At a recent gig in lower Manhattan, local act cumgirl8 stood onstage like Day-Glo dominatrixes. Drummer Chase Lombardo sported assless chaps; guitarist Veronika Vilim, in hot-pink fishnet and marabou pasties, towered above fellow guitarist Avishag Rodrigues, whose bondage harness encased an acid-green top. Dead center stood bassist Lida Fox, with a slab of black bangs shrouding her eyes. “This song’s about our favorite punk girl,” Vilim said as her bandmates kicked into “cicciolina,” a dark disco tribute to the famed porn star turned Italian politician, which they perform partially on an Emergency Bigfoot novelty toy. The song leads phantasea pharm, a six-track collection of gothic pop and scuzzy dance-punk studded with horny prose. Like their titillating outfits, phantasea pharm is fun and eye-catching, but only half of its tracks live up to the band’s vibrant stage presence.
According to cumgirl8 lore, the musicians met years ago in a sex chat room. “We consider the internet a member of our band,” Lombardo told Vogue last year. Their raunchy moniker is a nod to Y2K-era screen names, but it also suggests an erotic force in search of orgasmic enlightenment. cumgirl8 embody this concept via sexually liberated lyrics and outré costumes. “We act like this because it makes us feel powerful,” the band has said. “There is nothing degrading about being in control.”
Fox, Lombardo, and Vilim split lead vocal duties, accounting for a lot of the EP’s incongruity. Tracks helmed by Fox (“gothgirl1,” “cursed angel”) tend to be darker, while Lombardo (“pritney llc”) and Vilim (“Picture Party”) spit out tart and energetic rhymes. On the sludgy “dead pixels,” Fox abandons her girlish falsetto for a stoner’s deadpan, droning over shrill guitar. It feels like a ’90s alt-rock castoff—and a real dud following the saucy “cicciolina.” Fox eventually flips a phrase worthy of cumgirl8’s cleverest tracks, like her colorful take on making out: “Swallow my tongue/Like chewing gum/So you’ll feel me/In your gut.” But this vivid scene gets buried in the song’s drab arrangement.
cumgirl8 may be lewd, but their best moments are derived from pure joy, not shock value. Vilim and Lombardo seem to be having the most fun; onstage, Vilim executed a series of dramatic poses in slow motion, while Lombardo briefly fled her drumkit to dangle from a ceiling pipe. The theatrics translate to tape, especially on “pritney llc,” an oddball pop singalong led by Lombardo. Per the lyrics, Pritney is a renowned “party slut”—beloved, but deviant. She’ll jack your pack of cigs. She’ll vom on your shoes. She’ll tear your designer dress to shreds. She’s… a Pomeranian. The song starts as a lullaby but ends in a cartoonish pileup of skronks, chimes, and robotic backing vocals.
Smutty electro-punk cut “Picture Party” is even better, spiked with a gritty spoken passage from drag provocateur Christeene. In the opening moments, Vilim recites a litany of hormones, supplements, and cosmetic enhancements—Botox, Juvéderm—before crassly admitting, “I just took a huge shit.” There is something delightful and rebellious about the clashing imagery, especially from the lips of Vilim, who’s modeled for Saint Laurent and Marc Jacobs. Lombardo chimes in with her own contrasting couplets, rhyming “pirouette” with “my pussy’s wet.” These conflicting ideas—rigid femininity vs. unapologetic body functions—are at the heart of the cumgirl8 philosophy. But more than anything, “Picture Party” spotlights their sly, sleazy wit. The bawdier, the better.