Cansei De Ser Sexi (CSS) – Self Titled
(2006)

Review by Chris Wood

It’s one of those cases where it’s weird name, weird band. Well, not so much weird as they are foreign. These cool cats from Sao Paulo have been doing their thing since mid 2003, boasting the apparent lack of musical prowess. When I say ‘apparent’ I actually mean ‘observable’, because it would be quite clear to Helen Keller that Cansei De Ser Sexy, (roughly translates to ‘tired of being sexy’ - just look at photos of them and you will find this sentiment is quite accurate) are possibly the least talented musicians since Blink 182. But as a band, their musical intuition has little to do with the seemingly overnight nature of their success.

They are one of the cool-to-listen-to bands on the back of their tour of Australia that included a mesmerizing performance at last years Falls Festival. Yet, if you have heard any of their songs, they appear to push the minimalist agenda as far as they possibly can. They have done this to the point where a number of people have twitched their head in a purifying moment of clarity and said, “Hang on! This band is pretty average. Why do they need six people? Surely they could get the same sound with two or three.” 

And they may well be very right in their assertions. However the question of whether CSS are bunch of genius’ or mediocre stalwarts remains irrelevant. The most important aspect is the CSS mythology and artistic flare they bring along with their simple and often catchy tunes.

There is something immediately endearing and ultimately captivating when a band has more members than your regulation rock outfit. In my time, bands like Architecture in Helsinki, Slipknot, and The Polyphonic Spree have all gained moderate recognition for having a slightly ‘irregular’ number of band members. However, the burgeoning success of CSS has resulted through not only this slightly outdated concept, but also - and more importantly, through the use of extensive networking.

Looking at their highly regarded debut self-titled album out through Sub-Pop, it is obvious that this project is the result of a party of disenchanted art-students/designers combining their creative juices in a bold attempt to manufacture something fresh and edgy. Having their music as their sole creative focus, CSS are also proficient artists who dabble with other forms including graphic design, fashion, photo and video sharing. If anything, CSS could be considered as an idea. What this idea is I am not completely sure. But from what I can tell it vaguely has something to do with drinking, dabbling in lesbianism and listening to Death From Above 1979. The question posed at this point is this: who needs anything else?

CSS could be regarded as the staunch enemy of their fellow musical brethren, avoiding the typical road to success that so many others have followed. Their chimey disco-popping flamboyant fashion sense is akin to what you would expect from Eurovision. Let’s make love and listen to Death From Above is awkwardly captivating, with its Casio synth-beats pulsating throughout, making us squirm at the idea that we actually like this song. It’s a phenomenon that’s not too dissimilar to singing ABBA songs when we think no one else is around. 

Meeting Paris Hilton offers us a compelling insight into their disdain for the glorification of popular culture with a catchy dig at the worlds most famous socialite. Dingy Indie club favorite Alala romps through from start to finish as if it were swimming the English Channel without surfacing for a breath. This is quite possibly the best-produced song on the album and offers the listeners promising signs of what they are capable of.

In terms of shelf life, CSS isn’t going to feature in anyone’s top 100 albums of all time. And it shouldn’t really. Don’t get me wrong, for what it is I still think that it's a fantastic piece of South American sex-dance-pop. However I don’t see it standing the test of time. When the Dance-Indie genre slowly looses momentum and is quite possibly overtaken in popularity by midget-conversationalist bands playing jazz/blues standards on orchestral string instruments (history may prove me wrong on this), CSS will most likely be spoken about in the same retrospective sense as Aqua, The Spice Girls and Jules Lund. 

Aside from this, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to what these bodacious (yes I did just use that word) Brazilians come up with next.

RATING: 3 out of 5