#Sonic Ranch

[nicholasr]

The Sloppy Boys Blowout - Sonic Ranch (Episode 148B)

[dijidweeeb]

Motivational Music in the Morning ... #WhiteyMorgan, #GoinDownRocking ... From the Album #SonicRanch [Official Audio Track] (2015) #MMitM1

[sinceileftyoublog]

Protomartyr & Stuck Live Show Review: 7/13, Thalia Hall, Chicago

BY JORDAN MAINZER

“Tap calls the time,” Joe Casey sang last Thursday at Thalia Hall as Protomartyr performed “Elimination Dances”, a standout track from their new album Formal Growth in the Desert (Domino). Like many of the band’s best songs, its inspirations are obscure, this particular instance taken from a game in a 50′s dance manual: Once you’re tapped out, you stop. Given the Detroit punk band’s generally bleak nature, it’s not hard to find the referenced game a fitting metaphor our everyday life, trying to survive in a capitalist hell world. But consider that Formal Growth was written in the context of the death of Casey’s mother, recorded in an actual desert at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, TX with producer Jake Aron. Casey didn’t aim to create something or find meaning out of emptiness, per se, but answer the question, “Once tap calls the time, how do the rest of us move on?” Luckily for him, and for us, there’s music.

I’ve seen Protomartyr a bunch of times. I never would have thought to describe one of their shows as life-affirming, but Thursday’s was, from the younger segment of the crowd’s persistent moshing to the unexpectedly anthemic quality of the band’s performance. The live version of Formal Desert opener "Make Way” traded the studio version’s openness for a much mightier, choppier stomp. The crowd reframed the anxiety-riddled namesake refrain of Relatives in Descent chugger “The Chuckler”--“I guess I’ll keep on chucklin’ till there’s no more breath in my lungs”--as an absurdist call to arms. The normally stoic Casey performed the entirety of The Agent Intellect’s “Why Does It Shake?” on the barrier between the stage and the crowd, about as close to spirited as he’ll ever be. Even the band’s chosen setlist seemed authored specifically to amp up the crowd. I mean, they could have played “Let’s Tip The Creator”, which chides the way tech billionaires treat art as a commodity, just as much of a charged bummer as the rest, but its subdued timbres are harder to dance to. Protomartyr’s instead taking the Gang of Four route, favoring, say, the skittering drums of “Fun in Hi Skool”. 

As this was the last show of the tour, Casey joked, “We’ll either be so tight, it will be the best show of our lives, or so tired it’ll be the shittiest.” Guitarist Greg Ahee, bassist Scott Davidson, and drummer Alex Leonard at least made sure it wasn’t the latter, of course. But it was the addition of The Breeders’ Kelley Deal as a full-time touring member of the band that elevated older songs even more than it provided faithful renditions of those whose studio versions she was on. Her voice subbed for the “I have arrived” echo on Under Color of Official Right’s “Maidenhead”, and her backing harmonies beautifully contrasted the ugliness of “Pontiac 87″. And her guitar tones on "Polacrilex Kid” seemed lifted straight from the Hawaiian twang of Last Splash’s “No Aloha”, an inspired replacement for the studio version’s pedal steel. Casey clearly remains eternally thankful. He once said in an interview with NPR, “Basically, the band comes up with amazing music and it's my job to not screw it up too much.” It’s all I could think about as I watched him sip from a Budweiser can, nodding like he was impressed while watching Leonard hammer away during the extended intro of “Jumbo’s”. If he sings on “The Author”, “Time's your enemy / Every gift you see will be taken for sure,” live, he demonstrates the unspoken flipside: Enjoy the gifts while you can.

Local post-punk band Stuck, who I saw open for Metz last winter, was the perfect primer for Protomartyr. They, too, sing about the effects of the decline of America, albeit with a nervy, wiry yelp that recalls bands like Devo and Squid. Lead singer Greg Obis was quick to point out how honored the band was to open for Protomartyr, one of his favorites. It’s easy to see the influence on their new album Freak Frequency (born yesterday). A track like “Fools Idol”, its descriptions of “violence unending” and “the boss descending,” is very Casey-esque in its brand proclamations. And like Protomartyr now, Stuck is that much more loud and urgent live, foregoing, for instance, the studio acoustic instrumentation of “Scared” for all electric jitters. However, unlike those of the perennially offline Casey, Stuck’s songs are riddled with technology-induced worries. At Thalia Hall, drummer Tim Green’s disorienting use of sample pads was an effective mirror for Obis’ admission he’s “distracted all over again” on “Loose Your Cool”. Green’s motorik drums and Obis’ and Ezra Saulnier’s sharp guitarwork reflected the pain of similar cycles of smartphone despair on “Time Out”. The almost hilariously plodding pace of “Planet Money” made a circus out of the song’s targets, the pundits who comment on the health of the economy as if it truly affects the everyday life of our most vulnerable. And then there was set closer “The Punisher”, the only song that saw Obis sing harmonically, sans paranoid screams. On the track, he deftly summarizes the absurdity of the January 6th insurrection, facetiously winking and nodding, “The future never looked so bright.” Even if the world that Protomartyr and Stuck envelop does everything in its power to suggest otherwise, upon leaving Thalia Hall on Thursday, you could, perhaps, agree.

