MUSIC
Supergroup in Reverse: The Afterlife of cLOUDDEAD
/ Ben Bush
11.13.07
SUPERGROUP IN REVERSE:
Yoni Wolf, Odd Nosdam, Doseone and the Afterlife of cLOUDDEAD
Every once in a great while when a band breaks up, it’s like a supergroup in reverse; each performer’s independent project is packed with an exactness of vision that seemed impossible in collaboration: as if Bob Dylan had always just been the guy who played rhythm guitar in the Traveling Willburys and then – Bam! – came out with Blonde on Blonde; a complete inversion of the rock archetype of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatle blandness.
Eccentric hip-hop trio, cLOUDDEAD, part of the Anticon collective, formed in Cincinnati in 1999 and relocated to Oakland together in 2001. Producer Odd Nosdam (David Madson) built murky soundscapes from archaic keyboards, flea market reel-to-reel tapes and a Roland SP-202 “Dr. Sample” while rappers Doseone (Adam Drucker) and Why? (Yoni Wolf) overlapped non-sequitur lyrics about paint-spattered eye-glasses, their neighborhoods and the universality of death. As self-described shut-ins who shared apartments in various permutations, on their albums they sound telepathically close: Why? and Doseone completing each others’ sentences while the production mirrors their hypnotic, sometimes morbid humor.
cLOUDDEAD split up in 2004 on the verge of something that might look like success if you squinted at it just right: a recording session with BBC tastemaker DJ John Peel, a remix by Boards of Canada and the cover of Wire magazine for their final album. The trio dissolved in hopes of preserving their increasingly acrimonious friendships and due to “creative differences”––a term that always recalls press release boilerplate, but which now, in retrospect, seems astonishingly true. After storming off in disparate artistic directions, each has created unusual, innovative work.
Yoni Wolf, Odd Nosdam, Doseone and the Afterlife of cLOUDDEAD
Every once in a great while when a band breaks up, it’s like a supergroup in reverse; each performer’s independent project is packed with an exactness of vision that seemed impossible in collaboration: as if Bob Dylan had always just been the guy who played rhythm guitar in the Traveling Willburys and then – Bam! – came out with Blonde on Blonde; a complete inversion of the rock archetype of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatle blandness.
Eccentric hip-hop trio, cLOUDDEAD, part of the Anticon collective, formed in Cincinnati in 1999 and relocated to Oakland together in 2001. Producer Odd Nosdam (David Madson) built murky soundscapes from archaic keyboards, flea market reel-to-reel tapes and a Roland SP-202 “Dr. Sample” while rappers Doseone (Adam Drucker) and Why? (Yoni Wolf) overlapped non-sequitur lyrics about paint-spattered eye-glasses, their neighborhoods and the universality of death. As self-described shut-ins who shared apartments in various permutations, on their albums they sound telepathically close: Why? and Doseone completing each others’ sentences while the production mirrors their hypnotic, sometimes morbid humor.
cLOUDDEAD split up in 2004 on the verge of something that might look like success if you squinted at it just right: a recording session with BBC tastemaker DJ John Peel, a remix by Boards of Canada and the cover of Wire magazine for their final album. The trio dissolved in hopes of preserving their increasingly acrimonious friendships and due to “creative differences”––a term that always recalls press release boilerplate, but which now, in retrospect, seems astonishingly true. After storming off in disparate artistic directions, each has created unusual, innovative work.
