The sound of Cold War Kids can be summed up in three words: clappy, clangy and jangly. Never mind that those aren’t exactly real words — they get the job done a good deal more efficiently than trying to discern the band’s influences (the Velvet Underground? Devendra Banhart? Jeff Buckley, if Buckley had ever fronted an indie-rock band with jug band sensibilities?). Cold War Kids are a four-piece from Fullerton, Calif., that would probably add a fifth member if they ever came across someone who could play a kitchen sink. For now, though, they more than make do with guitar, bass, drums, vocals and the odd piano flourish, not to mention all manner of improvised percussion, like four hopped-up monkeys running amok in a warehouse full of pots and pans. On record (2006’s Robbers & Cowards, 2008’s Loyalty to Loyalty and a handful of EPs), it sounds fresh and weird but catchy as hell; onstage, it’s all that magnified tenfold.
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