CD of The Week

Horsegirl - Phonetics On and On (Matador)

Horsegirl had a specific vision for their second album, Phonetics On and On. The songs they were writing felt complete, while deliberately containing empty and sparse spaces within the song - an evolutionary step away from the classic indie rock, shoegaze, and punk that marked their first album, Versions of Modern Performance. Within that space, they also wanted to break down language to its elemental sounds. On the cheery, jangly “Information Content,” they sing “I’m translating my talk to tones.” The youngest member, Penelope Lowenstein recently told Billboard, “Lyrically and instrumentally we wanted to go back to the building blocks, both in the “dah, dah, dahs” and the “do, do, dos” of grade school.” Considering that, the title makes perfect sense, as the album focuses on repetition and the phonetics of linguistic sound. You will find plenty of “Da-Di-Da-Dahs” and “who-ooo-ooo-oohs” peppered into every song.

To bring their spacious, textured concept to life, they employed Cate Le Bon (Kurt Vile, Wilco). Together, they worked at Wilco’s studio/headquarters, The Loft, in the middle of Chicago’s frigid winter with blankets for warmth as the heating would have interfered too much with recording. Drummer Gigi Reece also told Billboard, “We chose Cate Le Bon because we had so much space in the songs we were writing and demoing…Cate made perfect sense.” But the calculated notes and vocals do not make the songs sound incomplete or like haphazard demos. Rather, every note is placed to perfection with reason, creating an undeniable repeat-listenability. There is an honest purity to the super catchy singles “2468” and “Switch Over” both of which have more vocalizations on the lyric sheet than actual words. Both of which will easily get stuck, looping in your head. They continue honoring the alt-indie rock pioneers, and in just the first three tracks you can hear Vaselines (“Where’d You Go”), Stereolab (“Rock City”), and Pavement (“In Twos”), not to mention the Spinanes and early Belle & Sebastian all over the place.

Where the girls were best high school friends in Chicago while writing and recording their first record, Phonetics On and On brings them to NYC. Reece lives near Lowenstein and Nora Cheng (co-singers/guitarists), who are roommates at NYU. The experience has been quite humbling for the highly acclaimed, Matador signed band. Cheng explained to Billboard, “People just think that we’re roommate friends. They don’t know about the other dimension to it.” But all three, locked in friendship and vision, plan to return to Chicago at the end of their growth, experience, and education in a city that can otherwise swallow you whole.

They are currently experiencing an extended education in the life of a touring band, promoting Phonetics On and On internationally. They just wrapped up a nine-day/eight-gig tour of the East Coast which kicked off here in Philly back on March 21st. June will see Horsegirl tackle Europe, Ireland, and the UK, while the Midwest and West Coast will get them in August. But wherever Horsegirl goes after that, it is in their own, fully capable hands.
Review by Shepard Ritzen