It used to be that when writing about music, the term “rock” was just too vague. A writer would narrow the scope with tags like “punk” or “garage” or “alternative”; declaring a band to be simply “rock and roll” could mean that they sounded like anything.
Now, as rock music starts to return to its roots and strip away all the layers of bullshit and pretension accumulated over the past few decades, the sound of straight-up rock and roll is pretty easy to pin. And it sounds a lot like the Bullet Proof Lovers.
The Spanish band, led by Maine’s Kurt Baker, have a new self-titled record out October 7 via Rum Bar, and we here at Vanyaland are psyched to premiere two new tracks off it: Cheap Trick- influenced party-starter “It’ll Be Alright”, and soaring throwback joint “Breaking Down”.
“When the Kurt Baker Band toured in Spain in 2013,” Baker tells Vanyaland, “we played in the beautiful town of San Sebastian. After the gig, which was a lot of fun, I ended up having some beers with the local rock and rollers, two of which were well known in Spain for their past groups. After discussing records and bands we both loved, Gonzalo [Ibañez, bassist] and Juan [Irazu, guitarist] mentioned that they had started a new project but were looking for a singer… I had just decided that I would be moving to Spain and I said, ‘Hey, I can sing in the band!” And that’s how it all started.”
Listen to both tracks below.
