Protomartyr Announce New Album Ultimate Success Today, Share “Processed By The Boys” Video

Detroit post-punk band Protomartyr announce the arrival of their fifth album, Ultimate Success Today, and share a music video for the single “Processed By The Boys.” The album will be released on May 29 on Domino Records.

Last year, the band reissued their first album, No Passion All Technique, which was self-released in 2012 but had since fallen out of print. Ultimate Success Today follows the band’s acclaimed 2017 album Relatives in Descent. The two albums are akin in substance, both being political ruminations about the self-induced decline of American civilization.

“The re-release of our first album had me thinking about the passage of time and its ultimate conclusion,” says Protomartyr frontman Joe Casey in a statement. “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?”

The first single from the forthcoming record, “Processed By The Boys,” has the classic wall-of-noise feel of a Protomartyr track, with the hilarious visual of a C-SPAN studio audience member being harassed by a puppet while Casey sings. The music video, directed by David Allen & Nathan Faustyn, and produced by HLPTV & LooseMeat.Biz, is actually based on a viral video clip titled “Puppet trolling viewer during the concert live on Brazilian TV.” The band apparently became obsessed with the clip and knew they wanted to recreate it themselves.

“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,” says Faustyn in a statement.

The lyrics of “Processed By The Boys” shockingly juxtapose the inherent humor of the music video with the song’s opening lines : “When the ending comes / Is it gonna run / At us like a wide-eyed animal? / A foreign disease / Washed upon the beach / A dagger plunged from out of the shadows.”

“There is darkness in the poetry of Ultimate Success Today,” says Ana da Silva, founding member of The Raincoats, in a bio for the album. “The theme of things ending, above all human existence, is present and reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Our world has reached a point that makes us afraid: fires, floods, earthquakes, hunger, war, intolerance … There are cries of despair. Is there hope? Greed is the sickness that puts life in danger.”

Watch the music video for “Processed By The Boys” below, and see the details of Ultimate Success Today further down, along with Protomartyr’s tour dates. You can preorder their new record right here.

Ultimate Success Today Tracklist:
01. Day Without End
02. Processed By The Boys
03. I Am You Now
04. The Aphorist
05. June 21
06. Michigan Hammers
07. Tranquilizer
08. Modern Business Hymns
09. Bridge & Crown
10. Worm In Heaven

Ultimate Success Today Album Art:

Protomartyr Tour Dates:

March
12 – Chicago, Ill. @ Sleeping Village – SOLD OUT
13 – Kalamazoo, Mich. @ Bell’s Eccentric Cafe
14 – Columbus, Ohio @ Melted Festival – The Bluestone
17 – Austin, Texas @ Hotel Vegas
18 – Austin, Texas @ Hotel Vegas w/ Wire
19 – Austin, Texas @ Mohawk w/ The Spits

April
27 – London, U.K. @ Peckham Audio – SOLD OUT
28 – London, U.K. @ The Lexington – SOLD OUT
29 – Paris, France @ La Boule Noire – SOLD OUT
30 – Utrecht, Netherlands @ Ekko – SOLD OUT

May
02 – Berlin, Germany @ Ubran Spree
03 – Berlin, Germany @ Urban Spree
04 – Groningen, Netherlands @ Vera
05 – Brussels, Belgium @ Nuits Botanique

June
01 – Toronto, Ont. @ Lee’s
02 – Montreal, Que. @ Le Ritz
03 – Boston, Mass. @ Sinclair
04 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Elsewhere
06 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ Underground Arts
07 – Washington, D.C. @ Black Cat
09 – Raleigh, N.C. @ Kings
10 – Atlanta, Ga. @ Earl
11 – New Orleans, La. @ Gasa Gasa
12 – Dallas, Texas @ Club Dada
15 – Tucson, Ariz. @ Hotel Congress
16 – Phoenix, Ariz. @ Rebel Lounge
17 – San Diego, Calif. @ Casbah
18 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Lodge Room
19 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Lodge Room
20 – Oakland, Calif. @ Starline Social Club
22 – Portland, Ore. @ Wonder Ballroom
23 – Seattle, Wash. @ Crocodile
26 – Minneapolis, Minn. @ 7th Street Entry
27 – Milwaukee, Wis. @ Cactus Club
28 – Chicago, Ill. @ Thalia Hall