Bio • Music • Film & TV • Shows • News • Press • Community • Contact

Dave Cloud Press Archive: 2008–2009

Artrocker Magazine
Issue 93, Sept 2009

Dave Cloud & The Gospel of Power: "Fever" [EP review]
By Daniel Ross

Press Archive

2010–2014

2008–2009

2006–2007

1999–2005

“[A] micro-masterpiece of tension and dirt. . . . Aside from the artful quirkiness on display throughout, it's chilling to hear exactly how an elderly David Berman would sound on "Try Just a Little". . . . The freewheeling spoken-word final track, "In the Distance," is brilliantly atmospheric, sounding almost like an afterthought, but with gravitas aplenty in the spooked tale of a courtship betwixt bulgar and belle, providing a fine ending to this short . . . but electrifying collection.”

Uncut
September 2009

Veteran Nashville beatnik mauls Peggy Lee, Stones. . . [review of Dave Cloud & The Gospel of Power's "Fever" EP]
By Nick Hasted
“Long-time supporter Matt Swanson of Lambchop leads a crack local band through unhealthy garage assaults on "Fever," the Stones' "The Citadel" and the growled, Johnny Dowd-style "Surfer Joe." But . . . enjoyment depends on quite how much of [Dave Cloud's] shtick you actually buy. 3 out of 5.”

The Guardian
"The F&M Playlist"
18 July 2009

Dave Cloud & The Gospel of Power: "Fever" [EP review]
By Caroline Sullivan
“Cloud rasps and growls like a younger Dr John on this strange, swampy new song.”

rockfeedback.com
24 April 2008

Dave Cloud & The Gospel Of Power: Pleasure Before Business (Fire) [album review]
By Andrew Misuraca

“Pleasure Before Business plays like the Swami Records roster playing drunk fronted by Bukowski on uppers. It’s one of those records whose beauty lies in its lo-fi quality, like Guided By Voices’ more charming LPs. That warm electric piano; that fuzzy guitar that softens up when it needs to, like a house-trained wolverine; those drums trying to crash out of that boxed-in frequency range. . . . Pleasure Before Business is resoundingly more hit than miss, and it’s good to know that the world is finally sitting up and taking notice of this visionary nutbar.”

» Read the complete review

mad.co.uk
18 April 2008

Bud band a smash hit [review of Budweiser UK ad campaign featuring Dave Cloud]

“'I'm not going to tell you the name of this band,' so says a white suit wearing, bow-tie sporting, wizened old man, 'but they are great.'

The declaration starts one of the two new Budweiser television spots created by Fallon, as part of the beer brand's 'True Dedication' campaign. Dave Cloud, so-called music visionary and mentor to the band, who appears in both ads, is wrong from a musical perspective, enthusiasm aside his band are no Beatles, but they are gold in adland—amusing, original and sure to resonate. 8 out of 10.”

» Read the complete review

» "Legendary Nashville musician Dave Cloud inspires new Bud TV ad" (FAMEmagazine.co.uk, 29 Apr 2008)
» "Budweiser 'True Dedication' ad" (Band Weblogs, 17 Apr 2008)
» "Bud joins band for rock'n'roll jam" (The Guardian, 14 Apr 2008)

musicOMH.com
12 April 2008

Dave Cloud & The Gospel Of Power: Pleasure Before Business (Fire) [album review]
By Andy Petch-Jex

“[Calls] to mind the good Captain Beefheart's minimal blues toyings where 'proper' singing and tunes are cast aside for atmosphere and attitude. . . . An unexpected treat for anyone who loved the Nuggets / Pebbles classic collections of '60s psyche-rock and garage gems or the skewed-blues of Nick Cave's Grinderman. A modern classic in the making. 4 out of 5.”

» Read the complete review

Drowned in Sound
7 April 2008

Dave Cloud & The Gospel Of Power: Pleasure Before Business (Fire) [album review]
By Billy Hamilton

“[Cloud's] inane professions over Yvonne Elliman's Bee Gees-drafted hit 'If I Can’t Have You' result in a curtain-closer so draped in frenzied, vociferous feedback it sets his place in the queue to the pantheon of deranged, psycho-babbling experimentalists inhabited by the likes of Zappa and Barrett.”

» Read the complete review

Plan B Magazine
April 2008

Dave Cloud & The Gospel Of Power: Pleasure Before Business (Fire) [album review]
By Tom Howard

“Cloud is more Iggy than Iggy, as Jim Morrison as Jim and nearly as Tom Waits as Iggy and Jim put together. His voice writhes around somewhere between the three, talking drunk and dirty. . . . Pleasure Before Business is an ode to not taking llfe—or anything—too seriously.”

Buzz [South Wales]
April 2008

Dave Cloud & The Gospel Of Power: Pleasure Before Business (Fire) [album review]
By RSJ

“[Given] that garage rock has been commercially reserved these past few years for those who play it 'ironically,' Cloud is a fresh breath of petroleum-fuelled air. On 'Mary Jane' he shakes out a cool Lou Reed gargling-acid growl, and the Northern Soul washout of 'Land of a Thousand Dances' suggests [Pleasure Before Business is] an album that deserves total worship. 5 out of 5.”

AU Magazine [Ulster]
April 2008

Dave Cloud & The Gospel Of Power: Pleasure Before Business (Fire) [CD review]
By Ross Thompson
“Out of time and out of tune, most songs sound like they are performed by sake-soaked Japanese businessmen on the bottom of an empty swimming pool.”

Losing Today
"Singled Out"
Missive 159, part 1
29 March 2008

Dave Cloud "Puff Rider" [review of Various Production remix single]
By Mark Barton
“Bitchin’ boogie of the highest calibre. 'Puff Rider' is treated to a deliciously warped 80s-styled old skool electrified mutant funk groove that takes its cue from early scene leaders Afrika Bambaata, Tom Tom Club and Grandmaster Flash. [On side B] lurks the original mix which, despite Various Productions routing on their re-calibration, still sounds the most sinister of the two. [It's] like some devil's crossroad pairing of a preacher-styled Captain Beefheart and RL Burnside, bad-assed fractured floor-throbbing hoochie coochie that frankly spanks the young bands of today operating in the same sonic solar system.”

» Read the complete review (you'll have to scroll down to find it)

The Sunday Times
23 March 2008

Dave Cloud & The Gospel Of Power: Pleasure Before Business (Fire) [album review]
“The gastric twitching of 'Yummy Yummy Yummy (I've Got Love in My Tummy)' subjects the Ohio Express's bubble-gum classic to an intrusive colonoscopy. 'Secret Wife' is fetchingly unhinged, and 'Cosmetology' throbs like a 13th Floor Elevators outtake.”

» Read the complete review

New Musical Express
22 March 2008

Dave Cloud & The Gospel Of Power: Pleasure Before Business (Fire) [album review]
By R.W.
“Dave Cloud doesn't look like your average rock star. And the last thing you'd expect him to do is make lascivious, bluesy garage rock—but he does and we're talking Safe As Milk-era Beefheart here, not The Von Bondies. As a result, Pleasure Before Business kicks unexpected ass. 8 out of 10.”

Gigwise
26 February 2008

Dave Cloud & The Gospel Of Power: "You Don't Need Sex" [review of single]
By Thomas Ward
“The scuzzy sixties garage deconstruction of MC5-esque heavy riffs, beats and two-tone vocal tracking creates a sense of fuelled sobriety and intoxication. . . [and] an anachronistic revelation of stalwart eccentricity with an unabashed lust for experimentation and integrity. 4 out of 5.”
» Read the complete review