― ethan, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
_There's Nothing Wrong With Love_ = beautiful naivete. _Perfect From Now On_ = epic modesty. _Keep It Like A Secret_ = melding of the previous two albums, leaning towards _Perfect_'s grandeur. I'd avoid the _Live_ album, unless you're a super-fan, or it's really cheap. And, live, they can get a bit ... unwieldy. But that's why Robert Johnson invented CDs.
― David Raposa, Wednesday, 25 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― alex in montreal, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― tha chzza, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Matthew Lazowski, Tuesday, 7 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Omar, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago) link
I used to like BTS but didn't play them forever. Put on some of their stuff recently and Dougie's voice annoyed the hell out of me so I sold what stuff of theirs I had. I guess my vote now would be Dud.
― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 17:31 (twenty years ago) link
― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 17:45 (twenty years ago) link
???? you need to listen to more music.
they sound like hippie jam band music to me now after seeing them live. Every song does not need to last for 10 minutes! I still kind of like Perfect from Now On but I sold everything else. The early stuff is really horrible, that "Twin Falls" song makes me cringe. "Keep It Like A Secret" was just boring. The last record was painfully bad. Turn into Phish already, BTS, I know you want to.
― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 17:49 (twenty years ago) link
― dlp9001, Wednesday, 31 December 2003 17:50 (twenty years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 17:52 (twenty years ago) link
Haven't heard the live one, but live albums rarely impress me anyway.
― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 17:57 (twenty years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 17:58 (twenty years ago) link
― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 18:04 (twenty years ago) link
― dlp9001, Wednesday, 31 December 2003 18:08 (twenty years ago) link
― Speedy Gonzalas (Speedy Gonzalas), Thursday, 1 January 2004 02:23 (twenty years ago) link
― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 1 January 2004 02:56 (twenty years ago) link
i like 'em cuz girls like em?
― Ian Johnson (orion), Thursday, 1 January 2004 03:48 (twenty years ago) link
Saw him at a Modest Mouse gig last month at the place where he used to tend bar. The BTS/MM connection is still thriving, apparently.
― M Deeds, Thursday, 1 January 2004 05:50 (twenty years ago) link
it's called You Were Right? that's the "you were wrong when you said" one?
i love that song so much. i'm just revisiting Keep it like a secret and i think i really like this album... iiinteresting. i think they're like my one CollegeBoyRock band that i like
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 17:33 (seventeen years ago) link
I love that song too-- great lyrical gimmick.
― Jon Lewis, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 17:41 (seventeen years ago) link
Keep It Like a Secret = all about song architecture. Half of the praise I can formulate for it involves words like organized, built, constructed, scripted, arranged, etc. Lots of praise to offer for the hook-writing, and the kind of loose, rangy mood of it -- especially when it's rangy and peppy both -- but the organization of parts is the real miracle with it (and probably a lot of what makes me love it and rather dislike the more shapeless Perfect From Now On).
I would do a typical multi-paragraph post but some asshole just did something involving some really stank seafood in the work kitchen.
― nabisco, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 17:45 (seventeen years ago) link
Perfect From Now On has aged well.
― chaki, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link
i was hella into these dudes when i was around 18, which was the perfect time for a "wow maybe punk rock lied to me when it said guitar solos were lame" moment. now that i've listened to enough other awesome guitar jam music bts don't really do a ton for me, but there's nothing wrong with love is an a+ 90's indie guitar pop record and there's good shit scattered all across their catalog.
― pretzel walrus, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link
I get the feeling I'd go completely apeshit for this band, someone plz confirm/deny
― Just got offed, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link
You will. You really, really will.
― humansuit, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 17:49 (seventeen years ago) link
i dunno they might be a little trad for you, louis - do you like, say, neil young's jammier stuff?
― pretzel walrus, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 17:51 (seventeen years ago) link
(you should, btw)
― pretzel walrus, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 17:52 (seventeen years ago) link
they are much more structured and regimented than a lot of neil's stuff though, esp. keep it like a secret.
― M@tt He1ges0n, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 17:58 (seventeen years ago) link
yeah that's true - poppier too, when they keep it shortform.
― pretzel walrus, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 17:59 (seventeen years ago) link
otm nabisco
you were right just came on, heaven\
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 17:59 (seventeen years ago) link
"She was only two it was the first time she felt blue Cafeteria Harrison Elementary Beneath a parachute I saw her without shoes 7UP I touched her thumb and she knew it was me Although she couldn't see unless of course she peeked"
TNWWL is a great album if you can somehow make it through that^^
― wanko ergo sum, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:00 (seventeen years ago) link
i also just love their own brand of lushness - it's like kindof ordinary, fuzzy guitar thickness, but for some reason it doesn't sound ordinary
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:00 (seventeen years ago) link
Louis I would advise you to start with Perfect From Now On from what I know of yr taste. IMO it, There's Nothing Wrong With Love, and Keep It Like A Secret are the three greats.
