words & photos by Andrew Frisicano

The Thermals completed a two-night run at Brooklyn Bowl last night (4/21). I was at the irst night, Tuesday, when they played a great set to a sold-out crowd. The band's two show run at the venue was the last stop of their two-week East Coast tour.

The Thermals crowd came ready to sing along, and got more and more riled up as things progressed (the band's "Pillar of Salt," "No Culture Icons," "Returning to the Fold" run at the end was particularly spectacular). There was a kind of girls vs. boys thing going on, with plenty of female fans belting out the words while the guys threw their bodies into it.

The hour-plus set covered the band's catalog, from the power-punk of More Parts Per Million to the cleanly cut songs on Now We Can See. The new material showed promise for Personal Life, their fifth album, due in September. Those tunes stayed intense even as the band slowed down the tempo. "Seperate" - from their Record Store Day split with the Cribs - is one new song with a different, more calculated edge (see it in a video from an earlier show on the tour, below). Here's hoping the new album will match The Body, The Blood, The Machine for lyrical sharpness and replayability. After the 20-ish song set, the band came back for a gracious encore, and repeated cries to play their Olympics anthem "Canada" went unheeded.

Spazzy punk band the Coathangers opened, with all four members taking turns at the mic as they swapped instruments. Other opener Past Lives played grungy rock that didn't really keep my attention (Tony Castles subbed for the Coathangers on the second night).

More pictures and a few of those new songs from their Baltimore tour stop are below...

Continue reading "The Thermals played 2 nights @ Brooklyn Bowl w/ The Coathangers (pics) "

The Thermals have added a second NYC show to their upcoming tour. In addition to their already-announced April 20th show at Brooklyn Bowl, they'll play again at the same venue on April 21st. Tickets go on sale Thursday, February 25th at noon (and tickets are still on sale for the first night too).

The Thermals' new record and Kill Rock Stars debut, now officially called Personal Life, is still quite a ways off, with a release date of September 7th. A bit sooner, the band is planning, (like Fucked Up) a Record Store Day 7-inch split with the Cribs, which'll include new song "Separate." And a few weeks ago, the band dropped a brief pre-Olympics ode, titled "Canada," that was inspired, so the story goes, by a bad gig in Buffalo (and we're guessing the inevitable dinner at Mighty Taco). Stream that track, available on iTunes, below along with their their updated tour dates...

Continue reading "The Thermals add 2nd night at Brooklyn Bowl, write song about Canada (updated dates) "

We'll get a more complete press release in the morning (and confirm what is listed below is 100% correct), but in the meantime below is a picture of the 2010 Sasquatch poster (that someone Tweeted) and the lineup as read by Bradford Cox at tonight's Atlas Sound show in Seattle (and being listed all over the Internet)....

Continue reading "Sasquatch announces 2010 lineup (includes Massive Attack & My Morning Jacket) (and many more) "

also, we are mixing our record in TWO WEEKS with CHRIS WALLA! the new working title is "personal life" -The Thermals

The Thermals @ Pitchfork Fest 2k9 (more by Joseph Xu)

The Thermals have announced an April tour with Past Lives which includes a return to NYC. They'll play a show at Brooklyn Bowl on Tuesday, April 20th show (ahem, 4/20), almost a year after their last New York gigs in May '09. Tickets go on sale Friday, January 15th at noon.

Before then, the band has some West Coast dates lined up for February with their Kill Rock Star labelmates Thao & The Get Down Stay Down. "We will be playing all the hits, plus a few songs from our next LP, coming later this year," writes Hutch. As it says above, Death Can's Chris Walla is mixing the new album.

Walla and The Thermals have a long history together. Chris mixed The Thermals 1st LP More Parts Per Million (Sub Pop, 2003) and produced their 2nd LP, Fuckin' A (Sub Pop, 2004). The Thermals also supported Death Cab For Cutie on a few tours in 2003 and 2004.

The Thermals are no stranger to cover songs - they've long worked Built to Spill's "Big Dipper" into their sets, and the band's festival circuit shows last summer extended their covers repertoire to include songs like Green Day's "Basket Case" (video below). The Thermals aren't immune from the cover treatment either. Seattle's School of Rock band played their song "When I Died" at a January 9th concert. That spirited rendition, the Thermals' own cover-band antics and all tour dates are below...

Continue reading "The Thermals - new album almost done, covered by School of Rock, 2010 Tour Dates (Brooklyn Bowl) "

by Black Bubblegum

DOWNLOAD: Jaguar Love - "Highways of Gold" (MP3)

Past Lives

Jaguar Love (more by Bao Nguyen)

Past Lives, one of two post-Blood Brothers projects, have signed to Suicide Squeeze and are set to pounce on a November 4th release of the Strange Symmetry EP. Produced by Dan Gallucci (of ex-Modest Mouse and Murder City Devils), the debut EP features three of the five Blood Brothers, Jordan Blilie, Morgan Henderson and Mark Gajadhar, and Devin Welch (ex-Shoplifting). They have a few tour west coast dates which are down below.

The other project with the reamining two Brothers (as well as J Clark of the fallen Pretty Girls Make Graves) Jaguar Love, is readying their new LP Take Me To The Sea, due August 19th on Matador. The band, who recently played Siren Fest, have dropped a new video for "Highways of Gold" (below), and will embark on a tour with The Faint, skipping the previously mentioned Terminal 5 show (on sale here) and adding a solo date at Southpaw on August 19th. Tickets are still available for that one. Full tour schedule below.

Continue reading "ex-Blood Brothers Past Lives & Jaguar Love, 2008 Tour Dates"