Going Nuclear - The Thermals

The Thermals, Portland’s finest exporters of quasi-antireligious agit punk, should be the most serious band you’ll ever come across. Their third album, ‘The Body, the Blood, The Machine,’ is a gloriously furious maelstrom of apocalyptic visions, fascistic religious figures and a desperation to escape a totalitarian America. So… seriously… what’s with all the bunny rabbits on the website?

Hutch Harris, lead singer, guitarist and professional Toby Maguire-lookalike of the band giggles, something that he does a surprising number of times backstage. “I guess that probably shows the dichotomy of the Thermals. We do sound pretty serious on record, but in real life, we’re pretty cuddly people.” You can say that again. Even during a brief chat before their London Barfly debut, Hutch and bassist Kathy Foster reveal themselves to be the very antithesis of the snarling, anti-establishment dissenters they appear to be on record.

Formed out of the ashes of numerous hipper-than-thou Portland punk groups, the Thermals actually started out as a folk-pop band, Hutch & Kathy, who only discovered their darker side as “a reaction to the music we were playing,” according to Hutch. An album, the splendidly low-fi ‘More Parts Per Million’ was released in 2003, from which they earned their indie smarts by turning down a sizable offer from SUV firm Hummer to use a track, ‘It’s Trivia’, for an advertising campaign.

From there, a sizable fanbase snapped up copies of their follow-up, ‘Fuckin’ A,’ but it wasn’t until this year’s ‘The Body…’ that critics began to sit up and take notice. Having often been quickly dismissed as a squally power pop band with a predilection for three chord harmonies, the sudden maturing of the band’s sound, and especially their lyrics, quickly won acclaim from luminary music sites like Popmatters and Pitchfork. “It was a combination of having both more time and money, and having a new producer (Fugazi’s Brendan Canty) that meant the new record sounds more professional,” says Hutch. “We recorded ‘More Parts Per Million’ on a scratchy old four-track, and while we love it, there’s only so much we, or anyone else can stand of that these days.”

The new album, ostensibly about an apocalyptic future America governed by Christian zealots (“Think Jesus with a Hitler moustache,” says Hutch) is already being hailed as a ‘concept’ record, but, despite being held together by a single narrative thread, Hutch is quick to point out that the album wasn’t supposed to turn out like that.  “Well, it just happened. Other people have been calling it a concept record, but it wasn’t a conscious decision. It’s just ideas that have been floating about for a while, and they all kind of came together. America’s all fucked up right now, and it’s been getting worse.” Does he think this is the way that his homeland is going? “I hope not, I really do.”