Rich Girls Video
LIKE A VIRGIN
Rarely do you meet a real New Yorker, never mind four of them in the same room. Or rather three, but Erik Ratensperger has, by association, received an honorary membership. By all accounts these veteran New Yorkers are not what one would call “Virgins.”
With an underground following comparable to that of Lou Reed & The Velvet Underground, these guys are the ultimate urban success story. Spurred on by the creative elite, The Virgins are the brainchild of Donald Cummings and Wade Oates. Cummings and Oates met on a photo shoot for Ryan McGinley, who became a large influence on the band. With Nick Zarin Ackerman on bass, and Ratensperger on drums, the Virgins came alive. One of their first bookings was supporting Patti Smith at an Agnes b. concert in Paris.
The Virgins have a sound that trills with the rhythms of old New York. We’re talking about the city the way it was before the glassy towers went up and a Starbucks opened on the Lower East Side. These boys would not be out of place on the set of Uli Edel’s Christiane F, Mary Ellen Mark’s Streetwise, Larry Clark’s Kids, or more simply, the 2008 version: The Virgins.
They are the sound of their generation, pouring out vocals about their antics on the streets, drug binges and sexual activity. With New York as their backdrop, they have the city on lockdown, and are set to do the same all over the world.
-ANITA BITTON
