Welcome to "Nothing Not New," a yearlong project in which New Times editorial operations manager Jay Bennett, a 40-year-old music fan and musician, will listen only to music released in 2010. Each Monday through Friday, he will listen to one new record (no best ofs, reissues, or concert recordings) and write about it. Why? Because in the words of his editor, Martin Cizmar, he suffers from "aesthetic atrophy," a wasting away of one's ability to embrace new and different music as one ages. Read more about this all-too-common ailment here.
Cold War Kids
This is another one of those bands I'd heard the cool kids talking about but had never actually heard their music. I had no preconceived notions about Cold War Kids and knew little else about them except that they were one of them buzz bands that usually flickers brightly for about three weeks and then no one ever hears from them again because the "tastemakers" in the alternative media have already chewed up them and spit them out.