Feeble Little Horse is a part of a slate of Pennsylvania bands making esoteric, off-kilter noise pop, including They Are Gutting a Body of Water and labelmates Spirit of the Beehive; the Pittsburgh quartet has a knack for evoking life’s chaos and left turns, pairing deadpan lyrics with muddled, rip-roaring guitars. On “Tin Man,” the lead single from their upcoming album Girl With Fish, singer/bassist Lydia Slocum is once again exasperated by a flawed man, her staccato vocals cutting through a warbled riff and clanking makeshift percussion. She picks apart a manipulator whose lustrous words disguise an embarrassing emptiness inside: “Took him apart and I found nobody/But when I dent you, I end up bruised,” she sings as Slint-style guitar feedback seeps in, offering a screeching backdrop to a performance that’s equally dissociative and inviting. Slocum may have gotten hurt, but after that lacerating read, it’s the guy who will really feel the sting.
