Spanish Love Songs' New Single Is As Brutal As Honesty Gets

It's not that Spanish Love Songs are sad, it's that they're real as fuck. Sure, the California-based band's jangling, heartfelt punk rock exudes the feeling of returning home to your shitty town for a family gathering, and guitarist/vocalist Dylan Slocum's lyrics are full of crushing phrases that sum up the overbearing weight of the world. But neither feel self-indulgent or emotionally manipulative -- instead, they just point out the honest-to-God truths of what it is to struggle in the modern day. And maybe that's overwhelmingly depressing, but maybe that says more about the world than Spanish Love Songs. It's unfair to shoot the messenger, no matter how tough the telegram is to hear.

Losers 2, the new single from Spanish Love Songs off of their upcoming album Brave Faces Everyone, tells it like it is, and rips your heart out accordingly. From the opening vignette of staring at the house you grew up in that you can no longer afford to own post-financial crisis, to the classic Spanish Love Songs bridge in which Dylan solemnly sings, 'You know, if we weren't bailed out every time by our parents, we'd be dead,' the track is a throttling series of truths that cut deep into the millennial psyche. In that respect, the song does what punk rock was always meant to -- strike a deep chord with a searingly unpleasant truth.

"This is another case of taking what we do well and trying to focus it outwards," says Dylan. "I’ve had plenty of people ask why the songs continue to get bleaker and bleaker, but I feel like the answer is pretty obvious. This is the world we know. It’s the world I see my friends stuck in, and that I’ve seen my family stuck in. Everyone works themselves to the bones to just survive. Not to say that we’re not incredibly privileged -- I’m aware -- but I wanted to look outward and just acknowledge that for the roughly 99 per cent of us, life is an endless grind, so it’s okay to feel down on it. Like, of course you’re anxious when you could fall and hit your head and have you entire life derailed by hospital bills.

“So Losers is the anthem where we try to be defiant and throw up a middle finger — whatever, 'we’re losers forever.' But Losers 2 is the hangover. It’s us wrapping our heads around that grind, and feeling like we can’t escape it. And like so much of the album, it’s about trying to empathize with others over this collective gloom.”

Watch our exclusive premiere of Losers Pt. 2 below:

Brave Faces Everyone is out February 7 via Pure Noise Records, and is available for pre-order.

Catch the band live at one of the following dates:

Supporting the Menzingers

January

25 Hamburg, Germany @ Gruenspan
26 Berlin, Germany @ BI NUU
28 Wein, Austria @ WUK
29 Zurich, Switzerland @ Dynamo
30 Stuttgart, Germany @ Universum
31 Munchen, Germany @ Technikum Munchen

February

01 Cologne, Germany @ Die Kantine
03 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg
04 Antwerpen, Belgium @ Zappa
06 Southamton, UK @ Engine Room
07 Bristol, UK @ SWX
08 Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall
11 Glasgow, UK @ Queen Margaret Union
12 Newcastle, UK @ Riverside Newcastle
14 Birmingham, UK @ The Asylum Bar & Venue
15 London, UK @ O2 Forum Kentish Town

Supporting The Wonder Years

20 Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
21 Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
22 New York, NY @ Webster Hall
23 Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live
25 Lake Buena Vista, FL @ House of Blues Orlando
26 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
27 Nashville, TN @ The Cowan
29 Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall

March

01 Dallas, TX @ Canton Hall
03 Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
04 San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park
05 Pomona, CA @ The Glasshouse
06 Las Vegas, NV @ Fremont Country Club
07 Los Angeles, CA @ Regent Theater DTLA
08 San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
10 Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
11 Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall
13 St. Louis, MO @ The Ready Room
14 Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theater
15 Chicago, IL @ Concord Music Hall
16 Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues Cleveland
18 Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom
19 Asbury Park, NJ @ Asbury Lanes
20 New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place
21 Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore Philadelphia