Nothing | photo by Ryan Lowry | courtesy of the artist
Nothing pours it all into the 7-minute ballad “Carpenter’s Son”
Each song Philly shoegazers Nothing drops off highly anticipated Dance On The Blacktop, out August 24th on Relapse, is another tile in the mosaic masterpiece this album promises to be. Frontman and songwriter Domenic Palermo holds back nothing on latest track “The Carpenter’s Son,” pouring his entire self into this 7-minute ballad.
It’s hard not to draw a Slowdive comparison here, as the song has a that familiar suspended, floating feeling with sleepy, murmured vocals, slow-trudging bass and drum beats like heavy footsteps. The lyrics carry a tone of despondency, the drearily repeated hook, “Nothing’s a surprise,” holding the weight of every hurt. Every word feels like a strained effort, the music a dense wall of doom metal.
The story behind “The Carpenter’s Son” is centered around the death of Palermo’s father. “I’ve lost many people at this point in my life and this only felt like another–nothing more. I think the song really just speaks of the expectations of existence and how there aren’t really many,” he says in a press release.
Nothing plays at Union Transfer October 6th; tickets and more information on the show can be found at the XPN Concert Calendar.