May 01, 2008 07:00PM EDT

Waking Up with The Virgins

Donald Cumming, the twenty-six-year-old frontman of The Virgins, a New York band who are on the verge of mass ubiquity—and a major label debut dropping this summer—on the back of a 5 song e.p., has a thick slurry speaking voice, the type of voice that makes him sound as if he's sleepy and tired after a fun night out. It's a fitting sound for a guy behind some sexy and hilarious rock and roll, and on the phone this morning, he said, "I'm pretending like I just woke up. I've been waiting for this." It was hard to figure out whether he was telling the truth or not—even after a French press cup of coffee, Cumming's voice was still sounding like last night's party.

The Virgins' swinging, bass-heavy, catchy-as-hell garage rock, is super danceable and harkens back to New York's history of leather-jacket-wearing cool kid guitar slingers and singers, from Lou Reed to Julian Casablancas. Success, or being in a place where they're primed for future success, has come quickly for this group, as their initial efforts in the past year gained them high profile fans like Chloe Sevingy and super-music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas, (the band are appearing at Friday night's Breaking the Band show, sponsored by Target, on her recommendation) who featured The Virgins '07 e.p. in the "Seventeen Candles" episode of the CW's buzzy hit Gossip Girl.

According to Cumming, the band name was a serendipitous discovery six years ago: "It was the beginning of the band, figuring out the name. Then it took a really long time, everything fell into place very slowly after that. Six years ago, I was sitting on my friend's stoop and we were talking about what I should call my band at that time, we used to sit on that spot and talk for four-hour stretches, i dont know how much of that particular night was devoted to band names but we covered a lot of ground and I remember that moment clearly. Once we hit The Virgins that was it, that should be my band name, and then we moved on, that was solved. Then a bunch of years later I wrote a song, 'One Week of Danger,' [a saucy come-on about a one-week stand], that sounded like a song that could go with a band of that name."

Before devoting himself to The Virgins, Cumming worked in a variety of creative endeavors such as acting in the short Bugcrush, working as the DP for the recent well-received documentary Billy the Kid, and modeling, most prominently, in Ryan McGinley's photographs. "All the projects ive worked on have been in the vein of things ive been interested in, and I've learned a lot," he concluded. Befitting an culture nerd, Cummings was ready with suggestions and wise observations about some of his favorite musical moments in movies: "Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen dancing to Mickey and Sylvia's "Love is Strange," in Badlands, it cuts off really abruptly. Intacto, which has this Bach music in it, which runs through the whole movie, it's really really pretty, it's actually the music that Scorsese uses in the beginning of Casino. The beginning of Raging Bull is amazing, The Man Who Fell to Earth, there's a lot of obviously amazing stuff in that movie. Performance, when Mick Jagger does his music video, that's pretty exciting, but there's a part where he's playing acoustic guitar in a corner by himself, it's really amazing to see him sitting and singing guitar in a natural way."

Cummings added, "In An Officer and a Gentleman, the theme music, "Up Where We Belong," comes up, and then they sort of musak-ed it, so you're listening to it through the whole movie. At the end when he lifts her up, it was really satisfying. American Gigolo, the way that Giorgio Moroder deconstructs Blondie's "Call Me," they play it 15 different ways, 15 different sounds. They make the sad version of it, it's the ominous version of it, and the happy version of it." The last movie that Cummings remembered off the top of his head was the 1992 Tupac film Juice, "which has everything in it," he said. "The Eric B and Rakim song, "Juice," such a classic song, it was the first time I had heard Cypress Hill, "How I Could Just Kill a Man, " they weren't even that popular yet, and then there was SWV..." He paused and started singing the New Jack Swing Tammy Lucas classic: "Is it good to you..."

Clearly, the man knows his musical moments in film. However, when it comes to The Virgins, Cummings is absolutely energized and engaged, feeling artistically fulfilled: "This is all I really want to do." The album's in the can, and the band is kicking off a summer of touring with the Breaking the Band set at Webster Hall (xoxo Upper East Siders, there's a fair chance the lissome gossip girls could appear): "We're going to be really really happy to be playing shows again. We're really excited to be spending every night playing shows. It's the funnest part of being in a band. Sometimes we do other stuff that isn't related to playing shows and you start to get really cranky and it's like, 'Dude, we need to play a show!' We're going to be happy and psyched to be playing."

Tickets are available for Breaking the Band, sponsored by Target, featuring The Hold Steady, The Virgins, Republic Tigers and Bad Veins.