Pitchfork

It's full speed ahead for the Thermals' forthcoming fourth LP, Now We Can See. The temporarily labeless, effectively drummerless lo-fi rockers recently finished tracking the album with producer John Congleton at Oregon City's Supernatural Sound. Though mixing won't take place 'til next month down at Congleton's own Elmwood Studio in Dallas, the band have posted the names of 15 darn near finished tracks in a recent MySpace blog post. We shot off an e-mail to the band and received a speedy reply from singer Hutch Harris, who informed us that Now We Can See will in fact sport "12 songs or so," with a run time of just about 40 minutes. "Long, for us," Harris noted. Indeed!

If all goes well, that means "When I Died", "I Called Out Your Name", "When I Was Afraid", "Liquid In, Liquid Out", "I Let It Go", "At The Bottom of the Sea", "When We Were Alive", "Now We Can See", "We Were Sick", "How We Fade", "Time Fell", and "You Dissolve" will make the cut for the final LP. That leaves "My World", "I Think of You", and "Everything Is Thermal" (not to be confused with "Everything Thermals") as B-sides. As Harris pointed out, those extra songs fail to fit in with the record's overarching theme. War? Poverty? Doll parts? Maybe all three. Hutch claimed the album hinges on a leitmotif of "songs from when we were alive."

As for updates on the label front, Harris said that nothing has happened since his last report that he's at liberty to divulge. "Labels are very sensitive!," he reminded us. "More sensitive than bands, I think. Does everybody know this?"

Hutch promised a show in Spain come December, with a few PAC NW dates to follow and the possibility of a run through Western Europe after that. A full announcement of all that business is apparently looming.

Also, that dude they've got moonlighting on drums (pictured above) while the Thermals seek a replacement,? He's ruined the fourth installment of an otherwise successful series in the past, you know.