Cloud Cult is an experimental indie rock band from
Minneapolis, Minnesota led by singer/songwriter Craig Minowa. The
name originated from the ancient prophecies of indigenous North
Americans.
Cloud Cult developed in 1995 as Craig Minowa recruited several
other artists to contribute to his solo recordings. The band's
early work earned Cloud Cult several offers from record labels, but
all were rejected in favor of self-publishing.[2] As they began to
play live, one of their show's most distinctive features was the
live painting by Connie Minowa and Scott West - over the course of
a show they each complete a painting that is auctioned off at the
end.
In 1997, lead singer Craig Minowa formed Earthology Records on
his organic farm, powered by geothermal energy and built partially
from reclaimed wood and recycled plastic. This nonprofit label uses
only recycled materials and donates all profits to environmental
charities. The band also tours in a biodiesel van.
In the year 2002, shortly after the unexpected death of his two
year old son Kaidin, Minowa wrote over a hundred songs to deal with
the loss. Another Cloud Cult album came in the summer of 2002,
titled Lost Songs from the Lost Years, a ten-year anthology of
previously unreleased work from Minowa. They Live on the Sun was
finished in 2003 and went to #1 on college radio station charts
across the country. In January 2004, Cloud Cult added Mara Stemm on
bass and released Aurora Borealis just six months later. The album
was nominated by the Minnesota Music Awards as “Album of the Year”
along with Prince and Paul Westerberg. With a van covered in solar
panels, the band began touring nationally. In 2006 Cloud Cult
released Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus, which Pitchfork called
“insane genius” and rated the album with an 8.3. The Denver Post
ranked the 2007 release The Meaning of 8 as one of the top ten
albums of the past decade, along with bands like Modest Mouse, The
Flaming Lips and Radiohead.
Cloud Cult released a new album entitled Feel Good Ghosts
(Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) on April 8, 2008. The album was
recorded and produced at Minowa’s small organic farm in Northern
Minnesota. "The place is so far out in the boonies, you can barely
find it, because it’s not on the maps," said Dan Montalto, an MTV
Producer who brought a camera crew to the farm to film a short MTV
feature on the band.
Craig has said that this might be the final Cloud Cult album: "I
don't think there's going to be another Cloud Cult album for a
while. It could be never, I don't know."[6] The band's website says
that "the band plans to take a short respite to focus on family in
the latter part of 2008 and into 2009."[7]
In October 2008, Cloud Cult was featured in an animated Esurance
commercial. The band is shown playing the song "Lucky Today" while
floating on clouds. This and other songs are available for free
downloads on the Esurance website.
In the spring of 2009 Cloud Cult released "No One Said It Would
Be Easy" a full length documentary about the
band.
This cache is part of a series of caches dedicated to
Minnesota Music and to the musicians who have a strong connection
to Minnesota. Collect them all!
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MN
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MN
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MN
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MN
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MN
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MN
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