Yes. I am totally 100% serious about this.
The Thermals are the best punk band of all time.
Every other punk band just sucks more than they do. I'll prove it categorically.
Every punk band which isn't The Thermals falls into one of these categories.
1. Classic Punk Bands Which Didn't Really Play Punk Rock
These were all the bands in the 70's which founded "punk". All the bands which made CBGB (good riddance) famous. Such bands include: The Velvet Underground, Blondie, The Talking Heads, The Clash, Television, Siousxie and the Banshees, etc. Most of the output by all of these bands' cannot be called punk by any right minded person.
2. Classic Punk Bands Which Actually Always Just Sucked
This is straightforward enough, I think. See The Sex Pistols, GG Allin,, The Germs, almost every 80's hardcore band.
3. Classic Punk Bands Which Had Some Great Output But Then Ruined Their Legacy With Years of Shittiness
This category basically exists so I can shake my finger at TheRamones. Just because everyone else ignores everything you did after the 70's doesn't make it okay. Other notables: The Dead Kennedys, The Misfits (and it's not like Danzig's solo stuff was any better),
4. Almost every 80's hardcore band
Shittiest decade for almost everything really.
That pretty much covers the gamut of old punk bands, and I don't think I really need to go over most modern punk bands, not because they're necessarily any worse, but because everyone knows, deep down, that most of them suck anyway. Really, I would have categories like:
5. Ska-Punk Bands
Ranging from Leftover Crack and Operation Ivy, to Less than Jake and Goldfinger. Come on. Seriously.
6. Radio Friendly Pop-Punk? Bands
Green Day, Blink 182, Good Charlotte, blah blah etc
7. Warped Tour!
Warped Tour has all the bands that are too hardcore for mainstream radio! Like Rancid, Bad Religion, NOFX, Pennywise, and Tsunami Bomb. ... Actually, I went to a Warped Tour once and Andrew W.K. played and he was fucking sweet.
8. Political Punk
Propagandhi and Anti-Flag were awesome seven years ago. Yknow. When I was twelve.
9. Shane McGowan Tribute Bands
Flogging Molly, The Real MacKenzies, The Dropkick Murphys.
Whatever, there's lots of other kinds of bands which suck. We don't need to talk about them.
These are bands which I will seriously consider as viable competitors: Cock Sparrer, Against Me!, Jets to Brazil, and Henry Rollins, and Rollins only because he could kill me with his hands
I think that this should serve to convince any right thinking person that The Thermals are the best punk band ever.
another possible competitor: this bike is a pipebomb