#35 Cold War Kids

Of course we’d never feel sorry for them because after all, how often do we happen upon a group that’s accomplished so much at such a young age. Imagine, they’ve got a following that both adores and critiques, a continually applauded energy, and a taunted lyrical canon that expresses nothing but a special youthfulness. They’ve got so much going on that they don’t really know where to begin, or which ball to launch first in their attempt to juggle.

The Cold War Kids are 20 and they’ve already released one album. They’ve even received the honor of fan-base ambiguity, being both massacred and lauded by Pitchfork and Libération (french newspaper). Pitchfork slammed their lyrical integrity and commended their music while Libé raved about the lyrics and disparaged the music. It was exactly these far off echoes that made us take a listen to the Cold War Kids. And to be unambiguous: we enjoyed the album so much that we decided to track them down.

The videos take place in the middle of Plaine-Saint-Denis, which is this kind of city-in-itself near Paris that’s been undergoing urban redevelopment for the past 10 years. The place has tons of parking and storage warehouses, along with a couple of restaurants. It’s that autocratic village on the Paris periphery that produces the majority of France’s television programs, and where spectators arrive in hordes on bus in order to pack the studios. The Cold War Kids were there to promote their album on Canal+ as “The Album of the Week.”

You have to understand that you can’t film anywhere in a television studio. You can’t mess up the official filming, and at the same time you can’t record what’s not supposed to go on film. So before their official appearance on Canal+, we could only find a little hallway in which to film. The guys found a roll cart, hopped on it and immediately started to play. If you listen and look, it appears that the Cold War Kids didn’t quite know what they had started to play. The piece takes off loud and scattered, as if it were initiated too quickly and needed to be reassembled as the band went along. It was disquieting and captivating at the same time, right up till the moment when the guys hit the mark and found the right tone. It’s in those moments when you realize how wonderful it is to see a group struggle until that explosive instant when things just come together.

It was like this every time: they burned through their energy and were consumed by shyness. It took a little convincing for Vincent Moon to persuade them to head into the empty and cold parking lot towards the bus in the distance. No one knew who was inside or what to expect, but the band hopped right on without hesitation and found a pack of students who had apparently been touring all the studios. Although they stuck to the bus steps and didn’t really know how to handle it, the band was in good form. And later, it was nearly impossible to get them to stop. No matter what the kids did, or where the camera was, the guys kept going. It’s obvious to say that the students were mesmerized, and honest to admit that we are still delighting about it today.

The Cold War Kids opened for Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah yesterday evening at La Cigale in Paris.