Tag Archives: Brazilian Indie Music

Review: Copacabana Club – Tropical Splash

Review written for Time Out Sao Paulo August 2011:

Copacabana Club
Tropical Splash

Copacabana Club are not from Copacabana, or even from Rio for that matter; they hail from Paraná. Yet this is the kind of music you could imagine a bunch of friends from Copacabana playing. That is, if Brazilians made pop music like this. Copacabana Club’s music is closer to Alphabeat or New Young Pony Club than any Brazilian contemporaries, with their English lyrics suggesting this is how they think of themselves.

With their dual male/female vocals, spiky guitar riffs and bubbling synth lines, Copacabana Club show throughout this album that they are ready to become an international band, peppering their songs with the kinds of hooks that will instantly get people moving and melodies stuck in heads. This is most convincing on the opening salvoes of “Mrs Melody” and “Sounds Like Confusion” where the band’s non-stop energy never becomes grating, mostly due to the amount of ideas they manage to pack into each song.

They also manage to mix things up too, with “Sex Sex Sex” being the kind of slow-burning plea you might expect with that title, and “Peaches”, which continues the theme, albeit this time with the kind of biting guitars and programmed drums that you might expect from Sleigh Bells (one of 2010’s biggest revelations). The best track here though is “Comeback”, a summertime anthem which takes a minute to get going, but then never really feels like it’ll go away. With songs like this it is just possible that Copacabana Club may be a band that never goes away too.

Sound of the Underground: Cérebro Eletrônico

A preview of Cérebro Eletrônico’s show at Studio SP, part of my Sound of the Underground column, written for Time Out Sao Paulo August 2011.

Cérebro Eletrônico
Studio SP

In many ways Cérebro Eletrônico are the quintessential Sao Paulo indie band. Their lead singer Tato Aeroplano has been playing in bands in the city for years and has gradually built up a loyal following, yet it’s only in the last couple of years with Cerebro Eletronico that he’s started to get truly national success. Their music is a rhythmic blend of indie-rock with pleading vocals, plenty of hooks and sing-along choruses like on “Cama” and “Decência”. This is a great chance to catch a quality Brazilian indie band with the extra passion of a home crowd.