I first came to know CSS a few years ago at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Since that time I’ve come to enjoy their high energy live performances and, especially lately, their most recent release, Donkey. In addition to their upcoming festival spot at Lollapalooza this weekend, the group will join label mates The Go! Team for a roof-raising live performance at Milwaukee’s Turner Hall on Thursday, July 31st. In preparation for their upcoming Midwest shows, I caught up with Adriano to discuss the new record and tour preferences for our continuing 5 Questions with Muzzle of Bees feature.

Could you lend some information on the recording process of Donkey? Where and how was it recorded, and were there any lessons learned that you’ll apply towards future recording sessions?

It was recorded at the Trama studios in São Paulo , we had two sessions, two weeks in December of 2007 and six weeks in early 2008. I did all the pre-production while we were touring so the recording went pretty easy. Organization was very important during the process.

Tell me about the cover art for your new record. Where is the image from and how did you come about choosing it?

Lovefoxxx did that donkey/thing head. She worked with paper-mache, plaster and mirrors. It was a huge thing, very unmanageable. She had this idea of a donkey/thing head in the middle of the jungle. So we found a nice location in São Paulo and Luiza Sá photographed with assisted by a friend.

You’ve played your share of clubs and festivals including an upcoming spot at Lollapalooza in Chicago. In terms of preference do you prefer indoor or outdoor venues and do you tailor your set list to the type of audience you’re playing to, perhaps a lot of first timers in a festival setting?

My perfect scenario would be the big festival stage after the sun has gone. It’s always nicer to play with our lights. And we really can’t stand playing only old songs, so we been mixing our new album across our set. But we still play all old singles.

We’re always looking to uncover new favorite artists, are there any band(s)/record(s) that you could recommend to our readers?

Glistening Pleasure, from Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head. These kids are the shit.

The internet has dramatically altered the way artists can reach an audience. With things like blogs/myspace/etc, what are your thoughts on the power of the internet in terms of helping (or hurting) your music?

I don’t really know. You can’t hope that the internet will solve all your problems. And you can’t also blame it for all your failures.

Myspace: CSS
MP3: CSS - “Rat is Dead (Rage)”

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