Built To Spill - Keep It Like A Secret

o god

might have to go with "the plan" or "you were right," but i need to think about it

"Carry the Zero" for all time.

you were right defined a good portion of my life

"You Were Right" is one of the few successful meta songs, especially from this era.

Voted "You Were Right" but firmly believe "Carry The Zero" is the right answer.

broken chairs opens like a zeppelin song

Temporarily Blind is my undisputed favorite.

Sucks that I have to reflexively vote for "Carry the Zero," because there's not a dud on this album. One of the finest of the '90s.

jaymc otm

yeah this is hard but i'm gonna go with "you were right" for the intro alone

"Broken Chairs", here but esp. on the live record.

haha actually i wanna vote for "time trap" for the intro too

"time trap" intro is pretty sick

hah, xpost

went w/ "the plan"

kind of feel like "carry the zero" might be the ultimate built to spill song -- not that it's my fave of theirs, but it sort of encapsulates the whole band in about five minutes.

I always kind of laugh about this with Jaxon as when he and I met I had this girlfriend/bandmate who was an obsessive Built To Spill/Modest Mouse fan to the point of utter cognitive dissonant disgust on my part. But like 15 years later I realize there was a big oversight on my part as there are some really good tunes I ignored.

anyone not voting for "sidewalk" needs to listen to it right now

...But not to say I was never on board with BTS, I saw their first few tours when they were microscopic, I also saw the Treepeople (with Dug) a few times way back in the very early 90s (1990!) when they were opening for Beat Happening.

Just gave their mid-late era short shrift unfairly.

...voted Else. Heard it in a bar on the tail end of a blind date one night about 10 years ago and the gal was really into it, it was a good mood-memory.

this pretty much the best indie rock album ever (though i guess it was on a major)

voted "sidewalk"

i remember thinking the rolling stone review of this at the time was ridiculous, like trying to fit in a gazillion references.
Martsch's zigging, zagging vocal melodies and explosive, loud-soft-loud hook dynamics are right out of the Pixies and Husker Du song manuals. There are traces of Lou Reed and the hyperwriting of '66 Bob Dylan in Secret's lyric mix of run-on, conversational syntax and curveball wordplay

the spiky, backwoods-existentialist phrasing of Robbie Robertson; Tom Verlaine's silvery, spit-curl flourishes; the glassy strum of the Smiths' Johnny Marr.

a noisy guitar chorale that somehow combines the orchestral density of Jimi Hendrix with the brittle immediacy of Wire.

itunes says its tie btw 'sidewalk' and 'else'

Wow – I see that kind of writing in the student newspaper.

it's david fricke!
think the only song i don't like here is "bad light"

Lotta good songs on this one but Carry the Zero is the best thing they've ever written/recorded. I don't think I can quite verbalize how very much I love the song--its central metaphor, the way one part flows into the next, it's just all-around wonderful.

think i might vote for "bad light" for how when it finally builds to an actual chorus, the song is over.

version of "carry the zero" here is kinda nuts http://www.nyctaper.com/?p=3881

I've written about this elsewhere, but the new Toby Keith single sounds remarkably like "Else":

http://tasteofcountry.com/toby-keith-made-in-america/

Right down to the kinda spaced-out twang at the end.

dialed this up on the ipod and now have been all "damn i should have voted for this one instead" on every successive song. fucking masterpiece.

yep

Lots of great songs on this one, but yeah, 'Sidewalk'.

everyone otm about carry the zero

i like how, for all the amazing guitar overdubs, it's really tightly arranged and controlled for the entire album until the end of broken chairs, the very last song which jams out into the cosmos

Else

i really like this album, and pretty much nothing by this band besides this album. voted for "Else."

Damn near a perfect album. Carry the Zero is unfuckwithable.

however, I voted for Else. Probably my fave BtS song ever.

"Carry the Zero," based on the outro alone.

'You Were Right'. Heard it on some American radio station via RealPlayer, shortly after recieveing a dial-up connection. I guessed it was Built To Spill, who I'd never heard a note of. Every impulse purchase of 1999 was a classic, insane as it now seems.

"carry the zero" is awesome. one of the best songs of a great music year

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

i voted for You Were Right

's like a punch in the gut

As a long-standing fan of this album, I don't quite get the Carry The Zero love. I like it a lot, but don't get why it's a fave.

