Chance for Kids to grow

Musicians can grow up so fast. One minute they’re sweet prepubescent garage bands, eternally grateful for the opportunity to play Bar Mitzvahs and dive bars. Then, almost overnight, they grow up, demanding million-dollar record deals and spending their evenings trashing hotel rooms.

Thankfully, indie rock hipsters Cold War Kids are still somewhere in the middle, playing small gigs in Costa Mesa and preparing for an important music festival and the release of two new six-song EPs.

On Saturday, Cold War Kids ? whose sound might be described as the Counting Crows meet R.E.M. ? will host a CD release party at Detroit Bar, and then take off for the musical rite of passage known as the South by Southwest Music Festival, which begins this weekend, in Austin, Texas.

The Detroit Bar show might provide a glimpse of the Cold War Kids in their final moments of adolescent awkwardness, but band members say they’ll likely return as rough and gritty as when they left.

“We’re not going down there with any expectations,” said drummer Matt Aveiro. “It’s exciting, but its not something we think a lot about.”

Each year, hundreds of bands descend on Austin for South by Southwest, joined by a smattering of record executives and music insiders looking for the next big rock phenom.

For the Cold War Kids, the experience is about exposure and a chance to reach out to new fans.

“We want to create something without a whole lot of outside influence,” Aveiro said. “We have no agenda for this band. We literally started in the back of a restaurant.”

That was about a year and a half ago, when Aveiro, singer Nathan Willet, guitarist Jonnie Russell and bassist Matt Maust began holding late-night jam sessions. Lacking a drum set, the group relied on hand claps, pipes and the occasional garbage can lid for percussion. Those rhythms eventually formed the foundation of the group’s songwriting.

“A lot of things start with the rhythm, and everyone works off each other,” Maust said, describing the creative process as a democratic affair.

“Everyone has to be excited about it while we’re writing,” Willet said. “If everyone has a hand in what they’re doing, then everyone is much more sincere on stage.”

As for the albums, Maust said they should be viewed as moments in time.

“There’s never a whole lot of production involved,” Maust said. “It’s really good documentation of what we’re doing at the moment.”

When do they plan to grow up? Maust said he has yet to define success, but would like to see the band as an inspiration for others ? an artistic movement of sorts.

“We want the band to be a vehicle of creativity,” he said. “We are most influenced when we inspire others.”

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