Getting to Know: Post Animal, Deana Carter, and Ellevator

Get To Know:

Chicago based indie rock group, Post Animal offers an ambitious mix of hard, soft, prog, and psychedelic rock spiked with hooks, fills, and riffs. Their first full-length debut album, When I Think of You in a Castle, was released in 2018. Around that time, one of their founding guitarists, Joe Keery began appearing on Netflix series Stranger Things, and the band added Javi Reyes as fourth guitarist. The band has evolved over the years, transforming from raw garage rock to an ethereal psychedelic rock band that defies a singular sound: one that The Chicago Tribune describes, “if Tame Impala listened to a lot of Black Sabbath and were signed to Elephant 6.” With their latest 2022 release, Love Gibberish, Post Animal has embraced a number of sonic comparisons and created one of their most multifaceted albums to date. 

Watch: The official music video for “Special Moment“

Listen: Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud

Follow: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok

Gear: Ernie Ball Regular Slinky electric guitar strings, Regular Slinky Flatwound Bass strings.

Get To Know:

Though she didn’t begin her musical career until relatively late, Deana Carter, daughter of Fred Carter Jr. of Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan and Waylon Jennings fame, managed to defy conventional expectations and unexpectedly shot to the top of the country charts upon the release of her 1996 debut, Did I Shave My Legs for This? Carter’s success was equally unexpected considering that she didn’t quite fit into the mold of a standard female contemporary country singer. Melding the popular appeal of country chanteuses with folky singer/songwriters like Mary Chapin Carpenter, Carter racked up both positive reviews and healthy sales with Did I Shave My Legs for This?, becoming one of the most pleasant success stories of the post-Garth Brooks generation.
Her debut album is certified platinum 5x with multiple follow-ups that earned 14 chart topping singles, 3 of which reached number one on Billboard Country charts, a Grammy Award for her single “Strawberry Wine,” and more. Now celebrating the 25th anniversary of her debut album, the singer, songwriter, producer and actor has been hitting the road hard including appearances on American Idol, the 2022 CMA Awards and more.

Watch: The official music video for “Strawberry Wine“

Sounds Like: Lee Ann Womack, Sheryl Crow, Reba McEntire

Listen: Spotify, Apple Music

Follow: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

Gear: Everlast 80/20 Bronze Light and Earthwood Phosphor Bronze Medium Light acoustic strings and Regular Slinky RPS and Super Slinky RPS electric strings.

Get To Know:

Ellevator is a band from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Raised on the cool precision of late-aughts guitar music and the melodrama of post-rock, they hold lean hooks and sweeping crescendos in perfect tension. Front woman Nabi Sue Bersche wields her arresting lyricism with clear-eyed lucidity, drawing deeply personal reflections from big themes like power, love, and loss. Citing influences that range from stadium limelight (U2, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush) to the warm glow of indie haunts (Feist, Spoon, Death Cab For Cutie) Ellevator’s music hits with the impact of great pop songs and the fierce emotional resonance of their rock and roll heroes. Following the release of their eponymous debut EP in 2018, Ellevator cut their teeth on the road, sharing stages with the likes of Amber Run, Banners, Our Lady Peace, Arkells, Bishop Briggs, Cold War Kids, and Dear Rouge. On May 6, 2022, the band released their debut album ‘The Words You Spoke Still Move Me’. Produced by indie-rock luminary Chris Walla—former guitarist and founding member of Death Cab for Cutie—the album inhabits an emotional landscape that is both breathtakingly intimate and impossibly vast, documenting various experiences to turn universal (existential longing, romantic power struggles, the never ending work of true self-discovery) and highly specific (e.g., front woman Nabi Sue Bersche’s journey in extracting herself from a cult) storytelling into a truly hypnotic body of work, giving rise to the kind of radiant open-heartedness that radically transforms our own perspective.

Watch: The official video for “Sacred Heart“

Sounds Like: Death Cab For Cutie, Kate Bush, The Beaches

Listen: Spotify, Apple Music

Follow: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube

Gear: Ernie Ball Paradigm Regular Slinky and Paradigm Skinny Top Heavy Bottom electric strings, Hybrid Cobalt Bass and Flatwound Group II Bass strings and Paradigm Light Phosphor Bronze acoustic strings and an Ernie Ball Music Man – St. Vincent guitar.