Hinds released a cover of The Clash’s “Spanish Bombs,” a song about the Spanish Civil War. The Hinds, who are from Spain, recorded the track as they were working on their third studio album. Speaking in a press release, the band had said they felt the desire to cover The Clash due to each members’ parents’ love for the band, and the excitement in finding a song about Spain.

“We’ve always loved doing covers,” the band said in a press statement. “Maybe ’cause it’s the way we started, or maybe because there are so many good songs in the world already that we wish we had written! And we really enjoy Hindsifying them. The Clash were my mom’s favorite band and Ade’s parents’ also, so it’s always beautiful to connect generations through music. As Spaniards, we don’t usually get shout outs in songs, like ‘New York’ or ‘London,’ so The Clash writing a song about our civiil war made us feel honored. We recorded it the last day of studio, pretty much live, while recording our third album.

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“Spanish Bombs” first appeared on The Clash’s 1979 album London Calling. Hinds keep to The Clash’s punk rock sound while making the song their own. The Clash’s Joe Strummer had written the song to compare Spain’s modern-day tourism industry with the Spanish Civil War, introducing a more garage-rock sound. Feedback hovers over vocals and guitars, the track slightly distorted as Carlotta Cosials sings into a microphone, sounding almost as if she is too close, but only adding more to the music style of both Hinds and The Clash. Her voice alternates between edgy and sweet, the sound providing as much contrast as the meaning behind the song. Hinds make The Clash’s song almost completely their own as they maintain the original’s integrity, their signature feedback style weaving through the length of “Spanish Bombs” as they play their instruments close to the way The Clash had done.

June saw the band released their third studio album, The Prettiest Curse, with Hinds releasing the music video for their track “Burn” a few weeks ago, the band filming the video while isolating together to wait out the current pandemic. In April, they released a music video for their song “Just Like Kids (Miau),” with the video also created in isolation. Pre-pandemic, the group made a music video for their song “Good Bad Times,” which had been the first single from their most recent album.

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat