The Art Snob Archive

Rapture - Mar 2 2007

Portland Punks ‘The Termals’ Stand Strong Before the Apocalypse

I’d like to say something about the Rapture; no, not the fashionable dance punk band from New York City, but that end-of-days, burning apocalypse scenario upon which all good Christians ascend to heaven while the legions of unfaithful descend into the death and destruction of the Great Tribulation. Easy to confuse, I understand.

The Lenten season has begun in Christendom, my dear readers, and across the world millions of followers have undertaken vows of penance in preparation for Easter. This year, however, I cannot help but worry that, instead of forcing children to give up candy and soda pop for forty days, we should be helping them prepare for the increasingly imminent Final Judgment.

Just ask Shelby Corbitt, who was visited by God in 1986 and chosen as his messenger to ensure that the world is “Rapture Ready.” Her book, 2007, indicated that, yes, Jesus will return this summer to act as a “boarding ticket” for God’s children, with faith securing your “rapture reservation.” The rest are condemned to “suffer through horrific world-wide destruction.” This summer. Guess there’s no point enrolling in that fourth year History seminar this spring term.

While this may be bad news for the unfaithful, it is certainly good news for art lovers. Why? Well, if anything inspires artists, it’s the End of Days. Think of Albrecht Durer’s magnificent Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Michelangelo’s legendary Sistine Chapel fresco The Last Judgement, or Marcel Duchamp’s heart-wrenching Fountain. All are masterpieces; dark, gloomy, thoroughly depressing masterpieces

Come to think of it, Christianity has bestowed upon the art world a bit of a buzzkill for a muse. The Romans had Bacchus, and we get The Stoning of St. Stephen. I think it may be time for the church to put more emphasis on Jesus’ ability to turn water into wine. I guess it’s too late for that now.

With Shelly Corbitt’s warning and a renewed appreciation for evangelical Christian ideas of the apocalypse in the United States, it seems only logical that somewhere in the world young creatives will be mobilized by the inescapable feeling of looming death and destruction.

Sure enough, Portland, Oregon indie-punk trio The Thermals have released The Body, The Blood, and the Machine, a pounding, terrifying record of dystopic apocalyptic yearnings inspired by religious iconography and an Orwellian-tinged Christian future. It draws on a world teetering on the edge of fire and brimstone, and extracts from it some really, really catchy three-minute punk songs. It appears, my friends, that indie rock has become rapture ready.

Thermals singer/guitarist Hutch Harris bellows his songs with the same determination of Corbitt confronting the world with God’s message. Harris, however, seems less concerned with oncoming hellfire and more worried about the growing influence of people like Corbitt. In The Body, The Blood and the Machine, The Thermals take us into a Christian Fascist future, where concentration camps are filled with homosexuals and mothers who had performed abortions, where warmongering crusaders launch holy wars on the unfaithful, a time of “locusts, tornadoes, crosses and Nazi halos.”

The apocalypse Harris sings of is different from the one that inspired Michelangelo and Durer; his is one brought not by God’s fist but by man himself. Lyrics target the popularity of the Christian Right, demanding the creation of “the new master race, ‘cuz we’re so pure.” It is a carefully articulated critique of fundamentalism and the fact that “we’ve built too many walls.” The Thermals scream “We were born to sin!”, and somewhere in the world Shelly Corbitt faints in horror.

While it is true that the Vatican didn’t commission The Thermals record, one must not dismiss it simply as the demonic, gurgling excrement of the Antichrist. It is more important for its condemnation of extremism in all forms, its warning of the potential for human devolution that comes with radicalism.

At the very least, if Jesus does return this summer and The Thermals do fall into the deep, dark abyss, they’ll know that they left the world with a catchy, provocative and powerful record. What can you say of yourself? Are you Rapture Ready?

posted by HLL @ Saturday, March 03, 2007