Christianity And The Cold War Kids Backlash
By now, you not only know of the soul-clapping yelp-rock of Cold War Kids, you even know they met at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles; that's how far the gospel (pun) of the band has spread. The San Diego CityBEAT's cover story this week traces the rapid rise of -- and backlash against -- the band, identifying the vitriolic pressure point (their faith) and the trigger man (Pitchfork). They write (via Cat Dirt Sez):
After revealing their time at [Bible Institute Of Los Angeles], it seemed recognizing Cold War Kids' talent was secondary to having a loud opinion about them. Worse, they were pigeonholed as a "Christian band."It started with the influential, naysaying indie-rock website, Pitchforkmedia.com. The site's initial blurbs about the Kids were mostly either cheeky or just downright negative. A review of their song "Hospital Beds" proclaimed that Willett's "pompous delivery makes every song sound like a Jeff Buckley cover band playing a wedding drunk."
Of their South-by-Southwest performance, Pitchfork reported that "the skinny-jeaned Christians of Cold War Kids staggered around a bit, their singer coming off like an embittered Taylor Hicks."
Things didn't change with the review of Robbers & Cowards. Writer Marc Hogan, as if hit by a lightning bolt from the bitter gods of music journalism, interpreted Willett's lyrics as reverent proclamations. At one point, he even compared them to George W. Bush's genuflecting speeches.
Although Robbers & Cowards is filled with religious imagery--often sung from the perspective of a fictional character--Willett says context has been completely ignored in such reviews."It's just lazy journalism, where if you don't like a band, you pick up one thing about them and say, 'I'm gonna write about this.'"
Guitarist Russell, whose father is in fact an Evangelical preacher, agrees: "That seems to be the agenda; not to have a thoughtful reflection on music but to have a sharp angle and a funny way of saying it."
Doesn't seem like the Kids' Christianity is a legit criticism in this case; just a convenient handle for insult. Or, did Jesus push you off the bandwagon? Does CWK's devotion get in your way more than Sufjan's? Jeremy Enigk's? Also, Matisyahu = total heeb ... Gotta a problem with that, Schreiber?
Posted at 8:28 PM
Tags: Cold War Kids
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Pitchfork can suck a bag of dicks. And so can blogs like this that routinely give credit to their bullshit reviews.
Pitchfork reviews should be treated as if they were written by the staff of The Onion.
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Bible Institute of Los Angeles? It took me a sec on that one... Its known as Biola, its a standard conservative Christian campus, and its in La Mirada, which isn't too close to LA.
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Pitchfork totally hates My guts! Sufjan's inevitable fall will most likely be blamed on his friendship with Me. I still love Pitchfork, though, and would pick them over Rolling Stone any day of the week but Sunday because then I'm napping.
http://whatwouldjb.blogspot.com/2006/05/stick-pfork-in-em.html
i love you,
jesus christ
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jim has feelings for pam! yay
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also: jesus is bullshit.
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you suck. jesus rocks. his my king and saviour. nothing u say can change that!
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you suck. jesus rocks. his my king and saviour. nothing u say can change that!
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haha I know this is totally irrelevant but like doggie I am also happy that jim still has feelings for pam
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No; Kanye West is bullshit
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my favorite is that the phone number for the Casbah in San Diego (as noted at the end of the article) where they are playing soon is none other than...619-232-HELL.
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cold war kids are a good band and there is nothing wrong with being a Christian. I know it's hip to hate on people who believe in God, but you should keep in mind that not all Christians are ignorant, preachy, self righteous Pat Robertsons.
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I'm all for the Cold War Kids and the Sufjan. If Pitchfork doesn't dig the sound or style of the CWK, which I personally didn't at first, they should just say it without being all RichDork. Still, I'm going to Cold War Kids + Tokyo Police Club at the Bowery. Did SG write up TPC yet?
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Cold War Kids were slightly better when they were called Jars of Clay. They still weren't good back then though.
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The same critics at Pitchfork probably cry and sob along with Sufjan as he sings his Michael Bolton-esque soft rock. Hypocrites.
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Don't care if they are Christian or not. Never got into them. Anyway, they became big on the blogs, how is that any better or worse (or reliable) than Pitchfork.
