Peligro: Sao Paulo

A few days ago, I went to check out an instrumental metal band from Sao Paulo called Elma, who covered Portishead in a heavy, swaggering style. Pretty gnarly, right? But wait, it gets even better: They recruited the guitarist’s dark-haired mom as the stand-in for Beth Gibbons. You can pretty much guess what happened — mama totally killed it, much to the adoration of the crowd. The show was the first in a month-long set of groups performing songs by their favorite bands, all organized by online indie record store Peligro and hosted by indie-music-friendly venue Milo Garage.

Although the words “indie” and “record store” sound mutually exclusive in the time of floundering finances for every part of the music industry from record companies to shops, Peligro’s got a niche here in Brazil: they sell import records by bands like the Arcade Fire and Lou Barlow at a savings of up to half the price of traditional outlets because of the low overhead and direct partnerships with the labels. Peligro’s a one-man show by Guilherme Barrella, who heads up the store and a ton of projects including the labels Open Field and Maldita Sea, which is specially reserved for Argentine bands. His most famous signee is the anomalous Tony da Gatorra, and was also responsible for putting on some of the first CSS and Bonde do Role shows. To get a feel of what Brazilian indie sounds like, click on the “ouca” links following each record’s description.

The rest of this year will be busy for the Little Indie Label That Could, including 10 new releases, an online magazine and a regular Peligro night at a club.