The Days of Lore

Nothing People are something

Friday, March 26th, 2010 | musiX, pdX | No Comments

It must have been the summer of 2005 when I first saw Nothing People. The party had died down, and I decided to go for a walk. The stars were clear and bright that night, as if you could reach out and touch them.

The blur of light came from my left, ripping open the sky—triangular with three tiny, flickering dots of light—and moved much faster than any man-made aircraft. I followed its trajectory for what must have been two seconds before it disappeared into the black night and …

… so I actually did first discover Nothing People at a party in 2005, but they didn’t emerge from the sky … though I’m still convinced they’re not of this Earth. The nameless, faceless four-piece (members only go by Ør, Øs, Ød and Ød) have been making noise at their secluded home base in Orland, California since 2004. I picture it as this sort of Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory littered with vintage instruments, effects pedals, analog synths … a high-voltage traveling arc.

Nothing People’s music follows suit—an experiment that has produced something oft misunderstood (those who do know, know, and are incredibly intelligent, attractive people). The band released their appropriately titled Anonymous LP on S-S Records in 2008, a record that took the garage rawk of Thirteenth Floor Elevators and made it a lot darker and creepier. The following year they came out with the more down-tempo Late Night. The band’s latest Soft Crash finds a (un)happy medium between ambient rock and glitchy chaos—listen to “Avoiding Needles” and discover for yourself.

The enigmatic Nothing People (who may or may not have ties to San Fran’s Light Sleepers) don’t play out very often, and you’d be hard pressed to find any distinguishable photos of the members. But who knows? Perhaps you have seen them. As one member put it to me a few years ago: “We’re in front of you in line at the market, in the car next to you at the intersection, in the seat behind you on the bus.”

Photo by Canderson

“Avoiding Needles” - Nothing People

“Since You’ve Been Gone” - Nothing People

Tags: Anonymous, Late Night, Light Sleepers, Nothing People, S-S Records, Soft Crash