Protomartyr: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

December 4, 2015 by ROBIN HILTON The Detroit band Protomartyr makes loud, screeching rock that s more thoughtful than thrilling. It only takes a few seconds of the group s brightly lit Tiny Desk performance for things to get pretty deep: False happiness is on the rise, enigmatic frontman Joe Casey deadpans. See the victims piled high in a room without a The song Why Does It Shake is from the band s profound, poetic, often grousing third album The Agent Intellect, a title derived from Aristotle s theories about human thought and how ideas move from the possible to the tangible. (Cue sound of brain exploding. ) Casey never cracks a smile and barely moves throughout this performance, hiding behind dark sunglasses and looking sharp in a gray suit, hands in pockets. It s almost bewildering at times to watch someone so composed deliver such sharp narratives, backed by squealing guitar noise. But that s part of Protomartyr s allure. Casey quietly contains the storm as Protomartyr finishes its set with