Top 5: Five Things You Don't Know About the Making of the Thermals' The Body, the Blood, the Machine

By Hutch Harris

In 2006, Portland power-punk institution the Thermals released its third album, The Body, the Blood, the Machine, an album imagining America's future as an imperialistic Christian theocracy. It's still widely considered the band's best work. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the trio is including every song in the setlists of their current tour. So we asked singer-guitarist Hutch Harris to tell us five things we don't know about the creation of the group's crowning achievement.

1. The LP was performed by only two people.

I played guitar, Kathy Foster played drums, and we split bass duties. Most days in the studio it was just the two of us with Fugazi's Brendan Canty, who produced.

2. All the guitar overdubs were recorded with a distorted acoustic guitar.

This is a trick Kathy had used in some of her solo recordings, and we had also heard of Kim Deal doing this in the Breeders. It made for a very thick, fuzzy tone that we loved.

3. We mostly used tiny, battery-powered amps.

This is something I do when I'm recording at home as well. A tiny, battery-powered Marshall can often sound a lot bigger and crazier than a Marshall stack. Brendan told us Fugazi often did this on their own records.

4. I originally wanted to name the record Power Doesn't Run on Nothing.

I felt the title was too similar to the Gossip's amazing Standing in the Way of Control. I'm glad we chose The Body, the Blood, the Machine as I feel it's incredibly grand and iconic.

5. There's a good deal of censored artwork from the record.

Not quite "censored," but there are some images that we or Sub Pop deemed unusable or not cool. Among them were photos of a White House Easter egg hunt and a collage of Jesus Christ with swastika eyes.

SEE IT: The Thermals play Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., with Summer Cannibals and Little Star, on Friday, May 13. 9 pm. $15. All ages.

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