I voted for "Else."

Still think this record pales in the mighty shadow of Perfect From Now On but I guess we have already had that debate on other threads. I think it comes down to if this was your first exposure to BTS it might likely be your favourite. Thats my theory anyway.

you're right Perfect From Now On is much much better: Built To Spill poll

"carry the zero" love is all about the lyrics bridging into that massive crescendo. it is a major call to get off your ass, fuck the consequences. now we can't even touch it, afraid it'll fall apart

my first exposure to bts was the caustic resin ep, particularly 'when not being stupid is not enough'

it's tough, but i think i'll take 'keep it like a secret' over perfect, though i would trade out 'you were right' (blasphemy!)

"stop the show" is awesome but i'd take 'keep it like a secret' any night of the week. (and "you were right" should've been a b-side -- i get the joke; once is enough)

else

I really hope I'm not the only vote for Temporarily Blind. That song is firmly in my top 5.

i like most of you were right except the part that goes "don't youuuu ever think about it!" which always struck me as a little heavy handed.

i know what you mean but i never minded it

As a long-standing fan of this album, I don't quite get the Carry The Zero love. I like it a lot, but don't get why it's a fave.

― Colin Allstations (PaulTMA), Thursday, 28 July 2011 00:09 (14 hours ago) Permalink

i hear you

I always heard it as more of a stoner joke: "don't you ever think about it...man?"

it's funny, i saw BTS in the fall of 98 and they played you were right, but it didn't have that part! my friend taped it, so we compared/contrasted .... guess they thought it needed a little extra something.

Love the Time Trap intro so much, shame the rest doesn't quite live up to it. Voting Else since I'm a miserable bastard. Carry the Zero I pretty epic though.

Fuck why ain't this on spotify.

it is in the us

voted Else, although I love it all. I remember the first summer "on my own" (not in dorms, but still sharing a house with others) in college, and I didn't know the other roommates that well at all and was having trouble connecting in any sort of meaningful way. I was listening to some BTS and about halfway through Else one of the new roommates went "what IS this? it's awesome!" and it was the thing that allowed me to get to know them so much better and become friendz.

^ good post

haha, i was just about to bust in with the "that was the worst story i've ever told" comment

i wasn't being sarcastic btw

i remember listening to perfect from now on in my dorm freshman year and a dude knocking on my door saying "this album is SO GREAT." and i thought, ok, here's a new friend. but i ended up not liking him very much.

true story

As a long-standing fan of this album, I don't quite get the Carry The Zero love. I like it a lot, but don't get why it's a fave.

I dunno, the chord progression just feels so ~transcendent~.

Tbh, though, I've always been surprised that people like the song as much as I do. I know, e.g., that the major-7th chords are doing it for me, but presumably not everyone else is being taken in for that reason.

voted Else, glad to see it's got a real contingency here; Now And Then might be my favorite KILAS-era song.

"what IS this? it's awesome!"

played "carry the zero" one day at at my previous job and two coworkers rushed up to me and asked "what is THIS, this is awesome"

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

*ponders*

If not for TB, it could have been any one of these for me.

i was afraid i'd be the only one to vote for "bad light"

but come on that ending

No track got zero votes, good showing.

Don't drag this out as much add I used to, but whenever I do, I wonder why I still spend money on other music.

Could say the same about Perfect from Now On.

Double OTM.

i see they are touring this summer, going to try and catch their show.

wah-wah, wah-wah, wah-wah, wah-wah
wah-wah, wah-wah, wah-wah, VRROOOOOOOM
DUN der na ner - SCREEEEEECH
DUN der na ner - SCREEEEEEEEEEE
dwee, dwah dweedle-ah dweeeeeee....dwah dweedle
dwee dwah dwee dwah dwee dwah dwah dweedle

how's life otm

missed this poll, obviously. one of my fave albums ever. would've voted else.

KILAS > PFNO but both are essentially perfect. for me, it's just that I prefer 5 minute songs to 8 minute songs.

and you're so occupied with what other persons are occupied with
and vice versa

a fraction

you guys haven't heard the new MIGUEL

I voted for Else. Probably my fave BtS song ever.

― alpine static, Monday, July 25, 2011 3:21 PM (3 years ago)

missed this poll, obviously. one of my fave albums ever. would've voted else.

