SOUL PUNKS Cold War Kids
Aug 13, 2008
Long-overdue and –awaited sophomore platter en route from maverick rockers.
BY HAL BIENSTOCK
When Cold War Kids finally got around to recording their second album after two years on the road supporting their critically-acclaimed debut, Robbers & Cowards, the band had a lot of options.
“We talked about going to Berlin for a few weeks or finding someplace really remote,” remembers lead singer Nathan Willett. “But then the reality of finally being home after touring for so long hit us and we decided to just stay here.”
But that doesn’t mean the band stayed in one place. The upcoming Loyalty to Loyalty was recorded in three different studios in L.A. over nearly a month. “I think we spent a total of 10 days on the first record,” says Willett. “With this one, we spent much more time writing, so the songs have a lot more substance. I think it’s a much more mature record.”
Among the songs he’s most proud of are “Mexican Dog,” which was inspired by the orphaned dogs he saw trying to survive on the streets of Mexico City, and a ballad called “Cryptomnesia.”
“It’s a word I stumbled upon that’s about memory,” Willett explains. “If someone plagiarizes something but didn’t mean to do it—it was just in their head, that’s cryptomnesia. It’s a song about things that are latent in our memories.”
Musically, Willett says the band is moving away from the blues influences of its debut to a sound he says will fall somewhere between “soul-punk” and post-punk. “There are a lot more things that are a Fugazi kind of punk,” he says. “There’s a lot of energy, a lot of space and a lot of strange rhythms.”
ARTIST: Cold War Kids
TITLE: Loyalty to Loyalty
RELEASE DATE: September 23, 2008
PRODUCER: Kevin Augunas
LABEL: Downtown Records
SELECT TRACKS: “Mexican Dog” “Cryptomnesia”
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