Built To Spill - Keep It Like A Secret

Going to see'em next month. So excited

Going to the Webster Hall show

i've found them amazing live and quite dull in equal measure. i'll still probably hit one of these up tho

never seen them but have heard the same. then again, how can you go wrong playing Keep It Like a Secret front to back?

I've had a few chances to see them before and never have, and wouldn't if they weren't doing a KILAS tour.

they were very dull on their tour with the Whigs. any idea if they're more than a three-piece on this one?

probably can't

though the only time i saw them was the You in Reverse era and was i so disappointed. they seemed so tired, even way back then, just very slow and boring, even though they were playing a bunch of my waves. weird show

xp to "how can you go wrong playing Keep It Like a Secret front to back?"

*faves

sigh

Yeah, Whigs tour they were a snooze.

esp in contrast to the Whigs, who were incredible

xxpost Ignoring the typo correction and choosing to believe you saw them cover "My Wave" slowly, over and over again.

Lol

touring Keep It Like a Secret without a second guitarist seems insane

just listened to it and can't imagine they'd try

They did songs from it on that Whigs tour, and yeah, it was missing a lot.

They played as a four-piece tonight in Glasgow. Saved Carry The Zero for the last song of the album's set. I get it now.

WOO! that's a relief. I can't imagine them doing all of KILAS as a trio

how long did they stretch out Carry the Zero

this album is so amazing, the marquee moon of the 90s, what a towering achievement of guitar

i like marquee moon of the 90s (although for me that's Perfect From Now On). Perfect + Keep It is the marquee moon of the 90s, for me, on an equal level. godlike

perfect from now on rules too, it's tough choice and they feel of a piece as you said

Great driving record.

It's very much like Marquee Moon for me in that they both open with amazing songs I love and close with ones I kind of dislike and kill the momentum for me.

The Plan is one of my favorite songs to play on guitar; I wish I could competently play See No Evil but alas.

aw man i love broken chairs. especially that little whistle part that you keep thinking is gonna come back, but never does

I love Keep It but Perfect has never clicked for me…maybe down tempo a bit and lacks the punchy production sheen of Keep It

Dunno about punchy but it's certainly rich and dense with mellotrons and moogs and cellos, and it feel much more musically and lyrically cohesive, almost like a concept album - the concept being songs about a person who is a dick.

('Perfect...', that is)

The first 3 minutes of Stop the Show and the climax / shift into the second part is the kind of thing that would make me post 'hook it straight into my veins'.

the concept being songs about a person who is a dick.

Yeah, I think that's why I usually reach for Keep It Like a Secret, even though both albums are great. It's the more sardonic of the two.

Btw, I always think of Built to Spill as being these two albums, even though I've listened to the early stuff and a couple of the later albums (I liked You In Reverse a lot when it came out). I somehow got the impression that Ancient Melodies of the Future was looked upon as one of their lesser albums, so I never listened to it . Going to give it a shot soon.

also enjoy the live album for the full crazy horse freakout experience

Listened to Perfect From Now On last night and it is still Perfect.

for me, core bts is definitely tnwwt, pfno, and kilas

*tnwwl

TNWWL is great, but it feels like a different band than what came after. Perfect From Now On was a giant leap forward.

my friends and i were ravenously awaiting what would follow tnwwl and i remember there being murmurings that he had recorded and scrapped an entire followup but decided he wanted it to be 'more of a band concept'. i assume that was just noise, there's no lost material between the 2nd and 3rd albums is there?

The first time, frontman Doug Martsch attempted to play all the instruments except drums. He and Ek were dissatisfied with the results, so Martsch brought in bassist Brett Nelson and drummer Scott Plouf and recorded the album again. However, these tapes were destroyed by heat when Ek was driving from Seattle to Boise to record additional overdubs. The band rehearsed some more, then recorded the album a third time.

I knew about the melted tapes - iirc that led them to add the mellotrons & moogs & stuff - didn't know about the all Doug Martsch all the time attempt.

I go to Keep It Like a Secret because it makes me happy, just the sheer joy of how great a hook can be like in "Sidewalk" how the guitar parts are hooks in and of themselves, Perfect is also great but I don't listen to them often anymore and I tend to want to feel how Keep it makes me feel

TNWWL does feel like a different band in a lot of ways, but it is a classic too — i do like that Martsch's lyrics on that one are actually kind of funny.

That record just has such stunning pop sense, at least on its front half

Twin Falls, Idaho ❤️❤️❤️❤️

once.
WHEN I WAS LIT TULL SOME ONE POIN TAD OUT TO ME

witha sing-GULL FETH-yur

TNWWL does feel like a different band in a lot of ways, but it is a classic too — i do like that Martsch's lyrics on that one are actually kind of funny.

Yeah, that album was a really cool concept. I’ve always kind of been on the lookout for an album or a band that does with they did on that one—split the difference between jam band and indie rock, with a loose, lighthearted approach—but I’ve ever really found anything that quite feels like it. (BTS themselves certainly went in a different direction…)

I had some hot take but realized I was completely dismissing "Ultimate Alternative Wavers" because I've never heard it. Like the first Halfnelson record.

I remember exactly where I was the first time "The Plan" hit my headphones. 10/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2nRdIrM2Oo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dxc1h99oFo

Awesome videos. Time Trap is my favorite and I definitely remember where I was the first time I heard it. I bought the CD at a record store on South Street in Philly the morning after celebrating passing the bar exam with a bunch of friends. I started playing immediately after I bought it and left Philly and Time Trap came on as I was driving on the Northeast Extension of the PA Turnpike and I freaked out.

Aw, Reverb was the greatest. Filled me with the biggest concert envy when I was like 12-13, before I'd been to one. This is one of the episodes I remember best, along with the Pavement, Beck and Flaming Lips ones. Think I still have tapes of some of these...

happy 25th birthday to this amazing record