the a.r.w. recommends: Cloud Cult
In 1995, an experimental indie rock group was formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota by the name of Cloud Cult. The band (consisting of a cellist, violinist, bassist, drummer and two visual artists who create paintings at live shows) was recruited by singer/songwriter Craig Minowa. Two years after the band formed, Minowa founded Earthology Records, a non-profit label that uses recycled materials for its albums, donates profits to charity and whose buildings are powered by geothermal 
energy and constructed with recycled materials. Minowa also runs an organic farm and Cloud Cult tours on a biodiesel van. In addition to the environmentally friendly reputation, Minowa is known for his emotion-packed lyrics. In 2002, he composed over a hundred songs to deal with the loss of his infant son. Minowa elaborated on the origin of the band’s name in a 2007 interview:
It’s a sect of ancient North American indigenous prophecies that have been eerily accurate so far. There’s an incredibly interesting analysis in the prophecies of the balance between technology and nature. In a nutshell, the prophecies indicate that human kind will go through a massive transition due to inability to control some of the unexpected aspects of technology. Those that survive will be those that know how to live off the land. I used it as a project name when I wrote the album “Who Killed Puck?” We weren’t a live band back then, it was just a studio project. Butas new albums came together and the project turned into live performance I decided to stick with it.
The band has been compared to Arcade Fire and Postal Service (though I would venture to add !!! Chk Chk Chk in that mix), but they have an edge that is all their own. “The Meaning of 8″ and “Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes)” are two of their most recent albums, both of which are available online at their website. I’ve been listening to “The Meaning of 8″ nonstop for days now, indulging in a variety of strange noises and lyrics. The first few tracks on this album are inescapable, and it only gets better from there.
7 responses so far
Cloud Cult is an amazing band. I saw them live here in DC, and get this, they rock!!! OK, so if you’ve been listening to those two albums, without venturing over to my blog, see if you can guess the song from the following description:
“With a long and delicate instrumental introduction you may naively assume this is a calm song. Wrong. The scratchy and reserved voice that hesitantly enters the musical mix gradually picks up an entourage of accompanying voices and instrumentation. This is one huge momentum inducing sound that just keeps picking up intensity, grinding away that delicate introduction until at some point any pretense of calm and reserve is gone. This song rocks.”
First of all, YAY MINNEAPOLIS! And second of all, YAY CLOUD CULT!! I saw them live this past summer. Rumor around these parts was that they are done touring after this summer, but I’m not so sure. They recently did two shows that I know of, so we’ll have to wait and see!
Felicia, I was hoping that they would be playing this week (I arrive in Minneapolis tomorrow) but alas, they are not. Consider me bummed. Looking forward to visiting your city!
i’m excited to listen to this!
I’ll be downloading this ASAP. It sounds great from what it was compared to, plus !!!. It has to be good!
I just want to know about the Cloud Cult prophecies, dammit.
[...] Alaska is yet another recent indie-type discovery from Minnesota (my first Minnesota discovery was Cloud Cult). This band, formed only five years ago and with a mere two albums under their belt, will be [...]