Glamorous Brazilian Girls Prepare to Drop “La Bomb”
On the Brazilian Girls’ self-titled 2005 debut, glamorous frontwoman Sabina Sciubba seduced in several tongues: She made German sound romantic on “Die Gedken Sind Frei,” delivered breathy French choruses on “Sirenes de la Fete,” and channeled the Spanish poetry of Noble Laureate Pablo Neruda for “Me Gustas Cuando Callas.” But for the Brazilian Girls’ follow-up, tentatively titled Talk to la Bomb, due September 12th, Sciubba delivers the melting pot in one song.
“‘Jique’ is all mixed between four different languages,” Sciubba says of a new track, before breaking out into an impromptu performance. “Tu sais pour toi j’ai une faiblesse chaque fois that we’re together penso my heart goes purpur!“
The Brazilian Girls crew — Sciubba, keyboardist/programmer Didi Gutman, drummer Aaron Johnston and bassist Jesse Murphy — formed unintentionally through informal jam sessions at New York’s NuBlu, an intimate East Village club that plays host to deejays on remix-binges, as well as various world beat acts. Their late-night residency began at the lounge in spring of 2003, where once a week the group’s three musicians would jam — often with friends joining in on horns — as Sciubba, in a sparkly cape and mask, served up her hypnotic performances. “We weren’t even a band then,” says Sciubba, amused by how rapidly things fell into place. “We had a recording before having a band name!” The track, “Homme,” first appeared on fellow club revelers Wax Poetic’s 2003 release, Nublu Session.
The Brazilian Girls toured continuously following the release of their critically lauded debut, opening for Sting and winning new fans at festivals like last year’s Bonnaroo. Their lounge-y electronica evokes a relaxed beach-party atmosphere — so much so that someone in the audience will often offer Sciubba a joint during the crowd-pleasing ode to sex and drugs, “Pussy.”
Late last fall, the Brazilian Girls went into New York’s Electric Lady Studios — the studio Jimi Hendrix opened in 1970 before his death two weeks later. “When we got into the space, we were kind of prolific, which we didn’t expect to be,” says Sciubba. “We wrote very quickly.” In eight days, they laid down sixteen tracks — among them the crowd-tested “Problem” and “It’s All About Us,” as well the half-Italian, half-English title track “Talk to La Bomb.”
Along with the multilingual “Jique” — “That’s a Dada word we made up!” — there’s the brand-new tune “Never Met a German.” “It’s about the cliche of the German always being the bad guy in the movie, with a German Shepherd, trying to kill or hunt someone down,” Sciubbia explains.
That sort of playful, retro take on the jet-setting life of an international spy seems to be what Brazilian Girls are all about. Says Sciubbia, “It’s all about the mystery!”