Notes from the field: Cold War Kids
Most Embedded shoots start out with an idea from an artist: Hey, come to Japan! Hey, let's throw a secret show! As much as possible, we're just along for the ride. But what happens when the ride comes to a sudden, screeching halt?
Senior producer Alex Simmons flew up to Reno to join Cold War Kids on a leg of their tour, planning to tag along for most of a week. But the band—which has been touring steadily since approximately 1981, it seems—was unexpectedly derailed. Alex says:
When we went up to Lake Tahoe we were supposed to film that show, then two more days with the band in Sacramento and San Francisco. The morning after the Tahoe show we woke up to find out that [singer] Nate [Willet]'s voice was gone and they were cancelling the next two dates, something that hadn’t done in something like 500 shows. We immediately jumped in our rental car and barely made it back to Reno for a flight back home.
We stayed at the Cal Neva resort, right next to the Crystal Bay Casino where the show was held. The Cal Neva has a crazy history with ties to Sinatra, the Kennedy family and the mafia (you may remember it from The Godfather).
Shooting a band while they're in that post-album, pre-followup period—the band had been touring in support of 2008's "Loyalty to Loyalty"—can sometimes yield unexpected breakthrough moments.
I love that the song "Santa Ana Winds" mentions Joan Didion. When we filmed the session for that song, the guys weren’t sure what they were going to do with it, but in the end they decided to release it as part of their “Behave Yourself” EP.
Check the unconventional teaser trailer for "Behave Yourself," out now on iTunes and on vinyl and CD January 19. Get more info at their official site.
Watch a preview for tonight's show below, then tune in at 11pm EST/8pm PST.
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