cumgirl8's Debut LP the 8th cumming May Not Be Novel, But It's Full of Sleazy Fun

When does a boundary-pushing band cross the line from irony-laced performance art to genuine, must-listen music makers? Performer-provocateurs with a porn-worthy name, New York four-piece cumgirl8 are flirting with that line on the 8th cumming. It’s an apt question for a band preoccupied with juxtapositions: human versus artificial, empowered sexuality versus exploitation and highly synthetic sounds versus analog, imperfect human noise. The answer will largely depend on listeners and whether they recognize, and love, the 1990s-era goth club/industrial references alongside nods to electro synth-pop icons Peaches and Miss Kittin. Still, recognizing influences or not isn’t fundamental to appreciating cumgirl8. For those listeners who were born in 2000 and beyond and haven’t bothered to listen to anything before they popped out fresh from the womb, cumgirl8 may sound groundbreaking, experimental and exciting. In 2022, drummer Chase Noelle told V Magazine, “cumgirl8 is clickbait, like a DM from a cam-girl. The name is founded on the only emotions that seem to really affect people… to be sexy and disruptive. cumgirl8 is clickbait! First, we draw you in; then we radicalize you.”

The band might have had a faster trajectory to drawing us in on their debut album if not for the pandemic. Formed in 2019, bassist Lida Fox, guitarists Veronica Vilim and Avishag Cohen Rodrigues and Noelle found a shared musical language outside of their day jobs in fashion, film and publishing. It wasn’t until 2023 that their EP phantasea pharm gave us an insight into the band’s songwriting and studio acumen. The six tracks couldn’t keep up the momentum of some of the most energetic, fierce and fearless numbers (“cicciolina,” “Picture Party”). That EP, like the 8th cumming, reveals the unapologetically party-hard, orgasm-enthusiast, slutty and sleazy nature of cumgirl8. With their long, skinny limbs, perfect choppy bangs and barely-there outfits, the band are equally at home in fashion editorials as on grimy stages in Manhattan clubs.

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The synth-laden, bass-heavy chug of opener “Karma Police” is a rhythmic disco-goth banger, sounding like a Siouxsie and the Banshees B-side. The 1980s New Wave feel extends into the FOMO-phobic anthem “ahhhh!hhhh! (i don’t wanna go).” The message is absolutely relatable, and a thoroughly hip-shaking good time, as you sing along with one of the best tracks on the album: “you’re inviting me, and I already know I don’t wanna go…so many faces, but so alone, just want to be on my own at home.”

There are forgettable anti-climax tracks (“mercy”), and the 1980s videogame sonics can be tiresome about four tracks in. However, the hollowed-out, echoey gothic melodrama on “hysteria!” conjures up visions of smoky, chandelier-filled, futuristic nightclub scenes and the sense that something malevolent looms, but you just have to stay and dance it out in the dark. The speed-laced freakout mood of “uti” is the closest you might get to a sonic seizure. The bouncing, whip-sharp synths and hyper-speed, relentless pummel of a drum machine is barely listenable. If it’s a joke between friends about a uterine tract infection diagnosis, it should have stayed in the WhatsApp group. Perhaps as relief, or to exercise evidence that they have breadth, “girls don’t try” is a lush, keyboard-led epic that recalls New York punk-disco pioneers Bush Tetras or London melodic New Wavers The Psychedelic Furs. That track heralds a change in atmosphere that reveals more nuance thanks to clever instrumentals and less smart-assed songwriting. Take “iBerry,” which sounds like the lusciously layered, esoteric romance of Bat For Lashes’ 2006 debut, Fur and Gold.

Nothing on the 8th cumming feels truly new, but as a nostalgic chunk of danceable disco-punk, the album serves its purpose as mindless fun.

Read our interview with cumgirl8 here.

cumgirl8’s Debut LP the 8th cumming May Not Be Novel, But It’s Full of Sleazy Fun

Bassist Lida Fox, guitarists Veronica Vilim and Avishag Cohen Rodrigues and drummer Chase Noelle pack their first record with 1990s-era goth club/industrial references alongside nods to electro synth-pop icons Peaches and Miss Kittin.