LimeWire Music Blog

Last week, I interviewed the Thermals‘ smart, affable Hutch Harris for a long, weird article I’m working on. At some point, amid our far-ranging conversation, he told me a little bit about the band’s forthcoming album, Now We Can See (out April 7th via Kill Rock Stars). “We evolve in small steps. We decided we don’t want to sing about religion or politics,” Hutch said, referring to the themes that pervaded the Thermals’ fantastic 2006 release The Body, The Blood, The Machine. “At the end of the last album, we were talking about the end of humanity, maybe destroyed in a nuclear war. Now, we’re going to sing like we’re dead already.”

Today, the band’s publicist sent me one of the funniest press releases I’ve ever gotten, announcing album details and a long-ass tour (you can find the complete list of dates, including about 25 sets at SXSW, under the cut). You can check out the entire document at the Thermals’ UK publicist’s website, but here are some highlights:

But as much death as there is on this
record, it won’t get you down! 
These songs are really about life. 
After all, The Thermals are only fictionally deceased.  Hell, they’re only seven years
old!  They know little about death,
and slightly less about life.

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.  

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.

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!

Here’s that list of tour dates:

SXSW Schedule:

3-18 – 2:30 pm: Red 7 | Terrorbird Party

3-18 – 5:00 pm: Club Deville | Kill Rock Stars Showcase

3-19 – 5:00 pm: French Legation Museum | Other Music Party

3-19 – 10:00 pm: Red Eyed Fly | PDX Showcase

3-20 – 1:00 pm: Radio Room | The Onion Day Party

3-20 – 3:40 pm: Club Deville | Insound Party

3.21 – 12:00 pm: Maggie Mae’s | Rachael Ray Party

3.21 – 5:30 pm: Waterloo Park | Mess With Texas

Spring Tour Dates:

4-09 Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom 

4-10 Salem, OR @ The Grand Theater 

4-11 Seattle, WA @ Neumos

4-22 Boise, ID @ Neurolux

4-23 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge 

4-24 Denver, CO @ The Marquis Theater

4-25 Omaha, NE @ Slowdown 

4-26 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club 

4-28 Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon 

4-29 Chicago, IL @ The Bottom Lounge

4-30 Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig

5-1 Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom 

5-2 Buffalo, NY @ Big Orbit’s Soundlab 

5-3 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern

5-5 Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street 

5-6 Portland, ME @ SPACE Gallery 

5-7 Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Downstairs

5-8 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom (18+) 

5-9 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom (16+) 

5-12 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s 

5-13 Washington, DC @ Black Cat 

5-14 Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506

5-15 Charleston, SC @ The Pourhouse 

5-16 Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade

5-18 Birmingham, AL @ Bottle Tree 

5-19 Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone Cafe 

5-20 Little Rock, AR @ Revolution Music Room 

5-21 Dallas, TX @ The Loft 

5-22 Austin , TX @ Mohawk 

5-23 San Antonio, TX @ The Warhol 

5-26 Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room 

5-27 Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour 

5-30 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill (21+) 

5-31 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill (AA)