[senorboombastic]

Album Review: Protomartyr - Formal Growth In The Desert

Words: Ben Forrester I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Protomartyr are one of the most consistent bands in guitar music today. There is such an undeniable sharpness to their songwriting that propels each new record with an arsenal of big hitting, post-punk infused indie rock. But like all great bands, there’s always a different focus or theme to every album. Sadly, the sixth album from…

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

New Video: Protomartyr Shares Tense and Uneasy "Elimination Dances"

New Video: Protomartyr Shares Tense and Uneasy "Elimination Dances" @protomartyrband @Dominorecordco @Yoonha_Park @pitchperfectpr

Detroit-based post-punk outfit Protomartyr — Joe Casey (vocals), Greg Ahee (guitar), Alex Leonard (percussion), and Scott Davidson (bass) — have become synonymous with caustic, impressionistic assemblages of politics and poetry, the literal and oblique over the course of five albums — 2012’s No Passion All Technique, 2014’s Under Color of Official Right, 2015’s The Agent Intellect, 2017’s…

[random-fandom-society]

The Knuckles series trailer sent me reeling for many reasons, not limited to the fact that Knuckles eats Cool Ranch Doritos

[briceterry]

Here's the screenshots I got while watching this mini series. I love him so much.

(Since I finished the show, I'll give my opinions right here, I freaking loved this. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea considering that it's made by different people unlike the films, but just give it a chance and you'll have a great time, also Christopher Loyd as Pachacamac is amazing... And "The flames of Disaster" might be the only Michael Bolton song I like... Also I want Cool ranch Doritos now.)

[impostorsshow]

Sometimes I get depressed and then I remember I can draw Kirby whenever I want

Also sonic and my cat OC/persona that I keep forgetting about

[so-called-egg]

IMPORTANT QUESTION ABOUT VAL

what's her preference for pizza toppings.

It's important/j

Val: My favorite pizza toppings are jalapenos, sausage, and bugs!!!! I also had a pizza with mustard on it once and that was really really good... OH OH RANCH IS ALSO GOOD I LIKE RANCH!!! ough. food is so yummy.

(minor context: Val calls black olives bugs and refuses to call them anything else)

@sonic-fankid-showdown

[cum-padre]

Me quiero perder a tu lado Y morirme así.........

[skeletalheartattack]

What are your favourite youtubes to eat food to?

i can't say i really have a favourite honestly, it's kind of luck based. i'll usually try to watch streams while i eat food, but if ive run out of the ones i'm interested in watching, it's likely im eating to a much shorter video.

[narwhalandchill]

anyway since wuwa might or might not be dying sooner than expected (and irregardless of that i have just been soured on kuro after this mess. feel awful for the regular devs still tho) in search of entertainment i actually ended up booting up my dear old 3ds and starting after like. now almost a year of enjoying some nuzlocke content on yt every now and then. my own first nuzlocke ever w a fresh save of black 2 bc i miss unova. gen 5 is so fucking goated man

im not gonna do like super strict hardcore rules to a T but it is set mode with no in-battle items (i reserve a right to save my oshawotts life in an emergency tho) and no like. at least overt overleveling might do like 1-2 lvl for a key move or sth for a boss fight. anyway at virbank complex now and i already have a steel type (magnemite) and an intimidate user (vital spirit lillipup into herdier) and if youtube has taught me anything about nuzlocke meta strats that basically means ive won already right. Surely

anyway having fun so far!!!! tho since im not emulating on PC posting like. screenshots of the Journey in here isnt rly viable (this is an emulated game tho . mod ur 3ds gang. from the sequels i only have white 2 on cartridge and its mid-playthru) but might be doing some updates on it by text anyway if i feel like it. ive always been a very virgo moon overtly cautious risk averse perfectionist overleveler in pokemon so the different approach a nuzlocke forces u into is rly just a completely new experience for me we shall see where it goes :]

[thewisemankey]

Not to mention grapes and shabbat challah.

THE FOOD OF WARRIORS.

Finding out that the Knuckles series is just a six hour long Doritos commercial had me howling with laughter.

[mizi-eats]

wednesday 9.18.24

[masoncarr2244]

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

New Video: Protomartyr Shares Punchy "Polarcrilex Kid"

New Video: Protomartyr Shares Punchy "Polarcrilex Kid" @protomartyrband @Dominorecordco @pitchperfectpr

Detroit-based post-punk outfit Protomartyr — Joe Casey (vocals), Greg Ahee (guitar), Alex Leonard (percussion), and Scott Davidson (bass) — have become synonymous with caustic, impressionistic assemblages of politics and poetry, the literal and oblique over the course of five albums — 2012’s No Passion All Technique, 2014’s Under Color of Official Right, 2015’s The Agent Intellect,…