Miami summer has two extremes: one minute it’s sunny and sweltering hot, and the next, it’s tempestuous winds and pouring rain. And this polarity has a tendency to control people’s moods. Las Nubes, the ever-evolving Miami-based rock project led by Ale Campos and Emile Milgrim, has learned how to weather it all.
Before forming Las Nubes and releasing their 2019 debut LP, SMVT (released through Miami’s own Sweat Records Records), Campos and Milgrim were already mainstays on the Miami music scene, both performing in bands and producing music for over a decade. With SMVT, Las Nubes not only reintroduced themselves to the scene through their fuzzy, bilingual, 90s-influenced punk rock meets dream pop sound, but they also received significant acclaim for the album’s singles “Hellbag” and “QSW.”
Since then, Las Nubes has extensively toured the U.S. and Mexico and has shared the stage with Shannon and the Clams, Jens Lekman, The Coathangers, Sheer Mag, Mark Sultan, Torche, Alice Bag, and with the legendary Iggy Pop as his first all-female lineup of The Stooges (as captured on the ‘Live Nubes’ collection). SMVT’s debut allowed them to release a number of other small projects, including the Split EP with Miami locals Palomino Blond, a cassette release of live and session tracks called ‘Live Nubes,’ and “Enredados b/w Drop-In,” their newest 7” single. Their work has earned them the title of Miami New Times’ Best Band of 2019, a “distinction they’ve earned through hard work and infectious hooks,” and landed them recognition on NPR’s Alt.Latino, Remezcla, Rolling Stone, and Brooklyn Vegan.
On June 14, again working with engineer/producer Jonathan Nunez (Torche), Las Nubes will release their sophomore LP, ‘Tormentas Malsanas’ through Sweat Records Records, Spinda Records (EU), and Godless America (cassette). The title translates to “unhealthy storms,” a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the reality of living through Miami summers. Similar to the way a clear day turns gray with the threat of inclement weather, Tormentas Malsanas addresses common and uncommon struggles — from the difficulties of starting a family as a female musician and the pains of getting older without a lucid understanding of where you’re going, to Covid depression, and the desire to stand up against injustice in a productive way — through the energetic buoyancy of Las Nubes’s trademark loud as hell, garage pop sound. The heavy emotions addressed through the lyrics crossed with their vibrant and dynamic instrumental arrangements give the album a sense of hopefulness that reminds listeners: even the most turbulent moments don’t last forever.
The album’s lead single “Enredados,” along with its music video, was released on October 18, 2023, via Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace / Daydream Library and was featured in EFE EME and Ruta 66 and on BBC Radio 6 Music. The next single, “Pesada,” will be released on May 17th.
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