Chicago noise-pop trio Horsegirl make shoegaze indiepop music like Kevin Shields writing songs for Belle & Sebastian. Billy is a largely uncomplicated record with rolling drums, a fuzzy, repeating guitar chime and Penelope Lowenstein’s simple, lazy backing vocals. Yet Nora Cheng’s deliciously impassive vocals flip the track into a filmic dimension when she tells us about a day in the life of a misanthropic character named Billy, a story that the band, who have an age range between 17-19 years and are fanatics of underground 1980s and 1990s alternative music, have said is “a love letter to past music scenes we wish we could have witnessed”.
Billy is Horsegirl’s first release on new label Matador records and only the fourth song of their gradually expanding collection. Watch the single’s homemade video below: