Exclusive Os Cabides: the secret of Coisas Estranhas is in the choices no one else made
Cabides does the hardest thing in Brazilian indie: small music that sticks.
The first time I saw them live, they walked into a Floripa bar with stickers stuck on wall, window and counter and played Lucy in my face. It was easy music to listen to, no mystery, and impossible to forget. That was in 2020, and to this day the formula doesn't change. What changes is the size of what it carries.
Roubaram Tudo (2020, independent) is the record where the formula is born. Nine short tracks, recorded at Ouié Studio, with the calm of those still learning to use the whole studio. Gato Preto is the emblem of that moment: the chorus "Black cat I wished I were / Black cat and run from you" takes a banal image and turns it into a mantra. It's the band's entire bet condensed into two lines. Some scene, said the straightest way possible, and the listener (or reader) can't get it out of their head.
Coisas Estranhas (2024, independent) is the record where that bet finds its final form. Right from the opening title track, the quintet compresses everything that's coming: melody with the face of an old TV jingle, guitar deliberately out of tune, chorus that comes in early. The title isn't a joke. The record deals, track by track, with strange images. Not the strange of those who invent, the strange of those who look closely. A lamp in the bedroom. A battery lost in the house. A gecko in the living room. At a moment when Brazilian indie either imitates the 2000s or tries to be Pavement again, Cabides chose to look inside the house.
The track ladder shows the method. On Luminária de Lava, track three, the verse "The only thing I can give you is a lava lamp" synthesizes the bet: the guitar inspired by Slowdive's Alison draws the gesture, and the irony in Antônio dos Anjos's voice carries the phrase. On Pilha Eletrônica, from the middle of the record, it's the choppy rhythm that delivers the most playful face. And the karaoke-style video, with tour behind-the-scenes, closes the visual sense. On Lagartixa Tropical, alongside As Pulgas Rock Band, the band agrees to turn into a two-minute joke without losing the craft. And on the title track the record announces itself entirely, before the listener even knows what they're getting into.
The record suffers, in the second half, a discreet drop in tension. After Pilha Eletrônica, the last tracks resolve instead of provoking. It's not a flaw that sinks the work. It's the reminder that even a polished record chooses between drawing and tidying, and Cabides chose to tidy near the end. It's the kind of drop that only hurts when the rest is so good.
On April 11, 2026, at Desgosto, the band closed the Coisas Estranhas tour with Terraplana. And in May 2026 a new EP comes out, six tracks recorded live. Coisas Estranhas is no longer Cabides's present. But it'll be, for a long time, the record people put on when they need to remember how the Floripa scene got beautifully strange in 2024. The lava lamp is still on.
The lineup
- João Paulo Pretto. vocals and guitar, founder, creative engine
- Antônio dos Anjos. vocals and percussion
- Eduardo Possa. guitar
- Maitê Fontalva. bass and vocals
- Carolina Werutsky. drums