Built To Spill - You In Reverse

[CTC Command]

Built To Spill's new album You In Reverse will be in stores April 11th. Built To Spill also kicks off their U.S. tour on this day.

Check below to see if they are coming to your city.

TOUR DATES

date - city - venue

11-Apr - Minneapolis - First Ave

12-Apr - Minneapolis - First Ave

13-Apr - Madison, WI - Barrymore Theatre

14-Apr Chicago - Metro

15-Apr Chicago - Metro

16-Apr St. Louis - Mississippi Nights

17-Apr Columbia, MO - Blue Note

19-Apr Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck

20-Apr Tulsa, OK - Cain's Ballroom

21-Apr Little Rock, AR - Vino's

22-Apr Memphis - Young Ave. Deli

23-Apr Nashville - City Hall

24-Apr Urbana, IL - Foellinger Auditorium

24-Apr Urbana, IL - Foellinger Auditorium

25-Apr Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue

26-Apr Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall

27-Apr Detroit - St. Andrews Hall

28-Apr Millvale, PA - Mr. Smalls

29-Apr Buffalo, NY - Town Ballroom

30-Apr So. Burlington, VT - Higher Ground

1-May Boston - The Roxy

3-May NYC - Irving Plaza

4-May NYC - Irving Plaza

5-May NYC - Irving Plaza

6-May Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero

7-May Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero

8-May Washington D.C. - 9:30 Club

9-May Washington D.C. - 9:30 Club

10-May Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle

11-May Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle

12-May Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse

13-May Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club

14-May Birmingham, AL - Zydeco

16-May New Orleans, LA - House of Blues

17-May Houston, TX - Warehouse Live

18-May San Antonio, TX - White Rabbit

19-May Dallas, TX - Gypsy Tea Room

20-May Austin, TX - Stubb's BBQ

[DudeAsInCool]

What kind of music do they play, CTC?

[CTC Command]

These guys are probably one of the best indie guitar driven rock bands that most everyone has never heard of. The main element of Built To Spill, guitarist Doug Martsch, crafts songs in the the j. mascis/neil young school of guitar rock, and he sings about as well as they do. The point of them though isn't the vocals but the dense extremely dynamic guitar constructions.

I will find some reviews and post them, but essentially their albums fall into two distinct periods. The first phase was when Martsch had planned on completely changing the line-up for each recording. Later he decided that it was way too much work to keep teaching the highly complex songs he'd written to new musicians for each album so Built To Spill hasn't changed since 1996.

The early phase consists of albums Ultimate Alternative Wavers (1993), There's Nothing Wrong With Love (1994), and The Normal Years (1996) the last one being studio recordings that didn't make it onto the first two albums and alternative takes. These three should be in everyone's CD collection next to the Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Dinosaur Jr. Extremely catchy crunchy indie guitar rock.

Phase II, after they got signed onto Warner Bros. and solidified the band membership, consists of Perfect from Now On (1997), Keep It Like a Secret (1999), and Ancient Melodies of the Future (2001).

There was also a live album released in 2000. Perfect and Secret are on the whole quite good; Melodies has some good tunes but isn't as consistent. BTS took a lengthy break after 2001 but they toured last year and are coming out with the aforementioned new album and another tour.

The latter recordings have a distinctive, denser, darker sound, rather different from the three earlier ones, imho more because of the singular lineup rather than the record deal, as Martsch allegedly negotiated a great deal of artistic control into his WB contract.

The main thing about this band though are the live shows. I've caught them twice, and kick myself for missing them two other times, especially Lollapalooza in '95...the level of craftmanship going on right before your eyes is so amazing--the studio stuff is good but to watch them pull all that stuff off live and EVEN BETTER...anyone who ever enjoyed Dino Jr. or Crazy Horse should definitely check out Built To Spill.

[DudeAsInCool]

Now that's an answer - I will check them out :good job:

[CTC Command]

Built To Spill

There's Nothing Wrong With Love

Up, Released 1994

Review by Carey Head /inkblot.com

January 25th, 1995 found me sitting on the uncomfortable floor of a cargo van mid-transit from Boston to NYC. There I was, happily groovin' to a friend's random mix, when IT happened. IT would be Built to Spill. "Big Dipper," to be exact. I freaked out and made the road-trip DJ rewind it about 15 times. Sadly, that's pretty much all I remember about my 21st birthday. Indulge me, I'm about to wax effusive. Let's just cut to the chase and say that There's Nothing Wrong With Love is that one-in-a-million perfect record. If you don't like this album, you are not my friend. It's just that personal.

