Tag: Built To Spill

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Music Video Monday: “Car” by 6PACKADELIA

“Years ago, when I first started writing songs, I joined forces with my friend and Palindrome bandmate Chad Nixon to form a raucous and inane acoustic group called 6PACKADELIA,” says Jeff Hulett. “Back then, circa 2002, and by virtue of our TASCAM 4-track, we put out a self-titled album replete with songs about love and loss and even covered a Dylan song. Flash forward to now and Chad and I are back at it, but this time we decided to cover some of our favorite ’90s songs.”

The song 6PACKADELIA covers in their first music video is not “Cars” by Gary Numan, but “Car” by Built to Spill. Their EP “Dating Ourselves” will drop on Friday, Feb. 14, which just happens to be Valentine’s Day.

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Music Music Blog

ORUÃ: Brazilian Band Wows Lafayette’s, Backs Built to Spill

CREDIT: Karin Santa Rosa

Karin Santa Rosa

ORUÃ

Boise, Idaho, rockers Built to Spill released their fan-favorite album Keep It Like a Secret some 20 years ago, in 1999, which is why Doug Martsch, the maestro behind the band, is currently touring the album in celebration of the landmark anniversary. Hey, 20 years is a long time for a rock band. Built To Spill made a stop in Memphis at Overton Square’s Lafayette’s Music Room on Tuesday, July 9th, and Martsch proved that his riffs and all-along-the-neck runs are as crisp and fresh today as they were 20 years ago. One thing, however, was notably different. Martsch was supported, not by the usual cast of bearded and Fender-wielding Idahoans, but by rock trio ORUÃ, hailing from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who pulled double duty as both members of Built to Spill and the opening band. And, to put it simply, they brought the house down. 

But first, some history: Martsch is Built to Spill. His idiosyncratic playing style, penchant for Fender gear, trademark high-and-lonesome vocals, and long instrumental digressions form the backbone of the band’s identity. What’s more, Martsch has stated in many interviews that his original plan for the band was to employ a constantly rotating cast of support musicians as his backing band. However, sometime between There’s Nothing Wrong With Love (1994) and Keep It Like a Secret, a permanent lineup began to coalesce — at least until 2015’s Untethered Moon brought in new members. Those members were absent Tuesday night, but their shoes were filled admirably by ORUÃ. 

Karin Santa Rosa

ORUÃ

The first opening act was keyboard player/comedian Wet Face, whose arpeggiated piano runs and electronic beats were a vehicle for his charismatic antics and rapid-fire witticisms. Wet Face is worth checking out, but ORUÃ, who played next, was the break-out star of the evening.

Don’t get me wrong — Built to Spill put on a wonderful show as they played Keep It Like a Secret in its entirety, albeit out of sequence and with welcome additions from other albums. (“Time Trap” and “Broken Chairs” were highlights, as was “I Would Hurt a Fly” from Perfect From Now On.) But the boys from Brazil surprised me. I had no idea what to expect, so my defenses were nonexistent, leaving me open to be obliterated (in the best possible way) by their psychedelic, jazz-influenced onslaught. They put me in mind of California-based party rockers Oh Sees (formerly Thee Oh Sees), but any comparison fails to do ORUÃ justice. Including myself, there were three WEVL DJs present at last night’s show, and we all shared one takeaway: “This band is incredible! What was their name again? Could you understand them?”

The vocalist sang in a high lilt, in what I assume was Portuguese. Language barrier or no, I was transported. Their set passed by all too briefly, making Built to Spill’s — by any reckoning the main course — feel like dessert. Adding to the impressive feat of their live show, the members of ORUÃ (sans drummer, who, I assume was icing himself down after his set) played a game of musical chairs with their instruments when it came time for Martsch to take the stage. The Brazilian band’s guitarist and vocalist climbed behind the drum kit; their bassist proved himself to be equally proficient with guitar and glass slide guitar.

All in all, the concert, from start to finish, was a treat. And yes, Built to Spill still rocks pretty dang hard. 


