Protomartyr is an American rock band formed in 2008 in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It features Joe Casey on vocals, Greg Ahee on guitar, Alex Leonard on drums and Scott Davidson on bass guitar. Greg Ahee and Alex Leonard were performing as a duo, which was named Butt Babies. They were soon joined by Joe Casey, who started to perform on vocals at Butt Babies shows. Kevin Boyer of Tyvek joined Protomartyr on bass and second guitar for a short time before leaving the act due to the working schedules with his other band. As Scott Davidson joined the band on bass, Butt Babies transformed into Protomartyr.
A post-punk band hailing from Detroit, Michigan, USA, Protomartyr has established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the music scene. With their unique blend of raw energy and thought-provoking lyrics, they have captivated audiences worldwide.
Protomartyr quickly gained recognition for their powerful live performances and critically acclaimed albums. Their sound is characterized by intense guitar riffs, driving rhythms, and frontman Joe Casey’s distinctive vocals.
Protomartyr’s music explores themes of societal unrest, existentialism, and the human condition. Their lyrics delve deep into introspection while offering social commentary on issues that resonate with listeners.
No Passion All Technique
The band released their debut album, “No Passion All Technique” in 2012 via Urinal Cake Records.
Protomartyr can finally answer what is probably their most frequently asked question: “When are you going to reissue your first album?” “No Passion All Technique” has long been something of a mystery. Not available on streaming services; long out of print (and going for ridiculous prices on auction sites), why was this album so elusive?
When Protomartyr – vocalist Joe Casey, guitarist Greg Ahee, bassist Scott Davidson, drummer Alex Leonard – stepped into a studio together for the first time, in November of 2011, they didn’t know they were about to record an album. With only four hours of studio time booked and one case of beer between them, their plan was to walk out with enough songs for a seven-inch single. Instead, at the suggestion of engineer Chris Koltay, the newly formed Detroit outfit recorded as much as they possibly could, in what little time they had.
Sold out and out of print shortly after its original release on Urinal Cake Records in October 2012, “No Passion All Technique” is a sometimes-messy look at one of rock’s most magnetic bands – and lyricists – just as they were coming to life. Primal, cerebral, heartbreaking, funny – it’s an accidental tour de force that’s also become an unlikely collector’s item.
“My memory is shot,” Casey says, “but I appreciate now, looking back, how raw and off-the-cuff it was. There’s tons of mistakes in it and that wasn’t because we planned on it. We still can’t really admit that it’s as good as it is. You never want to say that your first is the best, but I’m happy that the first ended up not being terrible. It gave us doorway to what we’d want to do later.”
Colpi Proibiti
This was followed by “Colpi Proibiti” in the same year, via X! Records.
Under Color of Official Right
Their second studio album, “Under Color of Official Right”, was released in April 2014 via Hardly Art record label,
Protomartyr’s economical rock elicits comparisons to possible antecedents like Pere Ubu, Wire or The Fall as well as local contemporaries like Frustration or Tyvek (whose frontman Kevin Boyer played bass in an early iteration of Protomartyr). Where 2012’s “No Passion All Technique” favoured comparatively straight forward punk structures, “Under Color”, is their second full length, and debut for the label Hardly Art , takes a more exploratory approach. “Tarpeian Rock” places punk vitriol against a minimalist backing and “Scum, Rise!” casts shadows with guitars that alternately chime and clang.
The Agent Intellect
A third studio album, “The Agent Intellect”, followed in October 2015, The album was critically acclaimed, being rated 85/100 on accumulator website, Fantastic and one of the albums of 2015. “The Agent Intellect” is Protomartyr’s third and finest work to date. Named after an ancient philosophical questioning of how the mind operates in relation to the self, it’s an elegant and often devastating display of all that makes Protomartyr so vital and singularly visceral an outfit.
Over the course of several months, Greg Ahee waded through more than a hundred song fragments until he reached the bottomless melodies of “I Forgive You” and “Clandestine Time”, the inky depths of “Pontiac ’87” and titanic churn of “Why Does It Shake?”. Lyrically, Casey is at his most confident and haunting. He humanizes evil on “The Devil in His Youth“, and, amid the charred pop of “Dope Cloud“, he reassures us that nothing – not God, not money – can or will prevent our minds from unraveling until we finally fade away.
We are no one and nothing, he claims, without our thoughts. It’s a theme that echoes through the entirety of the record, but never as beautifully as it does on “Ellen“. Named after his mother and written from the perspective of his late father, it’s as romantic a song as you’re likely to hear this or any year, Casey promising to wait for her on the other side, with the memories she’s lost safely in hand. For fans of The Fall, Interpol and Total Control.
Relatives in Descent
Protomartyr signed to Domino Recording Company in 2017, and released fourth studio album,“Relatives in Descent”, on the label in September 2017.
