It’s pretty much sold out at this point, but don’t freak out if you didn’t get a badge in time, because we’re planning a little something here in Nashville for early-mid 2026 that you don’t want to miss (even if you’re already going to MAGFest). We’ll dole out more info on that as we know more details. But go ahead and clear your schedules for the entire year, because it’s gonna be a big little something.
And in case you somehow missed all the emails and social posts prior to this and are wondering what this is all about, Act III: This City Made Us is now in the CD and Digital pre-order phase on Bandcamp and we’re releasing one to two songs a week (every Monday or Tuesday) until they’re all out in the world. And if you’re worried about the math, don’t freak out, the first one landed on a Friday and the second one landed on the following Tuesday, but from here on out they’ll land on Mondays or Tuesdays (they’ve all been Tuesdays so far, but we swear Mondays are still in the running). We said 2025, and when we said 2025, we meant 2025. And always remember, only the physical copies of the album (CDs, Records, etc.) come with the libretto/booklet that have all of the fleshed out story and incredible John DeLucca illustration and Caspar Newbolt design.
And still no word on a pre-order date for Vinyl, but we’ll let you know the moment we can get those in your hands.
In case you somehow missed the last few mailers + news posts and are wondering what this is all about, Act III: This City Made Us is now in the CD and Digital pre-order phase on Bandcamp and we’re releasing one to two songs a week (every Monday or Tuesday) until they’re all out in the world. And if you’re worried about the math, don’t freak out, the first one landed on a Friday and the second one landed on the following Tuesday, but from here on out they’ll land on Mondays or Tuesdays (they’ve all been Tuesdays so far, but we swear Mondays are still in the running). We said 2025, and when we said 2025, we meant 2025. And always remember, only the physical copies of the album (CDs, Records, etc.) come with the libretto/booklet that have all of the fleshed out story and incredible John DeLucca illustration and Caspar Newbolt design.
We also posted a w/lyrics track on youtube for “Calling Out” and then another for “This City Made Us.” Go check them out and do the like and subscribe thing on there, too.
And still no word on a pre-order date for Vinyl, but we’re working on it.
In case you somehow missed the announcement mailer/news post and are wondering what this is all about, Act III: This City Made Us is now in the CD and Digital pre-order phase on Bandcamp and we’re releasing one to two songs a week (every Monday or Tuesday) until they’re all out in the world. And if you’re worried about the math, don’t freak out, the first one landed on a Friday and the second one landed on the following Tuesday, but from here on out they’ll land on Mondays or Tuesdays (they’ve all been Tuesdays so far, but we swear Mondays are still in the running). We said 2025, and when we said 2025, we meant 2025. And always remember, only the physical copies of the album (CDs, Records, etc.) come with the libretto/booklet that have all of the fleshed out story and incredible John DeLucca illustration and Caspar Newbolt design.
And still no word on a pre-order date for Vinyl, but we’re working on it.
illustration by John DeLucca – design by Caspar Newbolt
In case you somehow missed the last mailer/news post and are wondering what this is all about, Act III: This City Made Us is now in the CD and Digital pre-order phase on Bandcamp and we’re releasing one to two songs a week (every Monday or Tuesday) until they’re all out in the world. And if you’re worried about the math, don’t freak out, the first one landed on a Friday and the second one landed on the following Tuesday, but from here on out they’ll land on Mondays or Tuesdays. We said 2025, and when we said 2025, we meant 2025. And always remember, only the physical copies of the album (CDs, Records, etc.) come with the libretto/booklet that have all of the fleshed out story and incredible John DeLucca illustration and Caspar Newbolt design.
And before you ask, we still don’t have a pre-order date for Vinyl yet, but we’re working on it.
Just to prove it… here’s the cover. Once again, John DeLucca and Caspar Newbolt have made magic. We can’t wait for you to see the rest of it.
PRE-ORDER ON BANDCAMP So, you know how we’re always like “Hey, it’s Bandcamp Friday and you should go buy stuff from your favorite independent bands because the platform doesn’t take a percentage this day and they’d really appreciate it!”? Well, guess what. It’s Bandcamp Friday and we’re that band today.