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This is nothing new. Reviews of bands like Pedro the Lion and Sufjan always mention their beliefs,as though those things actually matter when deciding to buy an album or not. And for some reason, the reviewer always brings up Stryper. That's lazy bullshit journalism at it's lowest, and it's what you need to expect from Pitchfork.
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I'd head to Good God! A Gospel Funk Hymnal for your fix of Christian music and ignore the others. White people have never been good about singing about God.
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i like to hate on christians, but i hate on the cold war kids for a reason - they aren't that good. i never even considered their religious affiliation. they don't outright suck, but i just don't understand the blog sensation they've spawned. many other bands deserve that spotlight. it reminds me of how 'we are scientists' were fucking huge last year. it's music to go out and see live, maybe have some fun with that cool girl who finally let you go out with her, or second-hand it from blogs, but in the long run... what's the big deal?
as for pitchfork... they're OK, but question their reviews every chance you get. they highlight some good bands who deserve 'best new music,' but they're not the final say. you are. aw.
/soap boxxx
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>jim has feelings for pam! yay
post of the year.
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This band fucking sucks.
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All joking/sarcasm aside, why do you like to hate on Christians? I can understand hating on the ones who have been mean to you, or judged you, or who you've witnessed being hypocrites, but can you really hate an entire (sub)culture of people because the worst of them have been serious assholes?
I only ask, because I hear this a lot. It seems kneejerk.
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So its basically:
blog fanboi
vs
Pitchfork fanboi
Who will control the Universe?
Does Tom Cruise care?
And will Xenu be on the next Cold War Kids album!??
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Not sure how insinuating that Pitchfork uses "Christian" as an insult is quite the same as using an actual slur to close out this post. Not to get all PC, but it's important to note the difference between subtext and text text.
I'm also not defending Pitchfork, who does seem to be grinding an axe on CWK.
Finally, Dwight = Jackhammer.
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The Cold War Kids sound like a bunch of good-looking guys that met at college and kind of got into that "indie rock" thing and then started a band.
There's about an 92% chance that if you like them, you don't have very good taste in music, and read about them on a blog.
As far as their beliefs go, I agree with Stuart Murdoch that reading the gospel to yourself is fine. I make a point to do that every night. But I'm sure as hell not going to make a crap record about it and expect folks like Pitchfork to keep their mouths shut.
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And after re-reading the Pitchfork review, I felt like about 85% of the review was fair, even though I haven't heard the record. It just seems lazy to use Christianity as such a big lead-in, and the Bush comparison at the end was, at best, nonsensical, and, at worst, hateful, as though believing in God is tantamount to being a warmonger or a jackass.
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It seems to me like Christianity is only acceptable in the indie community if it's relatively docile and domesticated, remaining completely nonthreatening to the skeptical tendencies of the community. Pitchfork cites NMH and Sufjan as examples of well-recieved Christian acts in their CWK review, though NMH hasn't been around for almost ten years and Jeff Mangum on the Jittery Joe's record distances himself from CHristianity when singing the second part of King of Carrot Flowers. Sufjan is quite up-front about it, whether it be in Seven Swans, his CHristmas stuff or 50 states whatnot. However great it may be, his music isn't especially theologically engaging or challenging. CWK have broken this mold lyrically, regardless of how their sound has been done before (how many blues-influenced low-fi bands have Rolling Stone given 4 or more stars to that P4k gives less than a 6.5? Black Keys, Deadboy & the Elephantmen, White Stripes, Raconteurs, etc.). Certainly the EPs were far superior to CWK's LP, and the fact that they had released every single song on the LP before, whether on an EP or on their Daytrotter session. There's so many things to call this band out on, but choosing something like their faith and just railing on it is poor reviewing.
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Dear Cold War Kids,
God hates your band and your music. Jesus also hates you too.
Signed,
Everyone who has decent taste in music.
On another note, anyone else see the similarities between Cold War Kids and Panic! at The Disco (how they both undeservingly rose to fame immediately after they formed, how they both suck).
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Pitchfork certainly hates David Bazan and apparently CWK and uses their faith as a strange, roundabout insult, yet praises Sufjan Stevens and the Danielson Familie with all the reverence of a Holy Roller at Benny Hinn's latest conference. Page France has very obvious religious and theological overtones, yet they seem to approve of their tunes. Strange, it seems to me that Christian becomes a slur when they already dislike the band for other reasons. Zeichman, your proposal that only docile Christianity is well received may be valid to a point, but keep Danielson, Sufjan Stevens, and his AK labelmate Half-handed Cloud in mind, they are certainly not mute when it comes to conveying faith through music and art, and have enjoyed success nonetheless.