― alpine static, Friday, June 6, 2014 9:04 AM (6 months ago)

lol

wah-wah, wah-wah, wah-wah, wah-wah
wah-wah, wah-wah, wah-wah, VRROOOOOOOM
DUN der na ner - SCREEEEEECH
DUN der na ner - SCREEEEEEEEEEE
dwee, dwah dweedle-ah dweeeeeee....dwah dweedle
dwee dwah dwee dwah dwee dwah dwah dweedle

otm

i was a huge modest mouse fan when i was a young teenager and i'm really bummed i didn't hear this album until i was 22. when i was younger i got Perfect from Now On and couldn't get into it.

anyway i was at someone's apartment in ohio and they were playing this record and i was completely blown away, immediately wanted to hear 'Center of the Universe' over and over, all that.

This album is great. Way back when a band I was in was playing Portland (I think), and we were talking to this girl about this album when she revealed she was the one on the cover!

She did not have wings, though.

ha that's awesome!

not sure whether to post this in here or "unusual details in wikipedia articles," because this isn't necessarily an unusual detail it's just weird:

Many of the songs on the album originated from a week's worth of band jam sessions in Boise. During these marathon jam sessions, which could last up to five hours at a time, Martsch used a foot pedal that triggered a tape machine to begin recording.

..... marathon?

Carry the zero was the one for me...way into those maj7 chords

their best record. :-)

Center of the Universe is just ridiculous. 4 killer hooks, each better than the last. The melodies on this album are like nursery rhymes, especially COTU.

all the hooks on this album are really short and simple and each song has like 4 or 5 or 6

calstars otm about carry the zero, the outro is spectacular

when the drums sync with the guitar lead it's : )

this one is their best, but only by a little bit over Perfect From Now On

two paragons of "indie rock," and one of the best back-to-back album pairs in recent memory

^

To this day just hearing the opening bit of velvet waltz sends me down an embarrassing spiral of nostalgic teary eyes

def one of my only favorite high school songs that I'm not worn out on yet

Time Trap has an amazing intro, great verses, but the chorus is weak and the outro is really a letdown. Feel like if he spent a couple more days on that, it would be the best song on here.

The results here are pretty spot on, no complaints.

i do love borken chairs, especially when the whistling comes in about halfway through the jam--you always expect it to come back, but alas, it never does

Aw man, I was about to come on here to say that I love the chorus of time trap! Agreed on the outro through - it feels like one of the few unpolished parts on the whole album. All is forgotten and forgiven when it quickly transitions into Else, though.

xpost

But you could never know that... (Good)
In a time trap... (Okay)
In a tiiiime trap. <-- I don't like this whiny part, he could say and do more with the set up. Seems like Doug just gave up on it.

the chorus of time trap is the best hook! another hook that sounds like a nursery rhyme

the intro to time trap is the best part, the rest of the song doesn't hold up as well

yeah it's like a cut n shunt. guitar parts expertly layer on top of one another and then suddenly woah where'd it all go?

i'm not sure how desirable nursery rhyme hooks are unless you think 'nan nanny boo boo' is the peak of songwriting. but i will have to refrain from further comment as i haven't loaded my music onto my new phone and this & perfect are their only two albums not on spotify.

Good news - they're on Spotify! I listened to them last night.

i was a huge modest mouse fan when i was a young teenager and i'm really bummed i didn't hear this album until i was 22.

i had a similar experience with this record, also trail of dead/sonic youth. is there a thread for "bands who directly influenced the bands you love that you didn't hear until much later?"

I can think of very few albums that feature so many fleeting but huge hooks and anthemic bits I love so much, let alone in service of great songs. An indie-rock (as genre) apex.

Good news - they're on Spotify! I listened to them last night.

not in my locale!

the nursery rhyme thing reminds me of Nevermind. the hooks are all ear candy. they're simple and supercharged.

I'm glad this thread popped to life again, because it flashed me back to the last time I saw the band, September 2001. They played several songs from "Perfect from Now On," but a whopping *one* from "Keep It Like a Secret," yet found space to play some Halo Benders and a Caustic Resin track, plus three epic classic rock covers: Cheap Trick's "Dream Police," George Harrison's "What is Life" (he died the next month or so, iirc) and yes, "Freebird" - all in their elaborate entirety.

