Today marks the birth of Cloud Cult bassist, trombonist and just all around great guy, Shawn Neary. Shawn turned 32 today and if you haven’t already, hit him up on Facebook and give him a little love! Not only is Shawn a huge part of Cloud Cult, he also has his own band as singer/songwriter called, Wapsipinicon. I recommend taking a listen to “Vans on Dupont” on their Myspace page, it’s one of my many favorites. -Cody York
Cloud Cult in-studio at WXPN (this recording coming soon!)
Greetings everyone, I’m back with some more great news! So during the entire Light Chasers tour, both East and West coast, Cloud Cult did several radio/ in-studio performances throughout the country. Including a performance at the infamous eTown studios in Boulder City, Colorado with singer-songwriter Shawn Mullins. I’m excited to announce that some of the recordings from a few of the different stations have now become available for your listening pleasure, some including videos too. Here is some more info along with the links, happy listening! -Cody York
eTown Performance:
During our Light Chasers West Coast tour this past September, we taped a performance for eTown which includes a great Tom Petty cover! A National Radio Broadcast Since 1991 eTown is an exciting weekly radio broadcast heard from coast to coast on NPR, public and commercial stations. Every eTown show is taped in front of a live audience and features performances from many of today’s top musical artists as well as conversations and information about the world around us. At eTown we, build community through music. During this performance we also auctioned off that nights painting to benefit the firefighters helping fight the Boulder area wildfires. The painting raised $5,000.00 for them!
Listen to our performance on eTown here: eTown podcast
More in-studio performances and videos:
89.3 The Current- Click Here
WNYC- Click Here
KEXP- Click Here
Today’s marks another birthday for a member of Cloud Cult. This time it’s Cloud Cult’s painter, Scott West and he turns 29 today…just kidding! 39, but he looks 29 right? I’ve got to get the brownie points in where I can. Congrats to Scott and be sure to check out all his stunning work at www.myritual.com and commission him for your very own painting! -Cody York
Cloud Cult drummer, Arlen Peiffer turns 23 today! Happy Birthday to you… If you think the above photo of him at 22 looks good, you should see him at 23. Hit him up on his Facebook page and show him some love! -Cody York
This is definitely one of my favorites photos from the West Coast leg of the tour. After playing our last show at The Roxy, Shawn, Arlen and I drove the van all the way back up to Salt Lake City, Utah from LA. Our stay in Salt Lake is a whole other story but after staying in S.L.C. for a day, Shawn decided to drive us 24hrs. straight through to his parents house in Des Moines, Iowa! Partially because he said there was nothing worth stopping for between S.L.C. and Des Moines, which is true, but the real reason is because Arlen made a bet with him, that if he made the 24hr. drive straight, by himself, that Arlen would buy him a $50 shopping spree to Hot Topic!
Unfortunately, we never made to Hot Topic the next morning but we had plenty of time to make a fun pit stop at this Cabin Coffee in Clear Lake, Iowa instead. If you ever find yourself driving up I-35, stop into Clear Lake. It actually sits on the edge of one of the only lakes in the entire state of Iowa and the best thing about it is, it has a Cabin Coffee. Given you’ve been driving for days and take down enough caffeine, magic happens there and the place transforms you into reckless cowboys. Just look what it did to Arlen and Shawn… -Cody York
Meet the M.E. 2010, short for the ‘Man Easel’, aka ‘The Coffin’. This is Cloud Cult painter, Scott West’s custom built case, that he constructed this year to house his new custom-built, aluminum, spinning easel he uses to paint with during Cloud Cult shows. It’s called the man easel because the cases were built out of solid plywood, they weigh a ton and it takes two people to lift them! It’s also been dubbed the ‘The Coffin’ for self-explanatory reasons. Scott has two cases, one for the upper half of the rotating easel and the other for the bottom portion and for his paint supplies etc. Here are some shots I took of it during the tour. Speaking of Scott, the final event for his Still show that’s been going on all month at Tarnish and Gold gallery in Minneapolis, is happening on Dec. 1st. If you haven’t been out to visit, be sure to check it out. For his closing, he’s having a panel discussion about the relationship between the visual arts & music. Given the panel members, it should be both insightful and entertaining! Here’s the Facebook link. -Cody York
Cloud Cult’s tour manager and sound guy, Jeff Johnson behind the wheel of the M.E. 2010.
