Big thanks to everyone that came to the NY show last month. We had an unbelievably fun time being back at Williamsburg Music Hall and it was surreal to watch the film from the back of the same room it was filmed in. It was like the crowd just melted into the crowd on the screen.
#sortoflikeaninfinitymirrorbutnotexactlylikeaninfinitymirrorbecauseitisntreallyinfiniteanditisntreallyamirror

LIGHT UP THE MINI-TOUR
We had so much fun in NY that we’re gonna head across the country next month with the Light Up The Night video in tow and show it in a couple of our favorite cities before returning to our work in the studio. We’ll only be showing it in 5 cities (Nashville, Orlando, Austin, LA, and Denver), so road trips are encouraged. And just like NY, we’re hosting a fancy Meet/Greet/Q/A/Rock/Show-style soiree after the video. Some cities will be all-in-one video/show parties, while a couple (Orlando and Austin) will be split across two venues (and in Austin’s case, two days) of Proto-excitement to allow us to show the video in a couple of really rad theaters. Show info below and on the Tour Page.

AND… remember that super limited edition screen printed NY poster from the last mailer? Well, I couldn’t tell you at the time, but it was the first in a series of fancy posters for all the video screenings on this upcoming tour. Caspar (our designer and co-director of the film) has put together a different poster for Nashville, Orlando, Austin, Los Angeles, and Denver using different panels of the DeLucca comic art from the video, and they’re suuuper rad. We can’t wait to show you all of them, but in the mean time, here’s the latest one for the Nashville screening at Belcourt Theater. Can anyone collect them all?

NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL
And THEN, do you remember that time I said the Belcourt show would be the first time the video was shown in all it’s Surround Sound glory. Well… I got turned into a liar. Light Up The Night was chosen to be part of the Nashville Film Festival and will be shown twice in late April at Regal Hollywood 27 in Nashville. I’m not exactly sure how attendance works for these things, but if you can figure it out, just don’t spoil it for the rest of us. We’re all dying to know if things turn out okay for Joe and Tom in the surround sound version.

But if you can’t make it to those showings, don’t worry too much. We’ll see you at the big Belcourt show coming up on May 18th… and it “May” just be the greatest show to ever happen on the face of the Earth… or not, whichever’s funnier.

MAY
18th – Nashville, TN – The Belcourt Theater *ALL AGES* ∆
20th – Orlando, FL – Enzian Theater *ALL AGES* †
20th – Orlando, FL – The Abbey *18+* •
25th – New Orleans, LA – Southport Music Hall *18+* •
26th – Austin, TX – Come and Take It Live *ALL AGES* •
27th – Austin, TX – Alamo Drafthouse (South Lamar) *ALL AGES* †
30th – Los Angeles, CA – Echoplex *16+* ∆

JUNE
2nd – Las Vegas, NV – Vinyl at Hard Rock *6+… ? Seiriously, 6 years old and up* •
4th – Denver, CO – The Oriental Theater *18+* ∆
5th – Kansas City, KS – Riot Room *21+* •

That’s all for now,

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 7 Comments

NEW YORK
Check out the fresh new fancy 18″x 24″ screen printed poster for the NY Light Up The Night show/screening/Q&A/meet&greet extravaganza at the same venue where the video was shot all those 200 years ago. Big thanks to John DeLucca for being the most incredible artist we’ve ever known (we don’t personally know Syd Mead, so you get a pass there, DeLucca…). These are in crazy limited supply and exclusive to the NY show, so don’t miss out on one. And don’t miss out on tickets to the show, either, because they’re moving fast. Get tickets below.

MARCH
08th – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg (Video showing/Q&A/rock show/meet-n-greet) *18+

BOSTON
As I’m sure most of you already guessed from the last mailer, we ARE playing PAX on Friday night with Bit Brigade and Videri String Quartet. If you’re gonna be at PAX, you have no excuse not to be there (and no, being “tired” isn’t an excuse. That’s exactly what they invented PCP for *).

*note – please don’t take PCP.

For those of you who plan on hanging around Boston after PAX, and/or weren’t able to get PAX tickets before they sold out… don’t forget we’ve got that suuuper rad Post-PAX show at Royale on Monday, with us, Bit Brigade, MC Frontalot, and newly announced Powerglove! This one is gonna be intense.

MARCH
13th – Boston, MA – Royale *18+

NASHVILLE
And you didn’t think we’d only give NY the fancy Light Up The Night screening treatment, did you? We’re doing the same thing at the Belcourt Theater in Nashville on May 18th. Not only will this be the first time it’s shown in an actual movie theater, but this will be the first time anyone besides us has heard the film in 5.1 Surround Sound, as well. And this is the first time we’ve had an all ages show in Nashville in FOREVER. It’s pretty fancy, so go ahead and get to thinking about going ahead and thinking about getting tickets right now!

