Protomartyr Return With Fourth Full Length & Domino Debut ‘Relatives In Descent’ Out 9/29

Anxiety about the precarious nature of reality is a recurring thread on Protomartyr’s fourth  full-length and Domino debut, Relatives In Descent (out September 29th). 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. It’s no coincidence this missive comes to us at a moment when disinformation and garbled newspeak have become a daily reality. “I used to think that truth was something that existed, that there were certain shared truths, like beauty,” says Protomartyr singer Joe Casey. “Now that’s being eroded. People have never been more skeptical, and there’s no shared reality. Maybe there never was.”

Relatives In Descent offers new layers and new insights, without sanding any of the edges born from their days as a Detroit bar band. Greg Ahee’s guitar still crackles and spits electricity. Casey’s voice continues to shift naturally between dead-eyed croon and fevered bark. Drummer Alex Leonard and bassist Scott Davidson remain sharp and propulsive, a rhythm section that’s as agile as it is adventurous. But this is also Protomartyr at their most impressive. After months of rehearsal, the band decamped to Los Angeles for two weeks in March of 2017, to record with Sonny DiPerri (Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors), who co-produced the record and helped capture the band’s long-simmering vision for something more complex, but no less visceral.

It all begins with “A Private Understanding,” pegged as the album’s opening statement the second it was finished, and a wellspring from which the following eleven songs flow. At once beautiful and brutal, it mutates from drum-led oddity to unlikely anthem, with some of Casey’s most potent lyrical work at its center: “Sorrow’s the wind blowing through/Truth is hiding in the wire.” The video, shared today, was inspired by a recent trip to Ireland by Casey, wherein he found himself in a pub one night and saw an older gentleman – bearing a slight resemblance to himself – singing a traditional Irish song to a handful of onlookers. In the video, a man (portrayed by 78-year-old Detroit stand-up comic Marty Smith, an acquaintance of Joe’s from his days working door at a comedy club) sings his torturous tale to a bar of people, many of whom show varying degrees of interest.

RELATIVES IN DESCENT TRACKLISTING
1. A Private Understanding
2. Here Is The Thing
3. My Children
4. Caitriona
5. The Chuckler
6.Windsor Hum
7. Don’t Go To Anacita
8. Up The Tower
9. Night-Blooming Cereus
10. Male Plague
11. Corpses In Regalia
12. Half Sister

PROTOMARTYR TOUR DATES
Wed. Sep. 6 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Cattivo w/ Melkbelly
Thu-Sep. 7 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery w/ Melkbelly
Thu. Sep 7 – Sun. Sep. 10 – Raleigh, NC @ Hopscotch Festival
Sat. Sep. 9 – Asheville, NC @ Mothlight w/ Melkbelly
Sun. Sep. 10 – Cincinnati, OH @ Northside Yacht Club w/ Melkbelly
Thu. Sep. 14 – Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Downstairs w/ John Maus
Fri. Sep. 15 – Jersey City, NJ @ Monty Hall
Sat. Sep. 16 – Hudson, NY @ Basilica Soundscape
Sun. Sep. 17 – Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s w/ John Maus
Sat. Sep. 30 – Long Beach, CA @ Music Tastes Good
Sun. Oct. 8 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
Mon. Oct. 9 – Minneapolis, MN @ Turf Club
Thu. Oct. 12 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
Fri. Oct. 13 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
Sat. Oct. 14 – Eugene, OR @ Hi Fi Music Hall
Sun. Oct. 15 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
Tue. Oct. 17 – Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge
Thu. Oct. 19 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger w/ Flasher
Fri. Oct. 20 – Austin, TX @ Barracuda, TX w/ Flasher
Sat. Oct. 21 – Dallas, TX @ Dada w/ Flasher
Sun. Oct. 22 – Houston, TX @ Secret Group w/ Flasher
Tue. Oct. 24 – Atlanta, GA @ the Earl w/ Flasher
Wed. Oct. 25 – Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre w/ Flasher
Thu. Oct. 26 – Washington, DC @ Rock n Roll Hotel w/ Flasher
Fri. Oct. 27 – Philadelphia, PA @ Boot & Saddle w/ Flasher
Sat. Oct. 28 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg w/ Flasher
Thu. Nov. 2 – Prague, CZ @ Futurum w/ METZ
Fri. Nov. 3 – Wroclaw, PL @ Klub Firlej w/ METZ
Sat. Nov. 4 – Warsaw, PL @ Klub Hydrozagadka w/ METZ
Mon. Nov. 6 – Berlin, DE @ Bi Nuu w/ METZ
Tue. Nov. 7 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen w/ METZ
Wed. Nov. 8 – Hamburg, DE @ Knust w/ METZ
Thu. Nov. 9 – Groningen, NL @ Vera
Fri. Nov. 10 – Utrecht, NL @ Le Guess Who?
Sat. Nov. 11 – Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown
Sun. Nov. 12 – Brighton, UK @ The Haunt w/ Sauna Youth
Tue. Nov. 14 – London, UK @ Dome Tufnell Park w/ Sauna Youth
Wed. Nov. 15 – Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute w/ Sauna Youth
Thu. Nov. 16 – Newcastle, UK @ The Cluny w/ Sauna Youth
Fri. Nov. 17 – Glasgow, UK @ CCA w/ Sauna Youth
Sat. Nov. 18 – Dublin, IE @ Whelan’s w/ Sauna Youth
Sun. Nov. 19 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club w/ Sauna Youth
Tue. Nov. 21 – Brussels, BE @ Rotonde
Wed. Nov. 22 – Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix
Thu. Nov. 23 – Nantes, FR @ Pole Etudiant
Fri. Nov. 24 – Angouleme, FR @ La Nef
Sat. Nov. 25 – Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie

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