If you walked by 101 Avenue A this week, then you may have seen local artist Antony Zito at work outside the recently opened Baker Falls ... adding hand-painted lettering on the façade and front windows...
The venue between Sixth Street and Seventh Street had its soft opening on July 13. When fully operational, the two-level space will feature an all-day cafe, bar, room for community events, and a stage for live music under the Knitting Factory at Baker Falls moniker.
Zito also added the old-school KF logo at the entryway to the ground-floor music space...
As we've noted (see links below), East Village resident Nick Bodor, who has owned and operated several local businesses in the past 25-plus years, including the Library and alt.coffee, is behind Baker Falls.
Meanwhile, live music via the Knitting Factory at Baker Falls started on July 20 in the main room with Sunflower Bean.
We bought tickets for our first show here last Friday night for a concert featuring headliners cumgirl8, who were back in NYC after an extensive tour in recent months, including several nights opening for Le Tigre.
The hypnotic neon punk band continues to impress ... playing an exuberant set featuring songs from their forthcoming (Aug. 18!) 4AD EP titled phantasea pharm...
From our vantage in the back of the looked-full performance space, cumgirl8 received an enthusiastic Friday night welcome, complete with a mini mosh-pit.
While the venue is still working out the kinks in these opening weeks, we'll certainly be going back. You can check out the Baker Falls website for upcoming events.
Previously on EV Grieve:
• Baker Falls set to debut this week on Avenue A (July 10)
• Generation next: Baker Falls will bring together a cafe, bar and the Knitting Factory at the former Pyramid Club on Avenue A (Nov. 28, 2022)
• The next iteration of the Knitting Factory coming to the East Village (Aug. 24, 2022)
Local faves cumgirl8 released a single (via their new label 4AD) and video this week for "cicciolina."
The track is a tribute to Ilona Staller, aka Cicciolina, the Hungarian-born former porn star, politician and singer. The band explains the reasoning behind the song on Instagram.
The band will be on the road soon, playing dates in North America (including opening a few nights for Le Tigre) and Europe. (This Brooklyn Vegan piece lists the dates.)
I’m L-training it to Brooklyn to catch hypnotic neon punk band cumgirl8’s EP release show at the Knitting Factory.
Also on the bill this October night, close collaborators GirlDick...
East Village performer and godmother of modern-day shock art Kembra Pfahler ...
... and dancer Bobbie Hondo (on the right) ...
I arrive in time to catch some of the load-in and soundcheck, with Veronica Vilim on guitar and percussive drill, Lida Fox on bass and synth, Chase Noelle with the powerhouse drumming, and featuring Avishag Cohen Rodrigues for additional firepower on guitar.
There is some last-minute crafting of signage/decor backstage, scribbling out of setlists, adjusting clothing — lots of I.AM.GIA and cumgirl8 fashion designs and accessories styled by Jordane Stawecki — and a quickie trip to nab some preshow food at Caracas Arepa Bar, a former East Village favorite still up and running in Williamsburg.
The show itself is chaotic, loud, pleasurable — cusping off the pandemic, people are eager to celebrate, and the venue is filled with dancing and fans singing along...
After the show, I chat with the three core members about the band’s history, creativity during a pandemic, censorship, and normalizing female sexuality.
What were the common interests that led you to initially form a band beyond just jamming with friends?
Lida Fox: It really began as an outlet to express frustrations we faced in our lives and work and to vent toxicity from relationships. It was basically a healing/empowerment mechanism. We all have backgrounds in dance, art, and performing, so when we get together, it’s basically freeform pent-up energy, sometimes verging on insanity.
Before we started this, I faced so many blocks in the way I thought I could express myself, but now I feel almost anything is possible. We all have pretty varying tastes in music, art, film, etc., but they complement each other in amazing ways.
Some of the band members live/work in the Lower East Side or East Village. How do local events and shows — such as your fashion week show at Cafe Forgot and performances at the Flower Shop — differ from audiences in Brooklyn like at Baby’s All Right or tonight’s Knitting Factory show?
