Songfacts®:

• In this song, laundry that has been hung on a clothesline is used as a metaphor for getting caught in a one-sided relationship. The girl keeps leading him on just to disappoint him, which is "hanging him out to dry." The clicking at the end of the song simulates the clothesline. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Bertrand - Paris, France
• Bassist Matt Maust told Spin magazine about the reason for the band's name: "I had the name six or seven years before the band started - so probably since 1997. I was traveling in Eastern Europe with my brother. There's this big park in Budapest where they dumped all these statues that had been removed after Communism fell. Now it's just a place where people can go and have picnics. There's a playground there. So being in that environment just made the phrase 'Cold War Kids' pop into my head. I may have heard it before. I'm a cold war kid, too - I was born in 1979. Originally, I used the name for a website I had where I posted art and poems. Then when I started playing music with the guys, they thought it would be a good name for the band, too."