Bringing Sexy Back
Having lost ground with their extremely difficult second album, CSS have come up with a new record, La Liberación, which returns them to the top of the electro-rock pile. Ed Power talks new beginnings and catsuit chic with Lovefoxx.
Ed Power, 07 Nov 2011
Luísa Hanae Matsushita – better known to the world as preternaturally slinky CSS front-woman Lovefoxxx – has some bad news. As part of the Brazilian band’s ambitious re-branding campaign she’s decided to knock on the head one of her most beloved trademarks. There’s no easy way of saying this fan-boys. Lovefoxxx is giving up on wearing cat-suits. We, like you, are weeping on the inside.
“At the start nobody wore cat-suits,” she says. “So I thought it was original. I’m a big fan of the way surfers look in their body suits. That’s what inspired me. Then people started making me cat-suits and before I knew it I was wearing them at every show. It was my ‘thing’. I have since noticed that a lot more people are wearing them. You go to a concert and you see all these cat-suits. So I have decided – no more.”
That’s not all which has changed in the CSS universe (the name, incidentally, is an acronym for Cansei de Ser Sexy – ‘tired of being sexy’ in Portuguese). Incredibly, it’s going on five years since the Sao Paolo band exploded on to the indie scene, with a grab-bag of primate rave beats, kinky guitars and potty-mouthed pidgin rap, delivered by Lovefoxxx in her irresistibly accented English. But the band found their early momentum impossible to maintain and their 2008 second album Donkey was a critical and commercial flop.
Retreating to Brazil, they’ve overhauled, updated and upholstered their sound in an effort to win back the taste-makers who flocked to them in the beginning. On stonking new record La Liberación, the grooves are shiny, the choruses vast and gleaming, Lovefoxxx’s delivery more polished than you’ve heard before. This is CSS 2.0 and frankly it’s the update you’ve been holding out for.
“We were just so tired when we made Donkey,” she sighs. “We were saying ‘yes’ to everything. The touring was endless. The lesson we learned was never make a record when you’re exhausted.”
Not that she was aware Donkey was such a tremendous flop when it came out. CSS’ touring schedule was so punishing they didn’t even realise that, by putting out a duff record, they’d flushed a lot of the goodwill they’d generated down the U-bend.
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