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Christian or not, the Cold War Kids are boring. That's all that needs to be said.
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I don't even know where to begin with the idiocy of some of these comments. Have the haters and naysayers even listened to the EPs or LP properly? I can understand if you're not into the music but it is lazy journalism to latch onto their faith as a point of criticism. Their lyrics stem more from a literary tradition than a religious one. Other than Passing the Hat and Gospels vs. The Sermons, most of the songs don't even contain much overt religious imagery. Saint John's lyrics start off with "Supper time...in the hole..", God Make Up Your Mind tells the story of a precocious kid who's way ahead of his years, and recently, they debuted Golden Gate Jumpers at Pianos, which is about people who jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. If anything, I see CWK's catalog of songs as a series of vignettes or short stories with similar thematic elements. It seems like they're interested more in stories of common people that most of us don't even want to pay attention to or deal with. The alcoholic father in We Used to Vacation, the two sick patients in Hospital Beds, the prisoner in Saint John, the girl in Expensive Tastes and yet they still convey a sense of hope in each situation. Personally, I find their songs moving because of their compassion and empathy in portraying these characters and stories in a non judgmental way. And well, the music just rocks in my opinion and if that makes me a poser, so be it. Bring on more idiotic comments. Inevitably, many of you will disagree with me. Belligerent lot, you are.
I leave you with a present though. A video of Golden Gate Jumpers from the Pianos show.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2106244592461714571&hl=en
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Even I, as a Christian, have to fight the urge to instinctively dislike anything made by a "Christian band," simply because most Christian artists don't meet my personal standards for lyrical or musical quality. It's frustrating - both that I have this prejudice against them and that I actually kind of have a just reason to have a prejudice against them. I could ramble on about this for hours, but... uh, I won't.
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hey, doesn't SATAN have a pitchfork?
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Goddamn people, can't we all pick on mediocre bands without getting nasty? Calm down, do some breathing excersizes, maybe pull that Cold War Kids EP out from under the matress where you hid it when the Pitchfork staff collectively snapped their all-mighty fingers.
Do you feel better now?
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there are a lot of good bands that have come out of the Bible Institue of Los Angeles (Biola) The Colour and The Austin James Band along with the Cold War Kids are immensly popular around LA and each band has members who graduated from Biola.
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"The Cold War Kids sound like a bunch of good-looking guys that met at college and kind of got into that "indie rock" thing and then started a band.
There's about an 92% chance that if you like them, you don't have very good taste in music, and read about them on a blog."
honestly though, speaking as someone that appreciates a fine looking man, this band has not one of them. They are busted bland whitebreads.
Not to mention their music sucks. well it's not Hold Steady in your face sucking, but it's pretty damn bland and boring.
Want to know why their shows sold out at bowery? Major label buyout.
ZZZZZZZZ
they'll be gone before you can say we are scientists...
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i wouldn't say the fork hates cwk, they just don't love them like other faves; they may not even 'like' them that much but it's not hate. but the lack of love is fair enough, to lavish equal praise on cwk and sufjan would be preposterous, because the latter is much better.
by all means, sing about your faith, if that's what gets you off.
but the way that cwk do it, well, i just can't help but hear trite, cringe-worthy cliches that they picked up at bible camp.
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as long as its not creed, i dont care.
cwk got some good tunes.
speaking as a nonchristian who didnt know they were, i didnt see it, i just saw some m-effin wailing.
listen to your ears not presuppositions.
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they bring up SXSW from 10 months ago? WOW.
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Pitchfork the almighty!
There are Lovers and Haters - but everyone seems to care about every fart the Pitchfork staff let go.
Seems like they are in fact the most powerful force in todays indierock world. Probably the whole music-journalism world. If you like em or not, hands down for that, fellaz!
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why do people care so much? dont listen to their music if you dont like it. I dont like it, so i dont listen to it. but dont offend a group of people because of something that the band talks about in their music.
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Christian fanatics can suck my left nut. They are just as bad as the Jihadists of the Middle East.