Scott West and the upper portion of his custom, aluminum spinning easel.
As promised, I still have plenty of photos and stories to share with you from the Light Chasers tour. With that said, I forgot to mention the awesome duet that is Jacob and Amy, known as the band, Fort Wilson Riot. They opened and toured with us during the East Coast shows. Their new album ‘Predator/Prey’ is unbelievably awesome and if you haven’t hear them yet, you need to get acquainted fast! They’ll actually be opening for Cloud Cult’s ‘Light Chasers’ CD release party tomorrow night, and Thursday night at the legendary First Avenue Main room. So if your in the area, don’t miss out on seeing Fort Wilson Riot and Cloud Cult in action together. Also, check out this rad music video of their song “Love Song for Mabee Brulingham (Pieces of the War Pt. 1), so good!” -Cody York
Fort Wilson Riot performing at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale, Pa.
Cloud Cult after preforming live on the radio for WNYC!
Hello again, the East Coast tour may be officially done but the show is far from over. The band is back home now in Minneapolis, getting some much needed rest in preparation for some upcoming shows at the end of this month and for shows in December too. On that note, we would like to extend a huge thank you to all of you East Coast fans, who came out to the shows! Below are some special announcements about our radio plays and the complete schedule for all the upcoming shows throughout the Midwest. For more info or to purchase the new ‘Light Chasers’ album, go directly to www.cloudcult.com or check it out on iTunes. Also, please stay tuned right here to our Tumblr tour blog, as I’ll continue to be updating with it random photos and stories from the entire Light Chasers Tour….more soon. -Cody York
The band played at some great public radio stations during this past tour at WNYC and WXPN! We also have an air date for our appearance alongside Shawn Mullins on eTown. Our performance will be podcastable on eTown’s website soon and you’ll be able to listen to our performance on their show the week of Nov. 24-30th on a radio station near you. Go here: etown to find out when and where you can listen to the show in your area.
Two Nights at Minneapolis’ First Avenue!
Cloud Cult will be celebrating the release of their latest album “Light Chasers” with two nights in First Avenue’s Mainroom. Tickets are still available and you can find out more information on our website or here: 1st Ave you can also pick up tickets in person next door to First Avenue at The Depot or at the Electric Fetus. We will also be commemorating our two nights at 1st Ave. with a limited edition coin set… (just kidding), with a limited run T-shirt with our First Avenue star on the front. (about 6 months ago First Avenue gave Cloud Cult a star on their outside wall. Other bands with stars on the outside of the legendary club are Prince, Bon Iver, Pavement, Nirvana, Mason Jennings, Flaming Lips, Atmosphere, Cake and many, many more. Thanks again First Avenue!) We will only have a limited number of these shirts so you should get them when you arrive!
And finally…
*Ticket giveaway for 3 Minneapolis Cloud Cult events*
Click HERE for your chance to enter a chance to win tickets to see Cloud Cult’s performance in 89.3 The Current’s UBS Forum on Tuesday Nov. 16th. You’ll also get a ticket to one of Cloud Cult’s First Avenue shows and… a chance to watch cloud cult’s soundcheck before their November 18th show and eat some pizza with the band.
Upcoming Tour Dates:
Wednesday Nov. 17th Minneapolis, MN First Avenue (21+)
Thursday Nov. 18th Minneapolis, MN First Avenue (All Ages)
Saturday Nov. 20th Duluth, MN College of St. Scholastica
Thursday Dec. 9th Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall Ballroom (All Ages)
Friday Dec. 10th Chicago, IL The Metro (All Ages)
Saturday Dec. 11th Madison, WI The Majestic Theatre (All Ages)
A short while ago, we pulled up to the beautiful 20th Century Theatre here in Cincinnati, Ohio. The band is in the middle of soundcheck right now and getting everything dialed in. This is the last show before the band heads back up home to Minneapolis to finish out a few more shows at First Ave. and Duluth later this month. So if you’re in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, don’t miss out and come see us!
Secondly, we’ve been super busy the last couple of days, having a blast with non-stop shows and traveling. Saturday we played at Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan, Monday was in Washington DC at the Black Cat and last night was at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Milvale, PA. All the shows have been high energy, with amazing turnouts and we thank all you wonderful fans out there that came to see us! Here are some photos I took from the past 3 shows, to hold you over until I get a chance to dig up some more. Enjoy! -Cody York
Connie Minowa in the middle of her painting at the Le Poisson Rouge show in Manhattan, NY.
