#10 on the 2025 Bacon Top 31 — Horsegirl

January 22, 2026 by Royal Stuart in 2025, Top 31

Phonetics On and On by Horsegirl

Welcome to the Top 10 of 2025! The trio of people who make up the phenomenal band Horsegirl met at the School of Rock (the globally-franchised for-profit music education program) in Chicago in 2019, while the three of them were in high school, which says something about their chemistry and why they work so well together. Setting aside whatever outside factors drove them to the School, they all had a youthful love of music and their instruments enough to want to learn more, to then find each other in that environment, and then form a band around that shared experience, to the benefit of us all.

Now, having relocated to New York while two of the three of them attend NYU, they deftly balance the demands of university while creating music as “indie darlings.” Phonetics On and On is their second album; I have not heard their debut album, but through my research I’ve learned that their “high school record” debut is louder and bigger, probably not for the better. What I can tell you is that Phonetics is 11 songs of pure indie-rock bliss.

With Nora Cheng and Penelope Lowenstein (the NYU students – although it’s possible they’ve graduated now? And possibly even moved back to Chicago? My sources are decidedly mum about their more recent history, since Phonetics came out nearly a year ago, on Valentine’s Day 2025) alternating lead and background vocals and lead and rhythm guitar, and Gigi Reece behind the drum kit, the band fills a void last filled by a slew of late 90s / early 2000s bands such as Built to Spill, Liz Phair, and Rural Alberta Advantage. There’s even a line of similarity you could draw all the way back to the Violent Femmes’ 1983 self-titled debut.

All of those reference points have louder, more in-your face songs in their catalog, but Phonetics is a quiet affair. Finger plucked acoustics, with the occasional fuzzed out guitar, time and key changes that evoke my favorite prog-rock turns, and the dueling voices of Cheng and Lowenstein blending together in a slightly-off but oh-so-endearing way. The album was produced by Welsh musician Cate Le Bon, who is at least partially responsible why Phonetics may feel like a left-turn for those who got into the band’s debut album. “Play less notes” was a key bit of production advice from Le Bon, who has produced albums by other indie luminaries, such as Kurt Vile, Deerhunter, and even Wilco’s most recent album, 2023’s Cousin.¹

I could have picked any one of their videos as the “best” from this album – they’re all just so good. “2468” (featured above) is a bouncy, brain-wormy song that could easily have been created during grade school recess. Cheng even picks up the violin for this song – I love a band that can break out the orchestral stringed instruments. “Switch Over” is also bouncy, but in a more droning, jam-session clip. “Frontrunner” is twangy, with the un-harmonic doubled vocals pulling you through. And “Julie” slows it way down, with lots of non-word vocals (da da da da da da da…).

There aren’t many bands that evoke the music I fell in love with when I first moved to Seattle back in 1997, but Horsegirl is one of them. I suspect we’ll be hearing much more from the trio as the year rolls on, and I will be first in line to pick it up.

^{1. Phonetics On and On was recorded in Wilco’s Chicago studios, The Loft.↩}

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#25 on the 2018 Bacon Top 31 — Jeff Tweedy

January 07, 2019 by Royal Stuart

WARM by Jeff Tweedy

It’s been a while since I paid attention to Wilco or their lead singer/songwriter, Jeff Tweedy. Wilco’s album The Whole Love was at #18 back in 2011, but Star Wars and Schmilco, their 2015 and 2016 albums, went in one ear and out the other, never to be heard from again. I don’t think I ever even heard Tweedy’s debut solo album from 2017, Together at Last.

But now it’s 2018, and at the suggestion of a friend (thanks Pete!), I find that Tweedy has managed to put out a new album that actually begged for more than just a cursory listen. WARM, Tweedy’s 2nd solo album, and 21st overall album when you look back at his work with Wilco and before that, Uncle Tupelo, is exactly that: “warm.” The album is easy to listen to, never boisterous, a joy.

There used to be a radio station in Seattle called “The Mountain”, that would play all those softer “alternative” (but not indie) songs by the likes of the Dave Matthews Band. Then when they went under, the torch was picked up by “Warm 106.1” — even a little more softer, a little more easy-listening. It is without irony or ire that I propose that many songs from Jeff Tweedy’s WARM would have fit right in on Warm 106.1’s programming. While I never listened to 103.7 The Mountain or Warm 106.1 with any regularity, they had their permanent place in the set radio stations in my car, and I would flip to them from time to time, pleasantly surprised at the approachable song emanating from those airwaves.

Such is WARM. Not an album I’ll likely listen to on repeat, but one that I’ll throw into a mix to balance out the excitement, to bring in a moment of reduction. Or put on on an early weekend morning to slowly wake up to the day. If you’ve been a fan of Wilco before, or, maybe, the Grateful Dead and the like, then WARM may be just the thing to get you back into Jeff Tweedy’s embrace.

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26. God's Favorite Customer by Father John Misty
27. Vessel by Frankie Cosmos
28. For Ever by Jungle
29. Twerp Verse by Speedy Ortiz
30. Remain in Light by Angélique Kidjo
31. This One’s for the Dancer & This One’s for the Dancer’s Bouquet by Moonface

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Tweedy — Low Key

March 04, 2015 by Royal Stuart

I’m not sure how Sukierae, the new album from Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco) and his son Spencer (from their new duo, simply called Tweedy), released last September, went unnoticed. But what’s done is done.

Check out the insanely star-studded video, for the song “Low Key” directed by TV’s Ron Swanson (the everyman’s man Nick Offerman). Low key is about how exciting the song gets, so the title is apropos. The video is fun, and the song isn’t exactly off-putting, either, so I’ll happily put it up on the Bacon Review.

Watch for guest appearances by Melissa McCarthy, Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter, Mavis Staples, Steve Albini, Chance the Rapper and Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche, as well as bit parts by always-scary Michael Shannon and always-funny John Hodgman, among many many others.