It’s a bit too preoccupied with 1960s psychedelia (seriously, give it a rest), but the Spanish music scene is proving to be a relatively rich landscape of nice, solid indie rock^*, as well as the occasional non-indie surprise. My music-gathering experience here has come almost entirely from people I meet in bars or other various social situations, and is therefore dependent on who I talk to, but I think I’m starting to get a handle on some of the finer points. Thanks to some obliging Spaniards, I’ve amassed a handful of bands to recommend, which I’ll be doing in a few installments so as not to overwhelm your delicate americano sensibilities (just kidding, most of what I’ve heard pretty much sounds like American indie rock except in Spanish). Here’s the first batch.

Deluxe
As it says on his Web site, “Deluxe es Xoel y Xoel es Deluxe.” Xoel is Xoel López; he’s also adorable and blessed with a great voice. At his best, Deluxe is like Spain’s John Vanderslice: great melodies, crisp singing voice, keen sense for compelling production. At his worst, he’s just a little boring. He’s been putting out music (in Spanish and English) since 2001, but what intrigues me most about him is his forthcoming album/DVD Reconstrucción, a collection of unreleased tracks, remixes, and other odds and ends (I’m pretty sure that’s what it it’ll be… my Spanish fails me sometimes). Samples of that album can be heard on his official site and MySpace.

Here’s “Tendremos que esperar,” from the album Fin de un viaje infinito:

And “Los jóvenes mueren antes de tiempo,” from the album of the same name:

Mercromina
From what I can gather, this band seems to hold some sort of elder-statesmen role. They’ve been releasing albums on Spain’s Subterfuge label since 1995, and over the course of their career they seem to have transitioned from laid-back twee to more ambient synth rock. Here’s “En un mundo tan pequeño” from their 1997 album Hulahop:

By 2002 they’d apparently acquired a few synthesizers, as evidenced by “Chaqueta de pana” from the album Bingo:

I have their 2005 album Desde la montaña más alta, which is a stark collection of whispery, heavily layered rock songs. At times it veers a bit too much into ambient synth territory for my tastes, but it’s still pretty solid.

“Lo que dicta el corazón”:

Muchachito Bombo Infierno
In case you’ve ever wondered if they have annoying party ska bands/dudes who wear fedoras in Spain, the answer is yes. At first I wasn’t entirely sure that I could stomach Muchachito Bombo Infierno, but then I unclenched a little and began to really enjoy the music. I even bought the album! If you visit their MySpace page–and I recommend that you do–make sure you at least listen to “115″ and “Siempre que quiera,” the chorus of which is so catchy it’ll have you singing Spanish in no time. Overall I’d recommend this band if you enjoy ska, reggae, or Latin/Spanish music, or if you just want some Spanish flavor in your next bangin’ party mix.

“Azul” from the album Visto lo visto:

Deluxe [MySpace]
Mercromina [Subterfuge]
Muchachito Bombo Infierno [MySpace]

^* I would go into the utter uselessness of this term, but nobody here seems to mind throwing it around like a badge of honor; people who have an unencumbered ability to label music without too much handwringing are pretty endearing.