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Words by: Jonathan Zwickel
Maybe you remember that news item from a couple months back where a Texas woman gave birth to a fully-matured, 18-year-old man, who immediately proceeded to write a symphony, pitch a perfect game, design an aircraft wing, and rescue a drowning puppy. It was all over the Globe and Inside Edition. These truly are miraculous times!
Cold War Kids |
And that goes for rock 'n' roll too, because Cold War Kids are the musical equivalent of the famous Wonder Boy. Since their inception only two years ago at Biola University outside of L.A., the four Kids have grown to a stature well beyond their age. A trio of EPs and a month-long residency at hipster Mecca Silverlake Lounge made them the talk of the blogosphere. Constant touring and a patently wicked live show ensnared a serious fan base on both coasts. They recently released a debut full-length, Robbers & Cowards, on Downtown Records, label home to buzz bands Gnarls Barkley and TV on the Radio, and it's receiving accolades across the board, including from this website and a 4-out-of-5 star rating in Rolling Stone this month.
When a band seems to emerge fully formed from out of nowhere (that being, in actuality, the earthquake hotspot of Whittier, California), you have to thank the stars and the gods and the record execs and wonder just how the hell it all happened.
Or you can ask the guys in the band.
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"I don't know if it's the kind of thing that would really have nuts and bolts to it, as far as the real nitty-gritty," says lead guitarist Jonnie Russell. "Making music is a very quirky thing, you know? It's a collection of four personalities in general, and even more specifically, it's four people and how they're feeling in a certain moment that they make or write something. And then it's always changing because you're playing it each time and it's a unique moment of playing."
Very true, but not very illuminating. These Cold War Kids are poetic and articulate on Robbers & Cowards, but put one of them on the spot and it's hard to elucidate how it all came together so quickly into something so potent.
"We all have been friends for a while and have kind of grown up cultivating music and our opinion and perspective and the things we like," Russell continues. "I think it's kind of a hodgepodge of our artistic tastes that are all over, and you mass it together in this music, and it's how it comes out."
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What kind of tastes, specifically?
"Most of my musical experience prior to this was in making hip-hop music and lyrics and stuff," he laughs. "You throw that into the bag too, my musical upbringing, that's my quirky twist."
Another twist is provided by bassist Matt Maust, who came to the group as a trained graphic designer. He renders CWK's visual aspect – their website, merch, and CD art - in bold, copy-text fonts reminiscent of post-WWII TV and newspaper ads and uses a modern, cut-n-paste style that imparts a sense of longstanding history to the band's endeavors. It's another reason why these young guys seem like long-standing veterans.
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