Built to Spill

There's only one rule when it comes to the media hype concerning Built to Spill: Don't believe a word of it. Built to Spill is something much larger than any rock critic or wannabe indie scenester can put into words. The only way truly to understand what has everyone grasping for words and gasping for breath is to fight the crowds at the Middle East on May 22 and 23 and see them in the flesh.

After more than half a decade of seemingly swimming upstream against the rest of the music world, Built to Spill have gained a reputation as the great underdog hope of American rock. They're literate without being pretentious, hard without being blunt, sensitive without being Hallmark and fiercely independent in spirit. They've finally graduated from "next big thing" purgatory and have firmly established themselves as one of the most important bands plugging their amps in today.

The Built to Spill legend starts back in the early '90s in beautiful and scenic Boise, Idaho. Somewhere between potato farms and militia members, Boise managed to churn out Doug Martsch, leader and resident guitar god of Built to Spill. First came Ultimate Alternative Wavers, a perplexing title for a perplexing album. A dense and jagged slice of paranoid pop, the album only hinted at the musical mazes that were yet to pour out of Martsch's head.

When Martsch announced he had finished Built to Spill's sophomore album, everyone expected the long, languished and sometime lost guitar heroics that had dominated the first release. Once again, more hype for the band to prove wrong. With There's Nothing Wrong with Love, Martsch set his sights at pure pop bliss captured in the moments of everyday life.

After receiving reams of critical praise and attracting a load of religious followers, Martsch finally took the plunge with a major label. The collective whining of indie rock fans across the globe could be heard as the ink dried on the contract and yet another artist began the inevitable process of "selling out."

Or at least that's how the story should go. Instead, Martsch decided that now would be the right time to create his White Album. The aptly titled Perfect From Now On left a lot of people (including the executives at his label) scratching their heads. With only one song under five minutes and most pushing eight, the album took an epic stab at capturing eternity in a few moments of sound.

Fast forward to 1999: critics have finally learned their lesson and didn't even attempt to speculate at what Built to Spill's most recent release, Keep It Like a Secret would bring to the table. Keeping in character, this album turned out to be the one everyone should have been expecting. A combination of the pop of There's Nothing Wrong and the grandeur of Perfect, Martsch's latest manifesto of sound smoothes the edges but loses none of its weight.

The moral of the Built to Spill story? There is none. At least not one I can tell you. Live, the band veers from one violently brilliant extreme to another. Some shows tumble into unbelievable 30-minute long jams on b-sides of singles released five years ago. Others are made up of drop-dead perfect sonic recreations of the album, filled out with the intensity of Martsch flailing at his guitar before your eyes. Then again, Martsch has probably completely rewritten the Built to Spill playbook by now, just to keep us critics on our toes. The only way to find out for sure? Check it out yourself.