INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Cloud Cult, The Forms, Sisters
Cloud CultSaturday, April 12, 8 p.m., $10, 21+
There’s something life-affirming in Cloud Cult’s wondrously miscellaneous music. The Minnesota collective channels life’s capriciousness into its blend of freak-based folk, indie rock, daft orchestration and dashes of electronica.
“The songs themselves are reflections of life, and life is incredibly diverse and unpredictable,” bandleader Craig Minowa says.
Although Cloud Cult takes its name from Native American prophecies, Minowa doesn’t directly address politics or the environment in his lyrics. He’s more concerned about living in harmony with nature than talking about it, hewing close to the goal of leaving as small a natural footprint as possible. The Minowas own an organic farm; their label, Earthology Records, uses only recycled materials; and tour pollution is reduced through use of a biodiesel van and energy offsets.
“My parents were compassionate Christians,” says Minowa, who was once fired from a Pizza Hut for hiding all its aerosol cans and replacing them with equivalent oil and hand sprayers. “My dad worked with farmers, so me and my sisters were raised with respect for other living things.”
Science, like Cloud Cult’s music, is ever evolving. The Minowas are now looking to switch from biodiesel to vegetable oil after learning the former isn’t as beneficial as once thought, thanks to its takeover by large-scale agribusiness. It’s those types of inconsistencies that keep Minowa from effecting an I-told-you-so attitude.
“It is nice to see it getting trendy,” Minowa says. “There was a long period in the early days where reviewers and even the listeners were cynical about it and would give us a hard time. It’s nice to see it finally hit mainstream mentality, that people are doing it more because it has hit that point of understanding.”