Philly Band of the Year: Nothing!

Is it our job to be cunning? That’s the question we ponder every December when we try to decide who gets the “local band/artist of the year” title. War on Drugs won the Top 21 voting in a landslide, so if you think they’re a worthy choice you are correct. But Adam Granduciel already graced our cover once this year and, given the worldwide acclaim he and the band have been deservedly scoring, we figure they don’t need us anymore.

For 2014 we decided yes, let’s be cunning. Let’s pick an amazing, hardworking, hard-touring rock band with a killer album who could probably use the attention. With that as the criteria, the band Nothing emerged from the crowded field and just wouldn’t go away.

Guilty of Everything is a ferocious full-length debut. It’s sonically and thematically heavy, thick with pharmacological shoegazing gorgeousness but anchored by the players’ backgrounds in blunt-force hardcore. Guitars swirl. Drums pound. It’s spooky, dramatic, emotional, formidable and fearsome. Sometimes all at once.

Play it loud, cause that’s how they do it live. Nothing believes in the healing power of volume, in baptizing listeners in waves of transmogrifying noise. Sound guys hate them. Frontman Nicky Palermo, lord of the hushed scream, likes it when he gets swallowed up in the dense migraine maelstrom. But when his voice does rise above, it burns with heartache, isolation and defiance. Explosive stuff. 

Nothing plays Making Time Fri., Dec. 19, 9 p.m.-4 a.m., $2, with DJs Dave P. & Sammy Slice, Mike Z., Dave Pak, Rocktits!, Broadzilla and Greg D., Voyeur, 1221 St. James St., makingtimeisrad.com.

See Also:

• More Great Local Music from 2014
• The Top 21 Albums of the Year
• Rounding Out the Top 50
• Who Voted for What