Bonde do Role: With Lasers

Bonde do Role
With Lasers
Domino

College radio stations everywhere better thank their lucky stars the FCC doesn't understand Portuguese. Bonde do Role have caught on in indie circles recently thanks to their associations with Baltimore crate-digger/Tarantino-level divisive hipster Diplo, who's had a long-running infatuation with Baile funk, Brazil's ultra-turgid answer to Miami bass and Detroit ghettotech. But even if the language barrier prevents the raunchiest moments of With Lasers from clearly registering with American listeners, the irreverence is universally understandable—right down to the album's cover, where the lasers in question are coming from the eyes of Rio's famous 125-foot Christ the Redeemer statue.

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More About

• Bonde Do Role
• U.S. Federal Communications Commission
• Solta Frango
• Peter Gunn
• Monty Norman

Much of Bonde do Role's appeal, limited as it is (good thing their songs usually don't go over two minutes), centers on their love for being as ridiculous and obvious as possible in their choices for pop music appropriation. This leads to stuff like "Bondallica," a snotty take on '80s metal that rides on an ur-buttrock grunt-riff and MC Marina Ribatski belting what seems to be a mockery of the "metal rules, punk sucks" pontificating from the heshers of Heavy Metal Parking Lot. "James Bonde" is essentially a string of gay jokes at 007's expense, with a guitar riff that seems split between Monty Norman's iconic Bond theme and Art of Noise's version of "Peter Gunn." And "Solta O Frango"—which, unless Babelfish fails me, means "release the chicken" (nudge wink)—makes like the dirtiest Homestar Runner song conceivable.