Spanish Love Songs

The Los Angeles-based Spanish Love Songs, who brand their sound as "grouchrock," carry forward the emotionally charged punk lineage first carved out by Jawbreaker and Hot Water Music. Since surfacing in the early 2010s, the group has released a series of well-received albums—2015’s Giant Sings the Blues, 2018’s Schmaltz, 2020’s Brave Faces Everyone, and 2023’s No Joy—that pair instantly memorable hooks with a pervasive sense of existential unease.

Originally a trio formed after an earlier project ended, Dylan Slocum on vocals and guitar, Gabe Mayeshiro on bass, and Ruben Duarte on drums kept going until they answered an online posting to bring Kyle McAulay aboard on guitar several months later. Because McAulay also held a studio job, the expanded lineup began tracking material for a debut EP ahead of their first live appearance in August 2013. Over the following twelve months the four members balanced day jobs with recording sessions and local shows, gradually stretching that EP into a full-length debut while dropping early previews. Giant Sings the Blues finally surfaced digitally in March 2015 on the band’s own imprint, after which they spent the rest of the year on the road, including support runs alongside Good Riddance and the Flatliners. Wiretap Records signed Spanish Love Songs at the start of 2016 and reissued the album with several bonus tracks; the same year the band returned to the studio to begin work on a follow-up while also securing a European home for the debut on Bearded Punk Records. They closed out 2016 with further U.S. dates and their first trip overseas.

The addition of Meredith Van Woert on keys in 2017 turned the project into a five-piece, allowing them to finish their second album. A three-song digital EP titled Buffalo Buffalo arrived that October. Still holding day jobs, the musicians spent the remainder of the year on the road and steadily expanded their audience. When a demo of the new record reached Anti-Flag’s A-F Records, the label agreed to release it, with Uncle M handling the European pressing. Schmaltz came out in March 2018; the band launched an extensive U.S. headline tour in support before crossing the Atlantic again. Pure Noise signed them ahead of Brave Faces Everyone, which appeared in 2020 and became their biggest commercial success, charting on multiple Billboard lists. The following year saw the release of an electronic reinterpretation titled Brave Faces, Etc. In 2023 the band issued No Joy, a collection of songs that, despite their guarded optimism, grapple with acceptance and gratitude against a backdrop of mounting global pessimism.