Cloud Cult Announce Coachella Appearance, New DVD Screening

Taken directly from the latest Cloud Cult newsletter:

Cloud Cult will be showing a sneak peak of their upcoming DVD on Sunday March 22nd at The Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. Seating is very limited. The DVD will be available for the first time at this showing and will be available everywhere on April 21st.

Boldface is ours, obviously. Sneak peak tickets for the event can be bought here. A brief note: the band will not be performing at the DVD release, which premieres the film No One Said It Will Be Easy, a documentary about the band.

However, if you want to catch the band in concert, you have multiple opportunities to do so. Perhaps the biggest is the Coachella festival, as the band just announced that they would be playing there via their newsletter

Here are the rest of the band's upcoming dates:

March 6th - Northfield, MN - St. Olaf College (Nobel Peace Prize Forum)
March 8th - Miami, FL - Langerado Music Festival
March 22nd - DVD Sneak Peak Showing at The Varsity Theater (Mpls.)
March 27th - Madison, WI - The High Noon Saloon
March 28th - Des Moines, IA - Drake University (Earth Jam)
March 29th - Iowa City, IA - The Picador*
March 31st - Milwaukee, WI - Turner Hall Ballroom*+
April 1st - Chicago, IL - The Metro*+
April 2nd - Ann Arbor, MI - The Blind Pig*+
April 3rd Toronto*+
April 4th Montreal*+
April 6th - Northampton, MA - Pearl Street*+
April 7th - Boston, MA - Paradise Rock Club*+
April 8th - New Haven, CT - Toad's Place*+
April 9th - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg*+
April 10th - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church*+
April 11th - Washington, DC - Black Cat*+
April 12th - Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Small's Theatre*+
April 13th - Cleveland, OH - Beachland Tavern*+
April 14th - Grand Rapids, MI - The Intersection*+
April 16th - St. Cloud, MN - St. Cloud State University
April 18th - Indio, CA - Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
May 2nd - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue Mainroom
*Dates with Ice Palace opening
+Co-headline dates with Margot & the Nuclear So and So'

Cloud Cult MySpace Page

Cloud Cult Seeks Fan Input For Upcoming Band Documentary

Download: Cloud Cult - "Living on the Outside of Your Skin"

Regardless of what you think about their music, there's no doubting the fact that Minneapols-based Cloud Cult have had a compelling career, one that's been marked by a unique sense of intertwining art and economics, strident environmentalism, and unspeakable tragedy.

Also, music. Lots and lots of music, specifically eight albums worth of cathartic anthems heavy on orchestral arrangements (long indie-fans started reading from the Neon Bible). Naturally, a story as compelling and wrought with drama as that one would serves as a great foundation for a documentary. Well, lucky for you Cloud Cult fans, the band happens to be putting together a film which will span the entirety of the band's career. In order to get a unique, fan-based perspective, the group is encouraging fans to come out to their studio this Sunday, Sept. 7th for an interview. The band's news letter explains in further detail:

If you're someone who has been touched by Cloud Cult's music and message, please consider contributing by stopping into the studio in downtown Minneapolis on Sunday, September 7th for a 15-20 minute interview...any personal stories or messages you'd like to send to the band are welcome. Many of you have profoundly unique experiences, and we'd like to hear them. If interested, please RSVP (ASAP) to the film's co-director, John Burgess at johnburgess@hotmail.com with "CLOUD CULT INTERVIEW" in the subject line. Please mention any time preferences you may have regarding your schedule this Sunday afternoon.

From there, Burgess will contact you with a time slot assignment and directions to the downtown Minneapolis location. All in all, the experience should take about 30 minutes. If you can't make it out, but still want to contribute your memories of the band, email johnburgess@hotmail.com by October 1st.

In other Cloud Cult news, the band is about to set off on a brief Fall jaunt which will take them mainly on the East Coast and in their beloved Mid-West. Here are the dates:

Thursday Sept. 11th - Denver, CO. Monolith Tree Planting at The Cerebral Paulsey Foundation 11am
Thursday Sept. 11th - Ft. Collins Aggie Theater
Friday Sept. 12th - Denver, CO. - Bluebird Theater Monolith Festival Kick-off
Thursday Sept. 25th - Minneapolis, MN. - Chambers Hotel The Metro 100 Party *Tickets available at metromag.com
Monday Nov. 10th - Washington, DC. - The Black Cat*
Tuesday Nov. 11th - NYC - The Bowery Ballroom*
Wednesday Nov. 12th - Danbury, CT. Heirloom Arts Theatre*
Thursday Nov. 13th - Boston, MA. Middle East Downstairs*
Friday Nov. 14th - Bethlehem, PA. Lehigh University
Saturday Nov. 15th - Cross your fingers Philadelphia
Monday Nov. 17th - University of Wisconsin @ Stout

*with Exit Clov and Mason Proper

Cloud Cult MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

Tonight: Free Screening of Bob Marley Documentary at Yo! The Movement

Download: Bob Marley - "Stir It Up"
Download: Bob Marley - "Slave Driver"

Though it may be hard to believe it so many years after his death (it seems like copies of his greatest hits collection Legend are issued with admissions applications and samples of Tide to suburbs across the nation), Bob Marley was once, and still is, a radical and important presence in the context of popular music. Marley, along with his band The Wailers, is credited for not only popularizing reggae music to Western audiences with albums such as roots reggae classic Exodus, and the reflective Rastaman Vibration (Marley's only top ten album in the US), but for using his religious beliefs to act as an agent for social change. Marley was a strident Rastafari, a cultural and philosophical movement which stresses love and respect for all living things. Naturally, he was viciously assaulted only a few days before playing a the One Love Peace Concert to ease tensions amongst Jamaican political parties who were waging civil war against one another at the time. Nevertheless, the One Love Peace Concert ended with with People's National Party leader Michael Manley shaking hands with his opponent Edward Seaga, the leader of the Jamaican Labour Party (both men were prime ministers of Jamaica at one time or another).

Marley died of cancer in 1981, at the age of 36. Since his passing, he has become an international icon. In order to celebrate his legacy, Minnesotan non-profit organization Yo! The Movement is sponsoring a free screening of the documentary about Bob Marley's family first trip to Ethopia in order to attend the Africa Unite concert. The film takes its title from the festival itself and will be shown here:

AFRICA UNITE DOCUMENTARY ADVANCE SCREENING (FREE)
A Celebration of Bob Marley's Vision - Released Internationally By Palm Pictures in March
Host: YO! The Movement, The Nia-Imani Youth Center, and CRUNC
Date: Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Time: 7:00pm- 9:00pm
Location: YO! The Movement - (Inside Kwanzaa Community Center/Church)
Street: 2100 Emerson Ave N
City/Town: Minneapolis, MN
Phone: 612.874.9696
Email: info@yothemovement.org

Listen to two MP3s at the top of the post from Bob Marley & The Wailers debut album Catch A Fire.

Yo! The Movement MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

(Jonathan Graef)