What’s special this time? Well, as you saw above, Act III is here and you can pre-order it on CD. I’d say that’s pretty special. Don’t want the CD? That’s fine, you can just pre-order the digital album instead, but remember that the digital-only album doesn’t come with the story booklet/libretto + the amazing John DeLucca artwork. HOWEVER, if you get the CD, it comes with a digital download as well, so you get all the goods. If you don’t want the CD for some reason, gift that thing or sell it on an Ebay or in a back alley after you’ve read the book! Pretty neat.
Now, here’s where it gets really fun. We didn’t want to go the traditional pre-order route. Instead of making you wait (even longer) until the official release date, we’re going to unleash this story on the world episodically with a track (or 2) each week. It’s sort of like that Alien show you’ve been watching… but with sound only. And less aliens, but maybe more robots. But how do you get the new songs every week, you’re wondering? Just refresh the Bandcamp app once a week and they’ll appear. That’s all. Don’t worry, we’ll send an email (and post on the socials) to remind you when there are new songs (usually on Monday/Tuesday). You know, in case you’re so busy waiting on the second season of that Alien show that you forget about us!
Now you’re wondering about the Vinyl release, aren’t you? Well we don’t quite know about that one yet due to replication times, and we don’t want to start a pre-order and have you waiting on it till the end of time. So we’ll announce those the moment we know a for-sure “it’ll be in our hands” date.
It’s been a while since we sent out a mailer or made a post here, but just know that we’ve been busy and things are coming. And better yet, things are sounding real good…
That being said, since it’s been so long, I feel like we need to do a 2024 recap, but I want to keep it as quick as possible, so here goes:
MAGFest was super extreme awesome, our 20th Anniversary show at Eastside Bowl in Nashville was a raging success and included plenty of old friends and past members (including Duke Fetterman, talented identical twin brother of our beloved and gone – but not forgotten, Doug Fetterman. Doug was a man of the land, while Duke is a man of the sea). After that, we snagged a spot in the Nashville Scene’s “Best Of Nashville” lineup in the form of Best Anniversary Show. Right after that, a pretty rad TV show, starring Bruce Campbell and Julie Bowen, called Hysteria! aired on Peacock where they had the in-show-rock band cover “Light Up The Night” as the big finale of the season (seriously, watch the show).
That mostly brings us to now… BLACK FRIDAY THROUGH CYBORG MONDAYYYYYYY….
We had some new merch stuff at the anniversary show that’s now available on our Sound Machine merch store. And we figured it was time to send a new pullover-hoodie out into the world, so grab one or five of those before the highly expected pullover-hoodie famine gets rolling. And what’s even more exciting is that it’s all on sale for 20% off right now until Monday at 11:59 p.m. with the code “TWENTY24” at checkout. You know what to do.
20% off everything in the Sound Machine Store with code –> TWENTY23 (use during checkout) from now until 11:59 p.m. CST Monday, 11/27/23.
It’s getting cold out there, so now’s a pretty good time to grab something from our winter selection at a discount. Don’t get left out in the cold!
Speaking of getting left out in the cold, are you one of those unfortunate souls that didn’t jump on a ticket to our 20th Anniversary show next April before it sold out in 20 days? Well, keep your eyes on our mailer/news letter/news page and socials (facebook, instagram, and the artists formerly known as Twitter), because we’re going to release some more tickets in the next couple months.
You know what? It’s getting mighty close to the 20 year mark from the first show we ever played on April 22nd of 2004. We might as well have a party, right? Well, I don’t care if you think we should or not – We’re doing it. And while we’re at it, we might as well try to bring back some of our old friend-bands to play the night with us to try to relive the glory days of playing in Murfreesboro, TN at the illustrious and world-renowned venue with a pretty solid black bean burger … The Boro. You know, to make it proper.
We’ll announce the special guests closer to the date… which is…..
Pre-sale tickets are currently live. And we’re telling you Mailing Listers/News Lettereers first to give you a head start on tickets.
There are $20 general admission floor tickets available for the first 20 days (price will increase after 20 days). You see what we’re doing with the 20s? … it’s because it’s our 20th anniversary. Really want to hammer it home in case you missed that first paragraph about it being close to the 20th anniversary of our first show. Hopefully more than 20 of you buy them.
THAT BEING SAID… We’ve got a few tiers of tickets going so grab what you’re into:
General Admission Floor ($20 for 20 days then goes up to $25) = just your good ol’ rock n’ roll show experience. Fist pump and high five your new friends on the floor in front of the stage, or you can stand at the back with a judgey look and your arms crossed like a true local Nashvillian!
