Cold War Kids Talk 'Hold My Home' and Breaking the Indie Mold
If there's a moody, dark and borderline sinister indie riff that you recognize from the mid-Aughts, and you can't quite put your finger on it, chances are it was a line from one of Cold War Kids' haunting singles. The Long Beach rock outfit dropped Robbers & Cowards in 2006, and while Interpol, the Strokes and a handful of other bands vie for the title of Quintessential Indie Band of the '00s, Cold War Kids remain one of the most underrated acts for their contributions to the genre at its peak. "Hang Me Up To Dry" and "Hospital Beds" still receive a significant amount of attention via alt and college radio airplay. Now with Hold My Own, their fifth full-length, they're demonstrating that it's possible to grow with your music instead of staying married to the hits of yesteryear, even when the music they make is so closely tied to indie's shining moment.
Hold My Home offers up optimistic, soaring chords ("First"), rousing rock bursts Bono would be jealous of ("Hotel Anywhere") and grand declarations of beat-loving rock ("All This Could Be Yours," "Flower Drum Song") that shirk the coils of the tortured Cold War Kids we've come to know and sulk along to in our gloomiest moments. Before their intimate record release show in Brooklyn, Cold War Kids' Nathan Willett opened up about Hold My Home and how it represents all of the grit, growth and gusto that they've poured into the pursuit of staying power, and where exactly Cold War Kids stand a decade after they began.
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