The band: Adam McGrath (guitar, voice), Jim Carroll (guitar, voice), Johnny Northrup (bass, voice), Q (drums)
The hometowns: McGrath hails from Methuen; Carroll grew up in Worcester; Northrup moved from Plymouth to the North Shore; Q is from Grafton.
The sound: Progressive, melodic metal influenced by Guided By Voices
The back story: Two years ago McGrath was working with Carroll at Newbury Comics and discovered they had similar musical tastes. McGrath’s former band, CaveIn, was fizzling, and he was determined to get back into the recording studio and on the road.
“My goal was to do exactly what CaveIn was doing - get back on the road and play,” McGrath said.
The name: McGrath believes there are four other current bands named Clouds. “If any of the other bands come and hunt us down we’ll just change our name to the Crouds. Crouds with a U, not a W.”
The albums: Clouds released its debut full-length “Legendary Demo” in February 2007. The new “We Are Above You” drops June 3.
“The old one was very innocent,” said McGrath. “We recorded it in our practice space in a day.”
Clouds spent a bit more time and money on the new record. It took the band a whole week.
The titles: In case you’re a bit dense, “Legendary Demo” and “We Are Above You” both are jokes.
“There’s so much pretentiousness in music now,” said McGrath, “but most bands can’t back it up. They have the right eye shadow, but can’t back it up with the music. Our titles are a tongue-in-cheek statement on the pretentiousness of it all. We are making these
absurd titles and statements to weed out the people that would get offended.”
The tour: Starts June 24 in San Diego, with the Japanese band Boris and fellow Hydra Head label mate Torche. It arrives at the Middle East in Cambridge on July 11.
The show: Clouds plays Sunday, with DISFEAR and blood horse, at Great Scott in Allston.
The music: Listen to selections from Clouds at bostonherald.com/entertainment.
