Attention high school seniors: Vote Cloud Cult for class song
As my fiancée and I were driving home from Alameda today, “You’ll Be Bright (Invocation p.1)” by Cloud Cult came on the ol’ iPod. Here’s a transcript of our conversation, as near as I can recall:
Her: I wonder how many high schools have this as their senior class song.
Me: I’d say probably exactly zero, because nobody knows this band.
Her: Really? I mean, I definitely know this song.
Me: That’s only because I play it a lot.
Her: It just seems like such a perfect graduation song.
And she’s right. This track from the Minnesota band’s latest album (which, you may recall, made my Top 15 of 2010) is the musical equivalent of Oh, the Places You’ll Go, an epic pop song full of inspirational, sentimental lyrics about setting out on the grand journey that is life:
- “Every first kiss, every crisis, every heartbreak and every act of kindness.”
- “Travel safely.”
- “All your life you have waited for this moment to arrive.”
- “And you’ll be bright.”
None of that changes the fact that Cloud Cult is one of those bands that I can usually count on to stump even the most up-to-date indie music fan when we’re playing the “Whose taste is more obscure?” game. The group mostly tours the upper Midwest (although it did make it out to San Francisco in September for a show at The Independent). The most mainstream, national exposure it’s had so far was an Esurance commercial a few years ago. The only reason I know about the group is because Christopher Bahn, a Twin Cities writer whose work frequently finds its way onto the AV Club’s main page, is a pretty big supporter of the band.
Me: Suffice to say, Cloud Cult is not what the kids in high school are listening to right now. But they should be.
Her: We just have to find a way to expose them to it.
Me: We totally should have parked outside Alameda High School, rolled down the windows and tried to lure students over to the car: ‘Hey, kid, come listen to this song.’
Her: Ha ha, yeah. Maybe I can talk (my 18-year-old cousin) into it.
Me: Yeah, because high schoolers love to be told what’s cool by 30 year olds.
Seriously, guys. This song is cool. You should bring it before the student council. Never mind that you’ll probably have about as much success as my complete failure of a campaign to make “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” the Plymouth-Canton Educational Park Class of ’97’s prom song. Whatevs.
