For a band who called themselves “tired of being sexy”, CSS certainly like to walk on the wild side.
The Sao Paolo six-piece - five electro-punk minxes, one bespectacled bloke – have filthier lyrics than Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White in a swearing competition.
Cansei de Ser Sexy (literally "tired of being sexy" in Portuguese, named themselves after a modest Beyonce quote in a magazine) seem a little perplexed by all the attention they are receiving in this country.
“Everywhere we go people say I'm so naughty with my lyrics,” says Lovefoxxx (real name Luisa Hanae Matsushita), the group's cheekily-named half-Japanese lead singer. “I think it must be something Brazilian, as we just don't realise it.”
It could be something to do with song titles like Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex?
“We didn’t realise because our English wasn’t too good,” explains drummer and guitarist Luiza Sa.
“Then when we got to America people started saying ‘Oh my God you talk so much about sex, sex, sex’. We didn’t expect people to pay so much attention. Now we’ve been speaking English a bit longer we’re not going to mention it so much because we feel more like English speakers now.”
“People in Brazil ask how we can be tired of being sexy when we are so ugly,” says Ana Rezende, one of the band's guitarists.
"In Brazil they call us little monsters," adds Luiza. "This guy even said that we were the ugliest thing he'd seen."
British music fans seem to disagree – CSS have made massive waves on the UK, and become one of the hippest bands of the year. Lovefoxxx is now engaged to Klaxons guitarist Simon Taylor-Davis, firmly cementing her celebrity status, and was placed tenth in NME's annual Cool List last month.
It all began in 2003 when bass player Iracema Trevisan decided to set up a band.
“Ira had told me she wanted to start a band, but I thought it was just one of those drunk conversations, and I’m always pretty lazy,” says Lovefoxxx. “But she called me again and I remember thinking - what if the band only lasts one gig? I would regret it so much if I didn’t go to the rehearsal. I was going to play the guitar, but I could only play Aerosmith’s Crazy.
“But then everyone was playing guitar and Adriano (Cintra, drummer/programmer and CSS’s token male) said I should sing, because no-one else was going to. It was quite awful at the start.”
Nevertheless, at the beginning of 2006, CSS signed with Sub Pop to release their international debut album. The first single, released in June 6, was Let's Make Love and Listen to Death From Above.
“Sub pop asked us about leaving off the Portuguese songs, and we completely understood,” says guitarist Ana Rezende. “I think the English songs are better. When we heard the track list that Sub Pop put together, it was so much better than the original.
“We’re not a regional band. We don’t do ‘Brazilian Music’. We’re very much international.
“If we stayed in Brazil we’d have to work on the side, this wouldn’t be our main job. There’s no scene in Sao Paulo. There’s the clubbing and electronic party scene but the rock & roll scene is very poor, very fragmented and specific.
“The UK is the best place for us, we have our biggest audience here. The UK is very fast, the other places are open too but not as fast as here. You’re very eager for music and culture.”
They’re voracious consumers of popular culture, basing a lot of their songs on the world of celebrity – particularly track Meeting Paris Hilton – which TV execs picked up and featured on The Simple Life, leading to an audience for the band with everyone’s favourite bad girl heiress.
“She was really mellow,” says Ira. “I think she’s always posing. She doesn’t move her mouth too much so she doesn’t look bad in pictures. But she was very polite.
“We see no problem in liking both Kevin Shields and Paris Hilton. It just seems very natural to us. We all have really different tastes. Ana likes really cheesy pop. Carolina (Parra, guitar) only listens to three bands: Cat Power, Sonic Youth and Pavement.”
Are the nods to Beyoncé and Paris Hilton intended to celebrate or subvert pop culture?
“We’re not trying to change the world or change music history,” says Ana. “Music is just something that feels good for us, we’re not very pretentious about it. We do pop music and we don’t feel bad about it.”
There might be a treat in store for the audience in Liverpool next week. At a recent show, Lovefoxxx went on stage wearing her entire wardrobe. As each song on the set list was played, she removed one piece until at the end of the night she was naked, then dove into the crowd.
It's too early to say if she’s planning any repeat of such antics at the Carling Academy, but one thing is for sure - CSS's gig will be anything but boring.
CSS play Carling Academy Liverpool on Tuesday. For more information see www.myspace.com/canseidesersexy.