Horsegirl

From a School of Rock stage to Matador

Horsegirl formed in Chicago in 2019; the members met through the School of Rock program and first played as Horsegirl at a teen open mic at the Old Town School of Folk Music, performing "Sea Life Sandwich Boy" on Lowenstein's 15th birthday. Their first self-released song was "Forecast" in 2019, and the EP Ballroom Dance Scene et cetera came out on Sonic Cathedral in 2020, one of Paste's 25 best EPs of 2020. Stereogum named them a Band to Watch in September 2021, after three songs written and recorded in Lowenstein's basement, and in November 2021 they released "Billy" on Matador, with a Minutemen cover, "History Lesson Pt. 2" on the other side.

Versions of Modern Performance (June 3, 2022, Matador) was recorded in summer 2021 with John Agnello at Electrical Audio in Chicago, with Lee Ranaldo guesting on "Beautiful Song" and Steve Shelley on percussion on "Billy". The songs were written while the members were in high school, with Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo and Stereolab among the influences. Metacritic scores it 82, AllMusic gave 4.5 stars, Pitchfork's Jayson Greene 7.3. They played Lollapalooza in 2022 and in September 2023 opened Midwest dates of the Breeders' Last Splash 30th anniversary tour.

Between albums the members moved to New York, where Lowenstein and Cheng attended NYU. Phonetics On and On (February 14, 2025, Matador) was produced by Cate Le Bon and recorded over about two weeks in January 2025 at The Loft in Chicago, which PopMatters calls Wilco's studio. The band told Beats Per Minute and Stereogum they found sounds by experimentation, including violin, gamelan tiles and a Japanese synth used for poetry readings; Lowenstein said all it took was meeting Le Bon to realize she's kind of one of us, and Le Bon told them they don't have to put on this jankiness, they naturally have it. PopMatters gave it 8 of 10, and the New York Times's Lindsay Zoladz listed it among the best albums of 2025. Singles were "2468", "Julie", "Switch Over" and "Frontrunner". They played the Metro in Chicago on February 22, 2025.