The typographical style used by the emo hip-hop artist nothing,nowhere. is designed to aggravate uptight usage hawks, copy editors and anal-retentive readers who were — probably — schooled in the 20th century, with those quaint ideas about consistency and rules. If your eye and brain got tripped up by the seemingly errant punctuation and spacing in that last sentence, then you, too, may be an old person.
Joe Mulherin is a Massachusetts-born indie rapper who now lives in Vermont and performs under the name nothing,nowhere. Mulherin is a straight-edge vegan and he raps/sings about depression, loneliness, self-loathing and being suicidal.
One might listen to Mulherin’s recorded output and view it as a request for mental-health assistance. The dude radiates sadness. Recent releases have had titles like “Bummer,” “Reaper,” “Letdown” and “Ruiner.” The songs may also be a successful creative distillation of negative vibes into music. One hopes. The atmosphere is moody, with ticking trap-ish beats and brooding skeletal minor-key guitar figures over which Mulherin sketches haunting and sad scenarios.
See nothing,nowhere. at Space Ballroom, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden, on Saturday, March 3, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15. 203-288-6400, spaceballroom.com
