The Thermals releasing new album next month – Announce Spring dates
Music News | Mar 12th, 2009
The Thermals will be releasing their new album “Now We Can See” on April 07, 2009 on Kill Rock Stars, and have announced tour dates for the Spring.
The band made a long comment about the new album, the tour, 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.
We have some lovely neighbors here. The Shins, Modest Mouse, The Decemberists, The Jicks, The Blow, Blitzen Trapper, Menomena, you can stop us anytime. What you can’t stop is the overwhelming awesomeness of Portland’s indie-rock scene, of which we consider ourselves an integral part, thank you very much!
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.
But, uh, yeah, our new record. Sorry, we got distracted. We’re sitting on our porch writing this, and sixty naked bicyclists just rode by. Portland! We love this fuckin’ place.
Like we said, our new record is called Now We Can See. We think it’s pretty good! Pret-ty, pret-ty, pret-ty good. Not only are the songs filled with some of our smartest lyrics and sweetest melodies, but the recording is, for us, another great leap in fidelity (you might even call it hi-fidelity), thanks to producer John Congleton (Explosions In The Sky, Polyphonic Spree), who brought massive amounts of sound and bombastic style to the project.
So much else is new and wonderful for us! We have a new record label, Kill Rock Stars. Not only has Kill Rock Stars released some of Portland’s (and the Northwest’s) best punk and indie records to date (Elliott Smith, Sleater-Kinney, The Gossip), but the label has recently relocated to Portland, and is quickly filling it’s roster with even more great Portland bands (Shaky Hands, Panther, Horse Feathers). The Thermals are thrilled to now be a part of this family as well. We were thrilled to be part of the Sub Pop family for six years, but we felt it was time to move on.
We have a new drummer as well. Westin Glass, formerly of Seattle’s Say Hi, joins us (Kathy Foster and Hutch Harris) to complete the third (or so) live line-up of The Thermals. In addition to (again!) touring the UK with The Cribs this February, and playing multiple shows at SXSW in March, we will be touring the U.S. for two months, following the release of Now We Can See on April 7th. We’ll be doing festivals in Europe and the U.S. all summer long, followed by a full European tour in the fall.
Whew! We’re exhausted already. 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!
But only in Portland.
XOXO
The Thermals
Check out the band at SXSW and across the US at the following:
SXSW Schedule:
03-18 – 2:30 pm: Red 7 | Terrorbird Party
03-18 – 5:00 pm: Club Deville | Kill Rock Stars Showcase
03-19 – 5:00 pm: French Legation Museum | Other Music Party
03-19 – 10:00 pm: Red Eyed Fly | PDX Showcase
03.20 – 1:00 pm: Radio Room | The Onion Day Party
03.20 – 3:40 pm: Club Deville | Insound Party
03.21 – 12:00 pm: Maggie Mae’s | Rachael Ray Party
03.21 – 5:30 pm: Waterloo Park | Mess With TexasSpring Tour Dates:
04-09 Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
04-10 Salem, OR @ The Grand Theater
04-11 Seattle, WA @ Neumos
04-22 Boise, ID @ Neurolux
04-23 Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
04-24 Denver, CO @ The Marquis Theater
04-25 Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
04-26 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club
04-28 Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
04-29 Chicago, IL @ The Bottom Lounge
04-30 Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig
05-01 Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
05-02 Buffalo, NY @ Big Orbit’s Soundlab
05-03 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
05-05 Northampton, MA @ Pearl Street
05-06 Portland, ME @ SPACE Gallery
05-07 Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Downstairs
05-08 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom (18+)
05-09 New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom (16+)
05-12 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
05-13 Washington, DC @ Black Cat
05-14 Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
05-15 Charleston, SC @ The Pourhouse
05-16 Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
05-18 Birmingham, AL @ Bottle Tree
05-19 Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone Cafe
05-20 Little Rock, AR @ Revolution Music Room
05-21 Dallas, TX @ The Loft
05-22 Austin , TX @ Mohawk
05-23 San Antonio, TX @ The Warhol
05-26 Phoenix, AZ @ Rhythm Room
05-27 Los Angeles, CA @ Troubadour
05-30 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill (21+)
05-31 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill (AA)