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Why has everyone failed to mention that the album pitchfork reviewed is their weakest material to date? It's essentially unlistenable, so polished, bloated and stale. They definitely abandoned anything that could have made them stand out and have a unique sound on their latest. But I am with everyone else, the controversy has just increased exposure and time wasted on a band that wasn't really that interesting to begin with. Bands like akron/family and vetiver are a whole lot more interesting and their latest barely made a whisper on the blogs...
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i didn't even know they were christian til now. i just didn't like them for the old-fashioned reason that their music kinda sucks.
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It's insane that the only type of blatant biggotry allowed by social norms is anti-Christianity. And by that, of course, i mean we should be allowed to hate everyone equally.
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Pitchfork's comments are being taken a little bit too far. Yes, the mention the Christianity and respond negatively to it, but they did that for Sufjan too--look up the interview. The difference is Cold War Kids is horrible and Sufjan is less horrible.
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"Christian fanatics can suck my left nut. They are just as bad as the Jihadists of the Middle East."
Rosie? Is that you? I can't believe you read this blog.
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Let's just be honest for a second:
White indie kids aren't known for their open-mindedness.
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I agree the interview seems a bit antagonistic, but I take exception to the fact that we're assuming this writer ... or a couple of writers ... makes up the entirety of the Pitchfork/Stereogum/etc. universe. I imagine music journalists hate being pigeon-holed because they happen to write for a particular publication/site.
That said, for a really fascinating and thorough look at the current state of post-contemporary Christian culture and music, check out Body Piercing Saved My Life by Andrew Beaujon (SPIN, Rolling Stone). I have received no payola for this endorsement.
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"Christian fanatics can suck my left nut. They are just as bad as the Jihadists of the Middle East."
Rosie O' Donnell, is that you? I'm your biggest fan!
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"The Cold War Kids sound like a bunch of good-looking guys that met at college and kind of got into that "indie rock" thing and then started a band.
There's about an 92% chance that if you like them, you don't have very good taste in music, and read about them on a blog."
I'd say there's a 92% chance that dave masturbates to Pitchfork every morning and is a pretentious douche.
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i knew you'd post it... who can resist?
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I don't blame Cold War Kids for taking exception to a 5.0 out of 10.0 rating, but the rating was on aesthetic, not ideological, grounds.
I love plenty of *good* music about Jesus; check out the review for my favorite album of 2006, Belle & Sebastian's "The Life Pursuit":
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/15377/Belle_and_Sebastian_The_Life_Pursuit
I talked about the religion angle because none of the many bloggers who love this band's music were discussing what their songs might actually be about. An analytical look at the content of "Robbers and Cowards" was both newsworthy and overdue.
Anyway, I seem to remember most of the outrage when they review ran being about perceived anti-blogrock bias rather than perceived anti-Christian bias. Sometimes people just have different opinions on music. Why assume a hidden agenda?
Best,
Marc
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argh, that's "When *the*" review ran, not "they," obv
xpost i'm guessing
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keep your jesus out of my internet
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Seriously who gives a shit. Who cares what religion they are or who gave what a 5.0 or whatever the fuck. If you like it you like it, if you don't you don't.
It's nothing new to have a pitchfork review take a left field approach that ends up hammering home mostly inconsequential points while barely grazing the topic of the actual album. While they do tend to have good taste in music (i.e. Pitchfork Festival lineups), they are in no way the end all and be all.
I'm surprised someone would get so worked up over what one stupid review said. So you love Jesus. Good for him.
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I recently gave a friend a copy of Jenny Lewis' album and was surprised when she referred to it as "inspirational" due to the many "God references". Now this wasn't exactly my take on the album but I was just curious if anyone knows anything about Jenny Lewis and her views on religion...?
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I've never heard this band and I'm not really offended by the negative comments regarding Christianity really.
It's just interesting that bashing someone b/c of their belief in God (namely, Christianity - b/c let's face it if it were any
other major religion it would probably not be viewed the same. ((i.e. w/ contempt)) It would probably be endorsed by pitchfork in fact.)
is pretty much the only acceptable form of discrimination these days, I mean in this community anyway - The middle class-indie music fan-blog reader community, that is.
I remember recently people were so up in arms about comments on this website about gay people and there were all kinds of
people calling them out and coming to the defense on this issue. Kinda strange that the same doesn't apply at all here.