MAY
18th – Nashville, TN – Belcourt Theater (Video showing/Q&A/rock show/meet-n-greet) *ALL AGES

And for everyone else (not really eevverryone, but you know what I mean), don’t worry, we’ve got a few more Light Up The Night events coming that are spread out across the US, and we’ll be announcing them soon.

THE COVER UP
In other news, if you’ve got the yearn for your very own Cover Up record, now’s the time, because they’re almost sold out. And who knows if/when we’ll press more. Dennis DeYoung of Styx said it was his favorite cover of Mr Roboto he’s ever heard (and I promptly shit my britches all over the place when I heard that). So you really don’t want to miss out on having something that prestigious in your record collection, do you? I already bought two copies just in case.

See some of you real soon, and spread the word.

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 3 Comments

We’re heading up to NY and Boston next month, and we’re bringing the Light Up The Night video with us! We’re doing a one-night-only-in-NY Light Up The Night showing, Q&A (with directors, Matt Sundin and Caspar Newbolt, as well as several of us), rock show, and meet-n-greet at the same venue where we shot a lot of the video. Come relive the magic and memories!! Tickets are going fast, so move quick.

And several days after that we’re doing an After-PAX rock show blowout in Boston at Royale with our dearest of friends, MC Frontalot and Bit Brigade.

MARCH
08th – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg (Video showing/Q&A/rock show/meet-n-greet) *18+
13th – Boston, MA – Royale *18+

In other news, the Joe Jackets came in a few days ago and they’re suuuuper rad. We’ll try to get some photos of them posted on facebook/instagram/twitters in the next few days. There was a bit of a snag in production and the size labels are one size off (Smalls are labeled as Medium… Medium as Larges, and so on), but instead of sending them back to the factory and have you wait another long time, we thought it best to just let everyone know the situation and give you options. Good news is, this makes them even more limited edition, like baseball card errors (looking at you, Bill Ripken)! For those of you incredibly intelligent and stylish people who’ve already pre-ordered, the Light Up store will be contacting you about your sizing options soon. If you’re buying one today, I’d just recommend going with the one size larger than you normally wear and you’ll be fine. These same general instructions are on the bigcartel site now, so new purchasers shouldn’t expect an email from Light Up store about sizing options. And we hope to have a sizing chart up on the store very soon that will explain in more detail.

Speaking of the Light Up The Night video… if you haven’t watched it yet, what are you waiting on? Go to protomen.com and watch it for free and spread the word!

See you next month,

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 3 Comments

artwork by John DeLucca and Caspar Newbolt

Our first-official-music-video-ever is finally here! And as a wise Cheech once said on a warm summer night in 1989, “better late than never.” So as direct competition to Rogue One, we release, Light Up The Night! We’ll just see how well you do at the box office now, Mr. Disney…

So rather than bore you with a bunch of jibberjabber, you should just go over to our website right now and watch the 16 minute short film/music video spectacular for yourself… for free! And while you’re at it, why don’t you go ahead and Pre-Order all the fancy new merch that you see on the page. And again, I won’t waste your time with explaining all the merch here. Just click on the stuff you like and read the descriptions. That is why Nikola Tesla invented websites and descriptions, after all.

… but I will say that if you purchase a package, Soundtrack EP, Bluray,or Hi-Res video for download, a download link will be emailed to you almost immediately for whatever you got (just click “Start watching” button to get to downloads). But don’t expect an immediate purchase verification email, because Bigcartel isn’t too quick on that for some reason.

Watch video here ——> PROTOMEN.COM

and don’t forget to tell your friends, and your friends friends, and your friends friends friends, and your friends friends friends enemies.

NEW YEARS EVE
And do you have your tickets already for our NYE show at Exit/In in Nashville with Makeup And Vanity Set, The Dead Deads, and Born Empty? If not, get them below. It’s gonna be suuuper rad.

DECEMBER
31st – Nashville, TN – Exit/In *18+

MAGFEST (Jan 05th)
ANNNNNND in case you haven’t already heard, we’re playing MAGFest next month on the 5th (Thursday night)! Get your butts to the party on time… or else…

JANUARY
05th – National Harbor, MD – MAGFest (show day)
06th – National Harbor, MD – MAGFest (hangout day)
07th – National Harbor, MD – MAGFest (hangout day)

Go ahead and light it up,

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 5 Comments

We’ve got a Black Friday sale on the SoundMachine Store this weekend that’s rolling all the way through Cyborg Monday, and that means 20% off everything.
For the discount, enter this code at checkout: GIMME20

*NOTE* Sale is live now and ends at 11:59 pm CST on Monday (28th).

