Past Horsegirl, many of the most promising rock acts at the moment are young musicians. “We just found all this purpose in it that you don’t have when it’s just your parents’ music.” The band even wrote about it on “World of Pots and Pans,” a single from Modern Performance that threads a smattering of indie-rock references (A line like “I think you’re just like honey and heaven, too” flicks at both the Jesus and Mary Chain and the Cure) to describe a friendship. That only amplified when they formed Horsegirl around their growing shared tastes. “Being able to indulge in it with another kid who is relating to it as a thing for young people is why it resonated,” she says. Sharing the music brought Lowenstein closer to it, too. ![]() Cheng had already gotten into Television and Pavement by then but says Lowenstein helped her see that Belle and Sebastian is “the best band in the world, literally” she also remembers Lowenstein recommending canonical albums like Interpol’s Turn On the Bright Lights and Yo La Tengo’s I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One. ![]() It was after Lowenstein finished middle school, and “the Parquet Courts record had just come out” - by which she means 2018’s Wide Awake!, a reminder of how young the band really is. Lowenstein “grew up around a lot of cool music,” but she didn’t fully appreciate it until she became a teenager, at about the same time she met Cheng and Reece through extracurricular music programs. “We were looking for Matador,” Reece says.Ī love of indie rock first brought the them together. Signing with the label had been a dream for Horsegirl. It’s what led the group to join Matador Records - home to heroes like Yo La Tengo, Pavement, and Belle and Sebastian - in early 2021, off the strength of their surrealist 2020 single “Ballroom Dance Scene,” which became a slow-burning hit thanks to critical acclaim and repeat plays on SiriusXM. In a cresting wave of new, young rock artists, Horsegirl stands out for being particularly well-studied, making music that teens can enjoy just as well as adults who grew up on the trio’s influences. ![]() The band’s just-released debut album, Versions of Modern Performance, is the best proof yet. But those specific inspirations combine to make something distinct: dense, homespun rock music that blends teenage excitement with a serious reverence for the form. Once the band gets back to Reece’s old Buick, the disc immediately goes into the CD player for everyone to hear.Īt times, Horsegirl’s music can sound like all of the artists they picked out at Reckless - and dozens more across the 1980s and ’90s post-punk, no-wave, and college-rock scenes, from Gang of Four to Stereolab. They beg Cheng for it since she already owns another Electrelane CD. “What the F?!” Reece exclaims (not because they don’t curse the shorthand is an inside joke). Later, singer-guitarist Nora Cheng locates The Power Out by the English art-rock band Electrelane, a Horsegirl favorite. ![]() At one point, drummer Gigi Reece points Lowenstein toward a copy of Brian Eno’s Another Green World, which Lowenstein had been looking for, but she decides it’s not worth the $8 price tag. They’re not searching for themselves but for the good of the group. “I feel like Clinic is meant to be owned as a CD,” singer-guitarist Penelope Lowenstein says, without explanation, and her bandmates agree. There, they carefully and near-silently pore over some of the more beloved and esoteric indie-rock releases of the past 40 years: albums by the Brit-pop group Suede, the lo-fi pop outfit Beat Happening, and the English post-punks Clinic. On a Saturday in March at Reckless Records, one of the band’s favorite stores in their hometown of Chicago, the trio of 18- and 19-year-olds immediately take to the CD section - to them, they are cheaper, more shareable, and easier to play in the car. Want to understand the rock band Horsegirl? Watch the members shop for music together. Nora Cheng (19), Penelope Lowenstein (18), and Gigi Reece (19).
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