In Defense of the Unfortunate Hipster In Me

I found this band recently called Cloud Cult. They sound like they'd be some hippie-dippy feel good band and right on the surface they are. The lead singer, Craig Minowa, owns an organic farm and runs a production company called Earthology that is on the organic farm and uses save the earth technology to make beautiful music. So on the surface, they are tree-huggers. Same for their music. I accidentally ran into one of their videos on YouTube, liked it and listened to more and I then bought their album Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes). Then I heard the first song called "Everybody Here Is A Cloud"

Oh shit! I'm gonna spurt dreds and become a vegan 

Besides the title and the quiet earthy bit at the beginning, this song is fucking dark. We're all clouds which means we are all going to die because we only have a certain amount of time and have you figured out what your purpose is yet, because you know we're going to die? Oh you're waiting for a savior? We're still going to die, because we're all depressing little puff balls of clouds. That's what the song is. It's an emo ballad with a smile.

 

Much like this

I've mentioned my confusing religious stance. I have a hard time putting into words what it is that I think about god and all that jazz, but apparently if you put rhythm to religion it becomes a lot easier to explain, much like these lovely Minnesotans have done. But a lot of that introspection and philosophy didn't come about until Mr. Minowa lost his two year old son. He talks about death (which scares me), life (which confuses me), what lies beyond (which perplexes me to no end), and the people we live with (who, apparently, we need to be nicer to) and a great portion of that is what I have always thought, just clarified and with a better beat. I am comforted by Cloud Cult, even with their hippy-dippie attributes.

Surprisingly, there is not a lot of this in the actual music.

As I was listening to them one day, I thought about what someone might think if I were to say I listened to this band. Would they think less of me? Would I appear differently? There is such a stigma put on some music that people tread carefully when looking for things to listen to so as not to alienate anyone. I do occasionally have reservations about listening to one band over another, but for the most part I could give a shit. If I like a song and how it makes me feel, I'm going to listen to it and if you don't like it, go take a flying leap off the nearest cliff. Music is important to me. It is one of the biggest universal connections. There's a band called Gogol Bordello. It has band members from all over the world and the lead singer Eugene Hutz, is from the Ukraine. It's a stylized gypsy-punk band and occasionally Hutz will sing in a different language. I have no clue what he is saying but I know that I like the song. People in other countries don't know what Justin Bieber is saying, but he has international tours because, for some reason that I have yet to figure out, people in other countries and that speak different languages connect with his music. Even going waaaaaaaaay back to cave men and when the more protruded your brow was, the hotter you were, there is evidence humans used instruments. Whether it was a means of communication or our version of the bird song to find someone to get busy with, we have always had music. 

The Paleolithic era's Elvis Presley. Dude is hawt.

Music evokes different emotions and feelings. There are apparently scientific formulas for making the perfect sad or happy song based on pitch and rhythm. Which means that no matter how much of a hardened bad ass you are, you will break down and cry like the biggest sissy in the world whenever you listen to Adele's "Someone Like You" because your brain has no defense against her awesome mind powers.

Resistance is futile.

So, music is this important thing and has been for a bit. To the point that today, the kind of music you listen to determines what social strata you fit into as much as your clothes do. If you like Justin Bieber, your friends probably do as well. I won't go within ten feet of you, though, because I do not listen to Justin Bieber and find him to be a disgrace to the musical community. But everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course. This is going back to the beginning when I said that people tread carefully about what the listen to so they won't offend their friends. Which is bull crap because I have the same musical interests as maybe two of my friends and the rest listen to stuff I don't like and vice versa. However, that pattern of conforming is possibly most recognized in hipsters and indie kids. 

The ones in red fight to honor Belle & Sebastian and the fella in blue is fighting for Grizzly Bear. 

Winner gets the world's tightest pair of skinny jeans and a Macbook Pro

I would like to go ahead and put a disclaimer here. Hipsters, as I understand it, tend to like obscure bands and trends that no one has ever heard of. I tend to do that as well, but I would like to defend myself. I quit listening to the radio a while ago because it quit playing things I liked. So I started looking for other stuff. It was around the same time iTunes came about and I would look for new stuff in the recommendations section. Eventually I was listening to stuff that was not at all like my friends listened to, like The Cold War Kids and The Shins. I also got new music from my brother, who I have to thank for Arcade Fire and The Avett Brothers. I was honestly listening to Arcade Fire before they exploded because no one had heard of them and then all of a sudden people were listening to them and I could get excited about them with other people. I kept looking and found the Arctic Monkeys and Kasabian. I would put Flogging Molly's "Black Friday Rule" and The Fratelli's "Chelsea Dagger" on repeat. And that's only a minor sampling of how finding music went for me. I went to some pretty dark places to find some of the music I listen to.

Finding enjoyment in some of Nick Cave's songs has made me question my sanity.

Here are some other bands:

Menomena, The National, The Pogues, Portugal. The Man, We Were Promised Jet Packs, John Lee Hooker, Man Man, Hanni El Khatib, J. Roddy Walston and The Business, Nick Cave, Ida Maria, The Drowning Men, Modest Mouse, Manchester Orchestra, Yo Yo Ma, Bach, Santigold, AWOLNATION, White Buffalo, The Cave Singers, Tom Waits, The Low Anthem, Mister Heavenly, O Death, The Go! Team, UNKLE, RZA, Rain Machine, Nina Simone, Method Man, Mumford and Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Johnny Flynn, Laura Marling, Hans Zimmer, Vieux Farka Toure, Reverend and the Makers, Buck 65, The Builders and the Butchers, Stokowski, WU LYF, Meg Myers, Local Natives, Gorillaz, Fun., Gotye, The Heavy, Neutral Milk Hotel, Frightened Rabbit, Of Monsters and Men, Clock Hands Strangle, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Cage the Elephant, Heartless Bastards, Alabama Shakes, the list goes on and on and on to the point of insanity. Seriously, my iTunes playlist is the equivalent of a hoarder's house. I have everything on there. But the thing about this list is I can guarantee that, for the most part, you probably won't know more than five names on there but there are also five that you do know. 

You should know more than five, but we aren't all perfect.

I do find bands that no one has heard of and sometimes I do it on purpose, but it's mostly because of the music. I like the anthemic feel of The National's "Fake Empire". We Were Promised Jet Packs helped me accept the death of the mother of a friend. Tom Waits sounds like some demon angel telling us the devil's favorite hobbies. Modest Mouse are so angry, but they see all sorts of beauty. I like Gotye's and Fun.'s emotion and, yes, I cry when I listen to Adele. And if you have heard of anything that I listen to, which a great deal of my friends have not, let me know because I need someone to nerd out with. I want people to hear what I hear because, just like writing helps me organize what I can't say out loud, music helps me express my thoughts and feelings and put words to things I couldn't before. Call me hipster. I'll call you a dick, but you can call me a hipster. You can classify me based on my musical tastes, you can look at all the weird bands and criticize me because of it. That's okay. Go ahead. You're a pretentious jerk and more of hipster than me, but please, if it makes you feel better, go ahead. But if you do listen to Justin Bieber, I do get to be mean to you. No amount of science can save you. 

Paleolithic Elvis ate Paleolithic Justin Bieber's for breakfast.