CONTEST: Cloud Cult totally wants to party with you at Monolith like the VIP rockstar you are

The denizens of Colorado and surrounding states are gearing up this weekend for the second annual Monolith Festival. The party kicks off Friday night with a headlining show from indie chamber-pop collective Cloud Cult, along with Young Coyotes and The Dutchess and The Duke.

Because they love you, Cloud Cult has given Fuel/Friends one VIP pass to the entire Monolith weekend for a lucky reader to win!

So this VIP pass gets ya:
- into both days of the fest
- premium reserved soundboard seating
- VIP Parking in Red Rocks upper North parking lot
- access to Monolith VIP Lounge w/ private bar
- Monolith 2008 limited edition CD sampler & poster
- access to Exclusive VIP Afterparty 9/13/08 at Red Rocks with special performances from The Hood Internet, Passion Pit, White Williams, Candy Coated Killahz, Boyhollow, and Jackola
- limited edition Monolith Eco-Tote Bag from Trek Light Gear
- unlimited use of the Oxygen Bar in the Red Rocks Underground (weak out-of-towners!)

Cloud Cult has been making sweepingly gorgeous, thoughtfully incisive music since 1995, and their most recent album Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-partying Through Tornadoes) is out now on Earthology Records. The winner of the contest will also get a copy of the album. Seeing them Friday will be my first experience face-to-face with the group (I missed their second-stage headlining set at Monolith last year for reasons we don’t remember).

What do I have to look forward to? “[A band of six] waving their stringed instruments about while wailing in unison in support of the lead singer. Songs that give you goosebumps, and shows that make you happy to be alive and breathing air and listening to music that is played with the same kind of passion that it was written with.”

Okay, yes. I’m in. I also hear that they paint live artwork on stage at their shows, shaped by the music, and that’s just beautiful.

Everybody Here Is A Cloud – Cloud Cult

TO ENTER THE VIP PASS CONTEST: EMAIL ME WITH “MONOLITH/CLOUD CULT” IN THE SUBJECT HEADER. I will pick one random winner from all entries received by Thursday at 9pm. You may also want to include your phone number in the email.

Please note — obviously if you want to win this you have to either be in the general Colorado area or be able to get yourself here by Friday (or Saturday morning). The pass will get you into all the festivities starting Friday night at the Bluebird. The contest will end in t-minus 24 hours.

Cloud Cult will also play tomorrow (Thursday, 9/11) at 11:30am for 600 kids at Cerebral Palsy of Colorado during the Monolith Festival Reforestation Project, then at the Aggie in Fort Collins tomorrow night. Aaaand they’re also on Carson Daly tomorrow if you are sitting at home.

* Final caveat: Cloud Cult may not actually want to party with you, per se, but the part about you being a VIP rockstar is totally true.

[top photo credit Scott West, live photo credit Laurie Scavo]

Sing along with the Fleet Foxes at the Hi-Dive

If you read my Fleet Foxes concert review from their show a few weeks ago at Denver’s Hi-Dive, you know how mightily impressed I was with their “gorgeous golden harmonies and near-ethereal shimmering songs, firmly rooted in a sort of Appalachian wilderness.” Luckily I’ve stumbled upon this bootleg of their set from a few months prior at the same venue, from when they played with Porlolo and Blitzen Trapper. For your distinct listening pleasure:

FLEET FOXES
APRIL 14, 2008
HI-DIVE, DENVER
Sun Giant
Sun It Rises
Drops In The River
English House
White Winter Hymnal
Your Protector
Oliver James
Mykonos
Blue Ridge Mountains

ZIP: FLEET FOXES AT DENVER’S HI-DIVE

[photo by the radtastic Laurie Scavo]

Last night :: Fleet Foxes at the Hi-Dive

I’ve finagled, bargained, wheedled, and slunk my way into some pretty tough shows over the years, but let me tell you: Denver’s Hi-Dive was no country for procrastinators last night at the Fleet Foxes show.

I’d waited too long to secure a spot to review this scruffy Seattle quintet, shortsightedly not expecting a rare total sell-out crowd at the intimate Hi-Dive. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a crowd looking for spare tickets outside that venue, and it was only through a stroke of sheer last-minute luck, a guy named Kevin, and his Austrian exchange-student friend that I managed to get into this show. I was surprised but pleased at how hotly anticipated the Fleet Foxes’ Denver stop was last night — and how it lived up to the hype.

Once inside the humid oven of the club, the air was saturated with their gorgeous golden harmonies and near-ethereal shimmering songs, firmly rooted in a sort of Appalachian wilderness. I wish that they’d played longer, but with only one EP and a recently released full-length to pull from, they seemed to be climbing down off the stage way sooner than I would have liked. I was reminded of a sentiment in the Pitchfork review of their album when they wrote that “[the last song] doesn’t shoo you out the door. Instead, Fleet Foxes let you linger for a few more bars, leaning forward to catch Pecknold’s last syllable as it fades into the air. They don’t seem to want the record to end any more than you will.” I felt the same way at the end of this show.

The mood in the air was at once vibrating with a sort of CSNY-tinged nostalgia while also bringing to mind obvious contemporaries like Band of Horses. I’d rank their performance as nothing short of mesmerizing, the weight of it seeming to push back against the space in the room in almost palpable ways. Fleet Foxes also apparently liked Denver so much that they decided to stay with us an extra day today (sorry, SLC!).

OH! If you want to see some real-deal gorgeous pictures from last night, please check the fabulous Laurie Scavo’s shots. Even though I usually tend to think of Fleet Foxes’ music in shades of golden, all the reds and purples that she captures in her pictures seem so fitting to how it all felt last night.

For listening, I particularly love both of these songs:

Sun Giant – Fleet Foxes
White Winter Hymnal – Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes are currently on tour (catch them! do it! buy in advance!), including some shows with Wilco. Their MySpace page adds a wonderful bit of their inner-monologue detail to these dates: