Taxidermists

Taxidermists—the Massachusetts-based duo of Cooper B. Handy (LUCY) and Salvadore McNamara—today announced their new album 20247 will be released on March 7th, 2025 via Danger Collective Records. They have also shared its frenetic first single/video “Shoot,” a self-described “conceptual representation of a late night in a beach town” that lovingly brings in each chorus with the disjointed ring of a cowbell. Handy and McNamara rip through the track’s 1 minute and 36 seconds with a trademark velocity, tenacity and swagger. 20247 follows 2024’s KO EP—which earned great press from PAPER Magazine and The FADER, among others.

20247 is a homespun snapshot of two longtime friends hanging out in a cold, smoky garage late at night, recording music the way they always wanted. Since meeting on Myspace as pre-teens in 2007, McNamara and Handy have wholeheartedly embraced a DIY ethos: no pretension, no gimmicks, and nothing to prove to anyone but themselves. Taxidermists operate as a band by striking a balance between virtuosic, passionate creative output and, in their own words, “just being able to shoot the shit and hang out.” This is the charm and appeal of 20247: it exudes love and warm familiarity, a clear product of two best friends working as a team to create something special. “We haven’t made a record like this in 12 years and we’ve learned so much since then,” they say. “We may not put out a ton of music, but we care about the music we make.”

Both born and raised on the East Coast, Handy and McNamara started playing music together when they were just 13 and 14. By 2011, they were enmeshed in a DIY touring circuit spanning New England and its neighboring states, and eventually found fans in fellow musicians like Show Me the Body and Horse Jumper of Love – whom you can still spot rocking vintage Taxidermists merch. Seven records later, 20247 (their first LP since 2019’s TAX) showcases a fine-tuned songwriting finesse that was cultivated in part by their participation in other projects (Handy: LUCY, Safe Mind, and Club Casualties; McNamara: Prewn, Phenomena 256, Kahoots). After 15 years of being a band, the album finds Taxidermists exploring new ways of working together, while preserving the spark that made their collaboration so organic and exciting in the first place. 

During a Massachusetts winter in 2024, Handy and McNamara bought a small space heater and created the entirety of 20247 in McNamara’s garage studio while braving an average temperature of 39° F. Many of the songs were written and recorded in a single night, and the longest one clocks in at a mere 2:50. Recording everything to tape, they maintained their commitment to off-the-cuff analog output; 20247 feels rough around the edges and unmistakably human. Fractured, dynamic bursts of commotion collide with moments of measured restraint – it’s short and to the point with no energy wasted. The lyrics collage together uninhibited sketches that recollect a time, place, or feeling with abstract charm. “We graft together a bunch of moments that become a feeling that becomes a song,” they say of their process. Their musings are fleeting and contemplative, ultimately serving to appreciate and distill what it’s like to simply be alive. The duo’s easy chemistry and free-spirited tendencies are a kismet combination, and 20247 sees this camaraderie reach new peaks via 12 earworms that leave you both satisfied and instantly wanting more.