Chicago band Horsegirl have had an electric start to 2022 beginning with the announcement of their debut album, Versions of Modern Performance, out June 3rd via Matador. The trio were dubbed the “champions of SXSW 2022” by NME, as well as “the week’s – and, almost certainly subsequently, year’s – most talked-about new bands and stars in the making”, and won the prestigious Grulke Prize for Developing US Act, before playing a sold out New York City debut show at Market Hotel. Today, they continue on that trajectory with the release of new single and lyric video, ‘World of Pots and Pans’. Following the propulsive ‘Anti-glory’, ‘World of Pots and Pans’ has a rough, blown-out pop charm.
Penelope Lowenstein (guitar, vocals), Nora Cheng (guitar, vocals), and Gigi Reece (drums) – the best friends comprising Horsegirl – do everything collectively, from songwriting to trading vocal duties and swapping instruments to sound and visual art design. Reece and Cheng, college freshmen, and Lowenstein, a high school senior, learned to play—and met—through the significant network of Chicago youth arts programs. The warmth and strength of their bond crackles through every second of their debut.
Horsegirl recorded Versions of Modern Performance at Chicago’s Electrical Audio with John Agnello (Kurt Vile, The Breeders, Dinosaur Jr.). One can hear elements of the ‘80s and ‘90s independent music the band love so deeply and sincerely—the scuzzy melodicism of what used to be called “college rock,” the cool, bubbly space-age sheen of the ‘90s vamps on lounge and noir; the warm, noisy roar of shoegaze; the economical hooks and rhythms of post-punk. There’s even a bit of no wave mixed in for good measure. But as Horsegirl fuse all of this together, it feels not like a pastiche or a hacky retread but something as playful and unique as its predecessors. With lyrics intentionally impressionistic and open-ended, and a sound that ranges with joy and enthusiasm across a range of styles, Versions of Modern Performance offers many pathways.
Instagram | Twitter | Bandcamp
