Built To Spill poll

and once again, allmusic.com decides the argument for us

TNWWL:

Plaintive
Passionate
Melancholy
Freewheeling
Trippy
Rousing
Quirky
Earnest
Yearning
Searching
Dramatic
Brooding
Acerbic
Earthy
Poignant
Organic
Bittersweet

TIALDFSWNTTA:

Bittersweet
Melancholy
Volatile
Urgent
Self-Conscious
Searching
Rousing
Reflective
Passionate
Fiery
Exuberant
Energetic
Earnest
Confrontational
Cathartic
Brooding
Brash
Angst-Ridden
Quirky

jesus. you keep pulling me back in ... do you really think this is a happy-go-lucky kinda record? Not that there aren't moments of lightness/humor, but as a whole it seems very melancholy/yearning/anxious/dramatic -- in other words, sort of how I felt a good portion of the time when I was 15 or 16. That is all I'm saying here.

it's called "there's nothing wrong with love" ... yes it is a happy-go-lucky record. it's wistful and melancholic without being angry or bitter at the world.

tylerw otm, I dunno why this is even an argument tbh. some people are apparently listening to a different band.

cutty seriously

are you

i mean

shall i keep going and waste almost as much space as you have?

i am very serious, this record is near and dear to my heart

Without me there's nothing
I'm the only thing that dies
If it came down to your life or mine
I would do the stupid thing
And let you keep on living

happy go lucky wheeee

Me getting sonned up and down about using AllMusic as factual reference:

AMG Top Thrash Bands (Minus Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, or Megadeth)

cutty do you even realize that the precious wikipedia entry you linked points out the differences between the actual definition of "angst" and the colloquial grunge definition that you keep harping on about?

i believe that you love this record, cutty, i love it too! just apparently we hear it differently. let's be fwends.
http://www.boomspeed.com/1631951/hugs05.jp

There's Nothing Wrong with a Paleo Diet

Without me there's nothing
I'm the only thing that dies
If it came down to your life or mine
I would do the stupid thing
And let you keep on living

That's just yer standard "I wuv you so much I would sacrifice myself to save your life". With a solipsistic twist thrown in, but it's hardly "I hate myself and want to die".

still angsty! if it were a cheerful album he would be singing "I am glad it doesn't come down to your life or mine cause it's awesome that we both get to live"

Everybody stop using w's in place of other soft consonants in this thread or I'm gonna start sb-ing dudes.

also somebody needs to rep for you in weeverse

wep

Ultimate Alternative Ravers could use some defense too

yeah, i like Ultimate a lot too, there's just something a little wrong with the production on that one? Kinda lame drum sound, maybe? I need to listen to it again. Haven't heard it in a while. Maybe since I was an ANGSTY TEENAGER.

FWIW, I've always interpreted that line to mean something along the lines of "despite my secure knowledge of my own superiority, I would kill myself and take the world and everything else with me" with the implication that he thoroughly hates existence with the exception of the person he's addressing.

"precious wikipedia entry"

oh some doodoo

oh cunty

wavers is great. a bit disjointed though and totally lo-fi. classic at least for nowhere nothin fuckup.

there's nothing wrong with love, surely

You know how cats will like, knead things and how totally contenting it feels if you're lying down and a cat comes up and kneads your leg or whatever? Temporarily Blind kneads my brain like that, which is one of about 10 reasons that KILAS wins this for me.

though "randy describes eternity" is my fav song by them i think

not included here, but I love the Live record -- probably mostly for the Calvin Johnson-less "Virginia Reel" ...

Yeah, I'd vote for Live if it were here; as it is, I voted for Perfect From Now On; first two songs and then "Velvet Waltz" are ace, esp. "Velvet Waltz".

"Randy Describes Eternity" is my favorite BTS song too. One of my favorite songs, period (.)

^ yes!

also: "I Would Hurt A Fly", from 4:06 on, is perfect.

perfect from 4:06 on?

I wonder if the people who vote for TNWWL would put KILAS second, and vice versa. They both seem to have a similar indie-pop sensibility, whereas Perfect has always sounded much more ambitious to me. Or just more serious perhaps, I don't mean denigrate those first two, it's still a pretty ambitious take on indie-pop.

I put KILAS first and PFNO second. My choices having more to do with quality than sensibility. I think TNWWL has some great songs, but also some filler, which puts it on a par with You in Reverese.

To expand, both Perfect and Keep It sound like Martsch at the top of his game to me. They are both "ambitious" in terms of songwriting. However, I feel like repetition contributes a lot to the length of the songs on Perfect, which made it really hard for me to get into at first. It had to grow on me. Most of the songs on Keep It get in and out in a reasonable amount of time and still incorporate the rich variety that marked the songs on Perfect.

