CSS

In the 1960s, visionaries like Caetano Veloso and Os Mutantes reimagined Bob Dylan and the Beatles, along with various other American psychedelic rock and pop sources, and created the revolutionary Tropicália movement. Four decades on, a new generation of young, streetwise and art-damaged Brazilians are finding inspiration in our popular culture. Only now, their affection is for the cheesy, synthetic rhythms of 1980s dance pop, the bouncy minimalism of punk and the pajama-party empowerment of all-female rock bands like the Go-Gos.

The name of the retro-delirious Sao Paulo group CSS is an abbreviation of the phrase “Cansei de Ser Sexy,” which translates into English as “I’m tired of being sexy,” a quote attributed to pop superstar Beyoncé. The band’s scruffy look—T-shirts, jeans, wild hair and limbs akimbo—certainly fits an image long promoted by its American record label, Sub Pop. But in spirit, its gleefully amateur songs sound closer to what the other great Pacific Northwest punk labels, K Records and Kill Rock Stars, indulged: noisy, lo-fi twee, only polished and peppier.

Boosted by exposure from iPhone commercials and tours with Diplo and fellow Paulistas Bonde do Role, the four gals (and one guy) of CSS are smart not to hide their influences, which often evoke the halcyon days of New York in the early 1980s, when punks funked and funkateers punked.

“Let’s Reggae All Night” matches nimble, assertive bass to the saccharine dazzle of vintage synths, as vocalist Lovefoxxx comes on like old-school Madonna fronting the Bush Tetras. Anthemic dance tracks like “Jager Yoga” and “Believe Achieve” offer wishful uplift, if not literary depth, and an ESL novelty factor that only becomes an issue when the band’s cheeky charms wear thin. Electropop confections such as this are mostly an excuse to party; CSS approaches kegs and confetti on the list of fiesta necessities.