General Admission Mezzanine ($35) = an elevated balcony experience that allows you to see the show from a higher view and there are optional couches! You also have access to the floor (we recommend using the stairs). Limited to 100 people.
VIP PASSES ($100) = we figured since this event is at a bowling joint, why not go bowling?! This ticket includes a bowling game with the whole VIP crew and The Protomen + normal VIP action with exclusive merch items. Also includes a General Admission Mezzanine ticket for the show. Limited to 20 people. (see what we did there again?!)
••••••••••••• MAGFEST 2024 ••••••••••••• And if all that wasn’t exciting enough, we’re gonna be at MAGFest 2024 in National Harbor, MD from January 18th-21st! I’m not sure which day we’ll be playing yet, but you can bet your ass it’ll be one of them. Get your passes before they’re gone.
JANUARY 2024 18th – National Harbor, MD – MAGFest (Show day TBA) 19th – National Harbor, MD – MAGFest (Show day TBA) 20th – National Harbor, MD – MAGFest (Show day TBA) 21st – National Harbor, MD – MAGFest (Show day TBA)
We kick off the long-overdue Europe tour in less than a week. After 3 years of postponements and false starts and cancellations… we are finally making this thing happen, come hell or high-water. The rock and roll gods have spoken! … and it turns out they reeeaaally wanted us to cancel the whole thing and go back to school to get an IT degree. But we’ve chosen to ignore the gods and get on the half-sinking ship across the Atlantic with nothing but our dreams and 19,000 metric tonnes of gear. We may not all come back, but we refuse to know when to give up!!
On that note, for good or for bad, here are some updates:
NEW SHOW IN MÜNSTER!!! March 16th at Sputnik Halle. We know it’s pretty short notice, but help us out now… let’s try to get the entirety of Germany to that show! We know it’s only a 250 capacity room, but maybe we can squeeze everybody in?
LONDON DATE CHANGE Many of you know this by now, but we wanted to remind everyone that the London show has changed both dates AND VENUES (now O2 Academy Islington on the 18th), but existing tickets are still honored. We know this throws a massive wrench into a lot of people’s plans (ours included). Unfortunately, with the bizarre (and still unexplained) evaporation of both the Sci-Fi Weekender show and the Swansea show, these changes were the only way we could still make the tour happen. We’ve had A LOT of reasons to jump off this ship and swim home, but we know that when we finally get there, it’s gonna be such a glorious moment that it will have all been worth the struggle. Like, when that ship with the T-Rex finally made it to San Diego at the end of Jurassic Park 2. Everyone celebrated and nothing bad happened… right? It’s been a long time since we’ve seen that movie. Maybe we can watch it on the trip over.
Speaking of monsterous lizard birds, we’ve got some more unfortunate news… Makeup And Vanity Set won’t be on the ship heading over to Europe with us after all. We tried begging. We tried twisting his arm. We even tried chloroform, but the ski mask kept him from breathing enough in to knock him out (he’s always one step ahead of us…).
We get it though. All signs have been pointing us towards cancelling this thing and it’s for sure financially irresponsible of US to carry on with two cancelled shows. MAVS is a pretty fancy dude… but he was ready to sleep in the gutters and only eat raw cabbage and rocks like we’re going to, however he’s got some other obligations that make it an unfortunate no-go and we support him in that. And also… he just had his teeth redone, so eating cabbage and rocks would do him no good.
BUT ON TO SOME GOOD NEWS…. Most VIP Tickets are finally available!! — we’re still waiting on Amsterdam and Münster, but we’ll try to let you know as soon as those are live. Keep an eye on our socials (facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and Tour Page, because we might announce them first on those.
>VIP TICKET INFORMATION< If you’re wanting some VIP ticket’s you have to purchase them separately from the main show ticket. If you already have regular show tickets, all you have to do it purchase the VIP ticket and you’re good to go. But if you haven’t gotten tickets to the show yet, you should be able to buy show tickets and VIP tickets at the same time. And if for some interesting reason you ONLY want to come to the VIP pre-show session… because you love seeing grown men and women dolled up in silver facepaint but hate rock and roll, I suppose that’s a thing too?? We won’t judge! And I can confidently say that this tour is happening, so if you’ve been on the fence about getting tickets…. get off the fence and get to getting. We need all the support you can muster over there!
