My favorite local kick-ass, proto-punk outfit The Thermals, have changed teams moving from Seattle’s Sub Pop to Portland’s Kill Rock Stars. There’s a new album underway that should see the light of day around April 2009. After three albums on Sub Pop, ‘More Parts Per Million,’ Fuckin’ A’ and ‘The Body, The Blood, The Machine,’ it seems that they are bringing it all back home to Portland. Portland 2, Seattle 0.

They hit up the right bands -
Eat Skull, White Fang, White Rainbow, Menomena, Panther, Honey Owens, Starfucker, Horse Feathers, Southern Belle, M Ward, Thermals, Fist Fite, Malkmus. And yet there is more than just white indie, folk, electronic, alt-rock in Portland. Where were the Lifesavas for instance?