About

Animal Politik is a (mostly) human, music-making collective:

Initially known as Days of Dreams, the group formed as a two-piece with Timothy Merritt on vocals and guitar, and Andrew Starr on drums in early 2003 in Great Falls, Montana. Releasing individually burned copies of their debut EP Tragic Circumstance that spring, the duo performed regularly until joined by Michael Gleeson on bass and backup vocals the following year. As a trio, the band honed a signature aggressive style by channeling influences from Nirvana and other early 90s alternative through their own unique lens, releasing the full-length LP Trauma Season in December 2004.

Over the next six months, the band played venues all over the state, gaining a small but dedicated following from their energetic live shows and less traditional merchandise habits (the group regularly tossed Days of Dreams-branded condoms into the crowd). In spring 2005, after winning the statewide Battle of the Bands, the trio went back to the studio to record the Hearing the Vision EP, and continued to tour locally for the rest of the year.

In November 2005 the group relocated to Portland, OR and changed their name to The Last Days of Dreams, performing at many historic now-defunct venues like Satyricon, The Ash Street Saloon, the Loveland, and the Hawthorne Theatre, among others, but found a welcoming home in their neighborhood bar Scotty’s where they played regularly nearly once a month for years. In 2010, Iron Sulfide Tremors was released as a full length LP before the band went on hiatus.

In the interim, Gleeson, Starr, and other guest musicians collaborated as The Multnomah Project. By 2017 the original members were beginning to rehearse new material with the addition of Matthew Azar on lead guitar, working under the new moniker of Animal Politik, and adding greater nuance to their songwriting.

In 2019 the quartet began work on their newest album, releasing the Fait Accompli LP in January 2020. Immediately going to work on their next effort, the band was sidelined by the global COVID-19 pandemic, though they continued to record intermittently throughout the year, and released Multnomah, a full length album comprised mostly of material recorded during The Multnomah Project, before releasing Simulacra in spring of 2021.