I’m gonna be honest here, this year is off to a pretty rough start. Losing Lemmy, Bowie, and Rickman in about two weeks is really hard to swallow. Every one of those dudes influenced us in a big way. Lemmy and Bowie are obvious, but without Die Hard… none of us would have made it to our 20’s.

Thanks for everything, guys. You’ll be sorely missed.

JANUARY – FEBRUARY SHOWS
Now, on to some better news. We’ve got some rad southern shows starting on Friday, with our good friends, Bit Brigade. If we don’t see you there, we probably won’t see you for a long time. Check below for the details and ticket links.

JANUARY
22nd – Memphis, TN – Hi Tone
23rd – Little Rock, AR – Vino’s
24th – Dallas, TX – Gas Monkey
25th – Houston – Walter’s Downtown
26th –  Austin, TX – Sidewinder
29th – San Antonio, TX – PAX (Show day)
30th – San Antonio, TX – PAX (Hang-out/Meet-n-Greet day)
31st – San Antonio, TX – The Korova 

FEBRUARY
01st – New Orleans, LA – Southport Music Hall

And to stay up to date between mailers, don’t forget these fellas: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

THIS CITY MADE US
After the excruciating wait, you should be enjoying your This City Made Us 10″ Act III record single by now. However, it sounds like a few people that bought the pre-order on the last tour haven’t sent updated mailing addresses, so if you know you bought it at a show and haven’t received it yet, send a message here with some info.

That’s all for now.

By Grabthar’s hammer,  you shall be avenged,

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 5 Comments

Why, hello there.

I just wanted to give you a quick recap before I catch you up on all the goings on. The west coast tour was absolutely amazing. If you came to one or five of the shows on this past tour, and are reading this right now, I just want you to go ahead and give yourself a nice pat on the back. I don’t care if you’re at your cubicle and your boss is watching. Your boss needs to know. And if he or she gets weird about it, just say you thought you might have a little dandruff… or a little lice. And if he or she gets weird about that, just say you were just joking about the dandruff and lice stuff, and that you were really just reading band newsletters while you were supposed to be working. Bosses love it when people do that.

Either way, I just wanted to say that you did a good job. Probably the best tour we’ve ever been on, so a big “attaboy” and “attagirl” to everyone that made it out. And then an extra special “attaboy” and “attagirl” to everyone in Dallas. You people were pure rock and roll in a rainstorm.

Now, on to the new stuff.

OCTOBER 3rd
Surprise Nashville show on Oct 3rd! It’s a big day of music at East Park in Nashville called East Side Social. We’re gonna close out the night, but don’t be late because there’s all kinds of great bands that day. For instance, The Features will be playing right before us, and Alanna Royale, Reno Bo, The Future, Justin and the Cosmics, Smoking Flowers, and Lilly Hiatt will be dropping their respective hammers before that. Don’t miss it.

03rd – Nashville, TN – East Side Social at East Park

ROCK BAND
In case you haven’t already heard the swell news, “Light Up The Night” is going to be in Rock Band 4 (releases October 6th)!  We got to test it out at PAX a few weeks ago, and it was surreal… and fun as shit (we generally sucked at it, though). I’d suggest getting RB4, and then I’d go on to suggest bugging the shit out of them for more of our songs as DLC, especially “This City Made Us.” You know what to do.

MEGA MAN LEGACY COLLECTION
Speaking of games and Rocktober… we aren’t in this one, but our friends at Capcom have done a mighty good thing by releasing a rad collection of the most essential Mega Man games ever made in the absolute history of all mankind, 1-6. You can get The Mega Man Legacy Collection on PS4, XBOX, and Steam (and 3DS is coming next year)! Not only does it have all 6 NES originals, it comes with challenge modes, a museum of concept art, and all manner of fancy suches. If you don’t support this one, how can you expect them to make any other MM games?

THIS CITY MADE US
No real updates yet on when the records will be done at the plant, unfortunately. We’ll let you know the moment we hear anything. In the mean time, get your pre-order on (comes with instant MP3 download of the two songs). And maybe go to our YouTube page and check out the songs there.

As for the show-exlusive clear records, we sold almost all of them on the last tour, so we won’t be posting any online. We have a few left over that we’ll be selling at the October 3rd show, so get-em while you can.

WARPED TOUR LAMINATE DISCOUNT
One more thing. This is an official LAST CALL to use your Warped Tour/Cover Up laminate 5-dollar-discount-code for the Cover Up album (cassette or record). If you still have that sweet laminate floating around, and haven’t already gotten your Cover Up album, go here to use that code before it’s too late! The codes will be deactivated at the very end of OCTOBER 6th.

