Taking Art-Rock Literally
I'm not sure how long the link will work, so I'll just paste it here...
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Taking Art-Rock Literally
The Minneapolis Band Cloud Cult
Combines Music With Live Painting Onstage
By JOHN JURGENSEN
May 10, 2008; Page W5
A Cloud Cult concert doesn't end with the encore; it
ends with a bidding war. After every performance by this rising
Minneapolis rock band, fans vie in a silent auction for one-of-a-kind
souvenirs from the show: pictures painted to the music by the group's
two on-stage artists.
![[Cloud Cult in concert at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis.]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AI445_CLOUD_20080509184239.jpg) |
| Sound
and Vision: Cloud Cult in concert at the Varsity Theater in
Minneapolis. Top, artists Connie Minowa, left, and Scott West, right,
are shown beginning their work. |
When the drums kicked in at a recent concert in New
York City, painter Connie Minowa swiped a streak of blue across a blank
canvas. By the close of the group's stormy one-hour set, she'd
completed a poster-sized painting marked by rippling shapes and
dripping pigment. It sold minutes later for $1,000 -- about as much as
the group typically gets paid to perform.
Though Ms. Minowa sings on some numbers, Cloud Cult's
painters, who are considered members of the band, don't play
instruments on stage. Their paintings have appreciated in value along
with the popularity of the group's orchestral indie pop, which is often
compared to that of Arcade Fire and the Flaming Lips. On the band's
current tour, prices for the still-damp pieces have hit a high,
fetching up to $2,500 each. And on the strength of the band's sixth
album, released last month, Rolling Stone featured Cloud Cult as a
"breaking artist."
In the crowded genre of indie rock, in which bands
typically earn more by touring than selling albums, the painters have
helped Cloud Cult's stage show stand out. While the paintings offer a
glimpse into the economics of a working-class rock band, they're also
intimately tied to Cloud Cult's music, much of which stems from a
tragedy that struck Ms. Minowa and her husband, band leader Craig
Minowa.
Mr. Minowa didn't originally conceive of Cloud Cult as
a live band. A onetime music major at the University of Minnesota (he
graduated with a bachelors degree in environmental science), he had
written enough songs to release a debut album in 2000, but he was
reticent about taking the stage. Then, in 2002, the Minowas' 2-year-old
son, Kaidin, died in his sleep. The young couple foundered and
separated for about a year.
![[music icon]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/it_mp309142004171604.gif)
MUSIC
Listen to two songs from Cloud Cult:
As their marriage rebounded, Mr. Minowa and his wife
used their art to reckon with their loss. Mr. Minowa dove into
songwriting, producing three Cloud Cult albums in as many years. He
also warmed to performing as a way to let his son "speak." "When I'm
writing at home I'm always calling on him and trying to feel his
presence as much as possible, and it's the same thing on stage," says
Mr. Minowa, 35 years old.
Scott West, a high-school friend of Mr. Minowa, was
the band's first resident artist. With his easel erected at stage left,
Mr. West bobs his body and brushes aggressively to the beat, crafting
bold colors into often eerie scenes or grotesque figures. On the
opposite side of the stage, Ms. Minowa creates sunnier pieces, favoring
vivid faces, flowers and swirls. The painters say the images flow
directly from Mr. Minowa's lyrics, the tone of the live music and the
audience's mood. "I describe it as visual songwriting," Mr. West says.
Both artists have had fans commission studio work.
At first the painters were pocketing the money from
the auctions. But with the bids escalating and Cloud Cult strapped for
cash, things came to a head. Two years ago the group voted to make Ms.
Minowa and Mr. West full-time members -- and to absorb their auction
revenue.
"I definitely make less money, but I'm looking at it
as an investment in the entire business," says Mr. West, who also
functions as the band's art director, designing CDs and T-shirts with
input from Ms. Minowa.
Cloud Cult isn't the first music act to put painters
on stage. For instance, the MuzikMafia, a popular country music
collective, includes a painter named Rachel Kice. But it is rare for
bands to incorporate painters and their earnings into their core.
![[The paintings nearer to completion]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/PT-AI446_CLOUD2_20080509184236.jpg) |
| The paintings nearer to completion. |
Like most groups on tour, Cloud Cult is usually paid a
percentage of the amount the venue collects through ticket sales. While
that percentage varies widely, the group's take has been averaging
about $1,000, according to manager Adrian Young. That barely covers the
band's daily touring expenses, which usually include two or three hotel
rooms and at least $100 to gas up the two vans carrying the
seven-person band and up to six other crew and family members.
With rising gas and food prices straining the budget
on the band's ongoing 27-stop tour, other revenue streams are crucial.
At the merchandise table total sales of $12 CDs and $20 T-shirts have
been averaging $500 a night. Paintings have fetched at least $250 each.
Last month at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, Wis., a fan who'd been
thwarted previously paid $2,500 for a work by Ms. Minowa. All this is
pushing the band into the black. On its first tours Cloud Cult lost
money or broke even. But Mr. Young estimates the band will complete its
tour this month with about $25,000 profit after everyone receives their
cut.
That money will be plowed into a DVD release and the
next Cloud Cult album. Being independent, the band doesn't have a
record label fronting the expenses for recording, producing and
marketing albums. The group had to put up about $15,000 to have its
most recent CD pressed and packaged, which cost the band 93 cents per
CD. That's more than double the typical rate because Cloud Cult insists
on using non-toxic inks and recycled packaging instead of standard
plastic jewel cases.
Band members work other jobs to make ends meet. Mr.
Minowa is a consultant and writer for the Organic Consumers Association
and telecommutes while on tour. Ms. Minowa is a grant writer. After
accepting a full-time job as a design director for an apparel company,
Mr. West can only perform at select stops, including a June TV
appearance on NBC's "Last Call With Carson Daly," in which he'll have
to dash off a painting in the span of one song.
Mr. West was absent at Manhattan's Bowery Ballroom
last month when Cloud Cult performed for about 500 people. With jars of
acrylic paint arrayed on the blue tarp spread under her feet, Ms.
Minowa rocked on her heels to eye her canvas in the glow of a spotlight
clipped to her easel. She embellished a heart or a tulip at the
painting's center as the band wound through its set list, which ranged
from rock sing-alongs, to pulsing electronica, to ballads featuring
soaring cello and violin. On songs like "Take Your Medicine," Mr.
Minowa sang his pained and ebullient lyrics ("It's a good day, it's a
good day to face the hard things") in a reedy voice, and Ms. Minowa
daubed in bruise-like shadows and divided the painting with a ropey
shape.
The postshow auction lasted 15 minutes. Fans huddled
around the merchandise table and bids written on a clipboard ticked up
from $150 to $475. "This is my rent," said one man as he scribbled in a
bid for $700. Then, with half a minute left, a man sidled up to the
table with a bid of $1,000. A moment later he was signing a credit-card
slip.
The winner, Michael Fowlin, had come to his first
Cloud Cult concert with the intention of winning a painting -- but not
spending so much. "I got caught up in it," says the 37-year-old
psychologist and motivational speaker from Morristown, N.J. But he knew
to hang back and make a last-second move, he explains: "I bid on eBay a
lot."
Write to John Jurgensen at john.jurgensen@wsj.com