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02:00 PM - The Thermals: The Body, The Blood, The Machine
The Thermals are one of my favorite bands around these days, and their third full length is more or less a concept album. For a minute I wondered if Hutch had suddenly gone off the deep end into uber-rightwingism but that does seem a bit far-fetched, and really it's pretty obvious what this is about - imagine that a group of Bible-beating fascists took over your country and were telling you how to live and you wanted to escape - this would be your soundtrack. The Body, The Blood, The Machine is a bit of a shift from the band's past work - the songs are a little longer, the vocals are less distorted (though certainly not too shiny), and oddly there's less urgency to the music than before - even though you'd think the subject matter would be something to get riled up about. I'm going to wager that some of these differences are due to the recent changes in the band's lineup: drummer Jordan Hudson left the band, leaving just Kathy and Hutch to play all the instruments (apparently their new drummer is Lorin Coleman - not sure when the happened as the last report I heard named somebody else - maybe that was just a temp?) Listen/download: The Thermals - "A Pillar of Salt"
This certainly doesn't stand up to the first album in terms of thrashy good fun, but it's still a good listen. I'm having a hard time getting past the concept aspect of the record enough to enjoy the songs on their own, for now at least. "Test Pattern" might be my favorite track, partially because it's a slower, more 50's rock style dreamy number, but also because it feels like more of a love song than just following the theme of the rest of the album. Listen to a few of the songs and decide for yourself at the Thermals MySpace page.
Watch the video for "A Pillar of Salt"
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