I'd certainly put Keep It second (after Perfect), it is indeed just about as rich and detailed. But it's lacking the extra instrumentation of Perfect (ok just a cello and mellotron but they add a hell of a lot) and some of the songs just don't work so well for me. E.g. the intro to Time Trap has perhaps the best guitar layering I've ever heard, but when the song proper kicks in I just lose interest.

the answer is TNWWL and anyone who disagrees apparently likes semi-wack old guy built to spill. that said TNWWL is twee and emo as fuck, it has twin falls on it for chrissakes.

I like Built to Spill where Doug Martsch sounds like he has earned his beard rather than just wearing one.

great band

Carry the Zero is in my estimation the pinnacle of BTS, so Keep it like a Secret gets my vote.

Look for the record with me on the cover!

There's Nothing Wrong With Love.

They (he) have let me down since with all that sprawling and endless Youngy widdling.

I preferred Dinosaur (Jr) in their earlier days too and draw parallels for the same reason

In the Morning,Big Dipper, Car and Twin Falls.

I'm way too old and should know better but don't

There is No Enemy is really good. Pleasantly surprised.

what about canada

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Poor UAW

I don't think they've broken up or anything, have they?

I saw them twice and loved them, for the most part. What killed it for me was the second time I saw them, they played this long (in my memory) video of an eco-terrorist justifying his actions overtop of the band just jamming on stage for what seemed like 10 minutes. It was an uncomfortable moment for the audience.

i guess unless you really like aimless guitar solos

― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, February 23, 2011 8:23 AM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark

see, well...

doug was incredibly friendly when i interviewed him a couple years ago. ended up asking me questions! very much a regular dude imo. don't think he's a xtian.
love 'em live, though maybe some people wouldn't tolerate the guitar jamz. i like guitar jamz.

actually tho, come to think of it, they were terrible the first time i saw them play (96-97?). seemed extremely under-rehearsed. otherwise, they've been awesome.

yeah one of my fave albums of theirs is LIVE and the most listened to track on it for me was always Cortez the Killer

which is like 25min of jamz

yeah it jamz so hard.

My GF in the late 90s 2 most favorite bands were Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. I knew Doug from his days in the Treepeople but lost interest with most of Ultimate Alternative Wavers and the Nothing Wrong With Love which is where my GF jumped on and dragged me to see them everytime they came to town (same with Modest Mouse). I really wasn't interested in that kinda music, I was kinda deeper into post-rock/minimalism/experimental at the time (Laddio Bollocko was our happy medium). So now I'm hearing these records for the first time and kinda lovin them! Keep It Like A Secret is def underrated on this poll, it's worth revisiting.

Also, BtS seemed to go through phases live where they were more structured and then later tours got really loose and free (probably my least favorite times I saw them, the Cortez cover was the worst!!!) and then tightened up again. I saw them probably 10 times?

Oh I forgot the punchline, that XGF now is kinda reknown for her minimalism/experimental music these days.

4 some reason i think i know all the words to 'twin falls' the wistful 1983 is like an abyss

keep it is def tighter & better than perfect imo but nothing beats nothing

i kind of disliked keep it like a secret when it came out --something about the shinier (kinda generic alt-rocky i thought) production values put me off. sounds great now, though.

same reaction as you, tyler, to Secret, except I've never come around on it except for "Broken Chairs" which I like more on Live anyway---kinda think Live is the one record by this band I need except for "Velvet Waltz" which is such a fuckin jam.

the live record really is stellar -- that version of the halo benders' "reel around the fountain" is incredible, too.

keep it like a secret was the first built 2 spill album i ever heard so i didnt even really notice the production but idk if built to spill were ever the most interesting or distinctive sounding band they just have some sweet fukken songs

i havent heard the live album

yeah, i mean, i don't really hear the production probs on secret that i heard back then -- i remember my friend and i going "what is this -- everclear?" but it doesn't really sound like that to me now.

"Time Trap"'s bassline is kinda like a more-melodic take on the main guitar line of Slint's "Washer"

idk if built to spill were ever the most interesting or distinctive sounding band they just have some sweet fukken songs

this, pretty much. I love them, but I kinda think of them as being 90s dad-rock in a way

yeah

found KILAS disappointing at the time, mainly because it wasn't so overdub-crazy as Perfect, but in the years since I've come to really appreciate it. Their last album was pretty great as well...

pfno was a huge event in my 90s. i haven't heard it in quite a while, but for many weeks, i listened to nothing else. i liked tnwwl and kilas, but they were not even close to pfno for me.

kinda surprised some dude is a BTS fan

― kl0p's son (k3vin k.), Wednesday, February 23, 2011 12:57 AM (15 hours ago) Bookmark

i'm not, really. i fished Keep It out of a used bin when it was new, was turned off by it at first but it's grown on me over time and i love a few songs on it but don't really rep for it hardcore. got Perfect later and saw one of their shows with they played it in its entirety but just cannot get into that record.