Heart on a Stick
Very Close to, if not actually in, the CD player:
seen/heard ° stream album ° buy
seen/heard ° stream album ° buy
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seen/heard ° listen ° preorder
Oil of Vitriol (CMJ Day 4, Part 2 – The Thermals, Studio B)
posted 11/09/2006
(Got my late start Friday afternoon doing something I’ve been doing regularly since 2003: Missing a Thermals (myspace) performance.
Don’t know why it is, but by my calculations I have missed upwards of three thousandleven Thermals shows I’ve meant – but apparently, have not been meant – to attend. Three slots at CMJ this year offered three more opportunities to blow it: Thursday’s Bowery show sold out, last-minute circumstances kept me from Vegan’s Friday show at Fontana’s – the latter later described by a jubilant Yeti as the “show of the year!” So, yeah, I missed that.
Off to Greenpoint Dance Club/Money-Laundering Facility Studio B, then, for ProductShop’s “Night Out.” And to my surprise, I wasn’t late/stabbed/otherwise deterred. After shrugging through a few songs of local meat-n-potato rockers Al Roker, the crowd coagulated, heated up, banged around to Hutch Harris and his punky particle accelerators.
*
The new Thermals album, The Body, The Blood, The Machine, A Scar, A Plan, Vici, Tora! and Ann B. Davis as “Alice,” stretches at a formula that had become as narrow as the band’s dynamic range. Its first two records, More Parts per Million and Fuckin’ A came out with frantic frontal-assaults; Body, while staying in your face, gets to poke around a little. Before, tempos were kept constant, instrumentation was simple, vocals were always at a shout. Tracks were pretty much interchangeable, ranty verses blooming into bright choruses. Even Fuckin’s few variations – parts of “A Smile Like Yours” sounded like a slopped-up Survivor song, “Let Your Earth Quake” nodded towards C&W – still came after a standard feedback+drums/full-band intro. The first sound you hear from the new CD is an organ.
Body gets Biblical on your ass, leaves marks. There’s anger – Harris rails at theocratic fascism; he shakes his fist at Old Testament cruelty, his head at calls for sacrifice – but hardly a call to arms. Whether we’re talking B.C. or W., there are no lessons to be learned. This is a very sad, and a very passive, album. Any free will we’re ceded will be reclaimed through eminent domain. Our only options are to obey or suffer. Or both, like a bunch of expat-Sodomites.
We were born to sin. A giant fist is out to crush us. We run in the dark.
God asked Noah if he wanted to die
He said, ‘No, sir! Oh, no, sir!’
God said, ‘Here’s your future:
‘It’s gonna rain.’
The record starts with the flood; the very moment we reach self-awareness our only act of defiance is to march, to the tune of a two-chord dirge, in a parade of reverse-Darwinian parody (you stand, then you kneel, then you crawl) back to the sea. There’s a mock-happy ending that could be post-Rapture doom, or Genesis all over again.
Wise, then, that the band’s allowed its sound to evolve; clump the depressing subject matter and thematic unity with The Thermals’ usual consistency, you get beaten down. For some reason – they don’t sound anything alike, it must just be the presence of smarts – I’ve always associated these guys with Bad Religion, and Body (if you’re a lousy alphabetizer) can sit comfortably next to your copy of Recipe for Hate. But this record had me thinking Social D with its slower tempos, sonic thickness, the odd bluesy guitar solo.
Harris’ voice – five octaves above Mike Ness’ – still feels like it’s drawing on your anytime minutes, but there’s less barking. He holds notes. Even though it’s out of frustration, he gets to laugh (on “An Ear for Baby”); that little flourish actually quadruples the band’s emotional range.
“I Might Need You to Kill” sounds a bit like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on lithium
*
The variety and the throughline might make Body the band’s best record, certainly its most coherent. But something about Parts’ lo-fi urgency – it sounds like it was recorded using a pair of tin cans and some string – still makes it my go-to CD of choice. I don’t think the band’ll ever write a better song than this:
It’s that sort of punchy simplicity that had me wanting to catch The Thermals in the first place. For someone prepared for a hyperkinetic, Ramones-like pummeling, the show – the group’s second of the day – felt a step slow.
Harris is exactly the sort of twig you’d expect; plenty of no-nonsense energy, he’d only stop pounding at his guitar to grab at the acoustic foam on the stage’s ceiling. The club’s compressed sound system was perfect for his vocals. Or maybe he just really sounds that way.
Due to its minimalist origins, anything vaguely unnecessary stuck out. Like: Your bassist wears frilly shirts? Why’s there a second guitarist? Why are we pausing between songs? “It’s Trivia” is a really lousy set-ender. That sort of thing.
But it’s good stuff, and (universe allowing) I’d see them again in a heartbeat. I just hope it beats faster next time.
*
Also there, with stuff to say:
and ProductShop (duh)
*
I know I’ve been my usual sluggish self putting up CMJ posts. The Horrors write-up is coming, as are ones on The Blow, The Slits, Made Out of Babies, others. And a little bit of good Wrens news. That eveyone’ll already know by the time I get to it.
I know I’ve been my usual sluggish self putting up CMJ posts. The Horrors write-up is coming, as are ones on The Blow, The Slits, Made Out of Babies, others. And a little bit of good Wrens news. That eveyone’ll already know by the time I get to it.
Luckily, everyone else has been on the ball. Ear Farm gathered links. Wish more had done what Pitchfork did; it’s a lot easier to link to one big consolidated post.
*
Bad Religion is hosting some mp3s. Nice when established groups do that. Thermals fans, cross over, and vice versa.
*
Speaking of smart old punks, Fists with Your Toes did an interview for Gothamist (?!) with Minor Threat/Fugazi/Evens frontman Ian MacKaye. That’s here. I look forward to there never being a Fugazi! The Musical! (and look forward to avoiding that Ramones show when it gets here).
YES? YOU THERE IN THE BACK? (3)
1. yeti left...
11/10/2006 8:49 am
“show of the year!” ? I don't remember saying that. I might have
referred to the Thermals' Bowery set, but their Fontana's set was quite
tame by comparison.
2. J____ left...
11/10/2006 9:50 am :: http://heartonastick.blog-city.com/
Perhaps the music was too loud for you to hear me (perhaps? of course it
was...) or you were a little full of...joy at that point. But that's what
you said when I asked you how they were at Vegan's show.
3. Minor Power left...
11/11/2006 1:49 am
Yet Ian didn't categoricaly rule out the possibility of a Fugazi musical.
My sources tell me Neal Patrick Harris is being considred for the role of
Guy, with John Stamos playing Brendan and Tom Wopat as Ian MacKaye... Okay,
so my "sources" expend gray matter imagining casting choices for Fugazi:
The Musical! Moving right along, this reader appreciates the 'using my
mother of five children voice' nearly as much as 'I'd rather be
waterboarding', and that's saying something. I have nothing more to add as
I missed every Thermals show; can't get past the guy's voice, despite
Stamos having produced their new album.