Built To Spill - Keep It Like A Secret

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

For me, Pop Rock BTS > Jam Band BTS

i need them both

pretty sure i voted 'carry the zero' in this, but 'broken chairs' is an incredible album closer

The one two punch of Carry the Zero and Sidewalks is so good.

idk if there is a song on this record i wouldn't consider voting for on the right day

i think maybe "you were right," just because i don't love the "do you ever think about it" ending as much as the rest of the song

the Marquee Moon of 90s indie rock