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Music Music Features

Just Like Old Times

By 1993, the creative arc of straight-ahead indie rock had crested and was beginning its descent against the backdrop of post-Nirvana chaos, when indie bands were getting snapped up by a major-label feeding frenzy. There was an abundance of faceless bands popping up, inspired by a Superchunk album from 1991 or the stripped-down simplicity of the riot grrrl movement. But Built To Spill blew onto the increasingly homogenous scene with a sound and vision all their own: a maximization of indie rock, a widescreen ambition that made guitar excess credible again through a frightening ability to craft solos that, for lack of a better term, sounded amazing.

The band’s 1993 debut, Ultimate Alternative Wavers, and its follow-up, 1994’s There’s Nothing Wrong With Love, are widely and justifiably regarded as classics within the genre. In the same way that Mercury Rev were piling every noise and sonic idiosyncrasy onto pop songs around this time, Built To Spill applied a similar approach to guitar rock. After a Lollapalooza appearance and the forming of the Halo Benders (primary creative force Doug Martsch’s side project with Beat Happening/K Records founder Calvin Johnson), Built To Spill signed to Warners in 1997 for the no less dense and intense Perfect From Now On. This album also marked what would be the more or less permanent Built To Spill lineup, with former Spinanes drummer Scott Plouf on drums and Brett Nelson for other duties, including bass.

In an age of far less Internet usage, and obviously before MySpace added an unprecedented variable to artistic promotion and exposure, Built To Spill had amassed a respectable fanbase, even if their major-label debut lacked a song under five minutes long or without multiple layers and change-ups. After the much poppier, succinct Keep It Like a Secret was released in 1999, the band found itself at what was probably the height of its popularity. The band released a live album in 2000, featuring the concert-staple rendition of Neil Young’s “Cortez the Killer,” and if there was ever a band qualified to cover that one, it’s Built To Spill. Another studio album followed in 2001 (Ancient Melodies of the Future), though the band seemed to have established a finite yet respectably sized fanbase by this point.

Doug Martsch’s seemingly innate expertise with the pop hook, and his ability to apply this to his instrument in a macro sense, didn’t just come out of the woodwork. Martsch was a founding member of the sadly overlooked Treepeople, a furious Boise-by-way-of-Seattle post-hardcore band that was great in a confusing, doesn’t-really-fit-into-any-genre way (and they covered the Smiths at least 10 years before that was de rigueur). Due to creative differences, Martsch claimed early musical retirement (only lasting several months) and moved back to Boise in 1993 (Treepeople would release a final and avoidable album without Martsch in 1994), but before exiting the band, the guitar interplay and songwriting that would trademark his reemergence as Built To Spill had become apparent on the Treepeople’s Just Kidding, the erratic but enjoyable release from the same year.

Jump to early 2006. Mike Scheer’s artwork for the latest Built To Spill album, You in Reverse, is a subtle but telling indicator as to what Martsch had in store for fans awaiting the band’s first release in five years. Scheer created the covers for all of the Treepeople albums, and if you smell “return to form” about to pop up in the next few sentences, well, you’d be half-correct. The album opener “Goin’ Against Your Mind” has the immediacy of a Treepeople song stretched into an uptempo nine minutes that never lets up. “Mess With Time” is coarse psychedelic pop, heavy enough to suggest the influence of Comets on Fire. “Wherever You Go” is the last word in contemporary Neil Young & Crazy Horse tributes, with Martsch’s sugary vocals set against guitars that sound like screaming seagulls. Then there’s “The Wait,” a song that skews the feel of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here into indie-rock balladry.

For a band that strongly informed the pop sensibility of younger bands like the exponentially more popular Death Cab For Cutie and Modest Mouse, Built To Spill returned to the fold with a very strong album, very strong within the context of their already formidable discography. Along with Yo La Tengo’s aptly titled and amazing I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, Built To Spill’s You in Reverse proves that you can be around for forever and a day, influence a lot of bands that would become a lot more famous than you ever will, and still deliver a vital masterpiece. If an album is going to take five years to create, at least You in Reverse sounds as if every minute of those five years was used productively, and anyone who’s experienced Built To Spill live knows that once the band walks on stage, they’re in it for the long haul.