From left: Shannon Connor, Sam Galligan, Mitch Deitz and Brendan Manley.
The Shrunken Heads is about the best band name ever…if you’re in elementary school that is, as Mitch Deitz was in 2007 when he and his older brother Wilder and drummer Brendan Manley first plugged into guitar amps to see what would come out of them. The youngsters came by their interest in rock ‘n’ roll honestly. Manley, who also plays in the Dash Hounds, is the son of B-Side Record Store owner Steve Manley. Mitch and Wilder are sons of folk singer/songwriter Ritt Deitz.
“My family is influential in a million ways,” Mitch Deitz says. “My dad taught me how to play guitar. He and my brother are my biggest musical heroes.” Indeed, when the Shrunken Heads started bobbing together, Mitch and (keyboardist) Wilder performed with their father in town and on the road.
In case you didn’t read about it in Rolling Stone, it wasn’t long before the Shrunken Heads had their first defection. Wilder left the group in 2008 “to play with his older friends,” says Mitch. It was the best possible thing for both of the brothers. Wilder dove deep into jazz piano; he founded and directed the Madison East High School Black Music Ensemble, and currently teaches music and performs with his own jazz groups (including the Wilder Deitz Singers, who play the Shitty Barn in Spring Green on August 1).
After Wilder left, Mitch Deitz and Manley started recruiting from among their group of friends at O’Keeffe Middle School. Once bassist Sam Galligan and guitarist Shannon Connor signed on to the project, Post Social was born. The members recorded their first album the summer after their junior year at East High.
This summer, Post Social released its flame-throwing fourth album, Major Congrats, consisting of 13 tracks that do justice to the young guns’ devotion to Led Zeppelin, The Replacements, Van Halen and Deftones.
The band’s inner AC/DC is actually what gets the party started. Track one, “Outside Man,” is all head kick bass in the opening phrases until ascending, jagged guitar notes take over, spilling out behind Deitz‘s shrieking vocals. The album actually becomes less metal and more pop rock as it moves along. “Sand Wand” is a downtempo, almost glum melody lightened by Connor’s pedal steel that runs parallel to a rhythm guitar line played by Ritt Deitz. Ritt layered his part over the band’s live-recorded tracks.
Post Social was in good studio hands. Though self-released, Major Congrats was recorded by Ricky Riemer at Madison’s Science of Sound. Riemer also mixed the album, which was mastered by Justin Perkins. The mix is particularly noteworthy. Some of the tracks could have been guitar sludge in the wrong hands. Instead, bright separation helps define Post Social’s clean, mean sound.
“The recording process was super-efficient and really enjoyable to be a part of,” says Connor. “It’s always nice to not record at home and have somebody else do the work for you.”
Riemer has seen plenty of seasoned bands come through the studio, but he has worked with the members of Post Social since they were teens. “The best part for me,” Riemer says, “was how well they were prepared and knew what tones and sounds they were going for. I think they were very professional, without knowing they were.”
That may sound like a back-handed compliment, but seeing Post Social live reveals the group’s un-self-conscious confidence, a “we-got-this” energy that makes their hungry, young rock music all the more alluring. Not many bands can say they’ve been together for nearly 10 years when the average band member’s age is 21. There’s nothing like spending your adolescence together writing rock songs.
Nowadays, when not making music together, band members are keeping busy. Mitch Deitz is on track for graduation in December at UW-Madison with a double major in history and communication arts. Manley is a bike mechanic who drums in four other bands. Galligan and Connor both are enrolled at Madison College.
“Our unique history of being life-long best friends as well as bandmates is why we can move forward,” says Deitz. “We all bring something to the table, and only stuff that meets all four of our individual standards makes it on the album. I wouldn’t trade our band dynamic for anything.”