― Jon Lewis, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:01 (seventeen years ago) link
I have a single which is really good but its the only thing I've ever been really taken with by them... I forget the song title, it has a funny line about his stepdad lookin like David Bowie and how he thinks Lodger rules ("stepdad's a fooool")
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:03 (seventeen years ago) link
even though at the time i thought it was kinda meh i've grown to love "ancient melodies of the future"....
― M@tt He1ges0n, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:03 (seventeen years ago) link
xp - "dystopian dream girl," right?
― pretzel walrus, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:04 (seventeen years ago) link
When TNWWL came out I thought on the evidence of the first 5 songs that he was gonna be like the great rescuer of inventive guitar songwriting a la Big Star, early XTC and the like.
Perfect From... was an amazing symphonic texture record, but I def. agree that Keep It... brought the song-spark again in a big way. Then... oh well.
― Jon Lewis, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:06 (seventeen years ago) link
xpost M@tt-- really? Errr. I should try it some more I suppose...
― Jon Lewis, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:07 (seventeen years ago) link
i think it was maybe the genuinely boring latest album made it seem a lot better in retrospect (man i convinced my self i liked you in reverse when it came out but that has not aged well at all)...also "fly around you pretty little miss" is one of their great pop songs, it was weird, it seemed like a throwback to nothing's wrong w/love. maybe it was an old song they had been sitting on for awhile.
― M@tt He1ges0n, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:10 (seventeen years ago) link
otm re: "pretty little miss"
― pretzel walrus, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:13 (seventeen years ago) link
Louis, get 'perfect from now on', its wonderful. very lush, very prog, but great songs. their earlier stuff is good too. haven't been interested in much since keep it like a secret, but i had a horrible experience interviewing them around that time, which soured me on them.
― stevie, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:17 (seventeen years ago) link
really?? what was so sour?
― Surmounter, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:20 (seventeen years ago) link
i'd campaigned hard to get them into NME; finally got them a '10 Gallon Facts' feature, where you tell a band's story via ten interesting things about them (terrible format, but not too difficult to write around it). i think they were drunk or stoned or something, but doug evaded pretty much every question i'd asked, and was being an asshole, making constant reference to jerry garcia being his dad (he was pissed at an NME review that had referenced the Dead, i guess). by the end, the whole band were making jokes about giving jerry garcia blow jobs. it was probably quite funny from their end, but it was a total waste of my time, so i ended up writing the feature from a phoner i'd done with doug the year before. i also caught shit from my editor because it was obvious i was fleshing out a bad interview.
i wasn't too pissed off, really. but, having argued so hard for them in the office, and getting repaid with assholism, i've never felt a desire to write about them again. they're incredibly dull live, too.
― stevie, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:46 (seventeen years ago) link
i enjoy them live
― chaki, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:51 (seventeen years ago) link
i really wanted to. i love long guitar solos, but they were really underwhelming for me.
― stevie, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 18:54 (seventeen years ago) link
Yeah the actual guitar solos proper have never been a big draw for me with BTS. The rest of the guitar playing, though (ie the composed bits)-- magnificent.
― Jon Lewis, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 19:09 (seventeen years ago) link
In America Every puddle Gasoline rainbow
Such a brilliant lyric.
― Mark Rich@rdson, Wednesday, 6 June 2007 19:26 (seventeen years ago) link
That was nicely done
That album was so immediately obviously wallopingly special the minute it came out. By halfway through the first song even. It was my housemate's cd and then I went home to Minnesota for a week and missed the album so badly I bought my own
― banned on ixlor (Jon not Jon), Friday, 23 October 2015 22:58 (eight years ago) link
great album! feel like it is pretty ingrained in my brain from listening to it constantly for a while in 1996, so i don't really feel the need to listen to it much. but it is great.
― tylerw, Friday, 23 October 2015 22:59 (eight years ago) link
Yeah same. I memorized it and I never play it now
― banned on ixlor (Jon not Jon), Friday, 23 October 2015 23:23 (eight years ago) link
I didn't get into them until Perfect From Now On, which will always be my favorite. But still, this is a mother of a record. Stab alone makes it a classic.
Ironically, the fake Built To Spill songs at the end of the record would probably have been bigger hits than anything they ever had.
