(Canthem?)
Take Your Medicine -- Cloud Cult
You can take it in strideThanks, psorr!
Or you can take it right between the eyes
Suck up, suck up
And take your medicine
It's a good day, it's a good day
To face the hard things...
And so I go...
3 years ago
8 comments:
CLOUD CULT!
the best thing to come out of minnesota... excepting bob dylan.
very sage, that album in particular. if you have not heard the story of it yet... i will happily impart it.
best!
Wow - love the song. It's fab. What's the story behind it? Can you post to a comment?
My fave album of '07. We were lucky to see them last summer, amazing. A lot of alt bands have been adding in-studio strings lately, but their cellist is an integral part of the band and the live show.
JP--If you've got the time to burn me a copy *and* get it in the mail, I would totally be up for it. You rawk!
Amanda--No real story other than it was the first track on psorr's (aka Jeff Sorrentino, Seattle/Navy friend that goes even further back with Matty) Best of 2007 mix.
I've googled the song lyrics a bit and some think that it may have a unplanned pregnancy vibe to it, but it can totally apply to my situation as well:
These are things that I keep hidden in belly
I can't see them but they control my life
For a moment you could see right through me
See right through me
Help me make this right...
It gets me all fragile and fired up at the same time.
psorr--They're coming to Madison on April 11, barely two weeks after my surgery. I think making plans to attend may be overly ambitious.
I was thinking about you a lot when listening to this song during our Jeff 2007 Debut Dance Party; it was the day we were packing up your care package. I'd wondered about a lot of the lyrics on the album prior to that, but never enough to do any hard core research. Jaepea, I'd love to hear more about it.
Cloud Cult is amazing live and I'm sure that they'll return to Madison again if you're not up for the April show. The lead singer's wife is an artist (I think she did all the album art) and she and another friend painted on stage throughout the show. It was amazing watching visual art that was reflecting the music. It's clear that everyone is family. And I'm a total sucker for cello in indy rock.
I should also mention that I have woken up with this song in my head just about every morning since receiving the CD and I'm pretty sure Jody is sick to death of my constantly singing/whistling it under my breath...
i will put a copy in the post for you tomorrow, sis.
as for the story what i know goes a little something like this:
boy meets girl in small minnesota town. they fall in love, and have a baby named canaan. Somewhere along the way, cloudcult comes into being, the boy's band. the girl is a fantastic painter. for reasons i do not know, the baby passes on. the couple can't handle the grief of it and they separate.
but they keep in touch. the boy is subsumed with grief writing an estimated hundred songs about the loss of his son and love.
....years pass and things happen which i have no idea about.
when i saw them the first time, she was painting on stage with the band as they played. she and the boy had gotten back together and were touring hard to support 'the meaning of the number 8' which has a song on it called, 'your 8th birthday' as well as 'take your medicine'. so the meaning seems to me to be pretty self explanatory (although i did not put together the pieces for some time).
so the album and 'take your medicine' is all about being human, having terrible things happen to you and surviving... well, fuck just surviving, flourishing in the face of grief and adversity.
i find it inspiring on a number of levels.
throw in the fact that the band's carbon footprint is practically zero, their cds are packaged by the mentally challenged and they put on beautifully raging shows... and you have one excellent 21st century band. i have seen them a couple of times and will continue to do so for some time.
When my mom was diagnosed with brain cancer almost two years ago, and up until her death this past November, she had spiraled into a horrible, demented state. Home was worse than hell.
That line of that song meant everything to me, and I still use it to push myself through. Glad to hear someone concurs.
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