News
Cold Court throw \ (^_^) / in the air and make genre collapse sound fun
By Editorial Team - June 22, 2026
Summary
Pitchfork reviews Cold Court’s \ (^_^) / EP, a Philadelphia debut that throws blown-out guitars, Ableton chaos, live drums, funk, noise-pop and alt-rock into one fearless collision.
Key Facts
- Category: News
- Published: June 22, 2026
- Tags: cold court, hands up ep, philadelphia, noise pop, funk rock, alt-rock, pitchfork review, Noise Pop / Funk Rock
Cold Court’s \ (^_^) / EP enters the 22 June review cycle like a young band kicking every door open at once. The Philadelphia siblings Mini Serrano and Jojo Lavina-Maldonado reportedly began from a post-punk place before pushing further into Ableton distortion, blown-out guitars, scrambled electronics and genre chaos. The debut EP is described as moving through noise-pop, alt-rock, funk, live drums and fearless bad-taste-good-taste confusion. That is a promising mess. Anyone can claim to be genreless, but Cold Court seem more interested in making several genres happen at once while keeping the outline human. The lyrics may still need sharpening, but the production sounds confident beyond its years. \ (^_^) / is the kind of debut that makes youth sound arrogant, loud and extremely useful.
Source: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/cold-court-hands-up-ep/