Cold (band)

Cold is an American rock band formed in 1986 in Neptune Beach, Florida. Co-founded by lead singer and rhythm guitarist Scooter Ward, drummer Sam McCandless, bassist Jeremy Marshall, and lead guitarist Matt Loughran, the band has undergone numerous lineup changes with Ward being its only constant member.

In 1997, at the urging of Fred Durst, Flip Records/A&M Records signed Cold to a recording contract. The band's debut album, Cold (1998), sold poorly due to A&M's closure in the months following its release, resulting in the band moving to Geffen Records. Cold found mainstream success with 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage (2000) and its follow-up Year of the Spider (2003), which saw the band incorporate influences of post-grunge and alternative rock into their sound; both albums were certified Gold by the RIAA, with the latter reaching number three on the Billboard 200 chart and producing the band's only single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, "Stupid Girl". However, Cold would soon part ways with Geffen in March 2004 over disputes surrounding the promotion of Year of the Spider, and went through a succession of lineup changes throughout the rest of the year.

Cold signed with Lava Records in July 2004, who released their fourth album, A Different Kind of Pain (2005); the album's more sombre, downbeat tone alienated fans and subsequently failed to repeat the success of the band's prior albums. After a period of uncertainty, Cold announced their disbandment In November 2006. In July 2008, it was announced that the original line-up would reunite for a tour in early 2009, which later spiralled into a fully fledged reunion. The band have since released two more studio albums; Superfiction in 2011, and their most recent album, The Things We Can't Stop, in 2019.

Cold, who at the time were called Grundig, formed in 1986 with the line-up of Scooter Ward (vocals, rhythm guitar), Sam McCandless (drums), Jeremy Marshall (bass) and Matt Loughran (lead guitar) at Fletcher High School in Neptune Beach, Florida. The band played their first gig in 1990 at a club called the Spray. In 1992, the band released an 8-song EP called "Into Everything".

Initially based in Jacksonville, Florida, they moved to Atlanta, Georgia, hoping to get a break in the industry. During this time, Matt Loughran left the band and was replaced by Sean Lay, who also left the group. Kelly Hayes then joined, and they all later returned to Florida. Three and a half years later in 1995, Grundig broke up and Ward moved back to Jacksonville, where he, McCandless, Kelly Hayes, and Pat Lally formed the band Diablo. Diablo would only last about three months. At the end of that three-month period, Grundig reformed under the name Cold in 1996.

Following Cold's progress in the Jacksonville scene was local Fred Durst. Impressed by what he had heard, he invited Ward to record two acoustic tracks, "Check Please" and "Ugly." The two demos were passed on to producer Ross Robinson, who was also impressed by what he had heard, leading the recently renamed Cold to record their debut album titled Cold in 1997.

In 1997, Cold was signed to Flip Records, with distribution through the major label A&M Records. Cold was released in 1998, and received positive reviews from critics. However, shortly after its release, A&M folded due to the Universal Music Group–PolyGram merger, resulting in the album's promotion being suddenly cut, which hurt the album's sales greatly; Flip Records' founder, Jordan Schur, described the album as being "a car shut off in midgear", and thus only managed to sell just below 40,000 copies in the US. However, thanks to Schur, Cold avoided being dropped by UMG during the merger, and soon after Flip transferred the band's contract over to Geffen Records, where Schur had just been named president of, in 1999. Regardless of the label's poor promotion of the album, Cold soon opened for Limp Bizkit and Soulfly during a brief European tour in the spring of 1998.

That same year, the band released the Oddity EP. Its cover photo, taken by the wife of McCandless, depicts their pet tarantula named Wednesday, crawling on the face of her doll. The band sought a signature element that fans could remember them by, and Wednesday served as the inspiration; McCandless gave a particularly favorable image of a spider to a friend and tattoo artist who transformed it into what would become Cold's official logo. The drummer would later note, "Our music kind of creeps along like a spider."