By Wendy // Cloud Cult is possibly the most interesting indie band you’ve never heard of. Formed in 1995 by Minnesotan Craig Minowa, the band’s unique combination of hopeful lyrics, chamber acoustics, and performance art fit right in against projects like The Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse and Broken Social Scene.
It’s Minowa’s unflinching earnestness that carries the sound on their newest record: Alchemy Creek. Though the work is not necessarily autobiographical, it bears all the scars of an artist picking pieces back up after a long, lonely period of reflection and trying to glue them back together. In “I am a Force Field”, Minowa defiantly screeches “I think you’re gonna get better with a little self esteem”, comparing himself to Christopher Robin, as he opines needing the help of imaginary friends to make it through.On the opposite end of the spectrum is “Tonight I Run Away”, one of the more jubilant tracks on the album, which features a harmonic, swelling bridge reminding the listener it doesn’t always have to be this hard. Context feels key here: Alchemy Creek was written in a mobile recording studio, parked in the Wisconsin wilderness, where Minowa lived in isolation for two years. He was processing a divorce from longtime partner and collaborator Connie Minowa, the painter known for working on pieces during live Cloud Cult shows. He wrote most of the songs and recorded them from the trailer in the woods, and If you listen hard enough, you can hear the titular creek on some of the tracks. All of this is extremely reflective, if you pardon the creek pun, of the natural focus that is a recurring theme for the band. The group commits to green practices on tour, as well as eco-friendly merch and packaging, a nod to Craig Minowa’s environmentalist background, established well before such a thing was commonplace.
The themes at work throughout the album can be applied easily to the visuals in accompanying music videos. For the recent single, “The Universe Woke Up as You”, Minowa stares directly at the viewer from a camera monitor for nearly the entire duration of the track. Landscapes fly past him; his children dance around the frame and sometimes dress him or nearly make him break character, but his gaze never shifts. He is both piercing and vulnerable; it feels closer to a Marina Abromavich performance than a song.
Alchemy Creek is out August 8, kicking off a roughly seven week tour.
The band hits New England August 28, playing the Sinclair in Cambridge, MA. Buy tickets here. A portion of each sale goes to the Shout Syndicate, a local nonprofit dedicated to arts education.
