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The Thermals

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Location: Portland, OR

Websites:

• http://myspace.com/thethermals
• http://thethermals.com/

Bio: The Thermals were born in Portland, Oregon, in the early winter of 2002. The United States was going through a mental and moral quagmire, ... (more) of sorts. At the time, we referred to our brave, new world as "Post-9/11". We would soon re-name this era "Pre-9/11 Flight Tax". These were NOT simple times, my friend! These were days of fear, of terror, of salvia! The world looked like a horrible place, whether you were tripping or not.

Now here we are, in 2009. How things change! How they get worse, and worse, and wow even WORSE, and then... wait for it... looks like maybe there is a light at the end of this tunnel? Good God were we in a TUNNEL for eight years?

Barack Obama is elected president of the U.S.A. and as millions of people cheer at the top of their lungs, millions more breathe an enormous collective sigh of relief. Now we can start over, now we can begin repairing the damage done over the last eight years, now we can restore our great nation's standing in the world.

Now we can see!

Which finally brings us back to The Thermals. Don't go anywhere, we are still going to sell you The Thermals, and maybe some aluminum siding, if you do not have aluminum siding.

Like most Portlanders, The Thermals are only conservative when it comes to their stash. So they were of course thrilled to see not only Obama become the nation's first black president, but also to see Portland's Sam Adams become the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city.

Now we can see!

The problem is, I think they meant the title to be ironic. After all, The Thermals certainly love the 90's (think Pinkerton, Last Splash, Dookie, Mr. Show), the decade when irony battled sarcasm until they both collapsed upon themselves. When The Thermals sing "Now we can see/What do we need?/We should need nothing/Nothing at all", "should" seems to be the key word. Now we can see. We know the truth, but do we even care? Does it change our behavior at all? It might not be ironic, but is it optimistic?

Don't ask The Thermals! Rumors of their death have been greatly under-exaggerated. Though NOT a concept record and NOT a sequel, "Now We Can See" picks up right where The Thermals left off, at the end of their last LP, 2006's "The Body, The Blood, The Machine", when The Thermals were either obliterated by nuclear war, or walked the earth as the last living souls, until they dropped dead of quite unnatural causes. I don't know, the plot was a little hard to follow.

Either way, the story continues... from beyond the grave! With catchy choruses!

The Thermals imagine death by drowning, in attempts to de-evolve ("When I Died", "At The Bottom Of The Sea"), death by psychosis ("We Were Sick", "I Called Out Your Name"), and death by French exit ("You Dissolve"). 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.

2009! Did we really make it? Wow, we're incredibly Post-9/11 now. But we won't be Pre-2012 for much longer! Who knows what the future will bring? Where do we go when we die? Is there electric guitar in the afterlife? It's too much to think about! Let's try to just concentrate on the present. We hit some crazy highs, and lows, over these past eight years. If we died, now we are definitely reborn . Now we can start over. Now we can get back to work.

Now we can see! (less)