Cloud Minder

So if you’ve returned to check out this week’s installment of Artist(s) Who Deserve Your Friendship, I applaud you for your good taste and thank you for your support. Over time, you’ll notice that I generally enjoy genre jumping when writing about music, and this column won’t be any different. This week’s band is a local act that I’ve had on my radar for a year or two now since I caught a live performance at The Khyber. Cloud Minder is Philly’s answer to what would happen if Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor bumped uglies and had a post-rock bastard lovechild. Their ominous guitar lines are patient and mesmerizing, but that is only the calm before the storm. Their shifting compositions take you on a journey into the heart of darkness. At their peaks, Cloud Minder’s jams are fierce like warriors in the heat of battle. The band is excited to be in the studio working on the follow-up to their EP Close Cover, Strike Gently so be patient because “new crap coming soon.” Cloud Minder currently has 742 MySpace Friends. myspace.com/cloudminder - Q.D. Tran - Deli Magazine

Local Support 043
For Philadelphia City Paper
w/Jon Solomon

Link:
http://www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/2052909 - Jon Solomon

"Like a fusion of the simpler aspects of Do Make Say Think and the most soaringly beautiful aspects of Explosions in the Sky, Cloud Minder bring a sensibility to their instrumental ambient rock that make them incredibly intriguing. At times achieving the muddy sweetness of Rogue Wave, at times the grayness of Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Cloud Minder have an awareness beyond their years."

-David Tafoya, Siren Records. - David Tafoya

Post Rock

I know I didn't mention post rock as something I would be posting about with this blog, and in fact, I just go ahead and say that this post goes against the intent of this blog, but whatever, so long as I keep them few and far between right?

Tuesday night I attended a show at the M-Room in Philadelphia PA, which was featuring Yndi Halda and two other bands I had never heard of. Yndi Halda was amazing, as anyone who has ever heard of them could expect them to be, however it was the opening band that really surprised me with how much I enjoyed them.

Cloud Minder, which from what I gathered was a local Philadelphia band, was just plain good. They did everything I expect from a band of this genre, which is basically rise and fall multiple times over the course of a song, do that and I'm happy, but again, their music was good, I enjoyed all three of the songs they played which is much more then I can say about the second band Now soon Nowhere who had me wanting to kill myself during the 6 or 7 songs they played, the only reason I didn't walk out is because I was going to sit through them and see Yndi Halda come hell or high water.

I find it to be a terrible shame that Post-Rock music simply cannot catch on here in America the way it can thrive anywhere else. Even bands that have notoriety like Godspeedyou! Black Emperor or Sigur Ros pull blank stares from people more often then not. Yndi Halda has gained a considerable following over in England and despite only having one album out is already internationally touring. The M-Room show was their first show in America, and at best maybe 30 people were watching them at any given time. Perhaps it is because their music along with mostly all other post-rock isn't delivered in the classic Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus. I'm not saying that I don't like songs that are song in this fashion, far from it i fact, but anything that isn't song in this fashion (Pink Floyd aside) rarely gets on the radio over here, because it is just too different from what we have been fed over the radio to catch on with most people.

More people should listen to experimental independent music, they are missing out on a world of emotion and ideas all conveyed in 17 minute+ songs that rise and fall beautifully. so long as the band is any good that is.

And Cloud Minder is. - Acceptable Idiocy Blog