WHEN IS a band from South America’s San Jose show like a homecoming? When it’s Brothers of Brazil, the latest gutsy signing from L.A.’s SideOneDummy Records. SOD is run by South Bay ex-pat Joe Sib, whose most recent performance here was his one-man show about growing up punk in Silicon Valley. The label found breakout success signing hit bands like Flogging Molly and the Gaslight Anthem, but what’s remarkable is the way Sib and associates have staked their legacy by expanding the definition of “punk rock” to something that’s as inclusive and dangerous as the music always should have been. Their success with an international group of bands that once would have been written off with the useless label “world music.” Their past success with gypsy crazies Gogol Bordello shows they know how to bring bands that would normally have been ghettoized as “world music” into the public eye. As for Brothers of Brazil, well É wow. A pair of brothers armed with only an acoustic guitar and drum set, they blend traditional samba and bossa nova with rock in a way that makes the Brazilian sounds funkier and the rocker chords cooler. With suits apparently ransacked from John Lydon’s closet (the drummer may have stolen his hair, too), their look is as hard to wrap your mind around as the music. “I Hate the Beatles” is about loving the Beatles, “I Love the French” is about hating Paris, and “Samba Around the Clock” pretty much captures everything they’re trying to do in two minutes and 46 seconds.
Friday, June 10 at 9pm; $7.
