2K Beats

The Thermals' third full-length album was recorded at Supernatural Sound Studios in Oregon City, twenty miles south of their home base in Portland, OR, by Fugazi's Brendan Canty. Having already recorded The Thermals live, (the exclusive track "Welcome to the Planet" for the Portland edition of his Burn to Shine DVD series) Canty and The Thermals got along swimmingly. This surprised no one, as they are all basically wonderful human beings. Plus, Canty was a natural choice given The Thermals' history of recording with fellow musicians. To wit: Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla mixed The Thermalsí first LP, More Parts Per Million (recorded by The Thermals' Hutch Harris) and recorded and mixed The Thermals' second LP. And, the band has done some as-yet-unreleased recording with Janet Weiss (from Sleater-Kinney and Quasi), as well as Joanna Bolme (formerly of The Minders; currently in Stephen Malkmusís band The Jicks). After the unfortunate departure of original Thermals drummer Jordan Hudson in late 2005, Kathy Foster and Hutch Harris (bass and guitar/vocals, respectively) split up duties on the new record themselves, as they had on 2002's Hutch and Kathy LP (Jealous Butcher Records), just before The Thermals got started. For The Body, The Blood, The Machine, Foster performed double duty as The Thermals' rhythm section for almost the entire record while Harris sang, played all the guitar tracks and some of the bass onesóthey shared keyboard/organ duties. With a wider, brighter, and wilder sound than anything The Thermals have done in the past, The Body, The Blood, The Machine adds walls of guitars, organs, and even a few "ballads" (i.e. slightly pretty songs like ìTest Patternî) to the mix, while still retaining the gritty post-pop-punk sound for which The Thermals are globally famous. Upon completing The Body, The Blood, The Machine, The Thermals recruited local drummer extraordinaire Caitlin Love to assume live drum duties. Love has been a fixture in the Portland music scene for years, performing with Desert City Soundtrack, LKN, and Davies Versus Dresch, all in the recent past. The Thermals live in Southeast Portland, Oregon a virtual working model of a modern-day utopia, replete with clean air, well-groomed-but-greasy hair, and cheap rents for (hardly) starving artists.

Credits:
"A Passing Feeling"
"I Hold The Sound"
Performed by the Thermals
Sub Pop Records (©2006)
www.subpop.com

www.thethermals.com/