It’s been a big year for the Thermals: The Portland-based indie band recorded its fourth album, Now You Can See — which is scheduled for a spring 2009 release — and signed to Kill Rock Stars after releasing three previous full-lengths on Sub Pop. Plus, vocalist-guitarist Hutch Harris and bassist Kathy Foster are testing out a new drummer after the departure of Lorin Coleman last year. But even with all this change, Thermals fans can rest assured that the sped-up guitars, choppy drums and warbly vocals that the band debuted on 2003’s More Parts Per Million aren’t going anywhere. On “No Culture Icons” — arguably the best song on that album — Harris sings “Hardly art, hardly starving/hardly art, hardly garbage,” over and over again, and you can sure he knows what he’s singing about. That stripped down and pumped up music is what makes one of Portland’s most beloved bands also the city’s least pretentious. All ages.

Thu., Dec. 4, 8 p.m., 2008