S
OUNDTRACK: CLOUD CULT-“That Man Jumped Out the Window” (Field Recordings, September 12, 2012).
I feel like I know the name Cloud Cult, but this song sounded entirely alien to me. This was an other Field Recording [Cloud Cult: A Moment Of Serenity] set backstage at Sasquatch! Music Festival.
I love the drama that they set up with this blurb
We were about to call it. The band was running late, our phone service wasn’t working well backstage in the remoteness of the Sasquatch Music Festival in rural Washington state, and the next band was about to begin on the main stage nearby — thus making the prospect of a Field Recording impossible. Then, suddenly, a white van rolled up, straight from the main gate, and out popped six musicians with stringed and brass instruments. Within minutes, they’d set up, sound-checked and performed a jaw-dropping rendition of “That Man Jumped Out the Window” (from 2005’s Advice From the Happy Hippopotamus) with no practice whatsoever.
I enjoy the orchestral nature of this song–reminding me of many other bigger bands that I like quite a lot.
It took me a couple of listens to “get” this song–there’s a lot of different vocal parts, almost as responses to the main part.
It opens with an acoustic guitar and is accompanied by strings and a French horn. But the main verse is all acoustic guitar and cello (with stark backing vocals–the vocals are not really pretty exactly (they’re not un-pretty either), just powerful).
I’m not sure that this song is all that memorable for me, but I love reading this about the band:
More a family than a band, the Minneapolis collective does everything with purpose, talent and conviction, from its environmentally conscious lifestyle — in which it self-produces and releases albums from its geothermal-powered organic farm — to its charitable efforts to its emotive, even cathartic songwriting.
The song is quite pretty–although I wonder if it would be more so in a fuller setting. But as It ended, I found myself enjoying it and wanting to hear it again. Someone asks if they should do another take.
Then, just as the song ended and the band members finally had a chance to view the majestic natural scenery around them — and as we prepared to record another take, just in case — the festival roared back to life. But for those few minutes, we were able to stop, breathe and take in the emotional significance of a moment of serenity. At which point Cloud Cult piled back into the van and rode off to its next gig.
[READ: April 7, 2016] “Indianapolis (Highway 74)”
This story was published in the New Yorker just eight weeks after the previous Sam Shepard story. I had to look him up and it is the same Shepard who has been writing since forever. But he is not especially known for his noir books. His style has changed over the years although he does often write about rootless characters and absurdist ideas.
So this story is about a rootless character, “I’ve been crisscrossing the country again, without much reason.” This character drives all over the place for long stretches of time. On this particular night with a blizzard heading into town, he pulls into a Holiday Inn (more for its familiar green logo and predictability than anything else).
But when he asks for a room, they are booked. There is some kind of hot rod convention in town–which he thinks is odd for the winter, but whatever.
The concierge tells him that there is one room that might be available–the people haven’t shown up and are going to call to confirm whether the weather will prevent them from showing up.
So he waits. (more…)
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I have never been a huge beach Boys fan. They’re just not my thing–especially the early stuff. And yet, at the same time, I know all of their hits and will undoubtedly sing along to every one of them. So the thought of seeing Brian Wilson (especially at the stage in his life) never really appealed.
I Just Read About That... 