Social media is a strange thing. Not long ago, Transmissions host Jason P. Woodbury was retweeted by famed MTV News legend Kurt Loder. Loder was sharing a repost of a viral video featuring Detroit band Protomartyr, performing their song “Jumbo’s” at a BBQ in 2011.
In the video, frontman Joe Casey smokes a cigarette and sips whiskey, alternating between deadpan ambivalence and dark menace as he prowls the stage and the band churns behind him. Loder noted, "Apparently [rock & roll] actually will never die…"
This week on Transmissions, I’m speaking with return guest Casey of Protomartyr, a band that, perhaps all on their lonesome, is indeed keeping something like rock & roll alive—whatever we really mean by that—on their new Protomartyr album is called Hotel Usona.
Since 2012’s debut No Passion All Technique, the band has taken leaps forward with each album, and Hotel Usona, recorded with producer Dave Friedman, incorporates elements of mid-century exotica, musique concrète, and jazzy noir.
Yet, there are moments on the album that radiate heaviness too—the band’s post-punk informed take on indie rock has never sounded more bracing. And it all sets a groundwork for Casey to create his most fully realized lyrical concept to date. Set around the loose concept of a hotel in which each room contained a character and a story, it's both a timely meditation on an empire in decline and a genuine work of defiance and hope.
In this conversation, we discuss Detroit’s cinematic glories, Catholicism, JD Vance, and much more. It was a blast to catch up with Joe and a pleasure to share this conversation with you on Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions.
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