Cold War Kids is an American indie rock band from Long Beach, California. Band members are Nathan Willett (vocals, piano, guitar), Matt Maust (bass guitar), David Quon (guitar, backing vocals), Matthew Schwartz (backing vocals, keyboards and piano, percussion, guitar), and Joe Plummer (drums, percussion). Former members of the band include Dann Gallucci (guitar, keyboards, percussion), Matt Aveiro (drums, percussion), and Jonnie Russell (guitar, vocals, piano, keyboards, percussion). Forming in 2004 in Fullerton California, the Cold War Kids' early releases came from independent record label Monarchy Music.
2012-2015: Dear Miss Lonelyhearts and Hold My Home
In January 2012, Cold War Kids announced that former Modest Mouse guitarist Dann Gallucci would take Russell's place in the band and premiere on their new single "Minimum Day". On January 15, 2013, the band announced a new single, "Miracle Mile", for their fourth album, Dear Miss Lonelyhearts. The latter was released on April 2, 2013. They followed that up with an EP titled Tuxedos, released on September 17, 2013. They promoted both efforts with a U.S. headline tour that ended on November 6, 2013. In November 2013, they announced that a fifth album was in the works. On November 10, 2013, the Orange County Register reported that drummer Matt Aveiro had left the band, and that Modest Mouse drummer Joe Plummer would be holding his place indefinitely.  In March 2014, Cold War Kids collaborated with Belgian brewer Stella Artois and sonic inventor Andy Cavatorta for a project titled "Chalice Symphony" that involved using the brewer's famous drinking glasses as instruments for the band to use to record the track "A Million Eyes". The behind-the-scenes videos were used as commercials and were uploaded on the brewer's YouTube page. The song was released on iTunes on March 3, 2014, and the music video that went along with the track premiered on YouTube on April 4, 2014. In May 2014, Willett and Maust worked on a side project with We Barbarians' Nathan Warkentin called French Style Furs. The project's debut album, Is Exotic Bait, was released on July 8, 2014. The album was recorded with the assistance of Nick Launay, and the lyrics used were adapted from the poetry of twentieth-century Catholic monk and philosopher Thomas Merton.  On July 15, 2014, Cold War Kids released the first single, "All This Could Be Yours", from their fifth album Hold My Home, which was released on October 21. The release of Hold My Home had drummer Joe Plummer and multi-instrumentalist/singer Matthew Schwartz being credited as proper members of the band on the album's liner notes as opposed to touring members as previously credited. The album also spawned the single "First" in February 2015. Despite mixed reactions from critics on the overall quality and consistency of the album, "First" went on to chart at number 1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart, making it the band's highest charting single ever.

Q: What was the highlight of 2012?
A: Cold War Kids announced that former Modest Mouse guitarist Dann Gallucci would take Russell's place in the band
What happened to Russell?
unknown
unknown