Robbers & Cowards by Cold War Kids
I'm way behind on writing about all the music I've been listening to lately so I'm going to try to catch up on a bunch of it this weekend.
First up is Robbers & Cowards by Cold War Kids which was released back in October 2006. This release really threw me and for the most part it's the reason why I'm so behind on writing. Basically I didn't know what to write. I was introduced to Cold War Kids via a KEXP live performance with Dr. Dog and Elvis Perkins. (For those of you that don't know, Elvis is the son of Psycho actor Anthony Perkins ... not to be confused with psycho actor and filmmaker Crispin Glover). I have to say I was very intrigued with what I heard, which is to say that I'd never heard anything like it before. The basic rhythms of hill country blues give way to little pieces of jazz bass and piano thrown in under the radar. Layered on top of that is one of the more unusual voices to scream from the gut of Tom Waits, albeit with more soprano and less gravel. Toss in a bit too much reverb and a touch of psychadelia and you've got something that could have easily been released in the late 1960's. Except, of course, that it would have been released way ahead of it's time. This, to me, is a very groundbreaking type of release.
Obviously I was pre-disposed to like this ... and I did right from the first listen. However, each time I listened to it again I picked up something new. On about the fourth listen through I realized that this may be the most religious album I've ever heard. Yes I know, I should have figured that out long before the fourth listen since it does have not so subtle song titles like Red Wine Success!, God, Make Up Your Mind, and Passing the Hat. In my defense, it's so rare to hear Christianity mixed in with indie rock that I completely overlooked it. Now that I think about it, this might be the first rock and roll religious concept album I've ever owned. Hold on. Don't give me that somewhat disgusted look that I know some of you have on your face after reading that last sentence. This isn't that overt kind of Amy Grant or Michael W. Smith tripe. Instead it's more of a one person journey with the struggles of the real life versus the Judeo-Christian background 99% of us were brought up in. Of course this takes a more Christian angle than a Judeo angle since most of this deals with the concept of being reborn. Excepting the whole 'reborn' thing, this means that just about every one of us can relate to something contained within. I know some of you might say that creating a religious album that might relate to 99% of the people in America might be nothing more than creative marketers pandering to the masses. If that was true they wouldn't have packaged it around music so jangly and unaccessible. The whole religious concept shouldn't seem so new to me, since it is what every one of us struggle with whether we choose to face that fact or not. There have to be more records like this, but I'm convinced that the great majority of them deal with I Found Jesus! mentality rather than the confusion arising from man's concept of religion. Hell, even a heathen like George 'No Show' Jones has several dozen repentant drinking songs, half of which beg forgiveness from God.
While this release does sort of fall flat on it's face at the end, there are plenty of very powerful songs here to make you forget the less attractive tunes. Most notable are We Used To Vacation, Hang Me Up To Dry, Passing The Hat, and my personal favorite Saint John. Listen to Saint John twice and it will be stuck in your head forever. If you buy music to make you groove or dance then this most certainly will not interest you. If you buy music to freakin' rock out then this is going to leave you very disappointed. If you view music as an art form unto itself, then this should be at the very top of your list.
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