Sub Pop Records

BIO

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in The Flag and carrying The Cross.”
—Sinclair Lewis

Envision the United States as governed by a fascist Christian state, and then focus on the need (and means) to escape. The Thermals did just that and out came The Body, The Blood, The Machine. If you’re not invited to the party, you’d better start your own!

The Thermals’ third full-length album was recorded at Supernatural Sound Studios in Oregon City, twenty miles south of their home base in Portland, OR, by Fugazi’s Brendan Canty. Having already recorded The Thermals live, (the exclusive track “Welcome to the Planet” for the Portland edition of his Burn to Shine DVD series) Canty and The Thermals got along swimmingly. This surprised no one, as they are all basically wonderful human beings. Plus, Canty was a natural choice given The Thermals’ history of recording with fellow musicians. To wit: Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla mixed The Thermals’ first LP, More Parts Per Million (recorded by The Thermals’ Hutch Harris) and recorded and mixed The Thermals’ second LP, Fuckin’ A. And, the band has done some as-yet-unreleased recording with Janet Weiss (from Sleater-Kinney and Quasi), as well as Joanna Bolme (formerly of The Minders; currently in Stephen Malkmus’s band The Jicks).

After the unfortunate departure of original Thermals drummer Jordan Hudson in late 2005, Kathy Foster and Hutch Harris (bass and guitar/vocals, respectively) split up duties on the new record themselves, as they had on 2002’s Hutch and Kathy LP (Jealous Butcher Records), just before The Thermals got started. For The Body, The Blood, The Machine, Foster performed double duty as The Thermals’ rhythm section for almost the entire…