The Brazilian Girls on their latest album

The first thing you notice about the Brazilian Girls in person is the accents: French, Eastern European, and an almost-Southern inflection. Though all three band members have lived in New York for some time—starting at an East Village club in 2003—they don't try to act like it. Yes, the new album is called New York City, but it's also the band's clearest bid for international credibility—from a bossa nova intro to shout-outs to Berlin, Baghdad, and 55 other cities just on "Internacional," which serves as a kind of dance-music travelogue for the world-weary globe-trotter.

The Brazilian Girls are the first to point out that this is their third album, having predated indie's new crop of world-music wannabes (Vampire Weekend, Yeasayer) by a few years. Though they've lost a bassist to creative differences and haven't seen much of an increase in popularity, their motto remains steadfastly laid-back: As lead singer Sabina Sciubba says on the new single, "We just want to have a good time."

Radar recently talked to Sciubba and her bandmates about the city they live in, why they write less about pussy, and how they would have loved to smoke a Lollapalooza bowl with Barack Obama.

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RADAR: You started playing at Nublu in New York. Do you still think of yourself as a club band?
Aaron Johnston: It didn't even really feel like a club. It was more like a lounge.
Sabina: Like a living room.
Aaron: More like a house party.
Sabina: We started as a Nublu band, but then we moved onto bigger venues very quickly. And even though for us it's quite different, we've always been doing the same thing.
Aaron: It's not like we're 18. Everyone has played music for such a long time and played any kind of scenario—from house concerts to playing for 10,000 people.

What was the biggest difference in making the new album?
Sabina: Obviously, Jesse [Murphy] wasn't on board for most of it. He's not presently in the band. We're still on good terms, and Aaron is still playing with him. It's an amicable thing, but musically he's doing other things. He's on—correct me if I'm wrong—three or four songs.

The songs on New York City sound deliberate. Were you trying to make a more serious record?
Sabina: Yeah, I think we made a more serious record. There's something a bit more vulnerable and clear about the songs—there's something more introspective. I just read something someone announced: "the international party band Brazilian Girls." I'm not sure on this record we're so much a party band as on the first record. I think it's a natural part of our lives. And so were the last two records.

Would you say you've been tagged as a "party band"?
Sabina: That was definitely what we were at some point.

And what are you now?
Didi Gutman: At home watching TV.