VIP TICKET includes: • Early entry for the concert (one hour before Doors Open) • Early access to merchandise • Meet and Greet with the band • Signing session • VIP group photo with the band • Tour Poster • Exclusive VIP Tour Laminate
**ATTENTION** VIP Ticket does NOT include concert! Ticket for the show needs to be purchased additionally.
Grab some VIP tickets below so we can do some chit-chat with you and sign some stuff before the show. Also, help spread the word, because I know not everybody in the world is on this mailing list (even though they should be).
Speaking of which, let’s go ahead and activate the European Street Team while we’re at it to help get the word out about these shows so we can actually come back a 3rd time! It’s easy, all you have to do is tell other Europeans about the shows.
SOME OTHER GOOD NEWS… CHICAGO WAS AMAZING A huge thanks everyone at Reggie’s rock club, Cybertronic Spree, and to everyone who came out! And it was absolutely wonderful finally sharing the stage with Cybertronic Spree. If you haven’t seen them live yet, go find them… they’re hard to miss. They’ll be the giant robots playing rock and roll (as opposed to The Protomen… a comparatively short band of robots playing rock and roll).
We had an incredible time playing with them, and we can’t wait to do it again soon.
Also, I just thought of something while looking at this European stuff. Is everyone aware that we have a European store with some pretty rad exclusive merch (including Act I records and the old Euro Tour shirt that’s one of the best shirts we’ve ever done)?! … because it sure seems like nobody knows about it. We have all kinds of stuff over there and it ships worldwide. We’re about to stop in and grab what’s left of that merch before these shows, so get it while it’s still there and help us clear out the closet!
EURO TOUR IN ONE MONTH We’ve had a couple big blows to the tour recently with the cancellation of two shows (Sci-Fi Weekender and Swansea), but by damns… we’re still gonna make this thing happen! We’re not exactly sure what went down in either case, but best of luck to those events and venues. You should have gotten or should be able to get a full refund on both of them from point of sale. And if you were planning on going to either of those shows, please join us at any (or ALL) of the other shows on the tour!
*edit update* Another update that just came in is that our London show has changed dates as well as venues to O2 Academy Islington on the 18th (instead of 16th). Existing tickets are still valid… just a different place and date (actually the same venue we played last time we were there and we loved it). We’re incredibly sorry for any inconveniences this may cause. Please bear with us, we’re doing everything we can to make sure this tour actually happens! Please contact the venue if you have any questions or concerns.
And along with all that, we’ve added a limited number of VIP tickets to every show of the tour! If you grab a VIP ticket, you can expect:
Meet and Greet with the band
Signing session
VIP group photo with the band
Tour Poster
Exclusive VIP Tour Laminate
Early access to merchandise
Early entry for the concert
1 pocket-sized clone of Panther that will sing to you any time you want (not really, but one day…)
We’re not exactly sure what day those go live, but keep an eye on our socials for that announcement – facebook – instagram – twitter – friendster
CHICAGO WITH CYBERTRONIC SPREE Chicago in TWWOOOO WEEEEEEKKSSSS… we’re real excited to get up there to eat some Italian Hot Beef Sandwiches for every meal for 3 days straight, and I guess we’re also excited to play a couple shows. It’s probably an even split on the excitement. Maybe it’s like 100% excited about the shows. And 114% excited about the sandwiches. I’m not a math wizard or anything, but I think that’s like 300% pure excitement!! Rest assured, we’ll be bursting with excitement when we get to Chicago. And bursting with hot beefs when we leave. But seriously, we can’t wait to finally share the stage with Cybertronic Spree for this sold out weekend at Reggies!
Here’s the new limited edition poster for the show. If there are any left over after the show, we’ll put them up on the Sound Machine Store.
THE FIGHT IS NOW ON BANDCAMP Getting tired of streaming “The Fight” over and over and want to finally take the plunge and drop the cold hard dollar bill to purchase it outright? Now’s your time. Buy “The Fight” now on Bandcamp so you can own a piece of history. Take a picture of your purchase page, print it out, and then mount it on the shelf right next to your immensely valuable coin collection and culturally significant commemorative porcelain plate display. It’s sort of like an NFT, but makes way more sense.
And we’ve got all the other fancy Fight merch on Bandcamp, too. There’s a super rad sweatshirt, windbreaker, and t-shirt! Grab 3 of each!
