Here's the first Thermals record, from back when they were basically a blitz. They'd been a band for six months when this came out on Sub Pop in 2003 and it sounds like it. Everything is pushed into the red. Distorted drums, distorted bass, guitars that sound like they're being fed through a broken practice amp, Hutch Harris yelling about God and boredom and dissolution over the top. It is not subtle and it is not clean. It is great.
The songs are short and fast. Most of them do not crack two minutes. 'It's Trivia' kicks it off with a riff that sounds like it's about to fall apart and a melody that sticks anyway. 'Brace And Break' and 'No Culture Icons' hit the same pocket: three chords, maximum velocity, no fat. There is a DIY roughness here that their later records sanded down a bit. If you like the Thermals at all you should hear where they started. If you like the lo-fi end of Pacific Northwest garage punk, or the early days of that whole Sub Pop revival where everything was fuzzed and frantic, this is worth your time. It is messier than you remember.
