CSS

São Paulo’s São Paulo-based provocateurs CSS, a free-spirited dance-rock sextet, drew their moniker from the Portuguese phrase “cansei de ser sexy,” rendered in English as “tired of being sexy,” although the stage name Lovefoxxx adopted by the frontwoman suggests the slogan may be more ironic than literal. The group coalesced in 2003 with bassist Iracema Trevisan, guitarist-drummer-keyboardist Luiza Sá, guitarist Ana Rezende, guitarist-drummer Carolina Parra, and vocalist-multi-instrumentalist-producer Adriano Cintra, who also played with Thee Butchers’ Orchestra and departed in 2011.

Initial encounters occurred in nightclubs and through online communities such as Fotolog and Trama Virtual, after which the musicians honed an idiosyncratic yet straightforward sound via experimentation. Their Internet presence quickly turned them into an online sensation whose widely circulated tracks drew notice from conventional outlets across Brazil and Europe. Two self-released EPs appeared in 2004—Em Rotterdam Ja e uma Febre and A Onda Mortal/Uma Tarde com PJ—before the band joined Trama Virtual in 2005. Later that year Brazil received the debut full-length Cansei de Ser Sexy together with the bonus EP CSS SUXXX.

Visual identity was shaped by the members’ parallel skills: Lovefoxxx and Parra worked as graphic designers, Trevisan as a fashion designer, Rezende as a film student who helmed the clip for “Off the Hook,” and Sá as an art-school attendee. Sub Pop secured the act early in 2006 and issued Cansei de Ser Sexy across North America that summer. Immediately afterward CSS joined Diplo and Bonde do Role for shows throughout Canada and the United States. Further road work in 2007 included support slots for Ladytron, Gwen Stefani, and Klaxons plus an appearance at Lollapalooza. By year’s end the track “Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex” featured in an iPod advertisement, propelling it to the highest Billboard position ever attained by a Brazilian act.

Cintra produced the follow-up Donkey, which Mark “Spike” Stent mixed; shortly before its summer 2008 release Trevisan exited. Continued touring yielded fresh material recorded with guests such as Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie and Ratatat, resulting in the dance-punk-reggae hybrid La Liberación, issued on V2 Records in mid-2011. That same year Cintra announced his departure amid creative differences. CSS resurfaced in 2012 with their fourth studio album, Planta.