[sarcasm]Gotta love this band[/sarcasm]


According to Pitchfork's story, Sub Pop punk act The Thermals and Trans Am both recently turned down large sums of money from Hummer. The bands described the SUV company as both "evil" and "despicable" respectively.

Apparently, the company had offered the bands tens of thousands apiece to use The Thermals' "It's Trivia" and Trans Am's "Total Information Awareness." Both bands have a policy to turn down the substantial sums of money which can be gained from advertising; sums which have even managed to entice bands like the Buzzcocks and Civ in recent years.

The Thermals Hutch Harris explained:

I never wanted to put songs in commercials and I still don't, So for the offer to be Hummer, it was just obvious that we wouldn't want to do [it] because it's so evil and there's no way we could support that. There's no way we'd want anyone thinking about the Thermals having to do with Hummer.


However these cats just agreed to do stuff with micro$oft's new launch of their zune player. i guess m$ is not evil.

sure one could argue that commericals and having your music preloaded on a mp3 player are two different things, but still......."M$ is just as EVIL as hummer"

You need music to sell a music player.
Microsoft will be selling the bands mp3's too.

m$ could be viewed as "evil" and "despicable" as well...and many people have. so why is m$ any different? they are gladly accepting that m$ check which seems weird to me.

the thermals are from portland and they're big on environmental issues, which is why they think hummer is evil. microsoft is just up the road and isn't harming the environment like hummer is.

Yeah, when you put all the anti-competitive stuff and shitty products aside, Microsoft isn't that bad a company. At least not as bad as Intel.

Anyway, my only problem with the Thermals is that all the snippets I've heard seem to pretty much suck. I'll try to reserve further judgment until I've had time to listen a little more, but they seem incredibly unremarkable.

yeah - good point....

i thought they were more "political" about things then just environment issues.....ie against big corporations, etc...

hmm... i'd suggest giving fuckin' a a test-run before casting them off as unremarkable. i think they're pretty good.

yeah i agree with z......fuckin' a is great

I could've sworn the Thermals did sell that song to Hummer. Where the fuck did I read that?

I don't care, because that new album punches balls in its awesomeness.

http://profile.myspace.com/thethermals

I found them unremarkable.

http://www.business-ethics.com/whats_new/100best.html

Companies on the List All Seven Years
Brady Corporation
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Cummins, Inc.
Ecolab Inc.
Graco Inc.
Herman Miller, Inc.
Hewlett-Packard Company
Intel Corporation
Modine Manufacturing Co.
Pitney Bowes, Inc.
Procter & Gamble Company
St. Paul Travelers Companies
Southwest Airlines Company
Starbucks Corporation
Timberland Company
Whirlpool Corporation

I thought I read that, too. Hmmm.

The new album could easily be in my top 3 by year's end. I love, love, love it.

So apparently Intel treats its employees really well, and good for them. But does this poll take into account things like anticompetitive practices? It seems primarily concerned with how well each company serves its "stakeholders" which I guess includes employees, stockholders, and the community.

What I was referring to had more to do with questionable products and bullying of other companies. Intel has improved lately, though, at least in terms of the quality of their processors.

"Test Pattern" is actually one of my favorite songs of the year. Very nice.

all 3 of their records fucking own...glad to see they'll make some money to make another.

I have yet to listen to the new album. I don't even know if I put it back on my IRiver?

there's a huge difference between getting paid tens of thousands of dollars to have your music soundtrack an ad for humvee and giving your song away for free to people buying a zune or an ipod or what have you. none of those bands with music on that zune player are getting paid for that honor and their music isn't selling anything here. they were offered an opportunity to give their song away for free to millions of people and they accepted it. If anything i think its incredibly ballsy for microsoft to overtly support a band that writes songs about assassinating the president and fighting against neo-fascist christians.

I'm seeing The Thermals open for Cursive in late October.

I was thinking about getting tickets for that show despite not really liking Cursive.

i passed on the cursive/thermals show this past week. i haven't heard that i missed anything great, so i believe i'll just wait it out until the thermals headline their own shows.