MAKEUP AND VANITY SET PRESENTS… THE PROTOMEN… CASSETTE!
Available Now!!!
For the uninitiated, this album is an 8bit remake of our first album (Act I). MAVS made this record while we were all still living at our Thundercon compound in Nashville around 2007. If you’ve somehow never heard it, you can check it out on our Bandcamp page.

But seriously now, it’s about time we released this album on tape. If you don’t know the Tastyvein backstory, I’d love to tell you here, but it would just take too long and you’d still be confused at the end. However, I will tell you that there was an infamous red tape involved. And that red tape is something I want to talk to you about right now…

SWEEPSTAKES COMPETITION EXCITATHON TIME!!!! 
We’ve randomly inserted a single somewhat-carefully recreated replica of that red tape (I somewhat carefully recreated it myself with the factory test tape!) into the 1,000 tapes we had made for this run. 

What, might you say, goes to the lucky person who finds this elusive tape? They’ll receive a lifetime supply of chocolate! Wait… chocolate is expensive. Nevermind, they’ll just get a fancy hand-crafted Cold Steel Ticket (more like a cold steel ID card, but “ticket” sounds better) that gets them into all Protomen shows for free… forever… (excluding Festivals, Private Events, or any other situations where we have no control over entry)!!!!!!  See? That’s way better than chocolate. Ok, probably not better than chocolate. 

On top of all that, we’ve brought back the Grid Shirt to go along with this release. We have 3 types, regular Men’s/Unisex, Women’s, and Unisex Sleeveless. They’re all pretty cool. You should probably buy one of each and wear them all at the same time. 

We also have Combo packs with shirts and tapes, if you’re into buying things together and saving a little money.

OCTOBER TOUR
And don’t forget we’ll be getting on the road at the very end of September heading out west for some serious music banding. We’ll be joined by our dearest of dear friends, Makeup And Vanity Set (whom some of you may remember from the start of this mailer), and Bit Brigade. Tours like this don’t come along very often, especially while we’re working on the single greatest album of recorded time, so do your best to make it to a show. And don’t wait too long to grab tickets, because they’re running low all over the place. 

SEPTEMBER
30th – Chicago, IL – Reggies +17 ***SOLD OUT***

OCTOBER
01st – Kansas City, MO – Riot Room +21
04th – Seattle, WA – Chop Suey •All Ages• ***SOLD OUT***
05th – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theater +19
07th – Portland, OR – Hawthorn Theater •All Ages•
08th – San Jose, CA – The Ritz +21
09th – Los Angeles – Echoplex •All Ages•
13th – Dallas, TX – Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill +16
14th – Memphis, TN – Hi Tone Cafe +18
27th – Nashville, TN – Marathon Music Works (Paranormal Rocktivity) •All Ages•

*some of these age restrictions can be circumvented by having a parent with you. However, YOU SHOULD CHECK WITH THE VENUE FIRST.

And if you happen to be around Nashville on Monday, you should come out to Exit/In for the TWRP show. We might be helping them out on a jam…

That’s all for now. We’ll see some of you soon!

-Commander

p.s. Does it bother anyone else that the Borg can’t decide on a pronunciation of “futile?”

We’re heading out for a short tour in October to get back in shape and to keep our brains from frying from all the Act III studioing. We’ll have our dearest friends, Makeup And Vanity Set and Bit Brigade, with us on the whole trip, so don’t do something silly like skip out on the greatest shows of all recorded time. Also, we think MAVS is gonna defect when he gets to the West coast (you see… I’m saying he’s Sean Connery in this very flimsy Hunt For Red October analogy. Ooooh! And the reason our first show is on Sept 30th is because we wanted to get a head start, since it takes a while to drive a submarine from Nashville to Chicago! Nah, still flimsy. Don’t worry. We’ll figure out the analogy before the tour or we’ll call the whole thing off and try for the “Sweet November” tour… where we just drive the bus to wherever Keanu Reeves is to tell him what a shit movie that was, and that Bill and Ted 3 better come out before Act III, or else).

Also, if you can get to Portland, we’re doing a special VIP Ticket Meet & Greet situation before the show. It’ll be fun, if you’re into that sort of thing.

SEPTEMBER
30th – Chicago, IL – Reggies +17

OCTOBER
01st – Kansas City, MO – Riot Room +21
04th – Seattle, WA – Chop Suey •All Ages•
05th – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre +19
07th – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theatre •All Ages• *Special VIP Meet&Greet Tickets Available*
08th – San Jose, CA – The Ritz +21
09th – Los Angeles – Echoplex •All Ages•
13th – Dallas, TX – Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill +16
14th – Memphis, TN – Hi Tone Cafe +18

*some of these age restrictions can be circumvented by having a parent with you. However, YOU SHOULD CHECK WITH THE VENUE FIRST.

Speaking of MAVS, he’s released a whole lot of new stuff recently, so you should go to his site or bandcamp to check it out (and don’t forget we have a bandcamp now, toooooo!).

More good stuff soon,

-Commander

PHANTOM RACER
In case any of you missed the recent news, we teamed up with TWRP (Tupper Ware Remix Party) on their fancy new album, Together Through Time, to make a little ditty called “Phantom Racer” (apple music, spotify, and bandcamp). It’s a nice fist-pumper-of-a-jam about a murder car on the loose. It also features Game Grumps‘ own Arin Hanson as The Announcer. The rest of the album is pretty rad, too, so you should totally check it out… if you think you can handle it.

Annddd… they’re on tour right now, so be sure to check them out if they come to your town. Remember, they’re Canadian, so they only get let out of their cages every so often, so you better make it count!

PROTO-BANDCAMP
In other news, we finally have most of our stuff available for purchase on Bandcamp (more to come soon – follow us on there for updates). So spread the word, if you’re into that sort of thing. Or don’t, whichever’s funnier.

GAMBLER’S HEART BENEFIT SHOW (not a benefit for Gambler’s heart)
The Gambler has taken it upon herself to do a full show of Heart jams in August to benefit YEAH (Southern Girls Rock Camp and Tennessee Teens Rock Camp). This is her flying solo, but she’ll have a band backing her up to the extreme. So if you like Heart (and who doesn’t?!) and you like Gambler (and who doesn’t?!) and you like supporting kids learning how to make rock and roll (and who doesn’t?!), you should totally make it out to the show and support the cause!  And if Heart and The Gambler aren’t enough for you, there’s gonna be two other bands there playing all ABBA and Talking Heads, too!!!! It doesn’t look like they’re doing advance tickets, so just show up and get in. Info below:

August 24th • The East Room • Nashville (+18 – 8pm – $10)

That’s all for now,

-Commander

p.s. And yes, we’re still working on Act III, and we’re deeeeep.