And being the 25th anniversary of the loss of Freddie Mercury… and Thanksgiving-ish, we figured it was time to get the Night Of Queen vinyl in motion. That being said, I hope everyone ate some traditional Thanksgiving fried chicken in his honor (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’ve got some “One Vision” to catch up on). The pre-order starts today and we have some pretty rad record slipmats and a 4’x4′ flag with the crest from the liner notes. Vinyl comes in black, clear, and split black/clear. And we’ve got several combos to help you save even more on stuff.

NEW YEARS
In other news, I hope you don’t have plans for New Years already, because we’re gonna have the fiercest of throwdowns at Exit/In. Makeup And Vanity Set is gonna be there, and so are The Dead Deads and Born Empty! Come help us celebrate the end of this horrible nightmare of a year (well, except for the Cubs… they had a pretty good one)!

DECEMBER
31st – Nashville, TN – Exit/In *18+

Also, don’t go thinking we forgot about the Light Up The Night video. Just getting the final ducks in a row. Soooon.

Fried chicken,

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 7 Comments

It’s almost here…

Light Up The Night, starring James Ransone (The Wire, Generation Kill, Tangerine), is a 16 minute short film epic extravaganza of pure excitement that spans “Light Up The Night” through “The Fall”… plus a little extra. It was directed by Matt Sundin and Caspar Newbolt, and some of you were even in it! We’ve been working on this for a long damned time, and we absolutely can’t wait for you to finally see it.

With that said, if you live near Austin, TX, you/we don’t have to wait very long. It’s being shown this Friday (5:30pm) at the Austin Music Video Festival… in a movie theater, no less! (EDIT – Ok, so it turns out it was absolutely not shown in a movie theater…). Do not miss it.

And for everybody else who can’t make it to Austin, stay tuned here and on our facebookinstagramtwitters, because we want you to see it as soon as possible, too. We’ve just gotta finish making some sweet things before we unleash the beast. Keep your feet on the grindstone.

If you didn’t already click on that image above, go ahead and click this link right here… it’s the trailer!

CHICAGO and LEXINGTON
Don’t forget that we have a couple super rad shows coming up real soon in the North-Central America region of Chicago, IL and Lexington, KY. Chicago is this Thursday for Reggie’s 9th anniversary super party, and Lexington is at The Burl on the 24th as the makeup show for just one of those times that our bus exploded.

SEPTEMBER
08th – Chicago, IL – Reggies (9th Anniversary Show) *17+
24th – Lexington, KY – The Burl *21+

More soon.

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 11 Comments

So, as most of you probably know, we ran into serious bus issues a couple weeks ago on they way to our Lexington show, or as Panther called it, “a catastrophic wheel bearing failure.” Since we couldn’t make the show, we went ahead and rescheduled for Sept 24th. Sooo, if you bought tickets for the July 22nd show, your tickets are still valid (and you should have gotten an email with details. If not, get in touch with them about it).

CHICAGO
We’re coming for you… again. Reggies asked us to play their 9th Anniversary Spectacular on Sep 8th, and tickets are only $9! And if you think you’re gonna be hungry that day, they’re gonna have a buffet for $9, as well. And we’re not the only ones playing, they’ve got a whole turdload of other bands in two rooms!

SEPTEMBER
08th – Chicago, IL – Reggies (9th Anniversary Show) *17+
24th – Lexington, KY – The Burl *21+

In other news, if you’ve got a hankering for a new Act II shirt (logo and/or album cover), they’re back in stock at the Sound Machine Store.

More cool shit is coming up soon, so keep your ear on the prize (that’s a thing, right?).

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 6 Comments

We’ve got a couple of one-off shows (does that make it a double-off?) coming next month in KY and TN, and I thought that every single one of you should know about it. We haven’t been to Lexington, KY in a long time… or ever, so we thought we’d make it happen real fast before we play a pretty rad street fest in Nashville on the 23rd. The Lexington show is the grand re-opening of the The Burl, and the Elliston Place Street Fest is a Lightning 100 production (and 45th anniversary of Exit/In) with all kinds of fancy bands/friends, like: Diarrhea Planet, The Features, Ri¢hie, KDSML, and more! Both the shows are gonna be super fun… or are they?!