Veronika Vilim: I haven’t noticed too much difference in audiences, but I would say there is more of a younger crowd at shows in Brooklyn [Williamsburg/Bushwick] than shows in Manhattan. Having the fashion show during the day and it being a fashion show event, more people were interested in fashion. People like my mom and dad, for example, come to the daytime shows (fashion shows and music shows) in Manhattan rather than the show at the Knitting Factory, because it was not only at night but also because it was in Brooklyn.
How have you seen/heard your sound evolve from the early days of the band?
Chase Noelle: In the early days, we were learning how to communicate with each other. Our first EP is fucking insane, impulsive, id-driven. We got a lot of comparisons to punk bands like the Desperate Bicycles and Flipper.
We’re influenced by ballet and opera and club music, truly all over the place, and that’s why we sound so weird. Now our sound is more focused — it’s still shameless, but our musicality is showcased now and more directed. We really want to make people dance without feeling self-conscious. Our single “BUGS” is inside of that. We still sound fucking insane, especially live, but there’s a laser focus that cuts through it all.
And how about your live performances? Do you feel more confident with each show?
Vilim: Yes! I feel like every show we play, we evolve together and become more of a team. We understand how to perform more and really embrace this character/world we have been developing! Watching videos from our live shows from the beginning until now, you can really see a difference in our performance. Also, now with the audience knowing our music more, there’s really a vibe with the crowd and that makes such a difference as well ’cause everyone really vibes together.
What’s your take on NYC right now as being a welcoming environment for a creative spirit?
Fox: I think there’s a welcoming creative environment now more than ever. [At least] in the last 12 years I’ve been here. The pandemic sucked, but it made everyone realize what a privilege it is to perform or be in the same room with a group of people dancing/jumping/going crazy together, watching a movie, appreciating art, etc. There’s so much more appreciative energy now, and people don’t hold back; they aren’t as jaded.
Also, I feel that the creative community has gotten closer, I mean literally smaller, but also tighter and more support amongst the people who are still here. It’s still insanely expensive to try to survive and make art in NYC, though.
You just released your second EP, RIPcumgirl8. That’s an ominous title. Do you have plans to continue with cumgirl8? What else is on the horizon — perhaps another clothing collection?
Noelle: RIPcumgirl8 is two-fold, but on the surface, it’s an homage to our Instagram that was deleted. We’ve been heavily censored, our YouTube got taken down and — believe it — even our website started garnishing our sales because they’re...fascists?
Don’t get me started. But yeah, that’s the first layer. Our identity is entrenched in internet culture, especially chatroom vibes from when we were coming of age. “Cumgirl8” is a screen name. It was really fitting when, after all of this feminist, sex-positive, youth outreach work we did, we ultimately got censored and then deleted.
The whole point is to push and push and move the needle, so people eventually stop feeling shocked when they see the words “cum” and “girl” together. So it’s par for the course, perhaps. They deleted us right before we hit 10,000 followers, right after we released our first EP.
Thankfully, we got our old handle back, but we had to start over. There’s a second, dissociative meaning to “RIPcumgirl8” that’s a lot more personal to us, but you can uncover that in the lyrics.
Every band has its own merch. Members of the stylish local band cumgirl8 up the ante with their own clothing line.
And the trio — Veronika Vilim (below, middle), Chase Noelle and Lida Fox — recently debuted cumgirl8's second collection in a sidewalk runway show outside Café Forgot on Ludlow Street. (The band's friend, designer Carson Lovett, was also part of the creative team.)
This Voguerecap-interview from the other day has more on the show and inspiration behind it, which the outlet described as "a real New York moment that created a bridge between Y2K and today."
EVG contributor Stacie Joy was there and shared these scenes from the runway and of the crowd...
... and on hand along the runway ...
As for music, cumgirl8 — whose influences range from the Slits to Saint Etienne to diplo — just released "I Wanna Be," the first single off the forthcoming (Oct. 22 release) EP titled RIPcumgirl8. Find cumgirl8's music here.
