Domenic Palermo, founder of Philly shoegaze group Nothing, has had an interesting life.
Domenic Palermo, founder of Philly shoegaze group Nothing, has had an interesting life.
Palermo got his start in music with the hardcore group Horror Show who you’re forgiven for being unfamiliar with as the group’s rise was cut short. Horror Show managed to only release two EPs–The Holiday and Our Design–before dissolving after Palermo went to prison for aggravated assault and attempted murder after stabbing a man in an altercation.
Prison gave Palermo time to think, and after leaving jail (and a short musical hiatus) Palermo returned to Philly’s music scene a changed man.
“I didn’t know what else to do with my life, what would make me want to wake up every day,” Palermo said in a 2014 interview with Philadelphia City Paper. “I really struggled with that for like four years and, not to sound dramatic or anything, but I thought about blowing my brains out every day.”
After four years of soul-searching he released “Poshlost” under the name Nothing, his first release since leaving jail. The EPs Sun and Lovers and Downward Years to Come followed soon after.
Relapse Records, a traditionally metal label, signed Nothing in 2013 and the group released their critically lauded debut Guilty of Everything the following year. The group’s sophomore attempt, Tired of Tomorrow burst onto the scene just a couple of months ago but has already helped cement the group as shoegaze-gold standards.
Palermo and the other members of Nothing all have backgrounds in hardcore and punk, and there’s definitely a different feel to their form of shoegaze. In a genre made famous by bands like My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive and Jesus and the Mary Chain, Nothing stands out as a permutation of the sub-genre, refusing to change their hardcore sensibilities for a shoegaze sound.
Wh “[I]t’s our way of staying a punk rock band. It doesn’t sound right when the volume isn’t loud,” said Palermo in an interview with Vice’s Noisey earlier this year.
You can catch Nothing tonight at Strange Matter along with Culture Abuse and Richmond’s very own Keep. Tickets are $16 and doors open at 7.
Nothing will also be playing a free acoustic set at Vinyl Conflict at 4.
