The Thermals
Hi, we're The Thermals. We're a three-piece alternative/indie/punk band. We live in Portland, Oregon. You know, the place all your friends are moving. So they can paint/record/do gravity bong hits, when they're not slinging lattes at one of a thousand or so coffee shops.
We have some lovely neighbors here. The Shins, Modest Mouse, The Decemberists, The Jicks, The Blow, Blitzen Trapper, Menomena, you can stop us anytime. What you can't stop is the overwhelming awesomeness of Portland's indie-rock scene, of which we consider ourselves an integral part, thank you very much!
Since the summer of fear and hate (2002), we, The Thermals, have been cranking out three-minute, no-fi sonic gems with a neo-grunge attitude. When we're not powering through one of our catchy anthems, we're racking our brains to come up with ridiculous(ly bad) new sub-genres. Hey, we just thought of a new one! Just in time for the release of our new album, Now We Can See. It's totally post-power-pop.
We know, we've done the whole "post-" thing before (see our 2006 opus The Body, The Blood, The Machine, a true post-pop-punk classic). We should really be so post-"post-" at this point. But we're not. Do you know why, dear reader? Because adding "post-" to any genre AUTOMATICALLY MAKES YOUR MUSIC SOUND SMARTER. Actually, adding "post-" to ANY WORD OR PHRASE immediately makes you "over" it, and therefore better than it. Go ahead, try it! Don't forget to thank us when yr ass is post-broke.
But, uh, yeah, our new record. Sorry, we got distracted. We're sitting on our porch writing this, and sixty naked bicyclists just rode by. Portland! We love this fuckin' place.
Like we said, our new record is called Now We Can See. We think it's pretty good! Pret-ty, pret-ty, pret-ty good. Not only are the songs filled with some of our smartest lyrics and sweetest melodies, but the recording is, for us, another great leap in fidelity (you might even called it hi-fidelity), thanks to producer John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, Polyphonic Spree), who brought massive amounts of sound and bombastic style to the project.
So much else is new and wonderful for us! We have a new record label, Kill Rock Stars. Not only has Kill Rock Stars released some of Portland's (and the Northwest's) best punk and indie records to date (Elliott Smith, Sleater-Kinney, The Gossip), but the label has recently relocated to Portland, and is quickly filling it's roster with even more great Portland bands (Shaky Hands, Panther, Horsefeathers). The Thermals are thrilled to now be a part of this family as well. We were thrilled to be part of the Sub Pop family for six years, but we felt it was time to move on.
We have a new drummer as well. Westin Glass, formerly of Seattle's Say Hi, joins us (Kathy Foster and Hutch Harris) to complete the third (or so) live line-up of The Thermals. In addition to (again!) touring the UK with The Cribs this February we will be playing multiple shows at SXSW in March, following the release of Now We Can See on April 6th.
Whew! We're exhausted already. It's probably time to hit the vaporizer again, then head out for Voodoo Doughnuts and Stumptown Coffee. We gotta get down to Lincoln High, Gus Van Sant is casting 16-25 year olds for his next picture. We can pull off 25, right? Sure!
But only in Portland.
XOXO
The Thermals