In six short years, Long Beach, Calif.’s Cold War Kids have churned out an obscene amount of records and toured aggressively. Their latest venture, Mine Is Yours (Downtown/Mercury/V2), features jangling guitar, rumbling bass and toe-tapping drums in the same vein as the Black Keys and the now-defunct White Stripes. The video for single “Louder Than Ever” is a not-so-subtle take on the self-esteem-obliterating, throat-cutting fashion industry. A Hugh Hefner/Simon Cowell/David Hasselhoff amalgamation marks up a drop-dead beauty with the tire marks of a plastic surgeon and models flit around in skimpy $3,000 outfits as Nathan Willett’s shrill vocals and the band members’ more polished version of themselves provide the soundtrack.