OK, let's back up a bit, and start where I started, with the lyrics "Once/When I was little someone pointed out to me/ some constellation but the Big Dipper's all I could see/ The brontosaurus must have stood a thousand miles high/The brontosaurus layin' on it's side up in the sky." I'll give you a sec to re-read that. How about another snippet, where he reminisces about his childhood sweetheart from Twin Falls Idaho: "In 7-up I touched her thumb and/she knew it was me/although she couldn't see/unless, of course, she peeked." Clearly we are not dealing with your average lyrical wit. Let's say above average. He's positively poetical.

In short, you don't just listen to these songs, you read them; they tell stories rich in detail and deep in emotional color. And not only do they work as isolated short stories, which in itself is no mean feat, but taken together they advance the narrative and expand on recurring motifs, like chapters in a book. The whole is indeed greater than the sum of the parts.

Yes, you say, that's nice, but what of the music? Rest assured, the music is both sublime and brilliant. Ranging from anthemic, screaming heavy metal guitars to angelic cello, replete with unpredictable chord progressions and time signatures, Doug Martsch composes songs that flout the rules of traditional song structure, rendering the words "bridge" and "chorus" virtually meaningless. They start when they feel like it, they end when they need to, mid-sentence if they must. They are complex, but never cerebral - never complex just for the sake of complexity, or at the expense of emotional accessibility. Every part serves a purpose, and flows seamlessly into the next, perfectly mirroring the emotional experience of the lyrics; and ditto for the instrumentation and production. You can't help but get sucked in so deep that the pictures he paints are so real they practically breathe.

Perhaps it's ridiculous to get this worked up over an album, but I ask you, semi-rhetorically, how often do you encounter something truly honest and original? All too rarely, we find something precious floating upon the flotsam and jetsam of the radio waves, or a gem among the shimmering drink coasters that pass for musical recordings. Once in a while we remember why we love music. And that, my friends, is why I love this record.

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Inkblot has reviews of other BTS albums and related info here.

[CTC Command]

Built To Spill

Perfect From Now On

Warner Bros., 1997

Review by Ben French

Built to Spill leader Doug Martsch has has been perfecting his whiny voicings and lo-fi instrumental experimentations since the release of his band's debut Ultimate Alternative Wavers in 1993. But, the multi-dimensional songwriter reaches his zenith (oddly enough) on his major label debut Perfect From Now On, an album that perfectly sums up the band's place in modern rock with trance-inducing consistency and high-energy tripping.

With bassist/guitarist Brett Nelson and drummer Scott Plouf, Martsch drafts dreamy electric lullabyes interwoven with tingly rock anthems. The ornate production, replete with cellos, melotrons and moog synths, makes for a full sound. Quick comparisons can be made to the work of Pavement, Sunny Day Real Estate or even Jane's Addiction in terms of the music's general characteristics, but Perfect From Now On stands alone as one of the decade's finest albums, especially in terms of ingenuity and individuality.

Martsch is a master of construction, his transitions taking the listener from safe, gently undulating melodies to perilously high places where the notes are felt more than heard. As a result, the album is blessed with at least two perfectly sublime moments. Take special note of 3:18 minute marker in both songs three and four, "Stop the Show," and "Made-Up Dreams." So rarely does music ever put the listener in a temporary state of bliss as well as is done here.

Best yet, all of the songs seem very unpretentious. Martsch is great at writing words that define him and his music -- "what a site, what a sound" -- without coming off like a self-elevating dickhead. To boot, he's an incredibly talented and versatile guitarist, gushing madly into the vein of electrified-jam masters such as Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young.

Still, Built to Spill's sound is not best defined in comparison to classic rock, as its synchronized guitar/bass lines rub up alongside pulsing, smooth production noises. Song after spacey song, Martsch's whiny voice spreads itself wide over open meadows of space filled with feedback and softly brewing drones. '

It's pretty clear the fellas in Built to Spill are into textures and tone. Maybe that's why two of the songs, "Velvet Waltz" and "Kicked It In The Sun," seem to flow on endlessly and aimlessly the first few times they're played. But the music isn't boring, as much as it is organic and natural to the ear...

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Pitchfork.com gives Perfect From Now On a 9.2 out of 10.

Edited February 23, 2006 by CTC Command