Lookout weekend,

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 15 Comments

The Act III record single, This City Made Us, is now available for pre-order HERE. An instant MP3 download (320kpbs) of the two new tracks comes along with your pre-order of the 10-inch, so you can listen immediately. The record also includes a download card for higher-res formats, such as FLAC.

A. This City Made Us
B. Hold Back The Night

If you’re planning on making it out to a show on this next short tour, we’ll have fancy album art pre-order/download cards with us, so be sure to come by and get one or fifty. You’ll be able to choose from the regular black vinyl or super limited edition tour-exclusive clear vinyl.

That being said, if you’re one of those that wants one of the clear ones, you’ll need to get to one of the shows that are coming up, or have a friend pick one up for you. There are only about 400 clears left, so pickens are slim. However, if any survive the tour, we’ll post them online the moment we get home, at the first of September (we’ll let you know on the Twitters, Facebooks, and Instagrams).

On top of all that, you can now download the single digitally from PROTOMEN.COM. However… I’d still suggest getting the record even if you don’t have a player, because you can do all sorts of things with it. You can hang it on your wall as a beautiful piece of art, throw it like a frisbee, use it as a huge drink coaster, eat it (don’t eat it), and/or sell it on ebay for 100 times the original price when we’re all sold out of them!

And I’d like to take a minute to have a big round of applause for everyone that came out and helped sell out the Exit/In show on Friday. It was a hell of a time. A lot of you made seriously long trips, and we thank you all.

WEST COAST SHOWS… and Dallas and Birmingham.
As I mentioned above, don’t forget that we’re heading out west for a couple weeks starting Wednesday. Look down below for all the very clickable ticket links. And I know I don’t have to say it, but I’m going to anyway… This will be the last time we’re out that way for a long time, so be sure to come out and party like it’s the last time we’ll be out that way for a long time!

AUGUST
19th – Dallas, TX – Gas Monkey *+16
22nd – Los Angeles, CA – The Roxy *ALL AGES
23rd – Pomona, CA – The Glass House *ALL AGES
25th – San Francisco, CA – Slim’s *ALL AGES
26th – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater *ALL AGES
27th – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret *19+
28th – Seattle, WA – PAX (Hanging Out)
29th – Seattle, WA – PAX (Hanging Out)
30th – Seattle, WA – PAX (Show Day) *ALL AGES
31st – Seattle, WA – El Corazon

SEPTEMBER
12th – Birmingham, AL – Saturn

This is the end of this mailer. Go back to work,

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 2 Comments

“THIS CITY MADE US” SINGLE RELEASE SHOW
As I said in the previous mailer, the fine people at Red Bull Sound Select have joined forces with us to make our single release show amazing and crazy cheap for everyone. All you have to do is RSVP HERE for free… and then pay 3 United States American Dollars at the door. Just don’t be late. Who knows if it will sell out?!  Also, the first [# to be announced later] people through the door get some fancy free things, as well. Keep your eye on Facebook and Twitter for that info.

and while you’re in town, go visit the sweet mural at 5 Points in East Nashville.

Don’t forget, people at this show will be the first ones to be able to pre-order the “This City Made Us” 10inch record single (the rest of you have to wait until the next morning at 10am CST). If you pre-order at the show, you’ll be going home with a radical digital download code, and if you’re interested, a brand new fancy t-shirt!

NEW TOUR DATES
More shows have come in for the August tour (plus one Sept. show). This tour is gonna be short and sweet. And we won’t be heading back out that way for a while, since we’ve got a lot more studioing to do, so make sure you get to the ones you can get to. And while PAX is already sold out, we’ve got another Seattle show at El Corazon on Monday (Aug. 31st) to vanquish your tears. And as if another Seattle show wasn’t already fun enough, we’ll be joined by the ever marvelous Bit Brigade and………… Makeup And Vanity Set! Speaking of Vanity Set, his second pressing of Wilderness (featuring our very own Randy Panther) just came in and is in super short supply. Grab it before it’s gone.

AUGUST
14th – Nashville, TN – Exit/In (Red Bull Sound Select) *18+
19th – Dallas, TX – Gas Monkey *+16
22nd – Los Angeles, CA – The Roxy *ALL AGES
23rd – Pomona, CA – The Glass House *ALL AGES
25th – San Francisco, CA – Slim’s *ALL AGES
26th – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater *ALL AGES
27th – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret *19+
28th – Seattle, WA – PAX (Hanging Out)
29th – Seattle, WA – PAX (Hanging Out)
30th – Seattle, WA – PAX (Show Day) *ALL AGES
31st – Seattle, WA – El Corazon

SEPTEMBER
12th – Birmingham, AL – Saturn

That’s all… for now.

