Photo credit: Steve Gullick
“…the most impactful parts … aren’t its crushing hooks or its relentless punk bacchanal. It’s Moe’s ability to turn the real-life nightmares of his Lebanese family and friends, war-torn realities reduced to the label of “foreign policy” in the U.S., into disturbingly poetic lyrics." - Pitchfork
"sonically vicious, lyrically sophisticated, visually titillating" - FADER
“Attempted Martyr captures the precarity and anxiety that seems to accompany every aspect of day-to-day life” – The Quietus
“…dizzying” – Stereogum
“…definitely deserve the buzz that they have been getting as of late”
– Anthony Fantano, The Needle Drop
“…they are among the most exciting, unorthodox breakthroughs in recent American rock” - The Guardian
"Prostitute are catalysing anger into action" - CRACK
At the tail end of last year, Dearborn, Michigan's Prostitute announced details of their signing to Mute and the first worldwide release of their acclaimed debut album, Attempted Martyr. Attempted Martyr, produced by Chris Koltay (The Armed, Mdou Moctar), is out today on web-exclusive white vinyl via the band’s website, with red vinyl and CD available on Mute Bank. Wider retail release follows on April 10th.
Purchase or stream Attempted Martyr HERE.
After November's memorable tour of Europe and the UK that included Le Guess Who? and two London shows that sold out in a matter of hours, the five-piece announced a spring 2026 tour of Europe and UK that includes dates at the MOTH Club, London on April 28th and 29th. This will be followed by US dates in June in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Tickets are on sale today
All the spring UK dates are now sold out, with a further London headliner for August 26th at The Dome very close to selling out. Further UK dates have been added for August and Prostitute will also be at Roadburn Festival on April 18 and the Supersonic Festival on April 26. Full tour details are listed below.
The group’s debut album, Attempted Martyr, has been steadily accruing devoted followers and accolades since its original release: Pitchfork and Anthony Fantano reviewed, while Stereogum and The Quietus spoke to the band. Loosely a concept album, Attempted Martyr is a full-spectrum blast of acerbic noise, sampler shrapnel, savagely mordant humor and bruised melancholy. Its complexity and simmered rage conjure a fever dream of hope, desperation and alienation, a riot of artful profanity, disturbing imagery and blacker-than-midnight wit. An album for these perilous, cursed times, even if it wasn’t conceived as such, Attempted Martyr isn’t noise for its own sake, it’s for everyone’s: a catharsis, a venting, a return of fire.
Based in Dearborn, MI, a town with America’s largest Muslim population, Prostitute were founded by Moe (frontman) and Andrew (drummer) who together write the group’s lyrics, and conceived Attempted Martyr’s thematic throughline. Moe explains, “I had an identity crisis, growing up, 9/11 started a lot of xenophobia and Arab hatred and all that kind of shit. I hated being Arabic. I hated Arabs in general, just because people were hating me. Through much of my 20s I felt like, ‘How about I be the character you want me to be?’” Andrew took that crisis and, explains Moe, “ran with it, and made the philosophy behind it, this ‘radical terrorism’, this crazed zealot thing.”
To complete the band, Ross, Bret and Dylan soon came onboard. “It’s all a bit serendipitous,” says Andrew. Each of the members were raised in Dearborn, went to the same schools, orbited the same groups of people and crossed paths before eventually meeting each other and coming together as a band.
The reaction has been incredible: the audience they have found are dedicated to investigating the infinite nuances within their attack, especially as the themes have swung to the fore of the culture in the years since they conceived it. “When we started the album, the war in Gaza hadn’t begun yet,” says Andrew. “But the world was still pretty fucked up. It already felt like the car was going off the cliff, with no-one at the wheel. There’s an angst to the album. I’m not religious, but I’ve always been drawn to art and stories about religion – this yearning for transcendence, for an answer, for forgiveness. The album is about someone trying to transcend in some way. This character is reprehensible. But we're not trying to tell anyone what to think. This isn’t some manifesto – this is art, it’s an outlet for things we were feeling.”
Attempted Martyr is out on a web exclusive white vinyl available through the band’s website and a red vinyl edition and CD via Mute Bank today. Wider retail release will follow on April 10th.
Purchase it HERE.
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