16 - Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Paramount ^
5/22 - Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom ^
5/23 - Chicago, IL @ Aragon Ballroom ^
5/29 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium ^
5/30 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium ^
- with Envy^ Slide Away festival
A Short History Of Decay is out 2/27 on Run For Cover.
