First Impressions: Phonetics On and On by Horsegirl

Some claim rock is dead, over, kaput. Others say it’s on life-support. Either/or, you’re met with silence when you list bands making loud sounds. Honeyglaze? Horsegirl? Delivery? Hardwicke Circus? Ingrid and the Ministers? Gumshoes? Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears? To an extent, yes, rap, country and pop usurped the grinding guitars and hips, pouty lips, and rebellious quotient that once underpinned rock ’n’ roll within the zeitgeist—well, rap did. Country, for its part, lifted Tom Petty’s crunchy riffs and the Eagles’ peaceful, easy feeling. Pop music appropriated bits and pieces from here, there and everywhere, too. But to say that rock is dead is somewhat akin to Decca’s Dick Rowe rejecting the Beatles in 1962 by supposedly saying, “Guitar groups are on their way out.” Old fools are gonna be old fools.

That the ageist take has been making the rounds for decades now only adds to the inanity of the argument. In truth, rock music has been going in and out of style since the late ‘50s, when Elvis was drafted and the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost perished in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa. It’s why Rowe allegedly said what he said. That it’s been in somewhat of a lull of late shouldn’t be a surprise, however. The bigger question to ponder is how it still finds an audience when corporate-controlled radio rakes in mega-bucks from promoting nostalgia—aka “classic” rock? When MTV programs ridiculous reality shows? Today’s sonic youth are making their bones the old-fashioned way, that’s how. They record and release cool sounds. They hit the road, appear on late-night TV, and don’t fret the small stuff.

For those of us of a certain vintage, Horsegirl’s sophomore set echoes the thud-thick chords and concentric ripples that accented our youths regardless of when that youth was. Think the Velvet Underground and their heirs, plus plenty more. It’s heavy yet intimate, rumbling like Link Wray one moment and conjuring Kendra Smith the next. For those younger, who know not of Lou Reed, Nico or anyone beyond the Top 40 (is that still a thing?), it will sound fresh and new, unlike anything they’ve heard before. It’s funny and serious, sometimes both in the same song, garage rock in spirit if not practice. 

Horsegirl, for those unfamiliar with the band, consists of Nora Cheng (guitars, vocal), Penelope Lowenstein (guitar, vocals) and Gigi Reece (drums); they met on Chicago’s all-ages indie-rock scene while in high school, released a few singles and then, in 2022, unleashed the full-length Versions of a Modern Performance into the wild. Now in college, they’ve expanded their palette. Even in the free-for-all age of subscription services, where the bulk of music history is a click away, it takes time to investigate the catalogs of those who came before. In the Apple Music essay about Phonetics On and On, for instance, Lowenstein explains, “I got to college and I discovered the Velvet Underground beyond White Light/White Heat. I heard Loaded and I was like, ‘Oh, wow: accessible, emotional songs that make me feel like I’ve felt this way before.’”

I’ll eschew a song-by-song analysis for no other reason than this: Although there are nominal stops and starts, the 11-track, 38-minute album plays in the best of ways, as an interlocked series of songs; think Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio set to music, if you will, or Pete Townshend’s White City. Violins, synths and gamelan percussion add color to some songs, while the lyrics range from serious (“Julie,” “Frontunner”) to tongue-in-cheek (“Rock City”). That said, it’s not as rocky an outing as Versions—it’s electric yet subdued, downcast even—but that’s okay. It’s quietly compelling yet still plenty loud.