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 2 Comments

This City Made Us

It’s finally time to pull the lid off this one. What you’re looking at is the 10″ record single for the new hit Act III track, “This City Made Us.” It’s a pretty tough jam. Artwork by John DeLucca.

Now, you’re probably wondering what cover jam we put on the B-side… well, stop it. Haven’t we done enough? Seriously, we just put out a whole album of those. And there technically isn’t even a B-side on this record, because it’s listed as Side 2. But I’ll tell you that on that Side 2 is……. drumroll…. wait for it….. “Hold Back The Night.” There. We finally did it. You now know the official title of the song. And yes, it’s always been called that, but we didn’t want to ruin the speculatory fun. Mostly everyone eventually landed on the right side of history with it, though, so congratulations!

When can you get it, you ask? Well, we’ve partially learned our lesson here with dealing with vinyl, so we’re holding back the pre-sale until Aug 15th (10am CST – the morning after the release party we’re about to get to further down below). We didn’t like that everyone had to wait so long to get their Cover Up records (that was entirely on us for pulling the lid off too early). Hooweevverr, it did get the music in your hands quicker, so pros and cons. Either way, we’re trying to split the difference this time. When the pre-order starts, there will hopefully only be about a month and a half wait between pre-sale and shipping.

And, just like the Cover Up record, it comes with an instant 320kbs Mp3 download of the two songs, and the record itself has a download code inside for formats like WAV and FLAC.

SINGLE RELEASE PARTY I BRIEFLY MENTIONED ABOVE

more artwork by John DeLucca.

Those of you who can make it to the show will be the first to hear the new jams, because we’ll have them available for pre-sale at the merch booth. Purchaseers (same thing as purchasers, but more fancy sounding) will receive a special download card at the merch booth, and your record will be shipped to you when they escape the record pressing plant. These records are very limited, so get to the show if you can. But if you can’t be at the show, be on the internet at 10am CST on Aug. 15th.

Red Bull was kind enough to partner with us on this show with their Red Bull Sound Select series. What that means to you is that it’s an 18+ single release show for only $3 dollars. And our good friend Ri¢hie will be there with us, and so will In The Whale.

A big heads up. It’s not a traditional “purchase your tickets in advance” type situation. What you do is go to this website and RSVP. This puts you on the list and then you just come to the show and pay your three dollars at the door. It doesn’t guarantee entry, but if you’re relatively early, you’ll almost certainly get in (unless we get super famous between now and then).

AUGUST
14th – Nashville, TN – Exit/In (Red Bull Sound Select)

PAX PRIME
The prodigal sons and daughter return… after a two-year-long hiatus, we’re back at our beloved PAX on Aug. 30th. Seriously, it’s been too long. What can I say, we’ve had a lot going on. But now the time is right to bring the thunder back to Seattle. And this year’s lineup is extra great. MC Frontalot, Bit Brigade, our Aussie friends 7bit Hero, Freezepop, and The Returners are all gonna be there. And if I don’t get to play with an Oculus Rift or a Morpheus at this thing, someone’s gonna have a bad day.

EAST COAST
And in case any of you forgot, we’re starting our east coast tour tomorrow. Check out the dates below for everything we’ve got right now. More west coast shows are on the way very soon, so keep an eye on our Tour Page, as well as our Facebook and Twitters.

JULY
11th – Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel 
12th – Carborro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
13th – Richmond, VA – The Broadberry
15th – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage  *w/ Lionize
16th – Danbury, CT – Heirloom Arts Theatre
18th – Somerville, MA – Thunder Road (moved to the 20th at Middle East)
19th – New York City, NY – Gramercy Theatre *w/ Kellindo
20th – Cambridge, MA – Middle East
21st – Howell, NJ – Game Changer World
23rd – Columbia, SC – New Brookland Tavern *w/ Hans Condor
24th – Gainesville, FL – High Dive *w/ Hans Condor
25th – Orlando, FL – Backbooth *w/ Hans Condor
26th – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade *w/ Hans Condor

AUGUST
14th – Nashville, TN – Exit/In (Red Bull Sound Select)
19th – Dallas, TX – Gas Monkey *+16
22nd – Los Angeles, CA – The Roxy *ALL AGES
23rd – Pamona, CA – The Glass House *ALL AGES
25th – San Francisco, CA – Slim’s *ALL AGES
26th – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater *ALL AGES
27th – Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret *19+
28th – Seattle, WA – PAX (Hanging Out)
29th – Seattle, WA – PAX (Hanging Out)
30th – Seattle, WA – PAX (Show Day) *ALL AGES
31st – Seattle, WA – El Corazon

SEPTEMBER
12th – Birmingham, AL – Saturn

*more west coast shows may be on the way, so keep your butts on the prize.

