Friday, November 7, 2008

We now return to your regularly scheduled programming...


The election's over, liberalism reigns, and let's honor it with some feedback-laced guitar jams from the Pacific Northwest.

About twice a year, I revisit the deep catalog of Doug Martsch and Built to Spill and remind myself that they would at least have one -- if not two -- entries in my list of ten deserted-island discs.  For three albums, Martscould simply not miss.  I am the sort of person that looks at the run times on iTunes and goes for anything sub-3 minutes first, but his lengthier songs like "Kicked it in the Sun", "Broken Chairs", and my personal favorite "Velvet Waltz" have enough twists and turns to keep your attention.  Now I've seen them twice in concert and Martsch once by himself (actually the best of the three), and they do tend to wander.  The last time out they couldn't stop fiddling with the projector behind them, and they must've made 6 songs last an hour.  Like their mediocre last album, it was just too much.  Martsch also briefly dabbled in this slide-blues phase that resulted in a solo album (Now You Know) which wasn't quite ill-advised but not exactly revelatory either.  Still, it proved Big Doug is talented and compelling enough as a songwriter and as a singer to carry songs without the gauzy layers of guitar.

But lately I've noticed BTS fans are very good about posting all kinds of live stuff online, so with a great many thanks to the more sophisticated bloggers with "technological capabilities", "work ethic", "dedication", "tape recorders", and "cameras", I bring you a concise little weekend collection of some very fine Built to Spill moments.  




*Photo from Sidekick Design.  One of these days I'm going to do a post of the best rock show posters.

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