Remember that brief moment in Stranger Things episode five (“The Flea and the Acrobat”) when Steve (aka Joe Keery) sang a bit of Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock & Roll”? My first thought: bet this guy’s in a band. Turns out he is!
Keery is, in fact, the drummer (not the singer, as I’d imagined) for the band Post Animal, a super chill psych rock quartet from Chicago. As Vulture points out, Post Animal sound a lot like Tame Impala. They have that faraway, almost subaqueous EQ to their sound, almost as if their music is being funneled in from the Upside Down.
Their sound is a bit more experimental than their Australian contemporaries, though, so Tame Impala offshoot, Pond, is probably a better comparison. And some of their guitar-heavy material is more Brit rock than Aussie haze. Temples, the best new band in Britain according to people like The Smiths‘ Johnny Marr and Oasis‘ Noel Gallagher, is a good reference point there. And there’s even some heaving, Black Sabbath-esque moments buried in there. That’s all to say, it’s good stuff!
Keery isn’t the only musically inclined Stranger Things cast member, either. Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) has got a fierce set of pipes. And Finn Wolfhard (Mike) recently took to Twitter with a mean partial cover of Nirvana‘s “Lithium.” Could a Stranger Things supergroup be in order? Demogorgon would be a badass band name. Just saying.
For now, though, Post Animal already have four releases to their name, so head over to their Bandcamp page and check them out. Then let us know what you think of their sound in the comments below.
Does the Upside Down really exist?
Image: Netflix
