Built To Spill Overflows With Incredible Talent
Forget the potatoes.
Idaho’s official nickname is The Gem State. So it only seems appropriate that a musical jewel would be found here - in one of the last places some might expect.
Welcome to the state of music known as Built to Spill - a band physically rooted in Boise, but musically anchored in an alterna-rock/pop concoction of intense proportions.
It is a place created and dominated by singer/ guitarist Doug Martsch, a long-time Idaho boy formerly of the now-defunct Treepeople. A family man more dedicated to album-making than touring, he’s an artist who moved back to Idaho from Seattle to be with his girlfriend.
“There are small towns everywhere across the country that have good bands in them,” he says, insisting that big cities do not now - and never have - cornered the market on meaningful music. “I like it here. I just hang out with my family and work on my music. I can do that anywhere.”
And he should know. Martsch has played in various punk/pop/rock Idaho bands since he was a teen growing up in Twin Falls.
Built to Spill’s debut album, “Ultimate Alternative Wavers,” was released in 1993. Besides Martsch, the group has since featured a changing cast of characters. Until now, that is.
Their newest release, “Perfect From Now On,” finds the band with a more permanent lineup, a cross-country spring tour that starts today in Pullman - and a growing din of acclaim.
They have been nabbed by label giant Warner Brothers and garnered positive nods from the likes of the New York Times and Rolling Stone.
So how does a band from a little-known Idaho city accomplish such feats? With talent. Undeniably listenable and deeply affecting talent.
On “Perfect From Now On,” alternately spacey and driving guitars swirl with cello, synthesizer and Martsch’s sweetly mournful vocals.
Rife with melodic hooks that sink deep into the soul, the album still manages to fend off trite convention and the limp wrist of gummy pop.
“I can’t get that sound you make out of my head,” Martsch croons in “I Would Hurt a Fly.”
That’s the truth.
Theirs is a powerful and complex rock. Listen carefully and you’ll hear the influences of Neil Young, The Beatles, The Buzzcocks and Bowie - often all in one song.
Individual songs - most of them at least six minutes long - take on epic proportions. “Kicked it in the Sun,” “Velvet Waltz” and “Stop the Show” deftly splice together disparate rhythms and styles that in less-adept hands would have no business being in the same song.
As for Martsch’s otherworldly wordsmithing, he points out “the melodies usually come pretty quickly and the lyrics are like a complete afterthought.”
On the band’s tour, Martsch says that about half of their live set will be new stuff not yet carved in CD or vinyl. And their performances will be a leaner incarnation than that on CD.
Only three of the people featured on the latest album will be on tour: Martsch, drummer Scott Plouf and bassist Brett Nelson. The rest of the “Perfect From Now On” crew were just temporary guests.
So, to get the full feel of Built to Spill, you’ve got to buy their albums. That’s not a sales pitch, it’s just a product of Martsch’s own passion.
Touring is not this private Idaho guy’s first love. His girlfriend and their 3-year-old son Ben are.
“I feel some obligation to people that are buying our records and stuff to play for them,” he says.
But “it’s really getting harder to leave the older Ben gets. I’ve been kind of preparing him for (the tour) and he just starts crying when I tell him about it.”
Ben’s loss will be the fans’ gain. Hopefully the tyke will forgive Dad for sharing just a little.
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TOUR INFORMATION Built to Spill will perform at 8 tonight at Butch’s Den in the student union in Pullman. Tickets have already sold out. Tour information can be found on the Internet at www.wbr.com/builttospill/ tour.html