These boots were made in Argentina

Okay, it's not "Yesterday", but DAMN this song has been covered a lot. Here's a start. Maybe more will follow. Amigos and Amigas?

Marcianita

My album cover of the day features Billy Cafaro. Listen below or DL here.

Marcianita - Billy Cafaro

Billy Bond

Music by Billy Bond, born Juliano Canterini, who moved to Argentina and became part of the Psych/Acid scene in the early 70s.

I was loath to include the video below because of the way the owner marks his territory all over this video--it's so unnecessary to put graphics all over the place like this. But it's still a pretty great clip.

Catch the Buzzzzz

From Bubblegum Soup, the Argentinian girl group Las Mosquitas, creating sounds guaranteed to stick to your dental work.

La Culpa Fue Sola Mia - Las Mosquitas

Jolly Land

Music by 60s Argentine pop star Jolly Land from Los Discos Viejos de Hector.

Me vuelves loco

Argentinian Hernán Oliva was surely influenced by Stephane Grappelli's work with Django Reinhardt--but he puts a slightly updated spin on such Hot Club standards as El Scheik (Sheik of Araby), Exactamente como tu, Rio Swannee, and Chinaboy (Muchacho chino). Oliva played with Ahmed Ratip and Cotton Pickers of Buenos Aires in the 1940s, which is reason enough for me to love him. The music on this album just sealed the deal.

La Vida Schibbinz

And now class, all together, what is the purpose of starting a garage band?

All: To pick up girls!

Correct. And if you want to attract cool babes and not geeky girls with orthopedic shoes and scabby elbows, what is the first important thing you need to do?

All: Choose a cool band name!

Granted, the members of Schibbinz were between the ages of 15 and 17 when "Livin' Free" was recorded--American kids who inexplicably recorded this in Argentina. Along with a local guitarist who went on to direct the Symphonic Orchestra of Cordoba. Or at least that's what comes up when I hit the "translate" button on this Garage Latino blog entry, for all I know it may actually say they were snacking on lead paint chips in the recording studio, which might account for band name, as well as why they did a cover version of the song only grandpas like, "Ghost Riders in the Sky".

Titanes en el Ring!

Caballero Rojo! La Momia! Mister Moto! Ah, the names alone take me back to my years as un poco chupacabra in Buenos Aires, with my mug of steaming Ovaltino and a fistful of capybara jerky watching Los Titanes en el Ring. Ah memorias. Now I can sing along with the songs of my youth with this fine album, offered by Viejitos Chotos, obrigato and hasta el fuego for that, mi amigo.

Palito en el Beverly Hilton

Suave Argentine pop from Palito Ortega, via Mis Discos Viejos. Palito is seen below performing with Marisol....I thought I had posted this one here already but I can't seem to find it. I'm getting old.

The Spanish Jerry Lewis and SO much more.....

There's the Universal Language of Love, but there's also the Universal Language of Fecking Weirdness. It doesn't matter that the only Spanish words I know are related to food and booze, I still thoroughly enjoyed the downloads from Lo Pior de la Red, in particular the music of Hermanos Calatrava (see below)--great version of "Ground Control to Major Tom", whatever that song is actually called. You can get 1990s Argentinian Coca Cola jingles, Spanish versions of music from Masters of the Universe--and as you can see, the collection of oddball album covers is quite good, indeed.

Swingin' with The Con's Combo

More than just goofy pop covers (tho I did snicker at "fresh appetizing jung love for sale" in "Amor en Venta"), sixties Argentinian band The Con's Combo delivers a delightfully off-kilter take on the jazz standard "Lover", the oddball pop-spiritual "Nadie lo Sabe" (Glory Hallelu-JUH, jes jes my lord), and a fun version of Simon Smith and his dancing bear, which I have only heard performed by the Muppets.

As a matter of fact, let's Jerk it OUT with The Con's Combo!

Argentinian Movie Posters

I came across this handsome selection of South American one sheets on Ebay and couldn't resist sharing! The posters in my Flickr set are somewhat crude interpretations of the original domestic materials but they also possess a bold simplicity. Enjoy!

I Need the Bizarro Argentianian music, please.....

Can some talented and multilingual person please go to this site of bizarre Argentinian music and please help me figure out how to actually download the music and not just put it on a playlist on some incredibly pointless site called ijigg? I NEED the Beetles Americanos and the cuchi-cu (GOOD LORD that IS quite a cuchi-cu, isn't it though?) and can't can't can't figure out to save the music for my very own on my iTunes. You can post the answer here, in English por favor and not Argentinian or Portuguese or Serbo-Croatian or whatever they speak in Argentina, you can even use my super secret e-mail address baikinange(AT)hotmail(DOT)com, I'm well stocked on the low cost Viagra by mail and barnyard porn thank you very much, so answers to my question only, please. But this IS a personal emergency, you do understand, don't you.

oh yes, found at Canta Piriquito Canta