continued from page 46
“We were prepped, we were primed for
the haunting. People have had supernatu-
ral experiences there a lot. Apparently, the
[late] grandpa of the family we were rent-
ing from has been hanging out there for 20
years or something like that.”
“Supposedly, it’s the original part of the
house – the house was built a long time
ago, and then they did some additions--
and the only paranormal activity happens
in the older part of the house: in the bed-
rooms and where we were recording. And
so like there are some interesting flourish-
es that are actually on the recording that
we didn't add or do anything to...” Matt
pauses, then hesitantly continues, ”and
then a couple of not encounters but...”
Dalton jumps in, “There were some
moments that I think that [alone] probably
would not push us so far as to believe they
mean anything. But there were so many of
them that altogether it's just kind of hard to
ignore when you have that much happen-
ing.”
Then there’s the band’s music itself.
And there’s much to love on the band’s
recording – be it the echoes of early Syd
Barrett-era Pink Floyd vocal codas linking
the swirling melodic pop or the almost
unlimited range that having four lead
vocalists (okay – five, as I would later find
when the band gives drummer Wesley his
moment to shine) and three guitarists
affords. This has led to early press classify-
ing the music as “psych-pop,” “psych
rock,” “neo-psych rock” and even “psych-
56 illinoisentertainer.com july 2018
tinged pop-rock.” So how does the band
describe its music?
Among everyone from the band shout-
ing out descriptors, the heretofore silent
Javi silences them all. "What do we have?
Interplanetary falcon rock. Yeah – I think
it's earth's interplanetary falcon rock.
Imagine riding a falcon through a galaxy's
intergalactics. We don't like worldly gen-
res. I prefer made up genres. World metal
is another we're playing around with.
World rock. Kind of reminds me of U2 or
something. I'd like to be grouped with U2.
But at the core, it's definitely rock. It's not
like neo or psychedelically inspired."
So what about someone hearing, dare
one say it, hints of prog rock at the edges of
their music? This descriptor causes the
band to almost unanimously erupt in "We
love prog rock" and its variants, when
Dalton says, "Personally, there's always
something weird about calling, uh, us call-
ing ourselves prog rock. I don't know why
that feels weird, but it does. But I think we
all appreciate it when people say it in some
way."
It seems an appropriate note to end our
time together. Returning later, the venue is
comfortably packed for a relatively late
night all-ages gig. Interestingly, the band
opens just as its debut CD – -a variant on
opening instrumental and into infectious,
take-no-prisoners five-minute-plus cut
"Gelatin Mode." As the crowd's cell phones
disappear into pockets, a nerdy mosh pit
forms and fans start pogoing front and
center. By mid-set, the connection between
Post Animal and the crowd is firmly solid-
ified, signaling that perhaps the next great
band from Chicago had indeed arrived.
Appearing 8/4 at Empty Bottle, Chicago.