Strange is all, kinda of a role reversal in perception really - what once was completely normal and acceptable is now ok to look down on - what once was commonly looked down on is now completely normal and acceptable (I'm speaking in terms of perception and being "PC" not about morals or what I think is right and wrong).
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I don' think PFork is attacking their christianity at all, they're attacking how much of a shitty band they are. Clearly making Sufjan's "Illinois" the album of the year shows that they have no problem with religious creed mixed with indie rock. CWK just aren't that good. and yeah, PFork's writing is pretty week, I mean it is a music blog after all.
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Pitchfork likes to sit on children's faces and fart noxious odors.
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dude, our local paper, OC Weekly (where the CWK are from), reported on the CWK/christianity connection MONTHS ago.
http://www.ocweekly.com/music/music/new-song/25904/
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dude, our local paper, OC Weekly (where the CWK are from), reported on the CWK/christianity connection MONTHS ago.
http://www.ocweekly.com/music/music/new-song/25904/
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jppbkm- jenny lewis is an atheist.
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how come the main complaint about these guys is anything other than "THIS BAND SOUNDS EXACTLY LIKE THE WALKMEN WITH THEIR BALLS CUT OFF"?
doesn't anyone else hear this? the reverby guitar? the "yelling" with "emotion"? argh.
why has no one has mentioned that? WHY?
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Here's the real problem; no one has any idea what 'indie rock' means anymore, and ever since the whole genre got co-opted by the OC/Garden State/hip TV commercials, people have been looking for reasons to hate it. Every end of the year wrap-up on the internet mentioned how this was a "middling" year for indie, or how indie rock was "getting boring". Maybe 2006 was truely a bad year for indie rock, but I think it's more likely that people are no longer sure what 'indie' means, now that their dorky sorority girl friends are listening to Modest Mouse and Postal Service, and listing Bright Eyes and The Shins in their myspace profiles. People are suspicious of indie rock in general, and they're constantly looking for any reason to throw a band out with the bath water. Had CWK come out in 2005, would it have been greeted by a 9.0 by Pitchfork? I think so. Even those dudes are looking confused by the state of indie music in 2007.
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"you even know they met at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles; that's how far the gospel (pun) of the band has spread"
I don't think that's a pun, fool.
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I guess I'm not cool because I actually like this band. Who cares about their Christianity? I'm no fan of religion, but it doesn't seem like they're using the music to overtly try to convert people.
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"I'd say there's a 92% chance that dave masturbates to Pitchfork every morning and is a pretentious douche."
Pretentious douches like myself don't get off on Pitchfork anymore. Please. I was over the 'Fork back in '04.
These days I like to rub my boner a little through my jeans while reading Wire or Signal to Noise at Borders.
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Ach, you crazy indie rock kids...One day, in the not-so-distant future, you'll round the corner towards middle age and realize you should have been listening to The Kinks from the git-go.
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"I was over the 'Fork back in '04."
Haha you liked Pitchfork in 2004.
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woah! what? i was just reading up on this hot indie band comprised of christians when i suddenly spotted that they are Jars of Clay? that is too weird, i used to listen to those guys and i had no idea about this. Go Christian Based Secular Bands, don't pull a Creed!
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Little chance anyone will see this comment so late, but... where did you read that, Oliver? I also used to be a big Jars of Clay fan back in my high school CCM days, and I was always about the secretly Christian! secular bands.
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To be fair, the Pitchfork review by Hogan stated that there's no reason why an album by an indie rock band that happens to be comprised of Christians (i'm paraphrasing here) can't succeed on its own terms, even with 'religious' lyrics; he just didn't happen to think it was that great an album. While I hate Pitchfork at times as much as the rest of us, this was an equally unfair summary of what they actually said. How about TRUTH once in awhile?
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I love the Cold War Kids... I thought everyone did, I guess not, ha!
But seriously they are way good.
In my top 10 favorite bands.
What's wrong with them being Christian?
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I'm a christian and i couldn't even tell until i read this... I have to agree with some of the people on being prejudice about christian bands but this isn't even a christian band... they are christians but they don't want to be labeled under the christian record company because there are very many christian bands but very few good ones...
I am a christian and i am not retarded... the thing that most not christians think about us is that we're a bunch of retards... were not... some are bad examples but hey were human's that believe in a savior called Jesus Christ. It does not make us perfect but true christians strive to be better
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