Marisol

Artist: Marisol

LP: 7" single

Song: "Corazón Contento"

[ listen ] 

Here's a neat little 1968 Spanish number that I picked up at 10,000 Records in Barcelona back in August of 2018. My copy was badly warped, so when I tried to play it, the needle on my turntable was tossed to and fro...or maybe fro and to. Anyway, I finally got around to ordering a replacement copy—from Spain!—and it was waiting at my doorstep this evening when I got home from delivering mail in the snow!

Marisol was born on February 4, 1948, and was an international singing/dancing sensation by the time she was 11. She has appeared in a number of films, including BLOOD WEDDING and CARMEN, both directed by legendary Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura. Marisol, who worked under the name Pepa Flores as an adult, retired from public life in 1985 and has reportedly worked for charitable causes ever since.

[ Pepa Flores, aka. Marisol ]

Los Carabelas

Artist: Los Carabelas

LP: Los Carabelas

Song: "Asi Se Baila La Cumbia"

[ listen ]

Well, rats. I found all sorts of neat stuff in the Christmas used vinyl bins last month, but with six-day work weeks, the bustle of the holidays, and 11-to-12-hour workdays, my plan to regularly post things throughout the month of December failed to materialize. Guess I'll save them for next year, when I'll hopefully have two days off each week.

Here's something else I found in the bins last month—the dollar bins at Daybreak Records, to be exact. I figured I'd get an early start at my resolution to post here more regularly in 2020, and as a bonus it's nice to have at least one solid idea for my Halloween costume in the bag so early in the year! You can read (in Spanish) about Los Carabelas here.

Los Pasos

Artist: Los Pasos

LP: 7" single

Song: "Te Quiero Porque Te Quiero"
[ listen ]

It was my last full day in Barcelona and I was feeling melancholy. I'd rented a bike at Ajo Bike the day before so I could be swept away on a bike ride with some new Spanish friends. 

[ My Barcelona Bike ]

We rode for miles up the coast to lay on a much-less-crowded beach than the ones that are located in the heart of downtown Barcelona. 

[ My Barcelona Beach ]

We didn't get back from the beach until after 7:30pm, and since the bike shop closed at 7, I had to cram my bike into my bedroom and then still had it to use the next day. One of my favorite Spanish adventures was riding my bike alone through the early-morning cobblestone streets of downtown Barcelona. I rode to a little shop and bought some candy to take back to my colleagues at work, and also visited the post office so I could send off some postcards I'd written over the course of my vacation. The post office in Barcelona is way fancier than the one in my neighborhood back home.

[ Barcelona Post Office — Outside & Inside ]

Later that evening, it was finally time to visit the last and final record store of my trip to Spain, though it was actually a store I'd already tried going to a few days before. According to the sign on the door during my first visit, the vacation was over at 10,000 Records and they would be open from 5-8pm that evening. Of course they didn't open at 5pm, so I walked around the block. They were open when I got back at 5:15, and in I went. 

I poked around in the LP bins for a bit and found a fairly outrageous 12" single worth keeping, but then I found a group of bins full of singles tucked into the corner and, since my time was limited, I turned my focus there. A friendly fellow was running the place that evening, and he had set up a little listening station on the counter by where he was standing. I picked up a bundle of singles (nearly 10,000 I'm sure), wondering all the while how on earth I was going to get all the records I'd purchased onto the plane without paying a number of substantial bribes. (I managed somehow, of course—thank god for the heavy-duty frozen-food shopping bag I picked up in Schenectady back in 2016.) 

One of the 10,000 Records I found is this 1969 release by Los Pasos, a Spanish band that was only around from 1966 to 1972. You can read about Los Pasos on Wikipedia in Spanish and English, where their style is characterized as a delicate balance of vocal games and instrumental predominance. 

[ Los Pasos]

[ 10,000 Records — Barcelona, Spain ]

Los Diablos

Artist: Los Diablos

LP: 7" single

Song: "Mi Talisman"
[ listen ]

After leaving Revolver Records and strolling along Carrer dels Tallers on my way toward Discos Paradiso, I passed by a shop called Discos Impacto that I realized was also on my list of stores I needed to visit. At first I only found lots of used LPs in a very large room in the back, but just as I discovered about 20 bins of used 45s right by the entrance of the store, the friendly proprietor announced that everyone had to leave. He needed to use the restroom and so would be closing shop for about five minutes. I waited patiently outside.

