RECOMMENDED
The insanely environment-friendly Cloud Cult (its label is called Earthology Records, a not-for-profit that serves as a consultant for Universal and ASCAP; all the band’s products are organic or post-consumer recycled) has been inconsistent in the past, crafting records that embrace IDM’s electro-glitch with pop melodies and Arcade Fire-like catharsis, but with 2007’s “The Meaning of 8” the band, led by Craig Minowa, really came through on its previous promises. (That album’s opener, “Chain Reaction,” still gets stuck in my head on a weekly basis.) The new record, “Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes”), quite similar to its immediate predecessor, boasts the electronics everyone’s come to know from the group, plus all the musical accoutrements, the acoustic guitars, synthesizers, string arrangements and Minowa’s voice, which still sounds to me like John Roddick’s from The Long Winters. One could complain that Cloud Cult aren’t venturing out of its comfort zone with “Feel Good Ghosts,” and it would be an accurate assessment, but this band has a way of presenting absolutely gorgeous, brief twinklings of music within its songs that seem new every time. The Forms open the late show, and the Brooklyn band’s recent self-titled record masterfully recalls underground nineties rock, but also looks forward to a greater future. The band sort of knocks you on your ass with its earnestness, as do the adventurous time signatures. (Tom Lynch)
Friday, April 25 at Schubas
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