have the glow part 2, which heard through nice headphones on a rainy day is spiritual.
and the thermals, ive only listened to the body... and no culture icons, but they seem a pretty vital poppy punk rock band. takes me back to being 15 but ina good way

http://www.myspace.com/elverumandsun

they are great.

thermals have maybe one song which they recycle as far as ive ever been able to tell, less great.

The Thermals are a pop-punk band and basically have one song. Fortunately it is the most euphoric, catchy and brilliant song ever.

but The Thermals are one of my favourite bands. The Body, The Blood, The Machine is a fucking brilliant album in all respects.

Saying they have one song is like saying Eighties Matchbox only have one song. Take that how you want.

The stuff on their myspace sounds rather spiffing! And what's the difference between them and Mount Eerie?

The Glow Pt. 2 is a masterpiece, and Mount Eerie is fantastic as well. Great lyrics and wonderful melodies.

euphoric catchy punky fun, plus they embrace religion and stuff

and earnest for your tastes but the Microphones (& Mount Eerie) are probably my favourite band of all time.

They're basically just Phil Elvrum and a bunch of the usual K Recs people. They released a bunch of albums, of which the Glow Pt. 2 is the most famous and probably best, then in 2003/4 Phil went all spiritual hung out in Norway for a while and changed his bands name to Mount Eerie and released a bunch more records which are generally weirder and more stripped down.

You can check loads of amazing live bootlegs here:

http://mounteerie.trivialbeing.net/audio.php

Of which I particularly reccomend 'Live in Dundee', 'Live at the Tokyo Rose' & 'Live at the Vera Project' as they feature his best songs. Although the live stuff is very different as its mostly just Phil where as the records have real depth of production with loads of awesome drones, amazing drums and stuff.

They're pretty ace. I see what everyone means when they say they only have one song though.

All the songs sound the same at first, but then you realise they're all amazing pop-punk ditties.

Thermals are also great, especially when watching football in winter. Tuesday nights. Jumpers for goalposts. Bovril and whippets.

are the later ones more polished? i think what i really dig about it is the "recorded in a skanky basement" thing...

they seem really quite good

are the second worst live band I have ever seen, luckily they were a support act when I saw them last year.

if you spell mount 'mt'

is one of my all-time favourite albums.

Please describe these bands music in one sentance, so that I can be filled with enough excitement to warrant me remembering to have a look when I get back to my myspace friendly connection at home.