POST ANIMAL
There seems to be confusion in the collective press coverage of who does what in the psych-rock combo Post Animal. New York magazine, in its writeup, has band member Joe Keery playing drums, whereas Vice identifies Keery as a guitarist, and 20 Watts says it’s Keery on vocals as well as guitar.
All agree, however, that Keery’s other claim to fame is his acting work in a certain popular Netflix sci-fi/horror series… And based on what else is known about this six-piece from Chicago, the differing accounts of his band duties make a certain sense: In assorted interviews, Keery’s mates have spoken of how cooperatively they approach music. They all wind up at the same place — sensory songs that are both weighty and blissed out. But the path there can vary depending on who had an idea, who else was around to flesh it out, and how many people were in the band.
Post Animal began as a trio and expanded over the course of recordings including Post Animal Perform the Most Curious Water Activities (2015) and The Garden Series. A group of six recorded a forthcoming album, due this year, at a lake house in the upper Midwest. All of Post Animal’s music, in fact, sounds like it comes from a far-off place. There’s an expansively imagined, spatial quality to the airy singing, textural guitars and thudding drums.
Post Animal Photo by Asher Klaven SXSW ’17
The first comparison that listeners tend to make is to Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker, and they’re not wrong, but where Parker is increasingly interested in popcraft, Post Animal are off exploring frontiers of lightness and heaviness, plumbing for new heights and depths in metal, prog and acid rock.
Where Post Animal are ultimately headed is an intriguingly open question. Unlike, say, Mastodon, they’re not totally dug into one sonic pocket. Post Animal also switch up sometimes and play in a metered, dance- or coldwave-inspired pulse. But even then, the backbeat is still a string of muffled sonic booms, as Post Animal try to reconcile their starry gaze with an interest in music’s earthly present.
