The Thermals |
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Is there still a mix tape generation that exists? I have always been a fan of making mix tapes and equally, a fan of receiving them. The digital age seems to have tainted the process though. There isn’t as much necessity to spend hours working on a tape when someone can download a song in 30 seconds and spend a further 2 minutes copying and pasting tracks onto CDR. Still, mix tapes are personal and a great way to share new music, so should not be forgotten.
In fact, one of my very good friends used to make exceptional mix tapes that took a lot of effort to compile. The music was always good and the tapes would become famous amongst our group. The only problem with the situation was the lack of technology. Due to the machines available to her, the mix tapes frequently sounded as though a song was being played on a stereo in one room and recorded onto a tape in another room using headphones as a microphone. It was irrelevant though. The sound quality was coarse, but the overall results were perfect and would be listened to over and over. This is the same effect currently being offered by the Thermals.
Bursting out from Portland, Oregon, they are creating a sound with almost no audio fidelity at all, yet it is amazingly exhilarating. I feel cheap for throwing this comparison into the review so early too, but they are like a younger Guided By Voices who actually sound exciting and relevant.
I can say that with my hand on my heart at least, as the first time I heard the Thermals it was at a concert where ‘No Culture Icons’ was blasted out before a band came on. I seriously thought it was an early Guided By Voices number. I don’t know what everyone else was thinking but it was fun seeing the crowd looking startled by the sudden explosion of volume from the speakers. The Thermals are masters of distorted noise and their songs are at least 3dB louder than anything else in comparison. It’s a fun little fright when you have no prior warning.
More Parts Per Million isn’t simply a cheap ride, though. The songs are bursts of noisy mania that only last 2 or 3 minutes, but beyond the surge of adrenaline they bring out in you, they also have staying power. In fact, it is one of the most addictive things I did not expect to find.
And let me get this straight - I am not the kind of person who will go along with the latest garage rock craze just for the fun of it. In fact I hate most of the trends. I feel the Thermals don’t deserve to be grouped in so easily though. All that matters is they have produced an album that fulfils a description of ‘classic Subpop’.
Sure, it’s distorted, noisy and might as well be a mono recording, but the songs shine through that. Even an audio freak like me can see that it’s only the music that counts.
Steven McCarron
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