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Protomartyr

Started by Mark Steels Stockbroker, May 08, 2018, 10:17:00 PM

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Mark Steels Stockbroker

What do you reckon. I'm going to see them in a few days but it's all a bit unnecessary if you ask me.

non capisco

They're pretty much my favourite currently operating band at the minute. I've become a bit obsessed with Joe Casey and his approach to lyric writing. There is a definite Mark E Smith influence in both content and delivery (and being a fiercely intelligent pisshead auto-didact who looks like he doesn't belong in the band he's fronting) but he's got a unique thing of his own going on. Writing songs about a persistent droning noise that only some people in Detroit can hear that supposedly emanates from a factory in a Canadian city over the river. Referencing a surreal episode in Elvis Presley's whacked out late years where he hallucinated the face of Stalin in the sky turning into Jesus. Good shit like that.

QuoteNot by my own hand
Automatic writing by phantom limb
Not with my own voice
Pleurisy made to stand on two legs

That's a hell of a way to start off an album if you ask me. Plus they are fucking fierce live, whether they're playing to a claustrophobic sold out Scala last night or about 50 people in Brighton last time I saw them.

Yeah, Protomartyr, I'm all for 'em, me.

Dr Syntax Head

Interest piqued I just listened to the first song that came up on YouTube. I really dig these guys

non capisco

They're fucking ace, aren't they?

Mark Steels Stockbroker

Lyrics might be interesting if I could hear them over the boring music, which just sounds like bog-standard Quietus-approved alt-rock.

The bits that I can make out sound like the worst sort of "truth bomb" teen politics, so the overall effect is like Interpol doing RATM songs.

non capisco

Quote from: Mark Steels Stockbroker on May 12, 2018, 07:41:02 AM
The bits that I can make out sound like the worst sort of "truth bomb" teen politics, so the overall effect is like Interpol doing RATM songs.

I don't get this at all from their lyrics. I can't think of one of their songs that I'd even slightly describe as "truth bomb" teen politics. What I'm hearing is far more opaque, evocative and mysterious than Rage Against The Machine. 

jobotic

Good name though. reminds me of Cromagnon, another band I know nothing about.

Dr Syntax Head

Quote from: Mark Steels Stockbroker on May 12, 2018, 07:41:02 AM
Lyrics might be interesting if I could hear them over the boring music, which just sounds like bog-standard Quietus-approved alt-rock.

The bits that I can make out sound like the worst sort of "truth bomb" teen politics, so the overall effect is like Interpol doing RATM songs.

Well I fucking love Interpol and RATM so that's good for me actually.

Nobody Soup

yeah, not a fan. I listen to it and it's not bad or anything, I'm just bored after about a minute.

they were part of a trio of harder rock bands I discovered last year. them, Idles and Algiers. Algiers are by far the best.

non capisco

I've been listening to 'Wheel Of Fortune' on repeat for the last three days and it's swelled in my estimation. It's an absolute killer. So much attack. Those spooky Kelly Deal falsettos. Sorry, OP that started this thread just so they could go "well, I think they're shit, actually" to anyone who responded positively. Protomartyr are floating my boat right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=has3qKCRo0A

The video is killer as well.

Norton Canes

But cucumbers are good too

non capisco


Pingers

I like these people a lot. There is something redolent of the angular, discordant guitar music with moments of beauty that various people did very well in the 80s and early 90s, bands like Wolfgang Press. Not that they sound like them, but the aesthetic is similar I think. These days it takes quite a bit for a guitar/bass/drums/vocals setup to catch my attention, having heard so much over the years, but Protomartyr offer something different. It's a good sign when you can give some reference points (The Fall, Sonic Youth) but without coming very close at all to describing the sound. There is a mix of sadness and anger in Protomartyr's music that I like a lot.

I saw them live recently and that was really good. Joe Casey barks his words out like he really means it, and I noticed that his vocals often form part of the rhythm section, which worked really well.

