This Is Our Jam: Cloud Nothings, “Stay Useless”

With their new single, Cloud Nothings sum up their sound in two words: “Stay Useless.” It’s the stereotypical sentiment that lead a generation of Gen X'ers to to sit around their parents' basements debating Star Wars (or so Kevin Smith would have us believe), and it’s the sound that producer Steve Albini (Nivana, The Pixies, PJ Harvey, and Shellac) brings to the band in full force.

In the hands of frontman Dylan Baldi and Albini, this slacker ethos becomes a blistering pop-punk ode to the lazy, frustrated lethargy of our not-so-distant past. When Baldi sings, “I need time to stop moving / I need time to stay useless,” you can imagine it playing during an Empire Records montage or echoing over the concrete of a half-empty DIY venue. Even their album title, Attack on Memory, could be seen as a nod to the halcyon days of zines and mixtape love letters. Does Baldi, a twenty year old millennial from Cleveland, have more than a passing memory of these times? Turns out, it doesn't matter. As self-consciously ‘90s as “Stay Useless” sounds, it’s not as if Baldi’s qualms will ever be dated; we all need time to chill out.