Protomartyr unveil The Marty Singer Telethon + new album out now
Protomartyr
Unveil The Marty Singer Telethon – watch here
New album Formal Growth In The Desert out today – stream hereTouring UK + Europe from August
Photo Credit: Trevor Naud
"Protomartyr are sounding as vital as ever" Stereogum
“Like all the best post-punk, [‘Elimination Dances’] stays tightly wound throughout” The FADER
“A balance between The Clash, Mission Of Burma and Slint, combining echoey space with angular guitars and Casey’s edge-of-oblivion vocals” Uncut 8/10
“Their tenderest moment to date” Loud & Quiet 9/10 – Album of the Week
“Hit a new creative peak” The Line of Best Fit
Today, Detroit post-punk quartet Protomartyr release their highly anticipated new album, Formal Growth In The Desert. Having shared the final single “Polacrilex Kid” earlier this week, the band now unveil The Marty Singer Telethon in full. Harkening back to the heydays of broadcast television, the telethon is hosted by the inimitable Marty Singer (who Protomartyr fans may recognize from their “Processed By The Boys” video) and Sarah McMahon. Alongside, “Polacrilex Kid”, it features in-studio performances of Formal Growth In The Desert standouts “Fun In Hi Skool” and “3800 Tigers” and showcases other amazing performers, such as Stoney Sharp the wrangler, the Mt. Sinai Hospital Dance Team, and so much more.
Watch The Marty Singer Telethon here.
“Polacrilex Kid” derives its title from the chemical name for nicotine gum, something singer Joe Casey refers to as an “unwanted friend I’ve become acquainted with since getting on the quit smoking/start smoking again tilt-a-whirl.” At the song’s core, it delves into thematic material that is not unfamiliar in the Protomartyr canon: can you hate yourself and still deserve love? The gnarled “Fun in Hi Skool” is an anti-nostalgia anthem, while “3800 Tigers” both refers to the number of wild tigers estimated on Earth, and speculates what Casey’s beloved baseball team, the Detroit Tigers, might resemble in the year 3800.
The band will return to the road next month for a North American and UK/EU tour. Full dates are listed below and tickets are on sale now.
--
Protomartyr’s sixth album, Formal Growth In The Desert, was recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas. Though Casey did have a humbling experience staring at awe-inspiring Sonoran rock formations and reckoning with his own smallness in the scheme of things, the group’s sixth album is not necessarily a nod to the sandy expanses of the Southwest. Formal Growth In The Desert proves Detroit, too, is like a desert. “The desert is more of a metaphor or symbol” Casey says, “of emotional deserts, or a place or time that seems to lack life.”
The “growth”came from a period of colossal transition for Casey, including the death of his mother, who struggled with Alzheimer’s for a decade and a half. Now 45, Casey had lived in the family home in northwest Detroit all his life. In 2021, though, a rash of repeated break-ins signaled that it was time to finally move out. Protomartyr’s music — more spacious and dynamic than ever — helped pull Casey up. “The band still being viable was very important to me,” Casey adds, “and it definitely lifted my spirits.”
Having long served as Protomartyr’s unofficial musical director, guitarist Greg Ahee co-produced Formal Growth In The Desert alongside Jake Aron (Snail Mail, L’Rain). Ahee knew what Casey was going through and the challenges he’d been processing, and as Ahee was conceptualizing the music, he thought about how to make it all “like a narrative film.” The filmic sensibility is manifest in Casey’s storytelling, too, whether he’s critiquing ominous techno-capitalism or processing aging, the future, and the possibility of love.
Protomartyr have become synonymous with caustic, impressionistic assemblages of politics and poetry, the literal and oblique. Casey describes the underlying theme of Formal Growth In The Desert as a 12-song testament to “getting on with life,” even when it feels impossibly hard.
Watch the video for “Make Way” here.
Watch the video for “Elimination Dances” here.
Watch the video for “Polacrilex Kid” here.
Protomartyr tour dates
Fri. Aug. 4 - Genk, BE @ Absolutely Free Festival
Sat. Aug. 5 - Haldern, DE @ Haldern Pop Festival
Sun. Aug. 6 - Frankfurt, DE @ Zoom
Mon. Aug. 7 - Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Wed. Aug. 9 - Brighton, UK @ Concorde 2
Thu. Aug. 10 - Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms
Fri. Aug. 11 - Cardiff, UK @ Clwb lfor Bach
Sat. Aug. 12 - Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Mon. Aug. 14 - Eindhoven, NL @ Effenaar
Tue. Aug. 15 - Hannover, DE @ Indiego Glocksee
Thu. Aug. 17 - Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen
Fri. Aug. 18 - Bodo, NO @ Parkenfestivalen
Sat. Aug. 19 - Trondheim, NE @ Pstereo
Thu. Oct. 19 - Galway, IE @ Roisin Dubh
Fri. Oct. 20 - Limerick, IE @ Dolan’s Warehouse
Sat. Oct. 21 - Dublin, IE @ The Button Factory
Mon. Oct. 23 - Manchester, UK @ YES (The Pink Room)
Tue. Oct. 24 - Bristol, UK @ The Trinity Centre
Wed. Oct. 25 - Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds
Thu. Oct. 26 - London, UK @ Electric Ballroom
Sat. Oct. 28 - Rouen, FR @ Le 106
Sun. Oct. 29 - Antwerp, BE @ Trix Club
Mon. Oct. 30 - Groningen, DE @ Vera
Tue. Oct. 31 - Hamburg, DE @ Banhof Pauli
Wed. Nov. 1 - Leipzig, DE @ UT Connewitz
Thu. Nov. 2 - Berlin, DE @ Hole44
Sat. Nov. 4 - Athens, GR @ Gagarin 205
Mon. Nov. 6 - Munich, DE @ Strom
Tue. Nov. 7 - Zurich, CH @ Bogen F
Thu. Nov. 9 - Paris, FR @ La Station
Fri. Nov. 10 - Lyon, FR @ Marché Gare
Sat. Nov. 11 - Annecy, FR @ Le Brise Glace
Mon. Nov. 13 - Bologna, IT @ Locomotiv Club
Tue. Nov. 14 - Torino, IT @ Spazio 211
Wed. Nov. 15 - Marseille, FR @ Le Makeda
Thu. Nov. 16 - Montpellier, FR @ Le Rockstore
Nov. 17-18 – Benidorm, ES @ Primavera Weekender, Magic Robin Hood Camp
Formal Growth In The Desert is available on Dom-Mart exclusive splatter vinyl (w/ zine and poster), standard vinyl (w/ zine and poster), CD and digitally. Buy: Dom Mart | Digital
Protomartyr Online:
Website | Bandcamp | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
