Brazilian Girls
Brazilian Girls
Make Love Not War
By A.D. Amorosi
Their keyboardist is from Buenos Aires. Their singer is from Italy. There's just one girl in the quartet, and she's often blindfolded. That's Brazilian Girls - the royalty of electronic soul-samba, an outfit whose life-aquatic ambience has more often than not rested upon the shoulders of their fabulously theatrical singer, Sabina Sciubba. The wafer-thin Sciubba and the rest of the Girls made subtle bossa-baile electro-funk and delicious Egyptian reggae on their eponymous debut. While Sciubba lithely sprayed songs with bits of German, French, and Spanish lyrics along with her English language's languor, programmer Didi Gutman's fuzzy, furry sounds and those of his playful rhythm section turned the chant-worthy "Pussy," the nervous samba of "All We Have," and the sexed-up "Don't Stop" into sweaty dance-floor ravers. Good. No, great. And now they're finally following up that CD with Talk to La Bomb. Is it deee-groovy? Indeed. Does it share similar raciness and liquidity with album one? Check out "Last Call" and "La Territoire." Is it as funny as that first record? Calling "Tourist Trap" and "Sexy Asshole." But Bomb is more tender and more highly politicized, with a polished flinty sound caused by white boys Mark Platti (a Bowie stalwart) and Ric Ocasek. Yeah. Skinny Weezer-toting Ric Ocasek. Oh, Sabina.

My first question has to be - what the hell could've made you wait so long for the new CD?

Well, first of all, the F train - we waited for at least an hour and a half. Then our moms called that our aunt was sick and we got late another half hour consoling our aunt. Then our bikes had a flat so that's why it took us so long.

Buenos Aires. Italy. Manhattan. Who met who where, and how did ya'll figure music - as opposed to the film or fashion angles I know are a part of the band - would be the answer between you? We have all been musicians - since the beginning, since before we met in New York City. In fact, we all migrated to NYC for the music. Obviously, we found what we were looking for.

What do you think audiences most understood about that first album of yours when it came out? The rhythms? The lounge thing? The lyrics? "Pussy pussy pussy marijuana" - that set of lyrics is what stuck the most, I believe.

Hmm. What sort of band did BG never want to be? A band-aid. A ha!

So why, when you could've gone back to Rome or Buenos Aires, did you record in NYC, and with such Caucasian guys like Ocasek and Platti? We essentially picked them because their wives are really hot Caucasians.

Should I be so turned on by "Never Met a German" - the whole orgasm/bomb line, that skittish sequencer thing? Whoa. Yes. Get turned on. Fuck. Cum. Then again ... get turned on.

You guys don't shy from whistling samba stuff ("All About Us") or big, beautiful ballad sounds, even when you lace them with a hidden message-y thing like "Sweatshop." Is slowing down the groove any sort of effort for you, or is it in the softest spots where Brazilian Girls truly exist? It's emo-electro, babe!

Is making music that's so classic - from the jazz piano runs on "Rules of the Game" to the fusion-y bits of Bomb - a greater consideration as the band blossoms?

Whatever comes out we accept as a viable candidate for a song. It's all a matter of taste. This just happens to be our taste right now.

What was the biggest inspiration for "Bomb," on Bomb? The great Serbian artist Petar Santiago. He makes me sweat, too. He said "talk to the bomb" the first time we heard it, as well as drawing bombs and such.

What is the importance of "Jique"? What does it do - beyond being a great song? "Jique" is all-important. "Jique" is everything you desire. Everything that intrigues you. "Jique" is life. What "Jique" is? It's up to you to imagine. Go. Do.

Smoking really never sounded quite so romantic and natural as on "Nicotine." I smoke. I love seeing and feeling the burn around my lips, seeing the ember. Is everyone in the band down for the count? Only if the tobacco industries pay us to encourage young people to destroy their health.

So what obsessions most haunt La Bomb? Jique, definitely. And scud anti-missile defense systems. We bombs hate that. Beca So then, is it fair to say that between love and war, Bomb is your war record, your battle cry?
No. It's definitely love.

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