Corpses in Regalia and Half Sister

I will check these out. The band that is supporting them (Preoccupations) dropped onto my radar through Spotify recently and piqued my interest, so maybe I'll like them.

Gonk

Sorry for the necrobump, but just got massively into this lot.

I'm a massive sucker for good music videos and https://youtu.be/yBQy_S_k-qg that introduced me to them. Lyrics are absolutely fantastic, March based premonitions of what kicked off later this year, strange wheel of fortune with an easter egg of what happens later on, and the thing is an otherworldly pastiche of a Brazillian TV incident where a man holding some doughnuts got pestered by a dickhead puppet(eer) to the extent of kicking off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpWbOBl36ts

Went down the youtube recommendation rabbit hole and found Michigan Hammers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofXWdTjvDP4 which is more timely angry music with a stock footage Robocop vibe, before checking out Under Colour of Official.

They definitely seem to be developing into a more focussed/finessed band over time. New album out next month, really looking forward.

If anyone can recommend any similarly vibed music videos I'd be indebted and all.


Janie Jones

Quote from: Gonk on June 24, 2020, 10:10:00 PM
Sorry for the necrobump, but just got massively into this lot.

I'm a massive sucker for good music videos and https://youtu.be/yBQy_S_k-qg that introduced me to them. Lyrics are absolutely fantastic, March based premonitions of what kicked off later this year, strange wheel of fortune with an easter egg of what happens later on, and the thing is an otherworldly pastiche of a Brazillian TV incident where a man holding some doughnuts got pestered by a dickhead puppet(eer) to the extent of kicking off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpWbOBl36ts



I got into them thanks to non capisco's recommendation above and just to agree with your comment, this is probably in my top 10 music videos ever, despite my being oblivious to the event it was parodying.

non capisco

Quote from: Norton Canes on June 16, 2018, 10:34:08 PM
But cucumbers are good too

Oh jeez, I've FINALLY got this! *Edgar Kennedy slowburn*

They're bloody ace, aren't they, Gonk? I love all three of the recent singles, especially Michigan Hammers and Worm In Heaven. Champing at the bit for that new album next month.

Gregory Torso

Quote from: Gonk on June 24, 2020, 10:10:00 PM
Sorry for the necrobump, but just got massively into this lot.
I'm a massive sucker for good music videos and https://youtu.be/yBQy_S_k-qg that introduced me to them. Lyrics are absolutely fantastic, March based premonitions of what kicked off later this year

Damn, this is good.

non capisco

'When the ending comes/Is it gonna run/At us like a wild animal?/A foreign disease/Washed upon the beach/ A dagger plunged from out of the shadows.'

I remember that song with those opening lyrics coming out in March, with coronavirus in the news, and being dizzily excited that I had tickets for both their London dates. Funny old world, innit?

Gonk, may I recommend their 2014 album 'Under Color Of Official Right' if you're not already on it because as CaB's resident Protomartyr obsessive I think it's their best one, with 'Relatives In Descent' a very close second.

Gonk

Not listened to Relatives in Descent yet, but definitely prefer their newer stuff so far. Really looking forward to the next album, have had Michigan Hammers in my head for the last few nights.

Going to give Under Color of Official Right another go while looking at the very good album artwork and see if it clicks some more.

Took me way too long to get that cucumber joke.

non capisco

The new album 'Ultimate Success Today' is a thrilling winner. Not a second of filler on the thing. Aside from the singles, 'The Aphorist' and 'Modern Business Hymns' are my early standouts. Some eerily prophetic lyrics from Joe Casey running all through this thing, not just in 'Processed By The Boys'.

Been clinging to 'Worm In Heaven' like some kind of aural life raft lately. The bit where he sings "Remember me, how I lived...I was frightened" and the guitars cut out keeps making me well up.


The Mollusk

Just started listening to this. Will be back with a full review later but fucking hell, that opener "Day Without End" stopped me dead in my tracks. Found myself staring at the floor, my hands hovering over the laptop keyboard halfway through getting a quote from a new energy supplier, just captivated by it. What a band.

