Viva! Presents & Stay Free Recordings Set To Release 32 7-Inch Records, One for Each Mexican State

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve probably been discovering underground jewels from all over the Mexican territory alongside Viva! Present’s head honcho Rene Contreras on his special coverage called “Mexican Candy,” which airs on his weekly Dublab show Oh No It’s Monday!; or on his carefully curated 100-track Spotify playlist of the same name. But whether you have or not, you can now support a whole bunch of great Mexican indie artists and get a lovely piece of vinyl in the process.

Up-and-coming label Stay Free Records and Viva! Presents are teaming up to bring Mexican Candy to the physical world with a series of 32 7-inch records, featuring bands and artists from each of the Mexican states, with artwork also created by local artists. Each record will be sold at a price as low as $10.

The first installment of this new series is coming just in time for Valentine’s Day, and it’s focused on the Northern state of Sonora. The 7-inch gathers music from two bands that have never been pressed on vinyl before: Margaritas Podridas and Coachella alumni Señor Kino. The artwork was done by a young Hermosillo illustrator named Julia.

Pulling through the direct impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the live music sector, Contreras spent his 2020 and his 2021 so far connecting with musicians and creatives in general from all over Mexico, and creating a network between them so they can have exposure and build a bigger audience. Apart from his radio show, he also created the Mexican Candy Live Sessions, available on Viva! Present’s YouTube channel, to showcase some of his findings in a live setting. Now, there really is no excuse to not be aware of the independent talent that populates all of Mexico.

Mexican Candy’s first 7-inch release goes on sale on February 12 on Stay Free Recordings’ Bandcamp page.