Shannon Frid on violin at Le Poisson Rouge.
Scott West’s painting mid-set at Le Poisson Rouge.
Craig Minowa and Shawn Neary at the Mr. Smalls Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA last night.
Connie at Mr. Smalls Theatre.
Closing out the curtain call with, “Everybody Here Is A Cloud” at Mr. Smalls Theatre.
First off, Happy Halloween! The past couple of days have been so awesome! We’ve been busy enjoying the long holiday weekend doing shows and hanging out in NYC! All day yesterday, the band played a couple of shows at the Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan. During the day, they performed, “You’ll Be Bright”, as special guests on the ‘Radio Happy Hour’ show with singer/songwriter Norah Jones! The show was super funny, which also included comedian Gabe Liedman. They were super nice folks and we had a great time hanging out with the both of them, thank you to Norah and Gabe! In the evening, Cloud Cult performed for a nearly sold out show of enthusiastic NYC fans. Thanks to all of you who came to see the show, especially those of you who dressed up! Here are a bunch of photos from our weekend. Tomorrow we jump back on the road to venture down to Washington, DC for the show at the Black Cat, come out and see us! Words and photos by: Cody York
“You’ll Be Bright”
Gabe Liedman and Norah Jones.
Another quick update…WNYC Radio just posted up the video footage and recordings from our live in-studio session yesterday, up on their website. Above are the videos and here’s the link to see Scott’s in-studio painting and to listen to the interview with Craig.
Hey everyone, quick update here…The Bell House was incredible last night. Thanks Brooklyn! We’re playing radio Happy Hour with NORAH JONES today and it’s sold out…but, tickets are still available for our NYC show tonight at the incredible Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan. Could Cult is going on at 9 sharp! We hope to see you there! Photo and words by: Cody York
Sorry for the lack of updates…we’ve been super busy between venue stops, doing non-stop radio shows. Yesterday we play at WXPN Radio in Philly, for the NPR World Cafe and today we’re now NYC, at WNYC radio station about to perform LIVE at 2:30pm. You can tune in right now and take a listen. More updates about the rest of the tour soon. Here’s the info to listen right now:
Go to www.wnyc.org. Click the FM 93.9 link towards the top of the page to listen. Show time is 2:30 Eastern time. Photo and words by: Cody York
We have officially kicked off the East coast tour! Visit www.cloudcult.com for a complete listing of our tour stops, to find out all of the venues that we’ll be playing.
Arlen and Shawn have been driving for the past couple of days from Minneapolis, to pick me up in Cleveland and drive the van to Boston. The rest of the band is flying directly into Boston for the show tomorrow night at the Royale. So for the occasion of them coming to town, I took them out to a unique bar in Gordon Square Park in Cleveland called, The Happy Dog. It’s a little joint I know of that is becoming the hip, new hangout spot in Cleveland. They’re starting to host a lot more live music and supporting the local scene here with a lot of the up and coming indie bands. The best thing about the place, is that it has a really unique food menu. They serve hot dogs and tatter tots, and you can cover them with as many as up to 50+ toppings, that they offer for only $5! The catch is, the toppings aren’t just your average ketchup and mustard…they’ve got some bizarre choices on there like, a fried egg all the way to cheese whiz! I told them if they if they ordered one, I’d buy and their faces lit up with excitement once they saw the menu. Oh, and they have veggie dogs as an option too, which is what Arlen and Shawn got. Check out what these two smothered their hotdogs in…believe it or not, they tasted really good. I got to try them both and was super impressed. I’d say were off to a good start! Here’s the link to the full menu of toppings, check these out…yummy! -Cody York
Shawn’s Happy Dog: Veggie Dog with: Brazilian Chimichurri, Caramelized Onions, Sliced Tomato, Garlicky Escarole, Marinated Portobello Mushroomsm, Habanero Sauce, French Brie Cheese
Arlen’s Happy Dog: Veggie Dog with: Dijon Mustard, Saffron Aioli, Brazilian Chimichurri , Caramelized Onions, Garlicky Escarole, Smoke Gouda Cheese and American Cheese Whiz!
