Part Uno: Soundtrack esta Barcelona

Sadly, it is not Spanish guitar I will be reporting on as the romantic soundtrack of my time spent in Barcelona. Perhaps it may have been more readily available if I was in fact looking for a romantic soundtrack, but I was visiting with one of my oldest and bestest of friends and so our Dutch MTV soundtrack suited us just fine for the time being.

I always find it interesting how predominant the role of music plays in my everyday life, relating to memories of specific days or people or really anything and everything. Even if I haven't thought of a person in years, the second a song comes on that reminds me of him/her I am taken right back to that time or place I heard it and those memories as to who, what, where, when, why and how resurface, whether it be good or bad. Point in case, anytime I hear any of the songs I am about to list, it is Spain I am brought back to for a brief moment, and that makes me happy.

Although pretty much none of these songs fall under a typical genre of music I list among my favourites, these songs were drilled into my head like you would not understand. Dutch MTV really doesn't believe in variety, at all. Although, I do believe Yolanda Be Cool's video for No Speak Americano is awesome. I love the 20s talkie influence. 





I can't even count how many times they played this song, and we dreaded it every time. It now holds a special place in my heart (haha) purely related to missing Barcelona.





Here's one that I will actually vouch for as an awesome song, and not just because I was in Spain and it was familiar. I'm actually on the new Robyn bandwagon. 



Among others that were being (over) played at the time, Bershka (one of my new favourite shops, which I will discuss later) puts together monthly playlists, and the September has it all.

Besides the horribly overplayed MTV playlist which we sang while strolling the streets of BCN, we did get to hear some Spanish guitar passing in the streets mostly surrounding tourist magnets like Park Güell:

Outside of Park Güell, by Antoni Gaudí, Barcelona.

Or more notably at our evening of Flaminco. The one downfall to my amazing Nikon D3000 is it doesn't shoot video. Even still, you really need to go see one of these shows for yourself to appreciate the art of the dance, guitar and singing. Absolutely amazing.



Our first night out dancing we went to a Brazilian club called The Roxy Blue which was amazing. There was a Brazilian band playing for the first half of the evening and then the DJ came on and played everything from Jay-Z to three Drake songs! - we were pretty excited to have some Toronto talent displayed overseas. =) Would recommend partying here if you're in the area.

We also ducked into a jazz club briefly one evening at around 1:00 am while waiting for the actual club we were going to, City Hall, to get busy. Even when we did finally go in at 2:00 am we were the first people dancing to light up the dance floor. The jazz bar was called Bel-Luna and housed more than a few MJ fanatics who all joined together to dance Thriller, as we paid our tab. Great stopover.

Also story to note: @ City Hall it was an 80s & 90s themed occassion and so it was fitting for Megan and I to request a little Semi Charmed Life and Carlos the awesome DJ played it happily and bought us a shot to boost because he was so thrilled we requested it. So much fun, these DJs were by far the best, so friendly and interesting to chat with.

Apollo was another club we checked out while in BCN. Despite the fact that we were way over dressed and were offered to bypass the huge line before even getting to the end of it, this club impressed us least of all. The crowd seemed especially young, even for Europe. They did play some sweet bands including Vampire Weekend, Rage against the Machine, Dexys Midnight Runners, Miike Snow, MJ and Artic Monkeys to name a few - definitely an interesting mix.

We couldn't help but notice and laugh at the abundance of really bad 90s soft rock playing in the cafes and our hotel throughout the day. For example, Roxette's, It must have been love and Jimmy Ray Are you Jimmy Ray? ...Just... why?

And I leave with you a song I listened to while packing for my trip by a band called I'm from Barcelona, who are actually from Jönköping, Sweden.