Cold War Kids - Robbers & Cowards

Cold War Kids, "We Used To Vacation" (YSI link)

Cold War Kids, "Hang Me Up To Dry" (YSI link)

I mentioned blog hype yesterday, so I figured finally put up some songs from one of those bands who've been getting love from the indie bloggers lately. Cold War Kids are a Long Beach based band who've made a name for themselves on the strength of great live shows and a few EPs. Their first full length, Robbers and Cowards, dropped on the Downtown label late last year. I have a hard time understanding how anyone could be excited about this music. In some ways they're right, as this is the perfect soundtrack for the Bush/right wing years this country is suffering through. It's not just the religious imagery and pleas to G-d, it's the lack of inspiration, the lack of experimentation, this is music that wants to sound like everything else.

It's pretty standard rock music, guitar heavy, lead vocalist Nathan Willett dominates, simple lyrics that want to be much more. It reminds me a lot of the Killers, but without the brilliant songs. They take a little from the Man Man percussion/kitchen sink aesthetic, but it tends to get buried behind the vocals. Ugh, I can't say much more on this, it's just not worth the time or words. I could try to discuss the influences real (The Strokes) and imagined (Dylan, Waits) but it would lend to much respect to this. This is the sound of surburbia, a fake, uncreative world that has nothing to offer me or this blog. Buy it here if you must, you've been warned.

I am curious to know how this band and similar ones like Tapes 'n' Tapes have drawn so much attention and love. Is this the best we can do in the mp3 blogosphere? Are we really this conservative? Are we really just searching for music that kinda reminds of stuff we've heard before? Is this the best that indie rock can do?

-Send a letter to President Bush demanding that he make the genocide in the Sudan a priority in his State of the Union speech, which he delivers Tuesday. I did it, it takes 2 minutes, no excuses.

-John McCain is still a liar. He's also looking for scapegoats for the disastrous war he championed and still supports.

-Speaking of that disastrous war, make sure to read this great essay by Glenn Greenwald on the "intellectual" architects of this travesty, Fred Kagan and William Kristol. It's stunning to look at the people who brought us into this and see them for the pathetic losers who never could fight or be tough in real life. So they've constructed an entire political philosophy that makes them feel tough, that allows them to call out any country that upsets them, that lets them be the real men they secretly know they're not. They're cowards and this blood is on their hands.

-To make you feel better about your own life as this work weeks starts, take a look at this disturbing video of a loopy Paula Abdul on some Fox local news broadcast: