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Mar 11, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Photography by Trevor Naud Protomartyr

Detroit-formed post-punkers Protomartyr have announced a new album, Ultimate Success Today, and shared its first single, “Processed By the Boys,” via a video for the new song. The band have also announced some new tour dates. Ultimate Success Today is due out May 29 via Domino. Check out the “Processed By the Boys” video below, followed by the album’s tracklist and cover art, as well as the band’s upcoming tour dates.

Ultimate Success Today is the band’s fifth album and the follow-up to 2017’s Relatives in Descent and 2018’s Consolation E.P., both also released by Domino. Last year they also put out a deluxe reissue of their debut album, No Passion All Technique.

The band co-produced Ultimate Success Today with David Tolomei (Dirty Projectors, Beach House), who also mixed it. It was recorded at Dreamland Recording Studios, a late 19th century church in Upstate New York

Protomartyr is Joe Casey (vocals), Greg Ahee (guitars), Alex Leonard (drums), and Scott Davidson (bass guitar). Ultimate Success Today also features various guest musicians: Nandi Rose aka Half Waif (vocals), Jemeel Moondoc (alto sax), Izaak Mills (bass clarinet, sax, flute), and Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello).

Casey had this to say about the album in a press release: “The re-release of our first album had me thinking about the passage of time and its ultimate conclusion. Listening to No Passion All Technique again, I could hear myself hoping for an introduction and a long future, but also being cognizant that it could be ‘one and done’ for us. So, when it came time to write Ultimate Success Today, I was reminded of that first urgency and how it was an inverse of my current grapple with how terribly ill I’ve been feeling lately. Was that sick feeling coloring how I felt about the state of the world or was it the other way around?

“This panic was freeing in a way. It allowed me to see our fifth album as a possible valediction of some confusingly loud five-act play. In the same light I see it as an interesting mile marker of our first decade of being a band - a crest of the hill along a long highway. Although just to cover my bases, I made sure to get my last words in while I still had the breath to say them.”

The video for “Processed By the Boys” was inspired by “a bizarre Brazilian TV clip the band became infatuated with. A man sings to a studio audience, while a member of the audience becomes enraged by a puppet, leading the whole situation to devolve into total chaos.”

David Allen and Nathan Faustyn directed the video, which was produced by HLPTV and LooseMeat.Biz. Faustyn had this to say about the video in the press release: “As soon as we heard the concept, we knew how to take the band’s ideas and coalesce them into this sort of timeless public access chaos. Because of the nature of HLPTV and LooseMeat.Biz and who we are - professional and hobbyist technicians - we knew we could pull off a really strange, funny and sardonically dark compendium to this song that is equally such.”

Read our 2017 interview with Protomartyr.

Ultimate Success Today Tracklist:

1. Day Without End
2. Processed By the Boys
3. I Am You Now
4. The Aphorist
5. June 21
6. Michigan Hammers
7. Tranquilizer
8. Modern Business Hymns
9. Bridge & Crown
10. Worm In Heaven

Protomartyr Tour Dates:

Thu. March 12 - Chicago, IL @ Sleeping Village - SOLD OUT
Fri. March 13 - Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Eccentric Cafe
Sat. March 14 - Columbus, OH @ Melted Festival - The Bluestone
Tue. March 17 - Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas
Wed. March 18 - Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas w/ Wire
Thu. March 19 - Austin, TX @ Mohawk w/ The Spits
Mon. April 27 - London, UK @ Peckham Audio - SOLD OUT
Tue. April 28 - London, UK @ The Lexington - SOLD OUT
Wed. April 29 - Paris, FR @ La Boule Noire - SOLD OUT
Thu. April 30 -Utrecht, NL @ Ekko - SOLD OUT
Sat. May 2 -Berlin, DE @ Ubran Spree
Sun. May 3 - Berlin, DE @ Urban Spree
Mon. May 4 - Groningen, NL @ Vera
Tue. May 5 - Brussels, BE @ Nuits Botanique
Mon. June 1 - Toronto, ON @ Lee’s
Tue. June 2 - Montreal, QC @ Le Ritz
Wed. June 3 - Boston, MA @ Sinclair
Thu. June 4 - Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
Sat. June 6 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Sun. June 7 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat
Tue. June 9 - Raleigh, NC @ Kings
Wed. June 10 - Atlanta, GA @ Earl
Thu. June 11 - New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa
Fri. June 12 - Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
Mon. June 15 - Tucson, AZ @ Hotel Congress
Tue. June 16 - Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge
Wed. June 17 - San Diego, CA @ Casbah
Thu. June 18 - Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
Fri. June 19 - Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
Sat. June 20 - Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club
Mon. June 22 - Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Tue. June 23 - Seattle, WA @ Crocodile
Fri. June 26 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
Sat. June 27 - Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club
Sun. June 28 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall

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