Watch Nothing cover the Philly soul classic “La La Means I Love You”

Doomy Philly shoegazers Nothing will release an outtakes collection called The Great Dismal B-Sides on October 8th, and the latest teaser from it is a reinvention of a Philly Soul classic.

“La La Means I Love You” is an earnest, emotive song by The Delfonics; for their version, Nothing brings their noisy edge, but retains the sincere sentimentality of the original. This isn’t a mocking, ironic cover; it’s a song about love, and in this iteration, being saved by love in a world gone mad.

In a press release, Nothing frontperson Dominic Palermo has this to say of the cover:

In the 80’s my dad used to cruise around in Philly in this giant cherry red Lincoln he bought with who knows what money because we were broke. He would scoop me up on the occasional summer weekends after him and my mom divorced. I can remember climbing in and having to sit on my hands because the white vinyl seats would be burning hot from the sun. We’d cruise around the neighborhood with the windows down while he blasted Del, Stylistics, O Jay’s, Teddy P… a lot of old soul and funk. I always loved the strings and harmonies that were on these records and they stuck with me. I find myself looking to integrate those kind of soundscapes with guitars when I’m recording for NOTHING so this song seemed like it would be an almost lateral step for us, just obviously nowhere as cool.

Watch the video for “La La Means I Love You” below, pre-order The Great Dismal B-Sideshere, and catch Nothing live next month at one of their two Philly-area shows. They’ll kick off tour headlining Anchor Rock Club in Atlantic City on October 8th for an absolutely stacked bill with Soul Glo and Noun, and will also be at Union Transfer on October 16th with Frankie Rose and Enumclaw. Tickets and information on both can be found at the XPN Concert Calendar.