Little Girls sounds like the hazy intersection of a 1980s Manchester basement and a 2000s Toronto bedroom. The music is defined by a thick, lo-fi fog where melodic surf-rock guitar lines struggle to break through layers of tape saturation and mechanical drum machine patterns. It is a sound that is simultaneously claustrophobic and expansive, capturing the specific feeling of being alone in a crowded, noisy city.
What makes Josh McIntyre's project distinctive is the way he treats the voice as just another layer of texture. Instead of sitting on top of the mix, the vocals are often buried under a wash of reverb and fuzz, creating a ghostly, detached effect. This 'submerged' aesthetic gives the music a haunting quality that separates it from more polished indie rock, leaning instead into the raw, skeletal energy of early coldwave and shoegaze.
Start with the 2009 album Concepts. It perfectly encapsulates the project's signature blend of catchy, melodic hooks and abrasive, lo-fi production. It is the ideal soundtrack for anyone who finds comfort in the murky, the grey, and the beautifully distorted.
Little Girls is a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2008 from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band emerged from Toronto's post-punk scene as a solo recording project of multi-instrumentalist Josh McIntyre. With a focus on Minimalist Electronic, Little Girls released CULTS EP (September 6, 2011) on Hand Drawn Dracula and are currently working on their second full-length record. In the wake of a series of high-profile blog mentions and singles released on Brooklyn labels Mexican Summer and Captured Tracks, Little Girls released their debut album Concepts on Paper Bag Records on October 13, 2009. Prior to Concepts. The band also released Tambourine with Paper Bag Digital on June 2, 2009. The songs combine lo-fi distorted surf rock with layers of haunting, and melodic walls of sound. Little Girls quickly embarked on a North American tour, performing with some of the most talked about bands of the year, as well, has performed at several major International Music Festivals including Halifax Pop Explosion, Pop Montreal, CMJ, and South by Southwest Festival. Little Girls album Concepts debuted at No. 12 on Chart Attack, the second highest debut achieved that week, No. 14 on Earshot!, and recently charted at No. 10 on the Top 50 National Earshot! Charts.
Shares lo fi, reverb heavy, bedroom production (production style); brooding, haunting, wistful (moods)
Shares lo fi, reverb heavy, bedroom production (production style); brooding, melancholic, haunting (moods)
Shares shoegaze, post-punk, darkwave (subgenres); brooding, haunting, wistful (moods)
Shares brooding, haunting, wistful (moods); urban night, basement show, fog (atmosphere)
Shares post-punk, indie rock, shoegaze (subgenres); deadpan, breathy (vocal style)
Shares lo fi, reverb heavy, bedroom production (production style); post-punk, lo-fi hip-hop, darkwave (subgenres)
Shares post-punk, indie rock, darkwave (subgenres); lo fi, reverb heavy, bedroom production (production style)
Shares lo fi, bedroom production, tape saturation (production style); post-punk, darkwave (subgenres)
Shares darkwave, shoegaze, post-punk (subgenres); brooding, haunting, wistful (moods)
Shares post-punk, shoegaze, darkwave (subgenres); deadpan, breathy (vocal style)
Shares post-punk, buried in mix, shoegaze, haunting (signature)
Shares post-punk, shoegaze, darkwave, haunting (signature)
Cassette uses generative AI to enrich its catalog. How we use AI →