The Mollusk

This album is fucking stupendous. Youse need to have a gander at this, it's poetic darkness in thundering, barbed majesty, the likes of which contemporaries Iceage could only wish to achieve. And I REALLY like Iceage. Actual review still pending, when I'm less pissed, but suffice to say this is a fucking brilliant record.

non capisco

Just realised the first lyric on the new album is a direct and crushingly hope-dashing answer to the last lyric on the previous one, which ended with Casey repeating "She's just trying to reach you" over and over again. This one starts with "I could not be reached/No matter how many times she repeats." Love that type of thing.

Pingers

I haven't heard this yet, but certainly will. As it happens I was listening to Double Negative by Low tonight and thinking what a great source of musical recommendations non capisco is, and all put across with such love and enthusiasm for the music, a really top poster.

non capisco


The Mollusk

Quote from: non capisco on July 21, 2020, 11:09:11 PM
Just realised the first lyric on the new album is a direct and crushingly hope-dashing answer to the last lyric on the previous one, which ended with Casey repeating "She's just trying to reach you" over and over again. This one starts with "I could not be reached/No matter how many times she repeats." Love that type of thing.

Crikey, well spotted. Since Casey has recently said he hopes to close off the chapter in his life where he writes terribly sad stuff and wishes to move on from grieving the passing of his father, with any luck the next album will open with the lyrics, "Turns out I was! Wahey!" followed by the sound of a tinny being cracked open. A nice tinny though, not the bloody Fosters he was wearily slurping when I last saw them play, more like one of those pre-mixed cocktails of Malibu Rum & Pineapple. Swap the knackered old suit for a Hawaiian shirt, get some nice product on that blotchy booze-aged face. Fuck it, nominate Joe for the Queer Eye makeover.

Loving this album, though. Those rain-drenched guitars, that thudding percussion that seems to grab you by the collar and shake you out of one miserable stupor before dropping you into another, even more miserable stupor. I want to go back and pay more attention to the lyrics of the two albums that preceded this, since I was always really impressed by 2014's "Under Color of Official Right" but it's abundantly clear that they've come a long way since then and are a band at the top of their game.

"The Aphorist" was one that immediately stood out for me, it's fantastic, and I'm mostly glad I (unconsciously) waited until the album dropped to hear "Worm in Heaven" for the first time, as it works sensationally as the album's closer. The last few weeks I've been grappling with increasingly intense and almost unbearable feelings of existential hell, pondering my own existence and whether or not I even exist at all which has pushed my depression to some extreme lengths, and this song has reached out sung directly into my ear.

amputeeporn

I've been urged by a red warning sign to start a new thread but I won't.

In spite of that, the only thing I want to add here is what an incredibly special band this group are. I don't know if anyone else here has listened to the various podcast interviews available with Joe Casey (the lead singer) but he is a truly special and well-read man who I would like to know personally and hug. He's alluded to the financial situation of the band being totally dire as a result of Covid, so I really hope and pray it doesn't kill them off.

non capisco

Quote from: amputeeporn on October 27, 2020, 10:08:42 PM
I don't know if anyone else here has listened to the various podcast interviews available with Joe Casey (the lead singer) but he is a truly special and well-read man who I would like to know personally and hug. He's alluded to the financial situation of the band being totally dire as a result of Covid, so I really hope and pray it doesn't kill them off.

It would be one hell of a musical tragedy if they never get to play something like Michigan Hammers live. I had tickets to see them in two tiny London venues on two consecutive nights earlier in the year where they would have unveiled the 'Ultimate Success Today' songs. Ah man, those shows would have been astounding. It does sound from what Joe says in recent interviews that they're completely on their arse now but I hope there's a future for them and all bands of their ilk. I am pretty obsessed with them and I can't begin to imagine how beautifully cathartic a post-Covid gig of theirs would feel for me.