This mailer might be the longest yet. I’m sorry for that, I truly am. It’s just a lot of information that wants to break free.

tl;dr,

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 8 Comments

Hopefully, you’re already enjoying your Cover Up record/s. If not, don’t worry, you will be soon. It’s been an almost unacceptably long time coming, but the records finally made it to the store and started shipping to you late last week. We reaaalllly appreciate your patience. The wait was nearly killing us, so I’m just gonna assume that you’ve all grown old and died by now.

However, if you’re still alive because you’ve been on the fence about getting a copy of The Cover Up, you can now order without fear of an excruciating wait. I’d suggest the ULTRA COMBO, it’s by far the best deal of the bunch… and our shit’s already pretty cheap!

UPCOMING SHOWS
Heads up. We’re heading out next month for a quick jaunt up and down the east coast, so you should all caravan to every one. They’re all gonna be awesome. For instance, our new friend, Kellindo (of Janelle Monáe guitaring fame), is joining us in NYC with his rad new solo project, so don’t miss out on the super extravaganza. Not only that, our Nashville friends, Hans Condor, are gonna be with us on the last few days of the tour.

*don’t worry, west coast, we’re coming for you soon enough.

Also, an update on Mad Max and the last mailer: That’ll do, George… that’ll do.

As for the serious shit that’s coming your way… well, it’s still coming. But the time still isn’t quite right. You’ll be hearing from me again real soon, though, so strap-on your strap-ons.

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 8 Comments

If you’re into Comic Con, and you live anywhere near Colorado, and you like The Protomen and MC Lars, you need to get your ass to the Denver Comic Con Opening Ceremony, because we’re playing the shit out of it. And we’re pretty sure Christopher Lloyd is gonna join us on stage and play some sweet synth solos (not really), and Sean Astin is gonna give a TED-type talk in the middle of our show about how and why Toy Soldiers is one of the greatest movies ever made (again, not really… or will he?).

We have a 21+ show in Kansas City on the way home, and the following weekend we head down to MomoCon in Atlanta for more Sean Astin shenanigans (not really).

MAY
22nd – Denver, CO – Denver Comic Con (Opening Ceremonies) *SHOW DAY*
23rd – Denver, CO – Denver Comic Con *HANGOUT DAY*
24th – Kansas City, MO – Riot Room (21+)
30th – Atlanta, GA – MomoCon

NEW STUFF
In case you haven’t looked at Protomen.com recently, or checked out the Cover Up Store (look at all those combos!), we unleashed a sweet shirt and rad movie poster for The Cover Up. You could impress prospective employers by wearing the Cover Up shirt to job interviews, and the poster (that comes in two sizes, and has a Signed option) would look great as wallpaper around your fancy mansion or summer home in the Hamptons! One might say you could “Cover Up” your walls with style…

*Already have the album, and you just want the poster now? Head over to the Sound Machine Store.*

The Cover Up vinyls are in the final pressing steps now and should be shipping soon. We promise! We are extremely sorry for the delay. The vinyl factories are a bit overwhelmed, because it looks like everyone’s starting to realize how awesome records are again. Either way, there aren’t many of them left that aren’t spoken for, so pre-order yours while you can, if you haven’t already. We’ll announce on twitter and facebook the moment they start shipping.

WILDERNESS
Makeup and Vanity Set has done it again. His new record is ridiculously amazing, and includes several cameos by the likes of our very own Panther, and friends like Big Black Delta and Jasmin Kaset. And if you buy the vinyl, it also comes with a short film by Joey Ciccoline (of 88:88 fame). Caspar and Version Industries did all the design, and they killed it. The first run is already sold out, and the second run will also go quickly, so jump on it before they’re all gone.

TO THE MAX
You know how you people ask us for Act III all day every day (and yes… we get it… it’s been about 5 and a half years since Act II)? Well, we’ve been asking George Miller for a new Mad Max for like 30 years, so quit your whining! Everyone gets their wishes eventually (unless that wish is for us to write about Mega Man X). But seriously. We sure hope it doesn’t suck. I wish Mel was in it, but Tom Hardy rules, so there’s a chance. May 15th… do your duty.

