Skating Polly emerged from Oklahoma as a sibling trio blending the raw edges of '90s alt-rock and riot grrrl with foundational D.I.Y. punk and indie pop textures. The step-sisters Kelli Mayo and Peyton Bighorse quickly drew national attention in the early 2010s, securing praise from critics and guidance from key figures including Exene Cervenka along with associates from the Flaming Lips and Veruca Salt. While still teenagers they built a touring career backing major rock acts and issued several sharply crafted, melody-driven albums. Their fifth full-length, The Make It All Show in 2018, marked the permanent addition of brother Kurtis Mayo on drums, completing the three-piece lineup. After relocating to Tacoma, Washington, the group enlisted producer Brad Wood—known for landmark '90s work such as Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville—to shape the high-energy double album Chaos County Line, issued in 2023.
The band originated in Oklahoma City in 2009, when Mayo was nine and Bighorse fourteen; their debut performance took place at a family Halloween party, where Bighorse handled drums and Mayo played a two-string basitar on spontaneously created material. The encouraging outcome prompted them to develop songs drawn from the '70s punk and early-'90s alt-rock recordings in their parents' collection, with both members rotating instruments and vocal duties. Their approach fused a raw, punk-rooted sound positioned between riot grrrl bands such as Bikini Kill and Babes in Toyland and the understated twee pop of Beat Happening and Kimya Dawson. The resulting debut, Taking Over the World, appeared on the Norman, Oklahoma indie label Nice People Records.
After approaching X singer Exene Cervenka following one of her performances, Mayo and Bighorse persuaded her to produce their sophomore effort, Lost Wonderfuls, released in 2011 and mixed by Flaming Lips drummer Kliph Scurlock. That release opened doors for support slots on tours with acts including Deerhoof, Band of Horses, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and the Flaming Lips. Their third album, Fuzz Steilacoom, arrived in March 2014 through their own Chap Stereo imprint and was produced by K Records founder and Beat Happening vocalist Calvin Johnson. In 2015 the duo issued two new singles while broadening their reach with European dates supporting Babes in Toyland, then completed their fourth album, The Big Fit, which surfaced in March 2016.
Further admirers Nina Gordon and Louise Post of Veruca Salt contacted the band later that year to explore a collaboration; together in Los Angeles they wrote and tracked the three-song EP New Trick, released in April 2017. Those sessions connected Skating Polly with producer Brad Wood, whose credits include Liz Phair and Smashing Pumpkins, and he subsequently oversaw The Make It All Show. In the following years the trio maintained a lower profile, contributing the track "A Little Late" to Viggo Mortensen's 2020 film Falling before shifting their base from Oklahoma to Tacoma, Washington. There they composed material for their next project, again partnering with Brad Wood—whose résumé also encompasses Sunny Day Real Estate—to record the eighteen-track double album Chaos County Line. Released in 2023, the set delivered a concise sequence of melodic grunge and power-pop anthems filled with immediate energy.
