{"id":165,"date":"2011-01-11T17:37:53","date_gmt":"2011-01-12T01:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/?p=165"},"modified":"2015-01-12T09:31:55","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T17:31:55","slug":"attention-high-school-seniors-vote-cloud-cult-for-class-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/2011\/01\/attention-high-school-seniors-vote-cloud-cult-for-class-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Attention high school seniors: Vote Cloud Cult for class song"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_167\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-167\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cloudcult.com\/photos.cfm\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-167\" title=\"web-3387927\" src=\"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/web-3387927-300x195.jpg\" alt=\"Cloud Cult\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/web-3387927-300x195.jpg 300w, http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/web-3387927.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-167\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">While you&#39;re at it, you should get Cloud Cult to play at your prom. Do it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As my fianc\u00e9e and I were driving home from\u00a0Alameda today, &#8220;You&#8217;ll Be Bright (Invocation p.1)&#8221; by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cloudcult.com\/home.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Cloud Cult<\/a> came on the ol&#8217; iPod. Here&#8217;s a transcript of our conversation, as near as I can recall:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Her:<\/strong> I wonder how many high schools have this as their senior class song.<br \/>\n<strong>Me:<\/strong> I&#8217;d say probably exactly zero, because nobody knows this band.<br \/>\n<strong>Her:<\/strong> Really? I mean, I definitely know this song.<br \/>\n<strong>Me:<\/strong> That&#8217;s only because I play it a lot.<br \/>\n<strong>Her:<\/strong> It just seems like such a perfect graduation song.<!--more--><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And she&#8217;s right. This track from the Minnesota band&#8217;s latest album (which, you may recall, made my <a href=\"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/2010\/12\/rankstravaganza-my-top-albums-of-2010-no-15-11\/\" target=\"_self\">Top 15 of 2010<\/a>) is the musical equivalent of <em>Oh, the Places You&#8217;ll Go,<\/em> an epic pop song full of inspirational, sentimental lyrics about setting out on the grand journey that is life:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Every first kiss, every crisis, every heartbreak and every act of kindness.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Travel safely.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;All your life you have waited for this moment to arrive.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;And you&#8217;ll be bright.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px; font-size: 16px;\">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&#8217;re playing the &#8220;Whose taste is more obscure?&#8221; game. The group mostly tours the upper Midwest (although it did make it out to San Francisco in September for a show at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theindependentsf.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Independent<\/a>). The most mainstream, national exposure it&#8217;s had so far was an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www2.prnewswire.com\/mnr\/esurance\/34366\/\" target=\"_blank\">Esurance commercial<\/a> a few years ago. The only reason I know about the group is because <a href=\"http:\/\/christopherbahn.com\/wpmu\/\" target=\"_blank\">Christopher Bahn<\/a>, a Twin Cities writer whose work frequently finds its way onto the AV Club&#8217;s main page, is a pretty big supporter of the band.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Me:<\/strong> Suffice to say, Cloud Cult is not what the kids in high school are listening to right now. But they should be.<br \/>\n<strong>Her:<\/strong> We just have to find a way to expose them to it.<br \/>\n<strong>Me:<\/strong> We totally should have parked outside Alameda High School, rolled down the windows and tried to lure students over to the car: &#8216;Hey, kid, come listen to this song.&#8217;<br \/>\n<strong>Her:<\/strong> Ha ha, yeah. Maybe I can talk (my 18-year-old cousin) into it.<br \/>\n<strong>Me:<\/strong> Yeah, because high schoolers love to be told what&#8217;s cool by 30 year olds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Seriously, guys. This song is cool. You should bring it before the student council. Never mind that you&#8217;ll probably have about as much success as my complete failure of a campaign to make &#8220;Mary Jane&#8217;s Last Dance&#8221; the Plymouth-Canton Educational Park Class of &#8217;97&#8217;s prom song. Whatevs.<\/p>\n<p><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"640\" height=\"385\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/hCg8DsJv-t4?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"640\" height=\"385\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/hCg8DsJv-t4?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n\n<!-- Share-Widget Button BEGIN -->\n<a href=\"javascript:void(0);\" myshare_id=\"mys_shareit\" myshare_url=\"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/2011\/01\/attention-high-school-seniors-vote-cloud-cult-for-class-song\/\" myshare_title=\"Attention high school seniors: Vote Cloud Cult for class song\" rel=\"nofollow\" onclick=\" return false;\" style=\"text-decoration:none; color:#000000; font-size:11px; line-height:20px;\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-content\/plugins\/share-widget\/img\/share-button-white-small.png\" height=\"20\" alt=\"Share\" style=\"border:0\"\/><\/a>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n<!--\nvar _myssmw=true;\n\n\/\/-->\n<\/script>\n<!-- Share-Widget Button END -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As my fianc\u00e9e and I were driving home from\u00a0Alameda today, &#8220;You&#8217;ll Be Bright (Invocation p.1)&#8221; by Cloud Cult came on the ol&#8217; iPod. Here&#8217;s a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[836,77],"tags":[81,18,80,78,79],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2445,"href":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions\/2445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/billchapin.net\/allthecitylights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}