2004–2006: early years and Robbers & Cowards in New York City, 2007 The members of Cold War Kids met at
Biola University. They formed a band in 2004 when they would meet regularly in Jonnie Russell's apartment above a restaurant called Mulberry Street in downtown
Fullerton. Maust came up with the band's name around 1997, during his travels in Eastern Europe with his brother, where they found a park in
Budapest with missing statues, taken away after Communism fell. Seeing that there was a playground in the park, Maust said "...being in that environment just made the phrase 'Cold War Kids' pop into my head. I may have heard it before. I'm a
Cold War kid, too – I was born in 1979." Maust used the name for his personal website, but then he repurposed it after the band decided to use the name. The band relocated to
Whittier, California, and began recording their first demo, which Monarchy Music released as the EP
Mulberry Street (based on the restaurant where they regularly met) in spring 2005. Between tours, the band released two more EPs:
With Our Wallets Full and
Up in Rags, in 2006. Monarchy Music would re-release those EPs as one compilation album titled
Up in Rags/With Our Wallets Full in 2006. In summer 2006, Cold War Kids signed with
Downtown Records and started work on their debut album. The album titled
Robbers & Cowards was released on October 10, 2006, with sales close to 200,000 copies. Critics were impressed with the band's blues rock sound and lyrics that told morose tales of yesteryear: Joe Tacopino of
PopMatters said that "These ambitious youngsters are definitely worth the trip, even without the ostentatious vocal harmonies." Jeff Weiss of
Stylus Magazine called the album "[It's] a good debut, maybe even a very good one. Whether or not this band will achieve greatness remains anybody's guess." One of the album's biggest detractors came from Marc Hogan of
Pitchfork, who criticized the band for its songwriting, melodies, and Christian symbolism, saying that "
Robbers and Cowards insults our intelligence a few times too often." Cat Dirt Sez of the
San Diego CityBeat said that Hogan's review was an example of lazy journalism, with lead guitarist Jonnie Russell saying that the reviewer wanted a wittier approach to the album rather than a thoughtful assessment of it. Cold War Kids' second album,
Loyalty to Loyalty, represented a departure from its debut, featuring a lot of narrative storytelling, as well as political and philosophical references. In an interview with
NPR, Nathan described the songwriting process for the album: "The choices that we make have always been organic ones, to try to grow at a rate that makes sense," Willett says. "Not necessarily talking about, 'Is there a great single? Is this a big breakthrough for us? Is this the next level for us?' But just write songs. Yeah, there is a stress, and the way we deal with it is to ignore it."
Loyalty to Loyalty was released on September 23, 2008, to generally positive reviews from critics. Bart Blasengame of
Paste called it "a better-than-solid album from a band that seemed equipped to someday make a classic one". James McMahon of
NME said that "Almost in defiance of poor sales and cult following, CWK and their charming second album embody everything you hoped music might be."
2009–2011: Behave Yourself and Mine is Yours Cold War Kids spent the end of 2008 and most of 2009 on the road touring for
Loyalty to Loyalty, highlighted by a national tour with
Death Cab for Cutie. In between touring, the band returned to the studio to record what would become their seventh EP,
Behave Yourself. In an interview with
Flavorwire, Maust talked about the differences between this and
Loyalty to Loyalty: "It's basically the happier, more vibrant songs that didn't really fit on the [Loyalty] album. We realized that in a way, we were starting to work ahead of ourselves, so this [EP] works as a nice bridge between records."
Behave Yourself was released digitally on
iTunes on December 21, 2009, and given a physical version on January 19, 2010. on April 17 Cold War Kids went back into the studio in February 2010. Willett, when speaking to
Filter Magazine, said, "Album three is in the works now. We are working with a producer named
Jacquire King. He has a sweet and eclectic roster of
Modest Mouse, the
last Norah Jones record,
Tom Waits'
Mule Variations,
the last Kings of Leon record...So, he is going to work miracles with us. All of our music has always been written entirely by us, without any influence, so to have him step in and help us with the direction is tremendous. I was just watching
the Wilco Documentary again, and I think that in many ways Wilco is to country/
Americana as Cold War Kids is to soul/
punk. We are taking what we do to the next level on this record. The EP is the final reminder of the good old days of quick and fun, minimal Cold War Kids recording."
