Cold War Kids have shared a new song, “Loyalty.” The track was recorded during the sessions for their 2006 debut Robbers & Cowards, and appears on a 20th-anniversary expanded edition, due out next year.
“Loyalty” is the second previously-unreleased song Cold War Kids has issued from that era this year, following last month’s “There Goes The Night.” Both were written around the time of Robbers & Cowards but didn’t make the final cut; two decades later, the band was inspired to return to the studio and finish them off.
Frontman Nathan Willett said “Loyalty” dates back to Cold War Kids’ first national tour in 2005, when the band played it live before ever tracking it in the studio. “The song has this instant energy, this simplicity. It’s somehow bluesy and punky like The Clash,” he said. “When we recorded it this year I thought, ‘What were we thinking that we didn’t put this on the first album? It’s so good!’”
The release arrives the day Cold War Kids are scheduled to play a hometown show at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, opening for Young the Giant. The two bands will continue touring North America together through August 9, with stops including Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago and Indianapolis.
Robbers & Cowards, which came out in 2006, introduced the band’s blues-inflected indie rock sound to the world, producing the singles “Hang Me Up to Dry,” “We Used to Vacation” and “Hospital Beds.” It reached No. 173 on the Billboard 200 and helped jumpstart Cold War Kids’ career, which has seen the quartet—Willett, Matt Maust, David Quon, Matthew Schwartz and Joe Plummer —release ten studio albums over the past 20-something years. Their platinum-certified 2015 single “First” remains a staple of alternative radio, and just last year, the band released “Any Day Now,” a tribute to longtime friend and collaborator Richard Swift.
The expanded Robbers & Cowards reissue will include “Loyalty,” “There Goes The Night” and two more previously unfinished songs from the album’s original sessions. It has yet to receive an official release date.
