In the next few weeks, Detroit post-punk band Protomartyr will be heading out on a short UK tour, following the release of their highly acclaimed 6th studio album, Formal Growth In The Desert.
“One of the most expert chronicles of our modern misfortunes.” DIY.
“An expansive vigorous post-punk picture.” NME
“Sounding as vital as ever.” Stereogum
Across the board, the album has received great acclaim, nationally and regionally, with a showering of 4 and 5-star reviews. Post-pandemic, the band 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,” frontman Joe Casey says.
Following lead single “Make Way,” “a tense waltz that explodes into a boisterous anthem” (The FADER), “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, was recorded at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas. And 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 — as recounted in today’s “Elimination Dances” — the album’s title is not necessarily a nod to the sandy expanses of the southwest. 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 desert brings an existential awareness that is ultimately internal.
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 “Elimination Dances” here.
Watch the video for “Make Way” here.
Protomartyr UK tour dates
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. 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
Formal Growth In The Desert will be available on Dom-Mart exclusive splatter vinyl (w/ zine and poster), standard vinyl (w/ zine and poster), CD and digitally. Pre-order: Dom Mart | Digital
Protomartyr Online:
Website | Bandcamp | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Photography by Trevor Naud.
