CSS

The party line
Regular gig goers tend to think they’ve pretty much seen it all . . . but not where this hip, electro-punk sixsome are concerned. Their recent visit to the UK saw hysterical crowds in sold-out venues, face flying underwear, dress theft and excitable band members not afraid to get down and dirty with the front row. Lead singer Lovefoxxx agrees that debaucherous japes and scrapes tend to erupt every time they play live: ‘All our shows are crazy. We’re always pushing ourselves to have more and more fun and to make people have a great time. For example, we played in Seattle tonight and Ben from the Postal Service and Death Cab For Cutie were at our show and told us his loved our track ‘Alcohol’. So during the song I called him up on stage and asked him about his favourite drink and he sang and danced with me. People were losing their shit when he appeared because he is such a god here, it was amazing.’
Certainly CSS will have to get used to celebrity endorsements, as they have whipped up a hype storm in an incredibly short space of time, and the numbers of devotees just keep on growing thanks in no small part to infectious debut LP Cansei De Ser Sexy released in July this year and that little thing called the internet. If the bonkers bunch hadn’t put their tracks onto Trama Virtual (a site similar to Myspace) shortly after they formed ‘by accident’ in 2003, they might still have been tumbling around the São Paulo underground scene. As it was, their experiment to pick up instruments they had never played before led to a record deal, a downloading frenzy and unprecedented acclaim in Brazil, much to Lovefoxxx’s genuine amazement. ‘If I had known it would turn out like this I would have freaked out and just frozen or something,’ she says. ‘Sometimes when I realise what’s going on I don’t believe it but I have to pull myself together and just enjoy it. Basically, I love my life right now. My best friends are around me all the time; we love our label Sub Pop, and all the new drinks and the boys . . . we have such a good time . . . and this is work?!’
Three chaps who took an immediate shine to the outrageous Brazilian outfit are touring partners 1990s; the Glasgow-based trio recorded a few tracks with Lovefoxxx over the summer and it soon becomes clear that the admiration is mutual. ‘I’m a huge fan of that band. I met them in São Paulo and ever since then I have loved Scotland as I got the impression from them that the people there are clever, funny, polite and drunk,’ she giggles. ‘Then when we played at Indian Summer it was only our second show in the UK so I was a bit nervous but everyone was lovely.’ With plans to tour intensely, well into the New Year and ideas already forming for the second album, it would seem that there’s simply no stopping CSS. ‘We plan to record our LP in May,’ explains Lovefoxxx. ‘Adriano has made a bunch of beats and melodies and I have a few lyrics ready but it’s going to be totally different, as when I wrote the old songs I was very mad at some people in Brazil . . . the haters,’ she laughs. ‘Right now life is so good that there’s no hate inside me . . . it’s less like “fuck off” and more like “let’s reggae all night”’. Madness indeed.
ABC, Glasgow, Tue 7 Nov.