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May 16, 2025 By Mark Redfern Photography by CJ Harvey

Chicago-formed psych-rock band Post Animal are releasing a new album, IRON, that sees them reuniting with their former bandmate Joe Keery (who also releases music as Djo). Now they have shared its second single, “Pie in the Sky.” Listen below.

The band collectively had this to say about the new single in a press release: “‘Pie in the Sky’is really a song about coming together and letting our collective freak flag fly. It’s a bunch of hooligans gathering in a barn yard singing camp fire songs.”

IRON is due out July 25 on AWAL and on vinyl via Polyvinyl. Previously the band shared the album’s first single, “Last Goodbye,” which was one of our Songs of the Week.

Keery left the band in 2017 (after recording the band’s When I Think of You in a Castle, released in 2018) to focus on his acting career, most notably playing Steve Harrington on Stranger Things since its first episode. The fifth and final season is expected this year on Netflix. He also played Deputy Gator Tillman in the fifth season of Fargo and Walter “Keys” McKey in the 2021 sci-fi/action/comedy Free Guy (also starring Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer). He also plays Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus in the experimental musical biopic concert film Pavements, which premiered at the Venice film festival last year.

The rest of the band—Dalton Allison, Jake Hirshland, Javier Reyes, Wesley Toledo, and Matt Williams—continued on after Keery’s departure and remained friends with their former bandmate.

Post Animal’s last album was 2022’s Love Gibberish. In 2024 they reunited with Keery to record IRON. Allison engineered the album with Charles Glanders and mixed it with Djo co-producer Adam Thein. Hirshland mastered IRON.

“This record felt like a revitalization of our friendships and our band,” Hirshland says in a press release. “We always work collaboratively, but it’s amazing how reintroducing Joe into the mix brought back that dynamic from 2017.”

Keery reflected why it was the right time to return to the band, saying: “When we made When I Think of You in a Castle, that was near the start of Stranger Things. And now with it kind of coming to an end in my own life, we all felt it’d be great to do something like that again, to go somewhere and be isolated and work on music together. It was a labor of love.”

Toledo says they tried to have realistic and relaxed expectations about the reunion: “We all agreed that even if we went and just hung out, we’d be happy with it. We’re just heartfelt, sentimental, and emotional, but there was a real positivity and optimism among us.”

Keery adds: “We’re all still such great friends, but now everybody has a lot more experience under their belts. I was just appreciative to be spending this time, knowing we might not get another chance to do this the way we’re doing it right now. The record reflects that enjoyment, and you can feel the fun.”

Djo released a new album, The Crux, in April via AWAL. Read our digital cover story interview with Keery about the album.

Previously Djo shared The Crux’s lead single, “Basic Being Basic,” via a lyric video. It was one of our Songs of the Week. Then he shared its second single, “Delete Ya,” which also made it on Songs of the Week. Its third single was “Potion.” The Crux is the follow-up to 2022’s DECIDE and his 2019-released debut solo album, TWENTY TWENTY.

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