‘cicciolina’ is the new single from New York’s post-punk group cumgirl8 and it’s named after model, porn-star, singer and politician Ilona Staller, best known as Cicciolina. Cicciolina was the first person to bare her breasts live on Italian TV and her political career started with the Green Party before switching to Partito Radicale on a platform which included being against NATO and nuclear energy and then setting up Partito dell’Amore (“Party of Love”) in the early 2000s. Cumgirl8 have just signed to 4AD and ‘cicciolina’ is their first release for the label.
Cumgirl8’s song builds on a crunchy synth line and drums before bursting into technicolour with hypnotic sing-song lines and the constant damaged-disco beat of the drums. Guitars wail and jangle in off-kilter phrases and it’s amazing that something that feels so unsettling can also carry so much joyous abandon. The video channels Cicciolina-power in all its hyper-coloured glory: disrupting a meeting and outraging the suits, synchronised swimmers on green screen, cake smearing in an oversized martini glass and general visual chaos which mixes disruption and fun in equal measure.
The band say: “Cicciolina said “make sex not war” and used her divine power of femininity to troll the status quo while disrupting it from the inside. We feel her ideals are foundational to the cumgirl8 philosophy of subversive change, peace, and strength in vulnerability. We hope she loves our song, we love her very much. Cicciolina is cumgirl1.”
Cumgirl8 are Lida Fox (bass), Veronika Vilim (guitar), Avishag Cohen Rodrigues (guitar/synth), and Chase Lombardo (drums).
cumgirl8 socials: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Bandcamp | Stream the single
Review by Paul F Cook
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