Chicago, IL · indie pop · pop punk

Beach Bunny

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Lili Trifilio's bright, fast guitar-pop about being twenty and miserable — the songs are far sharper than that sounds, with 'Prom Queen' still a viral touchstone.

Beach Bunny started as a solo project for Lili Trifilio in Chicago in 2015, and she quickly built up a run of home-recorded EPs: Animalism (2015), Pool Party (2016) and Crybaby (2017). The project became a full four-piece band not long after, with Trifilio remaining the songwriter and singer at its center.

The music is fast, melodic guitar-pop built from power-pop and pop-punk parts, with lyrics that deal plainly with body image, self-doubt and the small mechanics of young relationships. Trifilio's voice stays close and direct even when the arrangements are bright and busy.

The 2018 EP Prom Queen gave the band its breakout title track, which went viral on TikTok in late 2019 and pushed Beach Bunny from local shows into national touring. They signed to Mom + Pop Music that October and released the debut album Honeymoon in February 2020, produced by Joe Reinhart at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio studio. Both The New York Times and Rolling Stone named it among 2020's best albums, and its track "Cloud 9" went viral in turn, appearing in roughly two million TikTok videos.

Beach Bunny followed with the EP Blame Game and singles including "Good Girls (Don't Get Used)" and "Oxygen" through 2020 and 2021, keeping the same mix of bright arrangements and unguarded writing. Their second album, Emotional Creature, arrived in July 2022, preceded by the single "Fire Escape."

Lead guitarist Matt Henkels left the band in 2022, leaving Beach Bunny as a three-piece. They returned in June 2024 with the single "Vertigo," their first new music in nearly two years, and released a third album, Tunnel Vision, in April 2025.

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indie poppop punk