SOUNDTRACK: PROTOMARTYR-Tiny Desk Concert #492 (December 4, 2015).
Promtomartyr’s Under Color of Official Right has been one of my favorite albums of the last few years. Joe Casey’s vocals are more or less spoken (and angry) while the music is propulsive and rocking. Sometimes punk, sometimes something else entirely. It’s a weird pairing but it worked wonderfully.
I hadn’t heard their new album yet–I am a little afraid that they’re going to mess with the perfection of their second album–but as soon as I saw they did a Tiny Desk Concert I had to check it out.
“Singer” Joe Casey stands at the front. He wears a suit and sunglasses (evidently he has some stage fright issues) and he barely moves. And then there’s the rest of the guys–each wearing all black, looking like the backing band for someone else entirely (the bassist has super long blond hair). And yet, man, do they play great together.
The band plays three songs. The first two are from their new album. “Why Does It Shake?” has a cool interesting bass line and sharp, occasional guitar chords along with drums that are mostly played along the rim. The song unexpectedly slows down for a middle section. And all along, Casey asks his tough, threatening lyrics. The song is over 4 and a half minutes, perhaps one of their longest tracks.
The second song, “”Devil In His Youth” is a fast propulsive song with a great catchy riff that leads to the simple spoken chorus of “the devil in his youth.” This song is much more familiar in terms of Protomartyr songs and is only two and a half minutes long.
The final song comes from their debut album, No Passion All Technique (which is hard to get and which I’ve never heard). The song doesn’t sound drastically different from the others, but you can hear a different tone, perhaps a little less abrasive?
Naturally for a curmudgeonly band, they don’t play anything from the album I love, but this set is really good nonetheless. And yes, it may be time to investigate the new album.
[READ: October 28, 2015] Super Mutant Magic Academy
I saw this book when we were visiting Toronto and I wrote down the title to check it out. I didn’t know anything about it, and didn’t realize that I knew the work of Jillian Tamaki from several great graphic novels
I also had no idea that this was actually a long in progress webcomic that Tamaki has put into book form.
And finally, I didn’t expect it to be a series of one page funny strips that tell an overarching story. (more…)
