by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Johnny Vredenburg of Digital Leather dropped a note to say he’s excited about his new project, called PRO-MAGNUM. Comprising of Paul Hansen (Perry H. Mathews, The Fucking Party) on guitar, Pat Oakes (Ladyfinger) on drums and Vredenburg on bass AND vocals, Vredenburg described their music as “loud, aggressive, yet tight, rock ‘n roll, taking my bass settings back to the screaming tone of that which I used in Dance Me Pregnant, while Paul rips inhuman-like riffs and thunderous backdrop of the heaviest drummer this side of hell. Collectively, we roll out hard rock riffs on par with Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Torche, Converge…” Setting the bar kind of hard, aren’t you Johnny?

PRO-MAGNUM’s first show is March 9 at O’Leaver’s with Flesh Eating Skin Disease and Buildings from Minneapolis.

While I had Vredenburg on the horn, I figured I’d ask how he likes working with Todd Fink. The Faint’s frontman recently joined Digital Leather.

“Todd is a fellow professional who loves making music. That’s why he’s a perfect fit,” Vredenburg said. “It’s all been very casual working with him. Most of the time we get side tracked talking about food or obscure ’80s movie songs. All in all, real excited to be playing in a band with him. And excited to be in a band with Jeff and Shawn too. Ha.”

You can check out that new Digital Leather line-up the night before the PRO-MAGNUM debut — March 8 at O’Leaver’s.

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That new Replacements track, “I’m Not Sayin’,”  is pretty frickin’ good. Check out the stream here at Pitchfork. The Songs For Slim EP is out digitally March 5 and will be released as a commercial 12-inch on April 16.

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2013 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.