Mine Is Yours was released on January 25, 2011, and garnered mixed reviews from critics.
Billboard said that "the band has emerged with a set that's more inviting than its first but just as catchy." Sean O'Neal of
The A.V. Club said that the album has "the bland sound of a band trading identity for ambition". Cold War Kids supported the album with a spring tour across North America that included festival appearances at
Bonnaroo and
Coachella. In February 2012, the band announced that lead guitarist Jonnie Russell left the band for personal reasons.
2012–2015: Dear Miss Lonelyhearts and Hold My Home In January 2012, Cold War Kids announced that former Modest Mouse guitarist Dann Gallucci would take Russell's place in the band and premiere on their new single "Minimum Day". On January 15, 2013, the band announced a new single, "Miracle Mile", for their fourth album,
Dear Miss Lonelyhearts. The latter was released on April 2, 2013. They followed that up with an EP titled
Tuxedos, released on September 17, 2013. They promoted both efforts with a U.S. headline tour that ended on November 6, 2013. In November 2013, they announced that a fifth album was in the works. On November 10, 2013, the
Orange County Register reported that drummer Matt Aveiro had left the band, and that Modest Mouse drummer
Joe Plummer would be holding his place indefinitely. , 2013 In March 2014, Cold War Kids collaborated with
Belgian brewer
Stella Artois and sonic inventor Andy Cavatorta for a project titled "Chalice Symphony" that involved using the brewer's famous drinking glasses as instruments for the band to use to record the track "A Million Eyes". The behind-the-scenes videos were used as commercials and were uploaded on the brewer's
YouTube page. The song was released on iTunes on March 3, 2014, In May 2014, Willett and Maust worked on a
side project with
We Barbarians' Nathan Warkentin called French Style Furs. The project's debut album,
Is Exotic Bait, was released on July 8, 2014. The album was recorded with the assistance of
Nick Launay, and the lyrics used were adapted from the poetry of twentieth-century
Catholic monk and philosopher
Thomas Merton. On July 15, 2014, Cold War Kids released the first single, "All This Could Be Yours", from their fifth album
Hold My Home, which was released on October 21. The release of
Hold My Home had drummer Joe Plummer and multi-instrumentalist/singer Matthew Schwartz being credited as proper members of the band on the album's liner notes as opposed to touring members as previously credited. The album also spawned the single "
First" in February 2015. Despite mixed reactions from critics on the overall quality and consistency of the album, "First" went on to chart at number 1 on the
Billboard Alternative Songs chart, making it the band's highest-charting single ever.
2016–2018: L.A. Divine On March 16, 2016, Cold War Kids announced via their
Instagram the departure of lead guitarist Dann Gallucci and that he was to be replaced by We Barbarians' David Quon. On October 31, 2016, Cold War Kids released a single called
wikt:"Locker Room Talk", as part of the
30 Days, 50 Songs project protesting
Donald Trump's
presidential run. The band stated that "At this point in the game, taking a shot at Trump almost feels unnecessary. Too easy. More negativity. We're all so tired of him. But when I heard
Death Cab's song, I realized that's a mistake. It's important to state the obvious, to express those feelings in a song. Even if it's maybe redundant, it feels great to let it all out!" On February 2, 2017, Cold War Kids released the lead single, entitled "
Love Is Mystical", to their sixth studio album,
L.A. Divine, which was released on April 7, 2017. On December 7, 2018, Cold War Kids released the double disc compilation album
This Will All Blow Over In Time, featuring radio singles as well as unreleased and rare tracks.
2019 to present: New Age Norms and Cold War Kids On November 1, 2019, Cold War Kids released their seventh studio album,
New Age Norms 1. The band released "Complainer" and "4th of July" as a double single ahead of its release on June 18. Cold War Kids set a fall U.S. headlining tour to promote the album. The album was followed by
New Age Norms 2 and
3 in 2020 and 2021 respectively; the albums were intended to form a trilogy in which the band explored more topical songwriting. During the summer of 2023, the band opened for
Tears for Fears for the resumption of their tour behind the album
The Tipping Point. On November 3, the band's tenth studio album,
Cold War Kids was released . The band are expected to tour in 2024 to promote their new album. ==Musical style and influences==