Relatives In Descent is Protomartyr’s fourth album and Domino Recordings debut. Its 12 tracks deal with the unknowable nature of truth and the existential dread that often accompanies that unknowing.
Protomartyr return with their first album on Domino Records.
After a year of extensive touring in support of 2015’s “The Agent Intellect”, Protomartyr returned to their practice space in a former optician’s office in Southwest Detroit. Guitarist Greg Ahee – inspired by The Raincoats’ Odyshape, Mica Levi’s orchestral compositions, and Protomartyr’s recent collaboration with post-punk legends The Pop Group, for Rough Trade’s 40th anniversary—began writing new music that artfully expanded on everything they’d recorded up until that point. The result is “Relatives in Descent”, their fourth full-length and Domino debut. Though not a concept album, it presents twelve variations on a theme: the unknowable nature of truth, and the existential dread that often accompanies that unknowing. This, at a moment when disinformation and garbled newspeak have become a daily reality.
Since their 2012 debut, Protomartyr have mastered the art of evoking place: the grinding Midwest humility of their hometown, as well as the x-rayed elucidation of America that comes with their vantage. The group’s sixth album was recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, TX with producer Jake Aron. “The desert is more of a metaphor or symbol,” singer Joe 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. But life does go on, and Casey describes the great theme of “Formal Growth In The Desert” as an embrace and acknowledgment of that fact: a 12-song testament to “getting on with life,” even when it feels impossibly hard.
Ultimate Success Today,
The group’s fifth album, “Ultimate Success Today“, was originally scheduled to follow in May 2020, but was subsequently postponed to that July. Following the release of Relatives In Descent, the band’s critically acclaimed headlong dive into the morass of American life in 2017,
Protomartyr release their fifth album, “Ultimate Success Today”, on Domino. Following the release of “Relatives In Descent“, the band’s critically acclaimed headlong dive into the morass of American life in 2017, “Ultimate Success Today” continues to further expand the possibilities of what a Protomartyr album can sound like.
“Ultimate Success Today” was recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios, a late 19th century church, in upstate New York and co-produced by the band and David Tolomei (Dirty Projectors, Beach House) with mixing by Tolomei. Featured guest musicians on the album include Nandi Rose (vocals) a.k.a. Half Waif, jazz legend Jemeel Moondoc (alto sax), Izaak Mills (bass clarinet, sax, flute), and Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello).
“Michigan Hammers” is fierce with staccato guitar and thrashing percussion. Singer Joe Casey ’s voice is forceful and insist:“ The Michigan Hammers are on their way // A chant from the end of the bar, not all of them on pills // Break apart the surface lot // What’s been torn down can be rebuilt // What has been rebuilt can be destroyed . ”
The accompanying video was directed by Yoonha Park, who was responsible for the band’s “ Wheel of Fortune ” and “ Don’t Go To Anacita ” videos, and was built entirely of found stock footage. “This video is a retelling of a well-known Michigan folk tale that describes timeless themes of greed, power, death and rebirth and nothing short of the conflict of good and evil,” says Park.
Joe Casey further explains:”Couldn’t make a ‘proper’ video due to the miasma. So why not make one using what tools remain? That’s sort of what “Michigan Hammers” is about I think – building with rubble. It’s probably about that and mules, syndicates, too many parking lots, camaraderie, the ideal happy hour, failure, and takin ‘what they’re givin’ ’cause we’re workin’ for a livin ‘until we start takin’ it to the streets. Or something like that. “
“Ultimate Success Today” continues to further expand the possibilities of what a Protomartyr album can sound like.
‘Formal Growth In The Desert’
Since their 2012 debut, Protomartyr have mastered the art of evoking place: the grinding Midwest humility of their hometown, as well as the x-rayed elucidation of America that comes with their vantage.
The group’s sixth album was recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, TX with producer Jake Aron.
The “Polacrilex Kid” video harkens back to the heydays of television and previews Protomartyr’s appearance on The Marty Singer Telethon, Featuring in-studio performances of “Polacrilex Kid” alongside debuts of “Formal Growth In The Desert” standouts “Fun In Hi Skool” and “3800 Tigers,” the telethon is hosted by the inimitable Marty Singer (who Protomartyr fans may recognize from their “Processed By The Boys” video) and Sarah McMahon, The song 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 desert is more of a metaphor or symbol,” singer Joe 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.
The moody lead single/video, “Make Way,” doubles as “Formal Growth In The Desert’s” opening track, with Casey beginning the record by facing tragedy head-on: “Welcome to the haunted earth // The living after life // Where we chose to forget // the years of the Hungry Knife.” The accompanying video, directed by Trevor Naud, is a striking cinematic feat. Of the video, Naud says: “There’s a deliberate through-line between the videos for “Make Way” and 2020’s Worm In Heaven.
