SHARKEOLOGIST's "TAXIDERMY is FOREVER" is a sprawlingly addictive collection of curiosities

Seattle WA – In 2026, bands have become brands. Artists craft their images, cultivate and manage them on social media, and put forth a “narrative” that is supposed to compel, attract, and dazzle. Bands that don’t do this, by comparison, are doing it wrong. At least that’s what you’ve been led to believe.

But SHARKEOLOGIST ain’t buying it. Being a band isn’t a marketing strategy or a long-term financial play (ha!) – it is an opportunity to say something, perhaps many contradictory things. It’s a format through which to express one’s feelings, even when they don’t make sense or come out right.

A rock band in particular is not supposed to be an item you grab off the shelf of a department store. Rather, it’s a bunch of random curios you find in the corner of an oddities shop, waiting to be dusted off and nail-gunned to the hood of your car.

A bit of taxidermy on your mantle at home. It’s supposed to be intense, passionate, and as far from “curated” as can be.

That’s the best way to capture TAXIDERMY is FOREVER, a sprawling and discohesive set of recordings from SHARKEOLOGIST that somehow draw you in. Does it make sense for a band to release not one but two covers of 90s classics (“Aneurysm,” “Pony”)? Does it “reflect a narrative” to record a Black Sabbath song, rendered as a Christmas carol (“Deck The Halls”)? What logic is there in releasing a dance remix of a song released only last year (“Pocket (Emerson Harris Remix)”) and a WHAM!-style synth bop about burning toxic masculinity at the stake? Also, does it really make sense to include saxophone parts performed by GRAMMY- award winning saxophonist Johnny Butler (Beyonce) on an oddities EP?

None of it makes sense. And none of these songs fit anywhere else in the band’s catalog. But in that way, they (mis)fit perfectly with themselves.

Brands and images and superficial bullshit always fades. Taxidermy is FOREVER.

1. There Will Be Bread

2. Pony

3. Aneurysm

4. Deck The Halls

5. Pocket (Emerson Harris Remix)

6. Hannibal

see SHARKEOLOGIST live:

09/18 Seattle WA @ Central Saloon

10/03 Seattle WA @ Easy Street Records

10/09 Spokane WA @ Big Dipper w/ Braden All Caps + Tomboy

10/10 Richland WA @ Emerald Of Siam

SHARKEOLOGIST was never supposed to be a band. Lead singer and songwriter Jeff Grant had given up on music and had settled into a pleasantly domestic life – a job, a family, a house with a literal picket fence. But the moment he realized that domestic dream was the moment he had his first panic attack. He threw up, brushed his teeth, and decided to do something about it.

So Grant wrote music. A lot of it. The sound that came out of him was an aggressive and frenetic rock and roll with crispy guitars and soaring melodies. The songs were about dread, fear, existential anxiety – but beauty, hope, a desire for something better. It was the best music he’d ever written.

He recorded it all himself but didn’t know shit about mixing it, so he Google searched “Seattle mixing engineer” and found Jesse Mazur, a recording studio owner and former Warped Tour alumnus. Mazur heard the music, got the vibe, and mixed Grants’s 11 songs. When he was done, he realized he had a job to do – to convince Grant to start a band. Thankfully his job was easy because Grant was one step ahead of him.

The band would be SHARKEOLOGIST – a neologism that Grant used to call his first therapist.

The heart would be beating and the feeling would be urgent. And so it was. The band’s first show was in 2024 and since then they have developed a reputation for a raucous and emotional live show; consistent radio play in the Pacific Northwest thanks to spins on KEXP and KISW (Seattle) and KAOS (Olympia); opening slots for national touring acts like THE TOXHARDS and DAVID LIEBE HART; and festival performances and dozens of live shows around the PNW.

The band released “The Last Gasp” in 2024, a self-titled record in 2025, and “TAXIDERMY is FOREVER” in 2026.

With plans to tour in 2026-2027 and much more music to release, SHARKEOLOGIST show no signs of slowing down. There remains too much existential anxiety to deal with.

SHAKREOLOGIST is:

Jeff Grant – vox, synth, guitar, and beats

Jesse Mazur – guitar

Aaron Stayman – guitar

Joel Hoyer – bass

Rick Weber – drums

AXIDERMY is FOREVER features:

Nik Singleton – backup vocals

Johnny Butler – saxophone

All songs written by Jeff Grant except “Pony” by Elgin Lumpkin, Timothy Mosley and Stephen Garrett, “Aneurysm” written by Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and David Grohl, “War Pigs” written by Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi and Bill Ward.

Recorded, engineered and mixed by Johnny Nails, Jeff Grant, and Jesse Mazur

and Exex Audio & Mazureth Studios

Mastered by Ed Brooks at Resonant Mastering, Seattle, WA

Artwork by Andrew Martinez