When the store reopened I spent several hours flipping through their singles bins. They were sprinkled with vinyl treasures from all over Europe! One of them was this 1973 release by Los Diablos, a group that formed right there in Barcelona back in 1968. They disbanded ten years later, but have reformed in various incarnations ever since. For a brief period in the late '90s they joined forces with members of Formula V to make music under the name Formula Diablos. You can read more about these handsome diablos in Spanish here and here, and go here to find some info in English.

[ Discos Impacto — Barcelona, Spain ]

Los Mismos

Artist: Los Mismos

LP: Los Mismos

Song: "Pasa El Tren"
[ listen ]
Song: "Esta La Cosa Negra Negra"
[ listen ]

After laying my body on the warm sand of the crowded but beautiful Barcelona beach with my friends Carrie and Charlie and their kids, Ollie and Gabe, on my first Saturday in town, we returned to the apartment to find my suitcase had finally been found and delivered! (Did I mention it got lost en route, after two late flights and two missed connections?) After slipping into fresh clothing, I set out for an area of the city where there was a cluster of record stores, near the intersection of Carrer dels Tallers and Carrer de les Sitges. Two of the stores, which looked on my map to be very close together, had similar names: Discos Revolver and Revolver Records. Sure enough, both stores actually do exist and seem somehow related (the share a similar logo), but I'm not exactly sure what's going on there. Maybe the result of a divorce? Anyhow, both stores closed at 9pm, so I only had time to visit one of them that evening. I picked Discos Revolver. 

The store has a modest entryway, but then additional rooms keep expanding back into the inside of the building, so there were actually quite a lot of records to look through. They even had a section of old Spanish LPs, so I picked up a few of those in addition to the usual stash of singles. One of the long plays is this 1969 album by Los Mismos, a trio consisting of Elena Vázquez Minguela (aka Helena Bianco, evidently), Antonio Pérez Gutiérrez, and Benjamín Santos Calonge. Together they make Spanish pop magic; you can read about them here. Lots of neat-looking Los Mismos singles can be found in the used record bins of Barcelona.

[ Los Mismos, pero son diferentes ahora ]

[ Discos Revolver — Barcelona, Spain ]

Las Chicas Del Un, Dos, Tres

Artist: Las Chicas Del Un, Dos, Tres

LP: 7" single

Song: "Un, Dos, Tres...Responda Otra Vez"
[ listen ]

I did finally make it to Vinil Vintage, also on Carrer de Ramón y Cajal. It's a good and messy little store with a lot of vintage vinil to dig through, but I only ended up leaving with seven singles and a copy of Throwing Muses' "The Real Ramona" LP on 4AD (CAD 1002), which was something I was hoping I'd find on my trip to Europe. Seven singles may sound like a lot, but I'd just picked up 25 at the previous store, so I hope you appreciate my exercise in self-control. 

When I saw the cover of this 1972 single by Las Chicas Del Un, Dos, Tres it hardly mattered that there was no listening station on which to give it a spin. I would have bought it with no record inside! These Chicas didn't actually form a music group, from what I can gather, but were actually contestants (or stewardesses?) on some sort of Spanish TV beauty pageant that ran in the '70s, '80s, '90s and 2000s. This single is from the premiere season of the show, and it was evidently N. Ibáñez Serrador who decided to set these lovely ladies to music. The girls were always easy to recognize by their huge glasses of pasta, and many of them went on to make a hole in the television star system. Actress Victoria Abril got her start as one of Las Chicas Del Un, Dos, Tres! You can read more about Las Chicas and their television show in an awkwardly translated online article here.

[ Las Chicas Del Un, Dos, Tres ]

[ Vinil Vintage — Barcelona, Spain ]

Formula V

Artist: Formula V

LP: 7" single

Song: "Loco, Casi Loco"
[ listen ]

After spending a couple of hours in awe while roaming in and around what I'm sure is one of the most magnificent churches on the planet... 

...with a guided audio tour provided by a lovely woman named Maria...

