Horsegirl, Dummy, Seasaw

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Cheryl Dunn

Horsegirl

The three members of Horsegirl are veterans of Chicago’s youth music programs, from Girls Rock Chicago to School of Rock, and bonded over their shared love of alt-rock legends like Sonic Youth and The Breeders. On their debut album, Versions of Modern Performance, they’ve crafted a sound that brings post-punk and shoegaze to a newer, younger audience, while also establishing their own unique voice. “We did want to play at how this is our own making of everything that has inspired us, and we’re trying to make it modern,” says drummer Gigi Reece. Read more in Stephen Coss' concert preview. With Dummy, Seasaw.

$18 ($16 adv.). Please note Horsegirl is requiring all fans to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours OR full COVID-19 vaccination for entry.

media release: “Horsegirl songs conceal more secret messages than a handmade mixtape. The Chicago indie rock trio are smitten with their musical forebears, citing everyone from obscure New Zealand lo-fi bands to ’90s Matador staples . . . Horsegirl are figuring out how to honor their musical heroes while creating space to someday stand alongside them.” - Pitchfork

Chicago band Horsegirl - Nora Cheng (guitar, vocals), Penelope Lowenstein (guitar, vocals), and Gigi Reece (drums) - unveiled a new single/video, “Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty),” from their debut album, Versions of Modern Performance, out June 3 on Matador. In-step with a string of incredibly well-received singles, “Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty)” is a scuffed up, guitar-driven piece of garage-pop. The tracks’ lyrics brim with alliteration and slanted rhymes, and as the instrumentation rises, the song rides out with a chorus of “oohs.” For the song’s video, Horsegirl and friends, many of whom will play the Horsegirl record release party, were given the reins to Lowenstein’s elementary school where they filmed all day last month. As a band who do everything as a unit, from songwriting to trading vocal duties and swapping instruments to sound and visual art design, this new video captures the essence of this trio’s special bond.

The band elaborates: “The three of us filmed the ‘Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty)’ video over one day in Penelope’s elementary school. The video provides a small look into our Chicago youth scene—it includes members of bands like Lifeguard, Friko, Dwaal Troupe, and Post Office Winter all grouped into oddball bands with weird gimmicks. We always have the best time making our videos with our friends in spaces we feel connected to. All of our friends showed up with various assortments of clothing and props, like wooden spoons, a bowling shirt collection, and an accordion. We wanted to harness the strangeness of everything that was brought to us, and wanted to showcase all of the people and bands that mean so much to us.”

Chicago is baked into the core of Versions of Modern Performance. Cheng (she/her), Lowenstein (she/her) and Reece (they/them) learned to play—and met—through the significant network of Chicago youth arts programs, and they have their own mini-rock underground. They’re exultant about their friends’ talent, noting that any of the bands from that scene could have been (or might still be!) plucked up the way they were. Across the album, recorded at Chicago’s Electrical Audio with John Agnello, there’s elements of the ‘80s and ‘90s independent music the band love so deeply and sincerely. 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.

Horsegirl will celebrate Versions of Modern Performance with a record release show June 5 at Thalia Hall (the same day Lowenstein graduates high school). Alongside performances from Horsegirl and friends, there will be a special zine sale at the venue (youth zines will be prioritized). Then, the band will tour across Europe and much of the United States, playing most cities for the first-time ever.