Austin, Texas rock band
New Album out now!
About
Obscure Animals is an alternative rock band from Austin, Texas. We pull from Midwest emo, '90s post-hardcore, and the alternative rock we grew up listening to. If you're into bands like Quicksand, Braid, or The Casket Lottery, you'll probably get where we're coming from.
We started out with The Intervention EP in 2021, followed by Picking Berries On The Way To The Apocalypse in 2022 and The Dismissive Acknowledgement of a Mutual Existence in 2025. We write together, usually starting with riffs and demos that get passed around, pulled apart, and eventually turned into songs. Sometimes they take on a life of their own.
Our latest record, The Unexpected Tragedy of the House in Montgomery, started with the idea of writing a Halloween song. That turned into a whole album about a miserable guy named Stanley Monroe who dies, gets stuck in his house, and finally finds the people he's been missing his whole life. It's a ghost story, but mostly it's about loneliness, friendship, and how hard it can be to let people in. We got a little carried away with it, in the best way. Here's an exerpt from an article written about the album from IDIOTEQ
The album has a real warmth to it, too. The guitars can get heavy and abrasive, with that slower, slightly scruffy post-hardcore feel, but there's plenty of emo melody in the mix. The alternative rock side gives the songs room to breathe, and the whole combination sits nicely with the sadness running through the story. Particularly once you get to know Stanley and realise how much the people around him have come to mean.
We're an independent band, based in Austin, making records and playing shows. If you managed to read all that, you must be a literary genuis.
Band Members
- JR Kaufman - Vocals, Guitar
- Patrick Shea - Bass
- Jesse Blankenship - Drums
- David Menendez - Guitar