JULY
22nd – Lexington, KY – The Burl *21+
23rd – Nashville, TN – Elliston Place Street Fest *18+

In other news, Makeup And Vanity Set released two whole new albums recently, and you should stop not knowing about it. First up is his soundtrack to the hit new film… Hit TV, and second up is his soundtrack to the hit new electronic video game, Brigador. Brigador, Vol. 1 (don’t miss the record or cassette pre-orders). I highly recommend picking up both. They’re super sassy. Ohhhh… I almost forgot about his Wavehymnal EP that he released in April. Get on all of it.

And if you’re wondering where the Light Up The Night video is that we teased at PAX, well… hold on to your butts, more info is coming soon. Stay tuned.

See you in the heat coming off the street,

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 2 Comments

I’m gonna get straight to the point on this mailer, since I just sent one of these a couple weeks ago.

We’ve got a couple things going on during this tour (…THAT JUST STARTED TODAY!!!) that I figured at least two of you might be into, and they’re just past this sentence that you’re reading right now, so stop reading it and skip to the next part, otherwise you may never know what it is we’re doing for the rest of this tour that just started today.

GEARGODS.NET – TOP TEN TOP TENS
So here’s what’s going on… we did a thing. And we’re gonna keep doing that thing for the entire time we’re on this tour. That thing we did, and will continue to do, is essentially Ten Top Ten Lists that we’ll release on GearGods.net every show-day of this tour (plus the hangout day at PAX). One’s already out in the wild! So, if you want to follow what we’re up to on this tour, go check Gear Gods, it’ll sorta be like listening to us argue on the bus!

NEW NOISE MAGAZINE
And if that wasn’t enough action for you, we’re going to take over New Noise Magazine’s Instagram all day/night tomorrow (4/19). So if you’re an instagramming type, you should hang out with us there tomorrow. @newnoisemagazine

APRIL
18th – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom *ALL AGES    †
19th – Buffalo, NY – Waiting Room *ALL AGES    †
20th – Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground *19+    †
22nd – Boston, MA – PAX East *ALL AGES    †
23rd – Boston, MA – PAX East (HANG OUT DAY)
25th – Boston, MA – Middle East *18+    †∆
26th – Philadelphia, PA – World Cafe Live  *ALL AGES    †∆
28th – Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme *ALL AGES    ∆
29th – Indianapolis, IN – Emerson Theater *ALL AGES    ∆
30th – Chicago, IL – Reggies *ALL AGES    ∆

† shows with BIT BRIGADE
∆ shows with MATH THE BAND

See some of you sooooon,

-Commander

P.S…… If you’re going to be in Boston for PAX, you probably shouldn’t miss our Friday night show. We might have something to show you…

Tags: Protomen News | 2 Comments

Fancy New Press Photo

design and extreme photoshopping to make us look pretty by: Caspar Newbolt
photo by: Jason Myers

It’s about that time again. We’re heading back out on the road next month to make a few stops in the northeast and “midwest” (stop kidding yourselves, Ohio, you’re about as midwest as Utah is mideast). And just like last time, we’re gonna have some friends in tow. First half of the tour, Bit Brigade will be dropping their thunders, and then the second half, Math The Band is gonna pick up all those thunders that Bit Brigade dropped and drop them again. And if that wasn’t enough thunder dropping for you, a couple shows right in the middle are gonna get double thunder dropped (not to be confused with Dr. Thunder dropped. You don’t want to know what that’s like…). It will be the most fun anyone has ever had in the entire history of history… or so ancient astronaut theorists contend. Check the dates below for the lineup breakdown and ticket links.

APRIL
18th – Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom *ALL AGES    †
19th – Buffalo, NY – Waiting Room *ALL AGES    †
20th – Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground *19+    †
22nd – Boston, MA – PAX East *ALL AGES    †
25th – Boston, MA – Middle East *18+    †∆
26th – Philadelphia, PA – World Cafe Live  *ALL AGES    †∆
28th – Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme *ALL AGES    ∆
29th – Indianapolis, IN – Emerson Theater *ALL AGES    ∆
30th – Chicago, IL – Reggies *ALL AGES    ∆

† shows with BIT BRIGADE
∆ shows with MATH THE BAND

This is the last last call for people who bought/pre-ordered the Clear version of the This City Made Us 10 inch record single at a show last year. If you ordered one and haven’t received it in the mail yet, it means you might have changed addresses or forgot to fill out some needed information. So, if you’re still waiting for yours, hurry up and send a message here with all that info.

And just a heads up for anyone interested in the Act II posters. We revamped them recently and made the big one even more gigantic. It’s now standard classic movie poster size (27″x41″), so you won’t have all those horrific frame troubles anymore.

That’s all I’ve got… for now.

See you next month,

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 1 Comment