Vintage Vinyl Record Convention, Mexico City, 2011

 Since I first found out about the Vintage Vinyl show I couldn't contain my excitement to actually attend a record show in Mexico. While I have enjoyed shopping for records in Mexico in the street markets and in the stores, record shows are much more interesting and I was starting to miss the ones back home. Unfortunately, the Vintage Vinyl show, supposedly the first record show in Mexico City, was a let down.

 I am pretty happy with my finds, but it was fairly difficult to find anything worth buying at the show. Part of my disappointment is probably due to me expecting something similar to record shows in the US geared towards collectors. Vintage Vinyl was definitely not geared towards record collectors. It seems the main audience were people who still casually listen to records or younger hipsters that have recently gotten into vinyl.

 Most of the available records at the show were the typical American/UK rock and pop that you can find anywhere in Mexico. Lots and lots of common records from the Beatles, CCR, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, plus countless other classic rock and 80s pop records. There was virtually no punk or metal, hardly any jazz (except one guy who had probably 50 Oscar Peterson records?!?), few sellers that had any rock mexicano, and only two sellers that had any new vinyl from current Mexican bands.

 I recognized some of the sellers here. Discos de Ayer and Retroactivo Records were present, although they certainly didn't have anything special at the show (you would be better off going to their stores). There was also one seller from Balderas that I recognized, plus a lot of vendors who typically sell in other markets like Lagunilla, Tepito, etc. I don't think anyone who sells at El Chopo came to the show, which I found somewhat surprising. I did learn about Discos Amapola, which I had not heard of before, but they deal mostly with newer imports that I can get for cheaper when I travel back to the US. One thing Discos Amapola and their friends at the show should be commended for is that they brought a few record players for people to listen before they buy. They were extremely friendly, and let me check out some records I hadn't heard before. Stores/sellers that let you listen before you buy definitely deserve repeat business.

 Despite my complaints, I had a good time at the show and I hope it happens again next year.

I did find a few records I have been looking for, plus a couple others I picked up on a whim.

What I found:
Coil - Panic/Tainted Love 12"
Esquivel - Latin-Esque LP
Caronte - Magos y Dragones LP
Toño Quirazco - Homenaje a Santo y Johnny LP
The High Fidelity Orchestra - My Girl LP
Polvo - Have You Ever Been There?/Can't Get Enough? 7"
Los Rockin Devils - Pata Pata Psicodelico 7"
Question Mark and the Mysterians - 96 Tears 7"
Inservibles - ¿Cual es tu pedo, ñero?
Inservibles - Demo 2008 7"
Darkness - Requiem cassette

The Polvo, Toño Quirazco, and High Fidelity Orchestra records were all on my want list of Mexican records and I'm really glad to have found them for reasonable prices at the show. I'll be doing individual posts of these in the future.

I'm not a huge Coil fan, but I do love their cover of Tainted Love so I had to get this 12". I remember being a young teenager when the Wax Trax Black Box came out. There was a VHS companion to the box set which included a video for Tainted Love, and it is probably still one of the darkest and most disturbing videos I've seen. Whenever I hear this song, no matter who is singing it, the images of this video always come to mind.

The Caronte LP is probably one of the worst Mexican metal LPs out there, but it is also one of the earliest releases on the Mexican Avanzada Metalica label. I'm trying to collect as many releases from that label as possible so I figured I should pick it up, plus it was cheap. Los Rockin Devils are a pretty run of the mill Mexican garage band, but I loved the cover of this 45 so I grabbed it. Question Mark and the Mysterians are great, so I couldn't pass up this Mexican pressing of their 96 Tears ep. Inservibles are a current lo-fi punk band from Mexico City which a friend recently turned me on to. Discos Amapola had their records so I decided to grab these. Esquivel is pretty hit or miss for me, but I hadn't seen the Latin-Esque LP before, and his records are hard to find in nice condition. Probably the biggest surprise of the record show was the Darkness cassette I found. I had never heard of them before, but the tape was basically free. There is literally no information on this old-school Mexican death metal band online, but this album is absolutely amazing. Right now I don't have a way to transfer cassette to mp3, but this music needs to be shared.