Blurt Best Kept Secret: Bulletproof Vests

Latest pick of cool artist in our ongoing collaboration with Sonicbids.

By Fred Mills

The BLURT staff put our heads (and ears) together and we have the July-August pick for our Blurt/Sonicbids "Best Kept Secret": it's Memphis rockers the Bulletproof Vests.

Featuring members drawn from the ranks of Snowglobe, Trashed Romeos, Antique Curtains, Jump Back Jake and The Third Man, they stir up some trouble via hard-twanging garage, raveup country soul and oh-so-harmonious pristine power pop.  Hell, there's even one song that sounds like a friggin' mashup of Big Star, T. Rex and the Stones! The lineup:

Jake Vest - Vocals, Guitar
Toby Vest - Vocals, Guitar
Greg Faison - Drums, Vocals
Dirk Kitterlin - Keyboards
Brandon Robertson - Bass

According to the Vests, their album Attack was "performed and captured by the band themselves in their own Memphis studio and mixed with a magic wand and a potato battery by Ardent Studios engineer, Adam Hill, who has been involved with Big Star, Jack White, The Green Brothers, The 145's, & Jim Dickinson. Inside this smorgasbord of sound sits a rollicking exploration of tone and genre that is part psyched out backwards fuzz freak-out, part sweet country slow drippin' ear molasses, and part subterranean buzzsaw scream served with a helping of the heart stopping Memphis sound, filled with Big Star's, Moloch's, Reigning Sound's, Oblivians', Guilloteens' and MGs."

We'll have an interview with the band posted to the site shortly. Check out the band's MySpace page for song samples, tour dates and more. And congratulations to the Bulletproof Vests. They're one of the good ‘uns, trust us.

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Bands, go to www.sonicbids.com/blurtonline to submit and have us review your materials for feature consideration.

>Our November Best Kept Secret: The Handcuffs, from Chicago.

>Our December Best Kept Secret: Black Swan Green, from Brooklyn

>Our January Best Kept Secret: stephaniesÄ­d, from Asheville

>Our March Best Kept Secret: Polly Mackey & the Pleasure Principle, from England

>Our May Best Kept Secret: Wiretree, from England