Brazil, Brazil

So I’ve been dig­ging on some things, and thanks to Ben’s locale-specific post, I finally, FINALLY came up with some­thing to unite them into one entry. That some­thing is Brazil. Yeah, it’s kind of a big some­thing. And you know, Brazil is basi­cally what kept me from posting for so long. Nev­er­mind the whole grad­u­a­tion thing — blame it on that big ol’ hunk o’ land. Actu­ally, don’t blame any­thing on any­thing, just enjoy these here tunez, if you haven’t already.

First up under dis­cus­sion is the Guille­mots EP “From the Cliffs,” which the blo­go­v­erse spat at me semi-recently. This is a ver­sa­tile, well-produced EP — it ranges from rockin’ to soothin’ (haha, somehow “soothin’” without its proper G is not soothing). Anyway, the song under ques­tion, “Trains to Brazil,” is pep­pered with found sounds (alarms; chil­dren), though it pads its bottom with plenty of solid kick drum. How­ever, my favorite part is the brass that comes in about halfway, turning the song sud­denly into a 1970s TV theme. Ohh, I love it. The Decem­berists did it with the bridge part of “Los Angeles, I’m Yours,” and it hap­pens here with Guille­mots. I feel like having a date with the hair­spray bottle for some Farrah hair wings now. Although you ought’n’t get dis­tracted by my panache for bad hair — this song really is excel­lent. And there’s a video for it on their web­site!

Then. She is Cibelle (see-BELL-ee, all the web­sites instruct me). Born in São Paulo, she is a non-native London trans­plant who is cur­rently sending sexy Brazilian lounge vibes all around the world via her album “The Shine of Dried Elec­tric Leaves,” out just now in May. And the other person in the song? He is America freak-folker Devendra Ban­hart, tame and seem­ingly chan­neling a sleepy Leonard Cohen as he joins Cibelle on this track enti­tled “London London,” from the afore­men­tioned album. The song is gentle and inof­fen­sive, but after a couple of lis­tens, the melody has stuck tena­ciously with me. (The cutest part has to be the end, though… “hablas español?” “…no.”)

Anyway, enjoy the songs. As for me, well, everyone’s aban­doned the girl­pants offices, so now I might get back to checking out Christina Aguilera in GQ. So, uh, goodnight.