the corner office

My lack of Portuguese-speaking friends was never a cause for concern for me before, but I sure could use one right now. I'm trying to get hold of 2 rather obscure albums by an obscure and now-defunct Brazilian band and well, dammit, I've realised that if you don't speak Portuguese, then Brazil isn't that accessible. Googling for album names has turned up two possible outfits I could endeavour to transact with - one rare CD and DVD shop (actually, Google-translated: "Hall & Landlord of CDs and DVDs. In the ESCALPO voce finds all the styles of cds: national, mattered, rare and it are of catalogue (7,000 headings)") in Salvador in Brazil's Bahia province, and one a Japanese rockabilly mail-order company from god-knows-where.

Neither exactly inspiring. Getting in touch with the Brazilian company seems most sensible, but I'm not quite sure whether it's socially acceptable to mail someone with an opener like "Hi, do you speak English? And do you accept credit cards? If not, then nevermind." How insane would I sound to these guys if I threw that sentence at Babelfish or the Google translator and mailed it off to them?

I might just try it anyway, but a more established online outfit would really be a lot easier. There's no Amazon in Brazil. The irony...