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Concert preview: Cold War Kids in Crystal Bay, April 26
By Ryan Salm |
Tahoe.com
The Cold War Kids will play the Crystal Bay Club on April 26, 2009.
If you go:
On Sunday, April 26, 2009, Fullerton, California's Cold War Kids will make their Lake Tahoe debut at the Crystal Bay Club. The band is right in the middle of a whirlwind tour that will take them across America and through Europe. Doors open at 8 p.m., show starts at 9 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 day of show, and available by calling (775) 833-6333.
Tahoe World/Tahoe.com contributor Ryan Salm caught up with Cold War Kids frontman Nathan Willet via phone while the band was preparing for an opening gig for Death Cab for Cutie at a college basketball court in North Carolina last week.
Tahoe World: How would you describe Cold War Kids musical style?
Nathan Willet: We are calling it soul punk. For a long time we had no description and said Rock & Roll. We felt that if we didn't [define our genre] ourselves then someone else would.
TW: Who are your musical influences? Where do find your musical inspiration from?
NW: Musically we find our influences in artists like Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone. Artists who are storytellers and big on lyrics. Artists that have a folk tradition core.
It's hard to know and understand where the music comes from. It's one of those things that you know it when you see it. It's always changing.
TW: Is it difficult to keep your music unique with so many bands out there and so many similarities between bands? (Is the sound that Cold War Kids has something that was developed or is what you guys sounded like when you began?)
NW: We are fortunate to have a unique enough style to not have to worry about comparisons.
We have always had this sound though at times it is necessary to refine the sound a bit. Our core of soul and punk have always been there.
TW: I notice that you guys are on the road almost all year long and all over the world. Is this tiring? Is it amazing to see so much?
NW: Yes to both of those. It can be tiring at times depending on the many factors. Opening for Death Cab right now is a very easy and comfortable. It is a well taken care of tour. If we are in Prague in the winter on our own tour it can be much more exhausting and difficult especially when we are doing everything ourselves. We would love to be all over and push the journey. We would love to play South America and the Middle East.
TW: Would you say you are traveling to play music or playing music to travel?
NW: Definitely traveling to play music. The music and the writing and the performing all go hand in hand. The writing is the best part while the traveling allows us to be what we are and is great and we love doing it. But, at the core it is all about being at home and writing music.
TW: Are you guys living the musical dream?
NW: Yeah, as of right now. We are right where we want to be. We are happy to be growing and pushing forward.
TW: Are you excited to come to Lake Tahoe?
NW: We have never been there before and hear it is very beautiful.
Tahoe World: How would you describe Cold War Kids musical style?
Nathan Willet: We are calling it soul punk. For a long time we had no description and said Rock & Roll. We felt that if we didn't [define our genre] ourselves then someone else would.
TW: Who are your musical influences? Where do find your musical inspiration from?
NW: Musically we find our influences in artists like Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone. Artists who are storytellers and big on lyrics. Artists that have a folk tradition core.
It's hard to know and understand where the music comes from. It's one of those things that you know it when you see it. It's always changing.
TW: Is it difficult to keep your music unique with so many bands out there and so many similarities between bands? (Is the sound that Cold War Kids has something that was developed or is what you guys sounded like when you began?)
NW: We are fortunate to have a unique enough style to not have to worry about comparisons.
We have always had this sound though at times it is necessary to refine the sound a bit. Our core of soul and punk have always been there.
TW: I notice that you guys are on the road almost all year long and all over the world. Is this tiring? Is it amazing to see so much?
NW: Yes to both of those. It can be tiring at times depending on the many factors. Opening for Death Cab right now is a very easy and comfortable. It is a well taken care of tour. If we are in Prague in the winter on our own tour it can be much more exhausting and difficult especially when we are doing everything ourselves. We would love to be all over and push the journey. We would love to play South America and the Middle East.
TW: Would you say you are traveling to play music or playing music to travel?
NW: Definitely traveling to play music. The music and the writing and the performing all go hand in hand. The writing is the best part while the traveling allows us to be what we are and is great and we love doing it. But, at the core it is all about being at home and writing music.
TW: Are you guys living the musical dream?
NW: Yeah, as of right now. We are right where we want to be. We are happy to be growing and pushing forward.
TW: Are you excited to come to Lake Tahoe?
NW: We have never been there before and hear it is very beautiful.
Cold War Kids bio:
Reagan babies, missile fears, and international blues. Cold War Kids began in the Fall of '04 with jangly guitar, hand claps, and a Harmony amp in a storage room atop Mulberry Street 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 of yesteryear. 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.
Since then, Cold War Kids have self released 3 six song EP's ("Mulberry Street," "Up in Rags," and "With our Wallets Full") on Monarchy Music. And toured relentlessly. Leaping and stumbling across stages around the country, at the end of each night they continue to deliver a raw performance and a soaking wet shirt.
Lyrically, Cold War Kids write stories about human experience in orchards, hotel rooms, laundromats and churches, sea ports and school halls; characters that are funny and serious at the same time, like J.D. Salinger or "Peanuts." Whether it's the man poaching bills from the collection plate during Sunday masses or the little prodigy who is miserable hearing his mother poking him to admire the Grand Canyon out the station wagon's window, these are everyday wretched people trying their damnedest to live well while teetering between despair, complacency and joy.
Much like Blue Note Artists of the '50's, the music of the group walks hand in hand with it's graphic design. Bass player Matt Maust is responsible for creating the visual aesthetic by constantly documenting the band, friends, strangers, and situations both on tour and at home. The design facet is implemented through gallery shows, artistic web design, and supplement design books coinciding with music releases.
Ultimately, Cold War Kids intent is to present themselves not just as four musicians, but as an expanding artistic community in which everyone is invited to take part.
In September 2008 Cold War Kids released "Loyalty To Loyalty", the album splashed onto The Billboard Top 200 chart at #21 producing a Modern Rock top 40 hit in "Something Is Not Right With Me".
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