Customer Reviews

More Parts Per Million

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A friend of mine recommend the band to me last week and I've become hooked on their album, "More Parts Per Million." If you're an indie rock person, give it a listen. If your a Pavement fan, you NEED to give this record a listen. If you've been enjoying the Rock Revial stuff that the media has been jamming down our throats, give something truly orginal a chance.

Do not overlook this record.

I hear this being called a Northwest all-star conglomeration with the players from the bands Hutch and Kathy, Kind of Like Spitting and the All Girl Summer Fun Band. But this one coalesces into the perfect lo-fi 90's punk gem. The energy is infectious, the songs out and out blazing displays of great hooks and killer tunes. Even the element of its lo-fi recording circumstances are part of the songs in and of themselves, as the buzz and hiss from the 4-track adds the air of spontaneity and energy lacking in quite a few bands that we are forced to deal with on the mainstream and God yes, the "alternative" circuit. The best songs here are "No Cultural Icons" (a nice swipe at rock and roll idolatry with terrific drumming), "An Endless Supply", the rocketing opener "It's Trivia" and "I Know the Pattern". Great stuff and it doesn't sound at all like Guided by Voices (too lethargic to even resemble this band...except for the lo-fi circumstances). Get this now and see them live. I can't stop thinking about you...

Enthusiasm and intelligence are the two advantages Sub Pop's Thermals have over the lo-fi rocker hoi polloi.

The Portland, OR, group made up of ex-Hutch and Kathy, Kind of Like Spitting, and Operacycle, attack their simple songs on More Parts Per Million with verve like a Beat Happening hopped up on ephedrine and one too many Dr Peppers. The interest and eagerness are impressive, a welcome relief from the redundant cynicism that plagues and devours indie rock to this day.

Underneath the basic song structures, fast chords strummed with fury, is a musical mind, and a rabid wit lyricism that creates lasting songs, pop word nuggets to chew on long after the last track has played. At first listen, the music sounds hook free, fill free, all basics, like some one picking up their guitar for the first time and turning out an opus ala The Mountain Goats. Beneath and behind Ben Barnett's tin guitar assault is a bass bounce, and snare drum exclamation that adds depth and dance-ability to their sound.

Hutch Harris wraps his high-pitched, you-either-love-it-or-hate-it voice, around words sung sincere with great thought put into them. On "Back To Grey" take for example "I don't need any love/ because I've got the elements/Electric Light/Electric License." The entire album is saturated with word play like this, clever without being cloying.

The album is maximum low-fidelity, with the emphasis on LO. If it's true that Dave Davies put holes in his amp's speaker to get the nasty sound on early Kink's tracks, than maybe the Thermals put big holes in every speaker, their instruments, and the console, and ran over the tape a few times for good measure to get that authentic sludge sound.

More Parts Per Million is a great album and a great idea. My only fear is that this new sound may not last being stretched across several albums. It's one time brilliance that may be tarnished by repetition.

The thermals have intellectual and kinda scientific lyrics. Their sound is thrashy, distortiony, and reverby. Great live band. You'll quickly fall in and out love with the album--then you'll just be friends afterwards. Loud, howling, and impossible not to tap foot or bob head to.

Like your lo-fi to laccerate? Not exacerbate? Try the Thermals!

Dissonent, noisy, and sometimes monotonous. But there's something there that I can't put my finger on. I hear elements of Death Cab for Cutie with a little bit of Neurosis. Or maybe if The Dillinger Four had band practice with Radio Four. But, somehow, after only one listen, this band drew me in and I started developing favorite songs and listening to it more and more. And now I get it. I just don't know what "it" is.

Let me try to describe the sound as best as I can. Sub Pop. We're talking old school Sub Pop: Lo-Fi everything. Superdistorted guitar, bass, vocals, and even drums. But all of this noise comes together to create its own type of pop music. Quick, catchy, and very poignant, this CD is fresh. And fun. And noisy.

This album is a real energy booster. The music is simple but briljant.

The singer sounds pissed off but makes you happy.

Man who thinks anyone can do it: dude..thats the point. its punk rock, everyone is sposed to be able to do it. Its a music of the people. Take three chords and go start a band and maybe you won't be so uptight.

No amount of snappy delivery could disguise the fleeting flavor already emanating from these Brit-ster wannabes.

its punk ... and its good ! melodic and fast !