You’re So Talented, I’m In Love!

CSS @ The Warsaw, 7/20/2006
CSS Suxxx! / Patins / Alala / Fuckoff Is Not The Only Thing You Have To Show –> Work It (Missy Elliott) / Meeting Paris Hilton / This Month, Day 10 / Alcohol / Off The Hook / Art Bitch / Music Is My Hot Hot Sex / Let’s Make Love and Listen To Death From Above / quick punky song I did not know

CSS “Music Is My Hot Hot Sex” – Though their LP has a certain shine and polish, CSS are essentially a punk band live. They aren’t exactly a tight band, but they pull it off, indicating disco textures when they need to, but mainly sticking to simple, primal rock and roll. As on the records, singer Lovefoxxx is the star of the show. She’s ridiculously cute and effortlessly charismatic, and has the demeanor of a giddy teenage girl who is deeply thrilled by every moment of your attention. She spent most of the show either jumping into the audience or fiddling with her outfit — removing layers, pulling her top over her head to simulate a hood, tugging and stretching the fabric, pushing layers aside to reveal what’s underneath. She’s not long on dance moves, but she’s incredibly physical and was not still for more than five seconds for the entire duration of the set, or immediately afterwards at the merch table.

One of the things that really grates on me about a lot of the bad or middling reviews that I’ve been seeing for CSS’ album is how people are routinely dismissing them as being shallow hipsters, and it seems rather like how pretty, confident fashionable cool girls are routinely hated on by jealous women and misogynistic dudes. But it just drives me nuts because out of the HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of records that I’ve heard this year, Cansei de ser Sexy is one of the few that positively overflows with sincere emotion, goodwill, and critical thought. They make references to pop, junk culture, the internet, bands, and people take that as being stupid and trendy, but they are projecting, because it’s really just them setting up a context firmly rooted in the present tense. As I see it, “Meeting Paris Hilton” isn’t about loving or hating Paris Hilton but rather what it’s like to come face to face with ultimate vapidity and privilege and trying to interact on its terms rather than attack it out of spite and arrogance. I love Tom Breihan’s writing, I really do, I seriously think that he’s one of the very best music critics in the world right now, but I don’t think he’s ever written anything so ridiculously off the mark as when he suggested that “Art Bitch” is some kind of Yeah Yeah Yeahs rip when the thing is, the members of that band are exactly the sort of people being satirized in that song. “Art Bitch” is a pretty right on slam of a very specific sort of artist that’s been popping up all over in this decade in galleries, at art schools, and on the interet. Have you ever seen Nick Zinner’s photo book? HE’S A FUCKING ART BITCH.

The most exciting songs for me are the ones that cut to the core of crushes and raw enthusiasm. “Patins” and “Let’s Make Love…” are floods of lust and confusion and fear and joy. I especially love the tossed off lines in “Let’s Make Love…”: “You’re so talented, I’m in love!” “You come to show me your mad love!” “Come and erase me take me with you!” and especially “You knew my ideas when they were still in my head!” Lovefoxxx has a real gift for expressing desire in complicated, nearly profound ways while also being funny and conversational. “Music Is My Hot Hot Sex” may be silly, but that’s exactly as it should be. Music is amazing, and beautiful, and for some people (people like me), incredibly incredibly important, but most often when you try to express that you end up sounding like some obnoxious Nick Hornby/Rick Moody jackass. Lovefoxxx and her crew found another way, and it’s totally right on. (Click here to buy it from Sub Pop.)

Bonde do Rolê “Solta O Frango” – If I had my way, I’d be posting the first song in Bonde do Rolê’s set – a BAILLE FUNK VERSION OF “THE FINAL COUNTDOWN”!!! I desperately want to get a copy of it so that I can play it at every goddamn DJ thing I ever do for the rest of my natural life. It’s a song that combines my love of Brazillian dance music and G.O.B. Bluth! It’s like a gift from above, I swear. But this song is also quite good, as was their live set, though I could’ve done without the skinny guy scolding the audience for not flipping out for everything they were doing, though it was surprising that a bill made up entirely of dance-centric acts (Diplo was the headliner, but don’t ask how he was, I left after CSS cos it was late) didn’t get a little more into them. Maybe they were saving their energy for later, though it’s more likely that people just were not drinking enough to get loose. Possible third option/factor: these people, especially the girl, were so incredibly sexual and uninhibited on stage that it made most of the people in the room feel intimidated and inadequate. Very likely! (Click here for the Bonde do Rolê MySpace page.)