 

  
...I discovered my cell phone was dead from taking too many pictures. I figured "first things first," so I got some ice cream. I then set out with my photo-copied Google maps and no modern technological navigation device in hopes of making my way through a large and unfamiliar city to find some record stores. My maps weren't actually so bad, and I was able to locate Disco 100 on Carrer de l'Escovial. It's one of several record stores in the northern section of the city, near La Sagrada Familia.

[ Disco 100 — Barcelona, Spain ]

The thrill of finding this retail needle in an ancient haystack of a city was slightly diminished when it turned out they only sold new vinyl and CDs. Undaunted, I went in search of Carrer de Ramón y Cajal, the street a few blocks away where I hoped to find Vinil Vintage. A store with a name like that simply must sell used vinyl, right? I managed to find Ramón y Cajal, and as I strolled its narrow sidewalk, I passed by a small and neat-looking shop with some groovy music wafting through its open door. 

The place was called Novecento Música i Llibres and it's fantastic! Not only do they peddle Llibres, but they've got lots of bins of used Música too! By the time I finished rummaging, I ended up with a big stack of interesting-looking 45s (I tended to focus on singles on this trip, since they're easier to carry back on the plane and because if you end up with a dud you only have to suffer through two songs instead of twelve). The friendly proprietor offered to play records for me to help me reduce my risk. 

I was especially curious about a group called Formula V, since I'd found six singles by them there. They looked pretty nifty, but you never can be sure. I didn't want to buy all six and then have them end up sounding like The Everly Brothers, but I didn't want to buy only one and then later discover they're dynamite! Knowing me, I'd end up booking a flight back to Barcelona to pick up the other five.

The fellow at the store suddenly had to dash off to tend to a family emergency, but not before playing Formula V's "Loco, Casi Loco" for me, which immediately made me dump all six of the group's records into my 'must have' pile. It's Spanish '60s candy pop! (Though this single is actually from 1974.) I snatched up all other Formula V singles I found in the bins of Barcelona, and I think I ended up with nine. You can read a little about the group here and find their official website here.  

Formula V on YouTube:

[ "Ahora Sé Que Me Quieres" ]

 [ Novecento Música i Llibres — Barcelona, Spain ]

Bandolero

Artist: Bandolero

LP: 7" single

Song: "Paris Latino"

[ listen ]

Somebody recently dumped a bunch of their 1983 Spanish pop and new-wave 45s at Jive Time, so I picked up a few of those too when I traded in my records last weekend. My favorite is probably Bandolero's dance/rap single "Paris Latino," which whizzed up to #2 on the Swiss pop charts and cracked the top 20 in Belgium and Holland.

Los Pekenikes

Artist: Los Pekenikes

LP: The Silken Thread (Hilo de Seda)

Song: "Hilo de Seda (The Silken Thread)"

[ listen ]

While driving down Roosevelt on my way to Scarecrow Video after a piano class up in Lake City on Saturday, I passed a used record store that I'd never seen before. My car suddenly turned onto a side street and ground to a halt. (Back in 2009 I had the technicians at the dealership program the computer in my Ford Escort so that the emergency brake would automatically engage whenever I drove past an unfamiliar record store.) I stepped from the car and made my way around the corner to Satisfaction Records & CDs and thumbed through some of their dusty bins. As a few of the reviewers on the store's Yelp page mention, much of the stuff at Satisfaction Records is overpriced (lots of non-rare LPs that you can get for $3 or even .99¢ at Jive Time or elsewhere are priced here at $9.99 or higher), but I did manage to find a few reasonably-priced gems for which I gladly forked over the amount listed on the sticker. One of those was this terrific, mostly-instrumental 1967 LP by Spanish quintet Los Pekenikes. Based solely on the info provided in the liner notes, I was trying to figure out which of the Pekenikes I'd have been best buddies with if I'd been living in Madrid in the late '60s. I couldn't decide between Tony—artistic, into world music, a collector of records—and Ignacio, who plays organ and piano, likes jazz, has a thick beard, and he's into "Physical Sciences," if you know what I mean. You can read about Los Pekenikes in Spanish on Wikipedia here, and LP liner notes in both English and Spanish are included below.