The hunt for rare Argentine Beat/Pysch/Garage LPs is officially on as of todays visit to the San Telmo saturday market.  San Telmo is the oldest section of the city, hence it has the highest percentage of overpriced junk shops.  But the Saturday Market there is a good place to find old records, if not the cheapest.  I made a few scores, including an LP by these chiefs, The Gipsys.  The picture on mine is even funnier, the one guy looks like the kid from Rushmore doing a "stoned Argentine rocker" charcter in one of his plays.  I also got an record from Los Gatos, the mainstays of Argentine beat, plus some compilations from ALTA TENSION, the 60s TV Dance Show.  They appear to be mostly bubblegum, with a smattering of rock by bands like La Joven Guardia, Kano y Los Bulldogs (nothing to do with grime), and Los Iracundos and its all on rainbow colored vinyl!  The vendor also pretty much forced me to buy a mint copy of something called Los Naufragos, which he insisted was excellent.  I have no idea, as I have no record player here.  Anyway I got out of there having spent little more than 10 US so I guess I only got partially fleeced.  Next Im going to find out where the vendors get their records, then its on.

WHITE ANIMAL INTERNATIONAL HUSTLING

Sonar 2006.. in Buenos Aires!

Thats right.. they've just anounced that they will be having a Sonar electronic music festival here in Buenos Aires in early March. The same one that I narrowly missed in Barcelona last year that featured 2 many Djs, MIA, Diplo, Subtle, Beans, Mouse on Mars etc. and I'm not missing it this time. The line/up hasn't been announced yet but I'll post it when it comes out. And you know it cant be anywhere near as expensive as it was in BCE. Yeeeah.

The other night Georgia went out in Puerto Iguazu to find the "Brasilian club" where only Brasilians go. We ended up walking forever to the "Tres Fronteras"- a high spot on the Argentine side which overlooks the river and the coasts on the Brasil and Paraguay sides. We found the club, but they wanted 15 pesos to get in! Highway robbery! So we went and hung around the overlook point with a bunch of other cheap locals. Walking back by the downstairs area of the club, though, I noticed what the DJ was bumping. Hard and dirty baille- total Favela style. We had to suck it up and go in. We bought a big Quilmes and stepped to the strobelight-addled dancefloor. The Dejays rocked the most hardcore Baille for like 5 songs. People were into it, but I felt like I was the most stoked. Looking around, it was mostly light skinned, middle-class looking Brasilians. Some were grinding a bit, but none of the full-on sex acts I´d heard of this music inspiring on the dancefloor. Then the DJ switched to sunny Brasilian pop. Now the dancefloor got swamped and people started cheering. I was crestfallen. As the music degenerated from Brasilian pop to typical Buenos Aires techno, It occured to me that maybe baille was not the music of choice for this crowd. It's more that this style has become popular amongst hipsters around in the past year or so thanks to DJs like Diplo. Now that this crude, base music is becoming recognized by music critics and afficionados everywhere, middle class light skinned people in Brazil must feel obligated to listen to it for the first time, if only as a point of national pride. This music of the Favelas, by and for black Brasilians, is the new hot shit and Brasilians who would have scoffed at it a year ago now feel obligated to dance to it in the club. So we had to eat our 15 pesos and listen to Depeche Mode remixes. OK.
Man, all this makes me want to go to Brasil. We mave have to suck it up once again and pay the 100 US for a visa. Fucking American government for screwing it up for us. Whats new?