Post Animal

Post Animal, a Chicago indie rock outfit, blend hard, soft, prog, and psychedelic elements through an array of hooks, fills, and riffs. Their first full-length album, When I Think of You in a Castle, appeared in 2018.

Childhood friends Dalton Allison on bass and Matt Williams on guitar established the group in 2014. Guitarists Jake Hirshland and Joe Keery joined for the debut EP, Post Animal Perform the Most Curious Water Activities, which surfaced in 2015. With the addition of drummer Wesley Toledo to the roster, the band began filling Chicago basement gigs and intimate venues. Three two-track singles emerged during the opening months of 2016 and were later compiled on the Garden Series EP that July. Around the same period Keery started portraying Steve Harrington in the Netflix series Stranger Things, prompting the addition of Javi Reyes as a fourth guitarist. The resulting sextet decamped to a Watervliet, Michigan lake house to lay down their debut LP. Allison then devoted several months to mixing, after which Post Animal issued the six-piece single “Special Moment” in May 2017. Early road work followed, including support dates for local headliners Twin Peaks.

Polyvinyl Records inked the band late in 2017 and put out the self-produced When I Think of You in a Castle the following April. By then Keery’s role on the hit series had expanded across multiple seasons, leading him to exit the lineup while still contributing to occasional side projects. The remaining five-piece returned in February 2020 with the wide-ranging Forward Motion Godyssey, produced and mixed by Allison alongside longtime associate Adam Thein.