CSS / Donkey - SP770

Formed in 2003 in São Paulo, Brazil by a group of art-damaged, pop culture omnivores with an abiding thirst for good times, CSS is, among a great many other things, the first South American band signed to the overrated Sub Pop label of Seattle, Wash. CSS’s debut full-length, Cansei de Ser Sexy (“I got tired of being sexy” in Brazilian Portuguese) was released in July of 2006, and the band was nearly immediately, and pretty fairly described by The Guardian (July 21, 2006) with, “…they sound like an unlikely, brilliantly wrong fusion of Tom Tom Club, dance culture and the Fall.”

In the time since Cansei de Ser Sexy came out, CSS has been very busy. They’ve toured around the world a number of times, with the likes of Gwen Stefani, Ladytron, Klaxons, Diplo, played festivals from Coachella, Pitchfork and Virgin, to Reading, Benicassim, Roskilde, and beyond. Vocalist Lovefoxx showed up at #3 on NME’s 2007 “Cool List” (which is a step in the right direction anyway…). And, their song “Music is My Hot, Hot Sex” was used in a worldwide iPod Touch ad in late 2007, driving the song, nearly a year-and-a-half after its release, to become the highest charting single by a Brazilian band in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Produced in Brazil by the band’s own Adriano Cintra and mixed in Los Angeles by Mark “Spike” Stent (whose credits include Madonna, Bjork, Massive Attack, U2, M.I.A., and Arcade Fire), Donkey is tough, street-ready, and recreates the frenetic energy of their live shows. And really, with CSS the live show is the thing. Equal parts dance party, urban circus, and out-and-out chaos, the band’s unaffected, unbridled joy in performance is for real and for you. Ride the Donkey!

Released: July 22, 2008

CSS / Cansei De Ser Sexy - SP717

From São Paulo, Brazil comes CSS, the first South American band Sub Pop has foisted upon the global marketplace. Cansei de Ser Sexy, Portuguese for “Tired of Being Sexy,” is improbably, unbelievably and nearly eponymously their debut. It is a thick, pulsating thing full of haphazard synths (“Alala”) and a come-on of call and response that tears down any attempt at posturing (“Art Bitch,” “Patins”). It is equal parts rock mantra and throwback into something new, transcending boundaries of genre and geography. It careers full speed into dance territory, into the unknown and untouched, to emerge all hot and bothered with wild electro-rock. Pretension? Absent. Friction? Probable. They are the un-pretension: unfinished, exposed, and throwing all they have right at you. It is quick, tightly-wound, unfastened and supreme. Not a sneer but a giggle. To paraphrase from the Portuguese: “Not only music, but a new way to live with it. An unfinished group that, unlike preserving itself until getting ‘to the point,’ was bravely showing off, turning everything into style.” Fashion. Art. Design. Cinema. Panties thrown and received. Micro shorts and dirty legs. How does it happen? It happens like this…

Released: July 11, 2006