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Apr 19, 2023 By Caleb Campbell Photography by David Brendan Hall

For over a decade, Austin-based psych rock outfit Megafauna have carved a unique and expansive niche for themselves, playing with a heady mix of garage and grunge textures, ethereal psychedelic washes, muscular guitar work, and layered shoegaze-tinged effects. Fans last heard from the band in 2019 with their record Ghost Coast, and later next week the band are back with their sixth full-length album, Olympico.

The band have teased the record with a series of new singles, “Dozer,” “Sunday Saturday,” and “Sometimes Island,” and today they’re back with another new single, “Bi Postal,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Bi Postal” leans into the garage rock side of the band’s sound, pulling back on the band’s psychedelic and prog instincts for a track that is more lean and propulsive. Rollicking drumming and searing guitar work drive the track forward at a careening pace while vocalist and guitarist Dani Neff delivers a fiery vocal performance. Later, the track meanders into a subdued interlude, but it proves to only be a brief reprieve before the band barrels into their climactic finish, conjuring a swirling whirlwind of explosive grooves. Though the band still has an ever-present hazy psych element to their sound, “Bi Postal” shows they can still get relentlessly heavy.

Neff says of the song and video, “It was fun to explore a theme not often in music videos: a new mom’s nostalgia for her days as a rocker. We decided that I should go back in time by way of a mundane portal- the washing machine. This idea was inspired by Meow Wolf’s psychedelic take on household items. I enter the washing machine and am led on a journey through the multiverse where I encounter magical dancing guides, beautiful surreal scenes and ultimately am transported to a 90s house party where we’re playing a rock show. It was exciting to co-choreograph with my friend Stephanie Chavez, dance with some incredible dancers and collaborate with Ed, who had a lot of creative tricks up his sleeve. He had me balance on a box against a green screen to make it look like I was falling and climb through a cardboard tube to create the effect of traveling through a washing machine portal.”

Director Ed Dougherty says of the video, “I think we can all relate to feeling like our time has passed us by—I’ve been feeling that way since I was 12! What I love about this video is that Dani goes on a redemptive, nostalgic journey that ultimately reaffirms her present-day reality. We shot some sequences on VHS, a medium I’d wanted to incorporate into a music video for many years, which can’t be beat for capturing the feeling of a bygone era. I also loved decorating their band room with 90s posters, especially Super Metroid—the only classic Nintendo game I’ve ever beaten!”

Check out the song below and pre-save the track here. Olympico is out everywhere on April 28th. You can also find the band’s upcoming tour dates below.

Megafauna Tour Dates:

April 28 - Lexington, TX @ MoCo Festival
May 6 - Austin, TX @ Sagebrush (album release show)
May 13 - San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger

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