The two songs feel partnered with each other. So I wanted the videos to feel like they exist in the same world. There are layers of experiments happening–all within a closed environment. We don’t know what’s happened to the world outside, but there’s an undertone that things maybe aren’t quite right.”
But life does go on, and Casey describes the great theme of “Formal Growth In The Desert” as an embrace and acknowledgment of that fact: a 12-song testament to “getting on with life,” even when it feels impossibly hard.
Casey and his bandmates regrouped with a sense of uncertainty, questioning if and how to continue after the turbulence of the pandemic years. They found themselves using that ambivalence to hone a song they named after a chapter from a 1950’s teen dance manual. “Elimination Dances” refers to a game where “you get tapped out when you lose the dance,” and that felt an apt metaphor for just surviving. Life is a struggle, but “you might as well keep dancing until the tap comes,” Casey says.
“Elimination Dances” is presented alongside a video directed by Yoonha Park, and features dancer Kota Yamazaki. “My dad once told me ‘Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end the faster it goes,’” explains Park. “That idea along with the lyrics led to the idea of a choreographic pattern that repeats as it grows outward in an expanding spiral. The choreography repeats with each cycle but has to be danced faster and faster to keep pace with the ‘pale youth’ until eventually devolving into chaos. I recently learned that the toilet paper quote was actually by Andy Rooney.”
‘Formal Growth In The Desert’ out on Domino.
Consolation E.P.
Consolation E.P. is a four-track EP by Protomartyr. Two of the four songs feature Kelley Deal, a friend of the band, on vocals alongside singer Joe Casey.
The EP was recorded by Deal’s R.Ring bandmate Mike Montgomery and expands Protomartyr‘s arrangements with strings and woodwinds. A fantastic EP from one of the best guitar band’s around. Combining elements of The Fall, The Smiths, Gang of Four into four powerful new tracks. The addition of Kelley Deal on backing vocals really works, making “Wheel of Fortune” one of their best songs so far.
Protomartyr released a new EP “Consolation”,
Hotel Usona
Recorded with legendary producer Dave Fridmann (Nick Cave, MGMT, The Flaming Lips) at his own Tarbox Road Studios in western New York, Hotel Usona—Protomartyr’s seventh full-length studio album—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, guitarist-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. 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: the slow paralysis of modern life, AI, deportation, warped patriotism, violence, JD Vance and the often unbearable weight of becoming a father. It’s a hard look at a nation in free fall, gripped by fascism. You can feel the stakes in every song, feel the band levitating to meet them. They’ve never sounded more powerful.
Casey has imagined his country as an aging hotel here, each song a room haunted by its own troublesome guest: the slow paralysis of modern life (“Sounds We Cannot Hear”), AI (“Feed the Sewer”), deportation (“Third Country”), warped patriotism (“Exalted Eagles”), violence (“The Knife Dream”), JD Vance (“Converts”), and the often unbearable weight of becoming a father anyway (“Checking Out”). It’s a hard look at a nation in free fall, gripped by fascism.
Musically, Ahee has built worlds within a world, drawing new influence from the Middle East and ‘50s exotica, finding common ground between dread and joy, a speciality. All of it—Leonard’s drumming in particular—is rendered more tangible and terrifying by Fridmann, whose son, Jon, contributes horns. You can feel the stakes in every song, feel the band levitating to meet them. They’ve never sounded more powerful.
the album ‘Hotel Usona’ out on 25th September on Domino Recordings
Hailing from what could be regarded as the archetypal city in the throes of the 2010’s post-industrial economic depression, Protomartyr’s work is a testament to the power of music to expose and interpret the darkest undercurrents of a society trapped in a seemingly endless and ill-defined malaise.
Their angular guitar work burrows in the flesh of our bodies, both political and physical, opening and suturing wounds through riffs operating with scalpel-like precision and searing hot textures. Depending on the song, Joe Casey swaps his baritone Sprechgesang with lightning-fast punk invectives as he posits himself as Detroit’s own unheeded doomsayer, grappling with his and our physical and moral decay through oblique and erudite allegories.
Amidst relentless sonic assaults driven by thunderous drumming and pounding basslines, owing an outstanding debt to the Motor City punk scene and British post-punk at its most neurotic, the band are able to construct genuine melodies and catchy refrains piercing the underlying tension and extend unexpected sympathy for our shared wretched condition to the listener. Therein lies Protomartyr’s final statement: there is fragility and rigorous self-analysis beyond the wall of noise and the snarling contempt.”
Tour Dates
Thu. February 11 – Leeds, UK @ Irish Center
Fri. February 12 – Glasgow, UK @ The Garage
Sat. February 13 – Manchester, UK @ Band on the Wall
Mon. February 15 – Bristol, UK @ The Lantern
Tue. February 16 – London, UK @ Electric Brixton
The Fat Angel Sings 