The Thermals

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The Thermals
Glass, Foster and Harris, 2009
Glass, Foster and Harris, 2009
General information
Genre (s) Pop-punk , lo-fi pop
founding 2002
resolution 2018
Website www.thethermals.com
Last occupation
Hutch Harris
Kathy Foster
Westin Glass (since 2008)
former members
Drums
 Jordan Hudson (until 2005)
guitar
 Ben Barnett (until 2003)
Drums
 Caitlin Love (early 2006)
Lorin Coleman (2006-2008)

The Thermals was an American indie band from Portland, Oregon .

Their style is often compared to Guided by Voices , and the Ramones are also mentioned as a point of reference because of the short, simple and very catchy songs. According to their own admission, the Thermals play “No-Fi” (see Lo-Fi ).

Band history

In the spring of 2002, Hutch Harris wrote a few songs. In order to be able to record these he founded the band The Thermals with Kathy Foster from the All Girl Summer Fun Band - with whom he had already made music under the name Urban Legends and released a self-titled album as Hutch & Kathy in 2002 - Jordan Hudson from Operacycle and Ben Barnett of Kind of Like Spitting . In the same year the band received a recording contract with the legendary independent label Sub Pop .

The songs were recorded on a four-tape tape recorder in the basement of Hutch's house and mixed by Chris Walla, the guitarist for Death Cab for Cutie . In January 2003, a first four-track EP was released with “ No Culture Icons” , and the debut album “ More Parts Per Million ” followed in March , which included two of the EP songs ( No Culture Icons and An Endless Supply ). According to reports, the entire recording cost about $ 60 . In the following months the band toured , including twice in Europe.

In 2004, the successor " Fuckin A " was recorded within four days . Chris Walla acted as producer this time . The sound of this album is not quite as raw anymore (which may be because it was recorded in a studio this time ), and it contains the first Thermals song, which lasts longer than three minutes. Then the band went on tour again.

In late 2005, drummer Jordan Hudson left the band. During the recordings for the album The Body, The Blood, The Machine , which was recorded in 2006 with producer Brendan Canty (drummer of the band Fugazi ), Foster also took on his part. In 2006 Lorin Coleman joined the band in this position.

In early 2006, it was announced that the Thermals had been offered $ 50,000 for using the song It's Trivia in a commercial for Hummer SUVs. The band turned down the offer because General Motors , the company that makes the Hummer , has been criticized for its links to the military and the manufacture of extremely polluting cars.

In spring 2008, drummer Coleman left the band, the remaining members played a few shows under their old band name Hutch & Kathy . The two of them also recorded the successor to The Body, The Blood, The Machine , Now We Can See , which was released by Kill Rock Stars in 2009 . Westin Glass became the new drummer.

In autumn 2010 the album "Personal Life" was released. This was again produced by Chris Walla.

In 2013 the band moved to Saddle Creek Records and released their sixth album "Desperate Ground".

The seventh album "We Disappear" was released on March 25, 2016 again on Saddle Creek records.

On April 9, 2018, The Thermals announced their closure on their website and on social media. After 15 years and 7 albums, it feels like the band has gone way beyond their initial expectations and goals and is moving away from them, while still being appreciated.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Now We Can See
  US 191 04/25/2009 (1 week)
Personal Life
  US 180 09/25/2010 (1 week)

Albums

  • 2003: More Parts per Million ( Sub Pop / Cargo )
  • 2004: Fuckin A (Sub Pop / Cargo)
  • 2006: The Body, the Blood, the Machine (Sub Pop)
  • 2008: Live at the Echoplex December 7th, 2007
  • 2009: Now We Can See (Kill Rock Stars)
  • 2010: Personal Life (Kill Rock Stars)
  • 2013: Desperate Ground (Saddle Creek Records)
  • 2016: We Disappear (Saddle Creek Records)

Singles and EPs

  • 2003: No Culture Icons (Sub Pop)
  • 2004 How We Know
  • 2007 A Pillar of Salt
  • 2008 Returning to the Fold
  • 2009 Now We Can See
  • 2010 I Don't Believe You
  • 2010 Never Listen to Me
  • 2011 Not Like Any Other Feeling

Compilations

  • 2004: Sub Pop: Patient Zero (Sub Pop)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Thermals: Everything a little faster ( Memento from January 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ); Article at in-your-face.de, August 11, 2004. Accessed February 3, 2008
  2. ↑ Trans Am and the Thermals Say No to Hummer ( Memento of April 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). Pitchfork Media , March 13, 2006. Accessed February 3, 2008.
  3. ↑ Pitchfork News: The Thermals Sign To Kill Rockstars ; Article on pitchfork.com on November 14, 2008. Accessed March 22, 2009
  4. ↑ Visions.de: The Thermals: New album, new label , last viewed on April 13, 2013.
  5. ↑ We Broke Up! In: The Thermals . April 9, 2018 ( thethermals.com [accessed April 10, 2018]).
  6. ↑ US chart history

Web links

Commons : The Thermals  - Collection of images, videos and audio files