Time The Lightswitch / 2907 votes More

Poach Stevens Same Song / 31 votes More

S.K.I.P. The Question / 1126 votes More

V8 Pain is the Cleanser / 308 votes More

Dub Sonata Revolution / 738 votes More

Jay-Z: Strength in Numbers

by Brandon Perkins

Busy P: Face to Face

by Joshua Glazer

Obama and the Barack Pack

by Raymond Leon Roker

Tittsworth: Libido Long Player

by Daiana Feuer

CSS: Choose Life! :: CSS are conquering the world – but don’t call ‘em sexy.

By Michael Vasquez   Photography by Emiliano Granado

06/30/08 :: URB 154

WELCOME TO OUR WELTENANSCHAUUNG

If the German philosopher Hegel is correct in describing history as the march of freedom, whereby The Idea passes through Time until History is ready, then you could say CSS are history’s savants speaking in musical tongues, possessed by the spirits of all they’ve heard before. Their time has come, their outré new wave poetry, guileless sense of mood manipulation and pop grandiosity, plus their healthy expansion on time-proven modern rock guitar work finds them operating at another level right now.

Their earlier full-length, CSS, got people—well, hipsters—to dance (people already did so), and they now seem poised for straight-up pop stardom with the release of Donkey, a tight and precise LP that makes reference hunting tedious. With each kernel of pop in their bag, there are more than a few bands you could mention. So, the subdued intro to the aptly-titled “Beautiful Song” might conjure up a fleeting sense of REM’s “Catapult,” while its verse might evoke Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”—it ultimately depends on the ears. Like Cool Kids broke it down: every generation has its inevitable citations.

It’s been a while since a band so effortlessly straddled mass appeal with underground cred. Perhaps it’s CSS’s song structure (or lack thereof, at times) that enables them to fuse the commercial and indie sensibilities. They seem to be constantly self-correcting—lest things go too sweet, they counter-balance sugary highs with minor chord and atonal comedowns that arrive with a tender and abrupt mercy. They’re never too far from a liminal darkness, which adds appreciable nuance.

Just check how the wronking, crooked, bottle-rocket of a guitar solo takes things jagged and off-key, à la The Pixies “Rat Is Dead (Rage),” providing a note of dissent that feels authentic—and it is. But no more so than the glossy strains of their New Edition-esque CSS are conquering the world – but don’t call ‘em sexyconfection “Move On,” whose chorus would do that ’80s pop sensation proud, just as its frolicking mid-tempo Soca guitar would prove Tom Tom Club elated.

Being in their midst, holding a video camera on this lower Manhattan rooftop where they’ve landed for their last interview before overseas festival dates, you sense the pull of the road on this band who spent ’07 playing every major festival on the planet, from Montreaux Jazz to Fuji (both reputably high-minded fests, neither impervious to rampant crowd-surfing during a CSS set, they’re proud to report). Adriano Cintra, the band’s only male, quantifies: “By the end of the year we got this plaque from our agency that said, ‘CSS: The Most Hardworking Band of 2007.’ [We did] like 190 shows…we had a show every other day.”

Their momentum and collective identity is so strong, it feels like they’ve been plucked from another realm, like Josie & the Pussycats or the team from Scooby-Doo. In this realm, they’re kinda like the Sugarcubes circa 1988. But while that band refused to sing in English at a CBGB gig, the members of CSS are more laid-back about regional identity, despite numerous point-outs that have been made to the band’s growing stature. They are a Brazilian band of many firsts, repping hard in uncharted, uh, charts. 

Video:Off the Hook