While most indie rockers may have packed away the flannel and hair dye, Portland punks the Thermals are embracing the grunge era.

"We're like super pro-'90s," Thermals' Hutch Harris tells Spinner. "That's when we were in high school and some of our favorite records were from Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, the Breeders, Pixies -- and that's just the big stuff. At the same time, there was Pavement and Yo La Tengo -- a lot of good indie rock going on."

In an ultimate tribute to some of these groups, the Thermals have padded their set with some covers from both the Breeders and Nirvana. They'll be playing these tunes on an upcoming tour to support their new release 'Now We Can See.' The album is a poppy sci-fi epic which picks up on the energy of their last album, the politically-charged 'The Body the Blood the Machine.'

"It's a piece of fiction -- it's fantasy," Harris says of the album. "We tried to keep politics out of it, but it's hard. We were definitely pro-Obama. We were really happy to see Bush go." We can name a few other musicians who were, too.