I'm a fairly recent convert to the Church of The Thermals. It wasn't until the last few years I really started to pay attention to this band. I've been aware of them for a while, but they never grabbed me much, outside of a few awesome songs. Then I began sitting down and listening to their albums. Then the brilliance started to emerge.
This band is a trio from Portland, OR who have an abrasive style of pop-punk. The singer, Hutch Harris, has a very unique voice, high pitched and emotive. The band overall reminds me of iconoclastic bands like The Fall and Pere Ubu, a band that is difficult to listen to, but so insistent in their sound that you have to listen. They have a feel to them that their sound is a giant middle finger to the music industry, that they don't care if you like their music, they're gonna keep making it anyway, But, unlike Mark E. Smith and Dave Thomas, this band is personable and charming.
Even more interesting is that most of their albums are concept albums. 2006's The Body, The Blood, The Machine, was a story about what America would look like if the ultra-right Christian politics took it over. Desperate Ground is about a soldier returning from war and trying to find his place in a world that isn't filled with killing. The songs themselves are great, but the way they hang together as a full album is what makes this amazing. I considered this album for my #1, but ultimately put is at #3.
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