And keep your nose to the ground, and your ear to the grindstone. We’ve got some serious shit coming your way this summer. More on that when the time is right. It’s not quite right right now, so I’m done hinting around it right now. And it’s not what you think, but it’s not far off…

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 1 Comment

Welcome to 2015. The year of Jaws 19, and all sorts of other fancy happenings. We have lots of awesome things lined up for this year. For instance…

Guess what.…. The Cover Up album is done! And guess what again….. the pre-orders start tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 9am CST! And guess what else.… if you get your ass to MAGFest (and our merch booth) right now, you can be one of the first people to have the tape in your hands, ears, and mouths!

artwork and design by John DeLucca and Caspar Newbolt

Check the store for the track listing.

We’ve got a few different configurations to choose from at our new GoMerch store:

1. T-shirt (Combo-Only – a super bad ass white shirt that is based on the Cover Up album art.)

2. Cassette (w/ download card/ticket)

3. Cassette + T-shirt (w/ download card/ticket)

4. Double Vinyl (w/ download card/ticket)

5. Double Vinyl + T-shirt (w/ download card/ticket)

6. Super Pack – Autographed Cassette and Walkman (w/ download card/ticket) (SOLD OUT)

7. Super Duper Pack – Autographed Cassette and Walkman + T-shirt (w/ download card/ticket) (SOLD OUT)

Arigato?

-ATTENTION 1 – These Walkman portable tape players (headphones not included) are classic 80’s and early 90’s models, and so will be previously well-used. We scoured the entire Earth and found as many as we could that are in working order. Being that there are several body types, please understand if yours is different than your friend’s. Every Walkman will be tested and signed by the band before shipment, but again, please understand if your “new” vintage technology craps the proverbial bed.

-ATTENTION 2 – The cassettes will start shipping next week (times may vary, if you’re getting a combo). But unfortunately, the records won’t be shipping for about 12 weeks, due to crazy vinyl production factory backlogs. For this reason, we’re not doing combos that combine Cassettes and Vinyl, because a combo purchase would hold back your fancy new cassette until the record mailing. You can still purchase both items, but you’ll probably want to order your Vinyl on a separate order, so it doesn’t delay your other items.

BUT….. dry those tears. As soon as you place your order for your record and/or tape, a High Quality MP3 download will be sent to you immediately upon purchase (remember, you get a download card/ticket inside your album, as well, and that gives you access to high resolution formats like FLAC). Technology.

*And remember, if you got one of the fancy Cover Up EP Warped Tour Lanyards, you can use the code that’s on the back to get a 5 dollar discount on the album configuration of your choice (offer only available at our new GoMerch store, or in person at a show). Just use the code at checkout.

MAGFEST
So yeah, for those that don’t already know, we’re playing two sets at MAGFest this weekend in DC. Tonight (Friday) and Sunday night. On Friday, we’re playing the MAGProm, so that means we’re gonna be playing some saucy cover jams. On Sunday, we’re playing our own rock and roll. Make sure you make it to both of them, there may be some surprises coming your way.

STARR MAZER
If you’ve looked at the internet in the past few days, you may have noticed that a sweet looking game called Starr Mazer landed on everyone’s favorite, Kickstarter. Now stay with me, here. This game is more than likely going to rule. How do I know? Because they asked us to help out with the soundtrack! But seriously though, it just looks bad ass. They didn’t just get us, they got all sorts of awesome people in on the party. Makeup And Vanity Set will be there with us, and so will Manami Matsumae, Danimal Cannon, Virt, Bright Primate, Cheap Dinosaurs, and lots more! Sooo, you should support the shit out of it, if you can.

And don’t worry, there’s nothing between us and Act III now.

Nothing’s gonna stand in our way… not tonight.

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 8 Comments

This mailer is simply about Black Friday through Cyborg Monday deals. If you hate deals, delete this email as fast as you can. Don’t even look back. There’s nothing for you here.

On the other hand, if you love deals (or at the very least think they’re acceptable)… keep on reading.

BLACK FRIDAY THROUGH CYBORG MONDAY, MONDAY, MONDAY!

Starting today and running until Monday night at 11:59pm, we will be discounting everything in the Sound Machine Store by 20%. All you have to do you enter the following code at checkout: FEELTHEHEAT

Better yet, if your items total more than $50, you can enter this code instead for an extra 5% (so that’s 25% total): HIGHFIVE

And just in time for the festivities (and ridiculous cold), we have a brand new hoodie for you to put on your body. Look how warm it looks…

Also, just for a quick progress update, we’ve been super ass deep in the studio finishing up the covers record, so hold on to your butts, because it’s not gonna suck! And thank you for your patience.

More info soon… but not tonight.

-Commander

Tags: Protomen News | 18 Comments

Tags: Protomen News | 5 Comments