Photo credit: Trevor Naud
Preeminent prophets of societal decline Protomartyr announce their new album, Hotel Usona, out September 25th via Domino, and release the lead single/video, “Sounds We Cannot Hear.” Recorded with legendary producer Dave Fridmann (Sleater-Kinney, MGMT, The Flaming Lips) at his own Tarbox Road Studios in western New York, Hotel Usona is an effort that finds the Detroit post-punk outfit reckoning with the horrors of our current moment. It is not easy listening. It’s essential.
Over the last two decades, Protomartyr—vocalist Joe Casey, drummer Alex Leonard, bassist Scott Davidson, and multi-instrumentalist and co-producer Greg Ahee—have built one of the most rewarding and often exhilarating bodies of work in recent memory by veering in and out of darkness, grappling with what most frightens us, saddens us, disgusts us, embarrasses and enrages us, and with a gallows humor for the ages, gives a sense of the comedy inherent in so much that we encounter. Essentially, the stuff that makes us human.
Casey has imagined his country as an aging hotel here, each song a room haunted by its own troublesome guest, as on today’s “Sounds We Cannot Hear,” which arrives with a video starring Nate Varrone (Maddie’s Secret and “The Bear”). The song finds Casey examining the slow paralysis of modern life: “The scroll deforms the day // Poet screamed, “Goodbye everybody!” // Leaping from the liner Orizaba // As it traversed the Caribbean Sea // A new vulgar company is targeting me.”
This fall, Protomartyr will embark on a world tour, making stops in major cities throughout the United States, EU/UK, and Canada. Tickets are now available here. Protomartyr will also support The Jesus and Mary Chain in Austin. A full list of tour dates is below.
Hotel Usona Tracklist
1. The Old Hotel
2. Sounds We Cannot Hear
3. Converts
4. Exalted Eagles
5. The Knife Dream
6. Feed the Sewer
7. Lavender – Gospel
8. Third Country
9. Checking Out
Protomartyr Tour Dates:
Mon. Oct. 19 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom *
Tue. Oct. 20 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah *
Thu. Oct. 22 – Los Angeles, CA @ Regent *
Fri. Oct. 23 – San Jose, CA @ the Ritz *
Sat. Oct. 24 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall *
Tue. Oct. 27 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos *
Wed. Oct. 28 – Vancouver, BC @ The Pearl *
Thu. Oct. 29 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin *
Sat. Oct. 31 – Austin, TX @ Far Out Lounge ^
Sat. Nov. 7 – Toronto, ON @ Concert Hall #
Sun. Nov. 8 – Montreal, QC @ Les Foufounes Électriques #
Tue. Nov. 10 – Boston, MA @ Crystal Ballroom #
Wed. Nov. 11 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
Thu. Nov. 12 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall #
Fri. Nov. 13 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat #
Sat. Nov. 14 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle #
Sun. Nov. 15 – Asheville, NC @ Eulogy #
Tue. Nov. 17 – Nashville, TN @ Basement East #
Wed. Nov. 18 – St. Louis, MO @ Duck Room #
Thu. Nov. 19 – Chicago @ Metro #
Fri. Dec. 4 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic
Thu. Feb. 11 – Leeds, UK @ Irish Center
Fri. Feb. 12 – Glasgow, UK @ The Garage
Sat. Feb. 13 – Manchester, UK @ Band on the Wall
Mon. Feb. 15 – Bristol, UK @ The Lantern
Tue. Feb. 16 – London, UK @ Electric Brixton
Thu. Feb. 18 – Lille, FR @ L’Aeronef
Fri. Feb. 19 – Paris, FR @ Le Trabendo
Sat. Feb. 20 – Brussels, BE @ Le Botanique
Mon. Feb. 22 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Tue. Feb. 23 – Hamburg, DE @ Bahnhof Pauli
Wed. Feb. 24 – Copenhagen, DK @ Pumpehuset
Fri. Feb. 26 – Berlin, DE @ Bi Nuu Club
Sat. Feb. 27 – Leipzig, DE @ UT Connewitz
Sun. Feb. 28 – Prague, CZ @ Meet Factory
* w/ Accessory
^ w/ the Jesus and Mary Chain
# w/ J.R.C.G
