Protomartyr Announce New Album Hotel Usona, Share First Single

Protomartyr have detailed their seventh album. Hotel Usona will be released September 25 on Domino, recorded with producer Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Spoon, Sleater-Kinney). The first single, “Sounds We Cannot Hear,” is available now.

The band shared a statement about the album written by fellow Detroiter Iggy Pop, an unusual endorsement that frames the record in operatic terms. “It is highly themed and symphonic in its reach,” he writes, describing the music as “modal, and kind of chromatic, like I imagine Celtic war horns might sound in some forgotten battle.” He adds that singer Joe Casey “is blessed with a beautiful voice that you want to listen to, but he stays perverse enough to keep things interesting when he wants to get petulant or a little bitchy.”

Fridmann’s involvement points to a broader, more textured sound than the band’s earlier post-punk austerity. The nine-track set follows 2023’s Formal Growth in the Desert. A tour will take Protomartyr across North America starting in October, including an Austin date with the Jesus and Mary Chain, before European dates in early 2026.