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.

Bop! Libros y Discos

 Bop! is a great new record and book store that opened in October 2010 located in Colonia Roma, just across the street from La Belga and La Nacional.

Their used vinyl selection is one of the best in the city, including large rock and jazz selections, a decent amount of blues, international, classical, and Mexican music, and some metal and punk. The condition on the records varies pretty widely, but the records are priced according to condition and priced fairly reasonably.  If you are looking for those rare rock mexicano discs, this is definitely a place you need to visit.

In addition to a large vinyl selection, you can also find underground/alternative press books and comics, posters, dvds, and a large used cd collection.

I've had a lot of great finds at Bop!, which I will slowly get up onto the blog, but for now I'm just going to highlight one of my most recent treasures, the 1971 self-titled lp from Mexico's Enigma!. Of all the Mexican hard rock bands I have heard, I would have to say this lp is the best and most consistent from start to finish. It is definitely heavier than a lot of other rock mexicano, similar in vein to bands like Josefus, Leaf Hound or Frijid Pink.

I'm not sure how much of an influence this band had, but I first learned about them through a cover of El Llamado de la Hembra by the Mexican thrash metal band Transmetal. I picked up the Transmetal cassette of the same name over 11 years ago on my first visit to Mexico, and I've been looking for Enigma! music ever since. In 11 years, this is the first copy of original Enigma! music I've found.



This particular copy is a 1973 reissue on Okeh, although finding any copy of this record is next to impossible. My copy is pretty trashed, but it is still playable and I'm just glad to have a listening copy. 


Most of the tracks are up on youtube:
1. Under the Sign of Aquarius
2. The Call of the Woman (El Llamado de la Hembra)
3. Sunday's Coming
4. Simon
5. Live it Up, Mama
6. Countdown
7. 69
8. Save My Soul
9. Intertwine






Bop! is located on Querétaro 103, between Jalapa and Orizaba. From the Metrobus, Linea 1, exit Sonora, walk one block north on Insurgentes, and go east on Querétaro. You can also get there by getting off at Hospital General, either on the Metro or the Metrobus. Make sure to look at the map so you don't get lost.


The store is open Monday-Saturday, 11am-3pm, 5pm-9pm. On Sundays, the owner sells records at La Lagunilla market. He also owns a shop in Cuernavaca if you are down that way. The info for both shops is on this fancy little bolsa de mandado I got the last time I was there. For free! These bags are fairly common around Mexico and I love them, but I'm psyched to finally have one that isn't from a church, a political party, or a supermarket. They're also great for carrying records!

If you are there in the evening, make sure to stop by La Nacional, just across the street, to have a great cerveza artesanal, or walk over to La Belga to get some beers before you go and listen to your records.

Discos de Ayer

Discos de Ayer is a great little shop tucked away in an impossible to find location in the Centro Histórico. The two LPs featured here I bought from the owner of the shop on eBay, and then picked them up in person at the shop.

The first LP, El Ritual-s/t, is a classic rock group from Tijuana that was around in the early 70s. I don't know much about them, but this record was recorded in 1971. The LP I bought was a 1987 reissue. Their music is not particularly original, a little Deep Purple, a little Jethro Tull, and a lot of satanic imagery. If I was to pick one group most similar to them, it would be Black Widow (but Black Widow is much better). While not particularly original, I'm a sucker for these forgotten rock bands of the 70s and as far as rock mexicano goes, El Ritual was one of the better bands.

All the tracks are available on youtube:

1. Satanas
2. Peregrinación Satirica (Satanica?)
3. Groupie
4. Muerto e ido
5. Easy Woman
6. La tierra de que te hable
7. Bajo el sol y frente a Dios
8. Conspiración

The second LP I picked up from Discos de Ayer was the Silencio Nocturno LP by Next. Next is a Mexican thrash band that is still around, but this LP I got is from 1989 on the defunct Avanzada Metálica label. This is fairly crude thrash, somewhat along the lines of early Sepultura or Transmetal, but still pretty enjoyable. As far as thrash bands go, this band probably takes the cake for worst name and worst cover (they really couldn't come up with something better??), but don't let that put you off.






You can check out a few of the tracks on youtube, though I'm pretty sure some of these recordings are not the same as the LP:
Silencio Nocturno, El Juicio, Vamos a Escapar.









While I purchased these LPs on eBay through Discos de Ayer, they do have a decent selection of other rare Mexican rock LPs in the shop, plus your standard fare. Surprisingly, most of their LPs are in pretty great shape. If you are at all familiar with LP digging in Mexico, it is not easy to come across a place that cares about LP grading and prices accordingly. Last time I was there (which was several months ago), they had LPs from La Revolución de Emiliano Zapata and the Dug Dug´s. Obviously they were expensive, but if you are looking for those rare slabs of rock mexicano, this is the store to check out.

Discos de Ayer is located at Balderas 32, interior 209. It is pretty difficult to find if you don't know what you are looking for, and even google maps can't find it exactly. The store is on the east side of Balderas between Juarez and Independencia, between Fortes Donuts and Sanborn's Cafe. There is a sign that says Edificio Beaumont, which basically looks like an apartment building. Walk in, there will be a doorman, and tell them you are going to the record store ("voy a subir a la tienda de discos"). Go up the stairs to the segundo piso (the second floor in Mexican terminology, otherwise the third floor). Check out their website for more info. Discos de Ayer is open Monday through Friday, 9am to 3pm, 4pm to 8pm, and Saturdays 9am to 5:30pm. They just expanded their hours, so make sure to check their website before going in case they change again.

The best way to get there is get off at Metro/Metrobus Juarez and walk north on Balderas, or exit Metrobus Hidalgo and walk south on Balderas. If you go Monday through Saturday after 2pm, there are also a number of street stalls on Balderas between Independencia and Artículo 123 that sell records. I'll blog more about those stalls in the future, but they are worth digging through.