Ancient Melodies Of the Future destroyed this band. All momentum vanished.

The 'plays perfect from now on in its entirety' show I saw several years ago hung together wonderfully

Ancient Melodies Of the Future destroyed this band. All momentum vanished.

I disagree. That album had a number of highlights and There Is No Enemy was a very good album - they've just never quite reached their mid-period peak again.

I haven't listened to ancient melodies in a very long time but it was one of most anticipated albums and I remember being very disappointed. I thought that the even the worst songs of perfect and secret were better then the best songs off of ancient melodies. But it's been a long time.

When it first came out, Ancient Melodies turned me off of the band for a while. But revisiting it a few years later I wound up really loving it. Untethered Moon is really the only one I don't rate.

this album is just ridiculously great

every time i put it on i can't believe i didn't find it earlier, especially when i was a young teenager & super into modest mouse

i mean, fuck. "Else"

god

music is magic

you've become what you thought was dumb -- a fraction of the sum -- the middle and the fun
now it's coming back -- hasn't it come too far?
i was trying to help -- but i guess i pushed too hard?
now we can't even touch it -- afraid it'll fall apart?

Flawless album.

turn your back on their hating

\m/

Your body breaks
Your needs consume you forever
And with this lies
the need to be here together

this is the best guitar album on earth

fbird otm

yes to all these posts

the girl i was dating when this came out was super into it the the point where i was totally turned off about the album and band. but i have gone back to it in subsequent years and my feeling about it took a 180 . great album

this is the best guitar album on earth

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Thursday, November 30, 2017 11:13 PM (one month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you were right is the one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDUEeu1ocUA

that's the shit

First heard of BTS when my a friend of my brother's gave this album a 10/10 review in a student newspaper. Then I think I tuned into some US 'indie' internet radio station and without them announcing 'You Were Right', I thought to myself "I bet this is Built To Spill", despite never having knowingly heard them. Went out and got the album the next time I saw it in a shop.

they are good on late nite talk shows
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLENvg4_oZA

this is cool, a slightly different arrangement of Else from 2001. DM arpeggiates the chords and there are these great rests from the whole band in between every lyric. changes the feel of the song. outro is a lot longer, slower, and spacier - so fucking good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7yBNxnH-fU

oh thats rad

20th anniversary tour!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu6Sv9CgQsl/

Going to see'em next month. So excited

Going to the Webster Hall show

i've found them amazing live and quite dull in equal measure. i'll still probably hit one of these up tho

never seen them but have heard the same. then again, how can you go wrong playing Keep It Like a Secret front to back?

I've had a few chances to see them before and never have, and wouldn't if they weren't doing a KILAS tour.

they were very dull on their tour with the Whigs. any idea if they're more than a three-piece on this one?

probably can't

though the only time i saw them was the You in Reverse era and was i so disappointed. they seemed so tired, even way back then, just very slow and boring, even though they were playing a bunch of my waves. weird show

xp to "how can you go wrong playing Keep It Like a Secret front to back?"

*faves

sigh

Yeah, Whigs tour they were a snooze.

esp in contrast to the Whigs, who were incredible

xxpost Ignoring the typo correction and choosing to believe you saw them cover "My Wave" slowly, over and over again.

Lol

touring Keep It Like a Secret without a second guitarist seems insane

just listened to it and can't imagine they'd try

They did songs from it on that Whigs tour, and yeah, it was missing a lot.

They played as a four-piece tonight in Glasgow. Saved Carry The Zero for the last song of the album's set. I get it now.

WOO! that's a relief. I can't imagine them doing all of KILAS as a trio

how long did they stretch out Carry the Zero

this album is so amazing, the marquee moon of the 90s, what a towering achievement of guitar

i like marquee moon of the 90s (although for me that's Perfect From Now On). Perfect + Keep It is the marquee moon of the 90s, for me, on an equal level. godlike

perfect from now on rules too, it's tough choice and they feel of a piece as you said

Great driving record.

It's very much like Marquee Moon for me in that they both open with amazing songs I love and close with ones I kind of dislike and kill the momentum for me.

