CSS in the Guardian guide

They're the electro-punk minxes from Sao Paolo who've set the blogosphere alight and become one of the hippest bands of the year. Jaimie Hodgson joins CSS on a New York gig marathon ...
http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/story/0,,1949438,00.html

when i interviewed them they were pretty keen not to badmouth Sao Paulo, even though some aspects obviously bugged them - unbelievable traffic congestion, crime, and a relatively small/insular scene (for such a metropolis).

garbage

the deee-lite of right now. i'm saying.

Karen, that's very interesting about your interview. When I was in Brazil I found a flourishing music scene, albeit one that moved quite slowly, i.e. it took a long time for a record to gain prominence, but when it did it took an equally long time to shift off the a-lists. Admittedly that was in the days before the Internet.

The things that you mention that bug CSS about SP would bug anyone. I wonder if in the Guardian piece they weren't trying to say anything to upset anyone [i.e. there's a lot of poverty in our country and we're relatively privileged] but it didn't come out right.

that is not such a bad thing to be!

(they have about...three good songs.)

nice glass house you got yourself there

ha, history of the 00s: the two main culprits of ruining British international reputation in the 00s Tony Blair and Conor McNicholas

YUP!

I think the thing about Brazil relates to (a) class, and (b) they're trying to be rock stars in the U.S., they don't want to be "world music". I don't think they want to be about Brazil more than U2 is about Ireland or Broken Social Scene is about Canada.

And we think middle-class guilt is rife in the UK... In a way it's quite refreshing to hear Brazilians talk like this. Better than the 'we Brazilians have no money' and 'we Brazilians are all black, indigenous and white' I've heard posh white Brazilians come out with. But...

I think the thing about Brazil relates to (a) class, and (b) they're trying to be rock stars in the U.S., they don't want to be "world music". I don't think they want to be about Brazil more than U2 is about Ireland or Broken Social Scene is about Canada.

I agree that this is their attitude - their music is manifestly not Brazilian - but I thought the way it came across in that article was disparaging and ugly.