― kornrulez6969, Friday, 23 October 2015 23:38 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu4y2Jrp6zg
April 29, 2013Cafe Stritch, San Jose, CA(free)
Soulful Strut (Young-Holt Unlimited)Beast of Burden (The Rolling Stones)Southern Girls (Cheap Trick)Sludgefeast (Dinosaur Jr.)Abba Zaba (Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band)Here (Pavement)(Don't Fear) The Reaper (Blue Öyster Cult)How Soon Is Now? (The Smiths)Train in Vain (The Clash)Age of Consent (New Order)
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 19 December 2017 05:45 (six years ago) link
Wow. Whatta setlist
― Burru Men Meet Burryman ina Wicker Man (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 19 December 2017 11:35 (six years ago) link
Was hoping tylerw has a soundboard recording...
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 19 December 2017 16:14 (six years ago) link
wow i really hated on them up above. I kind of stand by what I said, but I do like keep it like a secret more now. perfect is still a good album. not sure they needed to ever do anything else. I would still never go see them live again.
― akm, Tuesday, 19 December 2017 17:02 (six years ago) link
I only saw them once about 1999ish not having heard anything by them before, and yeah they were pretty boring live although I really liked one of the songs, which turned out to be Car.
For me they've always been a band I like some songs by but in general not really into. I bought Keep It Like A Secret around the time I saw them live because it was getting rave reviews, which I found pretty baffling and tbh still do because I think it's probably my least favourite of the albums I've heard (hah reading upthread it may have actually been our stevie's review I was reading?)
― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 19 December 2017 17:23 (six years ago) link
i saw them live a few months ago and they were wonderful??? idk what y'all are on about
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Tuesday, 19 December 2017 17:27 (six years ago) link
never seen them but would like to, tho i'm really only familiar with KILAS and PFNO. Martsch is a seriously underrated guitarist. like this video from last year of them playing "Else" just floors me. i know dude can shred but he's just really well rounded, i really dig this three-piece arrangement of the song, that we-ooh-we-ooh-we-ooh-we-ooh-we-ooh-oh lead sounds so much better when he's doing it. song needs that space.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4JxIYuVwKw
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 19 December 2017 19:06 (six years ago) link
everybody knows build to spill rules and are great live, seen them twice, would love to see them again
― niels, Tuesday, 19 December 2017 21:30 (six years ago) link
I saw them live in 2016 and they were trying out a power trio, which I didn't think worked so well. but some of the jams were indeed epic (goin' against your mind, holy crap)
― porg and bess (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 19 December 2017 22:02 (six years ago) link
my sister just shared this story with me:
so my good friend, _______, her and her husband’s family are HUGE bts fans. anyway, _______'s sister-in-law was dying of cancer, and the band was on tour but she was too sick to go to the concert. the family contacted doug and he came TO HER HOUSE and performed a private concert for her and the family. they said he was just the nicest guy. she passed soon after.
― fgti spinner (Spottie), Monday, 5 February 2018 19:57 (six years ago) link
this has got to be the worst thread name on ilm
― alpine static, Monday, 5 February 2018 19:58 (six years ago) link
oh shit doug martsch is the best
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Monday, 5 February 2018 20:01 (six years ago) link
did old school ilx hate absolutely everything or what
― global tetrahedron, Monday, 5 February 2018 20:04 (six years ago) link
i think so. it's crazy there's like 20 bts threads. i chose poorly, but i think this had the most recent updates idk.
― fgti spinner (Spottie), Monday, 5 February 2018 20:08 (six years ago) link
I think it's nice to reclaim these threads with praise and love of music
I also think Doug Martsch seems like a great guy
and BTS rocks
― niels, Monday, 5 February 2018 20:50 (six years ago) link
she told me that this morning and now im going through their whole discography, been a while
― fgti spinner (Spottie), Monday, 5 February 2018 20:56 (six years ago) link
Annoying vocals, unremarkable melodies, self-consciously clever lyrics, capable of rending the world's most annoying sounds out of a guitar...― Melissa W, Monday, 28 May 2001 00:00 (sixteen years ago) Permalink
lol radiohead much?
― trife's rich padgett (rip van wanko), Monday, 5 February 2018 22:02 (six years ago) link
BTS is the Nicholson Baker of indie
― calstars, Thursday, 16 August 2018 02:04 (six years ago) link
They blame “both sides” for WWII?
― empire bro-lesque (morrisp), Thursday, 16 August 2018 02:14 (six years ago) link
Oh God
― kornrulez6969, Thursday, 16 August 2018 03:50 (six years ago) link
Melissa W. got it right 22 years ago
― beamish13, Monday, 20 November 2023 02:39 (ten months ago) link
fuck no
― ivy., Monday, 20 November 2023 03:14 (ten months ago) link
the only indie rock band worth a damn
question doesn't make sense, all that is holy *is* Built to Spill
― soup of magpies (geoffreyess), Monday, 20 November 2023 14:28 (ten months ago) link