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Reagan babies, missile fears, and international
blues. Cold War Kids began in the fall of '04 with jangly guitar, handclaps, and
a Harmony amp in a storage room atop a restaurant in Fullerton, CA. For the
first sessions between four friends, having instruments was not as important as
heavy stomping, chanting and laughter. Clanging on heat pipes, thumping on
plywood walls. Hollering into tape recorders. Slipping and swaying into
alleyways and juke joints. Dreaming the American dust bowl and British maritime.
On the roof the sound and feeling was cultivated and burned, built and hallowed
out, painted and stripped to the primer.
Using songs of Dylan, Billie Holiday, and the Velvet Underground as a road
map, they listen to their tiny inner voice to manipulate and structure their
style with honesty. In 2005/2006 Cold War Kids self-released 3 six song EP's
("Mulberry Street", "Up in Rags", and "With our Wallets Full"). Touring
relentlessly, sometimes with compadres "Tapes in Tapes" & "Two Gallants". It was
these sweltering live shows and limited edition CDs that created the rapid
word-of-mouth, giving birth to a burgeoning fan base, sold-out shows in cities
across the country, glowing reviews in magazines like Rolling Stone & Blender.
The band chose Downtown Records, the young Manhattan-based home to such talents
as Gnarls Barkley and Eagles of Death Metal. A deal signed, the band regrouped
to the studio and recorded their impressive and striking debut "Robbers &
Cowards" in a matter of weeks. The result captures all of the raw power,
smoldering energy and loose-limbed blues that make their live shows so
invigorating.
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