ARTIST: The Thermals
TITLE: Fuckin A
YEAR RELEASED: 2004
CHART ACTION: None
SINGLES: How We Know
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Um..doubtful
LINEUP: Hutch Harris, Kathy Foster, Jordan Hudson
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: The Thermals move into being a real band, and their fury lit up the Pacific Northwest.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: It’s hard to believe that Hutch Harris and Kathy Foster were folkies before the Thermals, but they were. Now that Harris, Foster, and Jordan Hudson became the Thermals after Harris recoded and album under that name, there’s no ‘folk’ here, unless it’s the punk rock for the people as the new ‘folk’.
Harris’ guitar screams and howls, much like his vocals on many tracks. Foster’s bass is in the Laura Balance mode, distortion and volume and working in lockstep with drums. There’s definitely passion and fire here.
It’s under 30 minutes long, but it doesn’t seem like a rip-off. Harris’ vocals and lyrics point to the anger the youth felt about the world in the mid-2000’s. A leap forward and worthy of your catalog.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: This was recorded in four days, in a studio (unlike their debut)
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No.
GRADE A-: The Thermals were a hidden gem of the 2000’s, and this record truly started them toward toward their glory days.