VIA PRESS RELEASE | Twenty years ago, Cold War Kids introduced their distinctive blend of soulful storytelling, blues-infused indie rock and unforgettable melodies with their acclaimed debut album, Robbers & Cowards. Fueled by breakout singles “Hang Me Up to Dry,” “We Used to Vacation,” and “Hospital Beds,” the album landed on the Billboard 200 and launched a career that has since generated more than one billion streams worldwide.
Today, Cold War Kids celebrate the album’s 20ᵗʰ anniversary with Robbers & Cowards / Complete Cowards (20th Anniversary Edition), available now via UMe. The expanded collection completes four songs written during the album’s original era but left unfinished at the time, and adds six live recordings captured in 2007 as the band toured in support of its breakout debut.
Robbers & Cowards / Complete Cowards is available as a 2LP on black vinyl or limited-edition Brick Red vinyl, both featuring alternate and new artwork, and as a 2CD set. The Digital Deluxe Edition adds Phantogram’s newly reimagined version of “Hang Me Up to Dry,” which transforms the Cold War Kids classic with heavy electro beats, layered atmospherics and bewitching vocals. The collaboration offers a first glimpse of a further 20th anniversary celebration, with more artist reinterpretations of songs from Robbers & Cowards coming in 2027.
The four newly completed songs—“Loyalty,” “There Goes The Night,” “Jesse Latour,” and “She Can Do No Wrong”—all date back to the Robbers & Cowards era. Cold War Kids returned to the material two decades later to finish and record the songs for the anniversary collection.
Dallas, TX | This 25,000-square-foot, Dallas-area vinyl shop is the largest record store in Texas – and possibly the largest in the U.S. Josey Records’ sprawling Farmers Branch flagship is packed with new and used vinyl, bargain-bin discoveries and a connection to one of Dallas’s most beloved record shops. Some shops are made for a quick stop. Josey Records is the kind of place where you might want to clear your afternoon. The independent record store’s Farmers Branch flagship spans approximately 25,000 square feet, making it the largest independent record store in Texas and one of the biggest in the country. Inside, rows of new releases and secondhand finds sit alongside 45s, CDs, cassettes and turntables—giving music lovers plenty of reasons 
London, UK | The 25 best record shops in London: Whatever you’re into—from punk and metal to reggae, soul, jazz and more—London has a record store for you. We all love a musical comeback. From Elvis in the late ‘60s to Kylie in the early 2000s, it’s a thrill when your favourite breaks out of the doldrums and, against all odds, reminds you why you loved them in the first place. The much-trumpeted vinyl revival’s been in full swing for over a decade-and-a-half now, with 7.6m units of black wax shifted in 2025, marking 18 years of consistent growth, and London has duly responded in kind. Whether we’re talking about relative newcomers that improbably opened in the pandemic or decades-old stalwarts that survived changing trends to thrive again, there are must-visit stores in every corner of the capital. 
It must have been an audacious piece of salesmanship, for no rock band—much less a pop supergroup with the psychedelic bona fides of The Byrds—had ever attempted anything so potentially suicidal from a commercial standpoint. From “Eight Miles High” to “The Christian Life”? Longhairs playing pure country honk? Why, the idea was unthinkable, risible even, although The Byrds themselves had dabbled in country before and Bob Dylan himself would make the transition soon enough.
Pasig, PH | This record shop owner strives to keep cassette, vinyl music alive: Ge Timbreza has lived and breathed music for as long as he can remember. In his younger years, he played in a band with his friends. Then, he started collecting CDs and cassette tapes just for the fun of it. Timbreza was just in high school when he bought his own cassette player. To this day, the nostalgia of listening to old records hits just as hard—and it’s a feeling he believes he can never replicate from streaming music online. Timbreza’s love for music didn’t just take him down memory lane. In 2017, it also led him to establish Spin The Reel Music Trade, which now operates daily in Pasig City. His wife, Charm, has always been supportive of him. His 16-year-old son is also one of the reasons why the business keeps running, 
South Salt Lake, UT | This historic Utah home’s reinvention as a record store began with a kiss at a Smashing Pumpkins concert: Mood Ring Records puts a different spin on how music lovers find their new favorite albums. …The store is a museum to the couple’s shared love of music. The gallery wall in the record room is home to framed posters of shows they’ve attended together. A frame on a shelf has physical tickets from Wilco, PJ Harvey and Fountains of Wayne shows. The Medinas pride themselves on having an eclectic collection, something for everyone, with music from their own personal collections, items people bring in and things they order. “I listen to everything,” Jesse said. “If you look through these bins, you’ll see country, jazz, hip hop, R&B, electronic, indie, noise, hardcore, punk … there’s different ways of expressing your emotion through music and 
The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau more or less summed up my sentiments when he wrote of Squeeze’s 1982 compilation Singles – 45’s and Under, “They’re so principled in their unpretension, so obsessed with the telling detail, that their lesser moments are passively minuscule—not unfine when you squint at them, but all too easy to overlook.”
Black Friday Record Store Day is right around the corner. If you’re planning to come home with a stack of new wax, it might be time to think about what you’re going to spin it on.
I’ve been living with 
Edinburgh, UK | ‘End of an Era.’ Beloved Scots record shop to close after 43 years: A popular Scottish music shop has announced its shock closure after over 40 years, leaving customers gutted. Vinyl Villains, in Leith, Edinburgh, has been a favourite in the area since it first opened in 1983. Located on Elm Row, at the top of Leith Walk, the old-school record store is famous for its huge collection of rare, pre-owned and collectable vinyl. It is also praised for its range of secondhand CDs, DVDs, music books, and band T-shirts. But the beloved shop has now revealed that it is set to shut for good after serving customers for more than four decades. The sad news was shared with customers on social media, explaining that it comes after 
Calgary, AL | ‘Those two gentlemen changed everything’: VinylCentric’s new exhibit celebrates duo who created the groundwork for Canadian recording industry. …The 6000 Series tells the stories of two men who helped lay the groundwork for the Canadian recording industry. One is Walt Grealis, a former police officer with a passion for music whose contributions have been relatively well-documented. He founded the magazine RPM, which stood for Records, Promotion, Music, in 1964 and used it to tirelessly advocate for Canadian artists, making him a lone voice at the time. He invented the term CanCon and played a major part in establishing a Canadian star system in the music industry by co-founding with partner Stan Klees the RPM Gold Leaf music awards in 1970, which 