The Plan is one of my favorite songs to play on guitar; I wish I could competently play See No Evil but alas.

aw man i love broken chairs. especially that little whistle part that you keep thinking is gonna come back, but never does

I love Keep It but Perfect has never clicked for me…maybe down tempo a bit and lacks the punchy production sheen of Keep It

Dunno about punchy but it's certainly rich and dense with mellotrons and moogs and cellos, and it feel much more musically and lyrically cohesive, almost like a concept album - the concept being songs about a person who is a dick.

('Perfect...', that is)

The first 3 minutes of Stop the Show and the climax / shift into the second part is the kind of thing that would make me post 'hook it straight into my veins'.

the concept being songs about a person who is a dick.

Yeah, I think that's why I usually reach for Keep It Like a Secret, even though both albums are great. It's the more sardonic of the two.

Btw, I always think of Built to Spill as being these two albums, even though I've listened to the early stuff and a couple of the later albums (I liked You In Reverse a lot when it came out). I somehow got the impression that Ancient Melodies of the Future was looked upon as one of their lesser albums, so I never listened to it . Going to give it a shot soon.

also enjoy the live album for the full crazy horse freakout experience

Listened to Perfect From Now On last night and it is still Perfect.

for me, core bts is definitely tnwwt, pfno, and kilas

*tnwwl

TNWWL is great, but it feels like a different band than what came after. Perfect From Now On was a giant leap forward.

my friends and i were ravenously awaiting what would follow tnwwl and i remember there being murmurings that he had recorded and scrapped an entire followup but decided he wanted it to be 'more of a band concept'. i assume that was just noise, there's no lost material between the 2nd and 3rd albums is there?

The first time, frontman Doug Martsch attempted to play all the instruments except drums. He and Ek were dissatisfied with the results, so Martsch brought in bassist Brett Nelson and drummer Scott Plouf and recorded the album again. However, these tapes were destroyed by heat when Ek was driving from Seattle to Boise to record additional overdubs. The band rehearsed some more, then recorded the album a third time.

I knew about the melted tapes - iirc that led them to add the mellotrons & moogs & stuff - didn't know about the all Doug Martsch all the time attempt.

I go to Keep It Like a Secret because it makes me happy, just the sheer joy of how great a hook can be like in "Sidewalk" how the guitar parts are hooks in and of themselves, Perfect is also great but I don't listen to them often anymore and I tend to want to feel how Keep it makes me feel

TNWWL does feel like a different band in a lot of ways, but it is a classic too — i do like that Martsch's lyrics on that one are actually kind of funny.

That record just has such stunning pop sense, at least on its front half

Twin Falls, Idaho ❤️❤️❤️❤️

once.
WHEN I WAS LIT TULL SOME ONE POIN TAD OUT TO ME

witha sing-GULL FETH-yur

TNWWL does feel like a different band in a lot of ways, but it is a classic too — i do like that Martsch's lyrics on that one are actually kind of funny.

Yeah, that album was a really cool concept. I’ve always kind of been on the lookout for an album or a band that does with they did on that one—split the difference between jam band and indie rock, with a loose, lighthearted approach—but I’ve ever really found anything that quite feels like it. (BTS themselves certainly went in a different direction…)

I had some hot take but realized I was completely dismissing "Ultimate Alternative Wavers" because I've never heard it. Like the first Halfnelson record.

I remember exactly where I was the first time "The Plan" hit my headphones. 10/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2nRdIrM2Oo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dxc1h99oFo

Awesome videos. Time Trap is my favorite and I definitely remember where I was the first time I heard it. I bought the CD at a record store on South Street in Philly the morning after celebrating passing the bar exam with a bunch of friends. I started playing immediately after I bought it and left Philly and Time Trap came on as I was driving on the Northeast Extension of the PA Turnpike and I freaked out.

Aw, Reverb was the greatest. Filled me with the biggest concert envy when I was like 12-13, before I'd been to one. This is one of the episodes I remember best, along with the Pavement, Beck and Flaming Lips ones. Think I still have tapes of some of these...

happy 25th birthday to this amazing record

For me, Pop Rock BTS > Jam Band BTS

i need them both

pretty sure i voted 'carry the zero' in this, but 'broken chairs' is an incredible album closer

The one two punch of Carry the Zero and Sidewalks is so good.

idk if there is a song on this record i wouldn't consider voting for on the right day

i think maybe "you were right," just because i don't love the "do you ever think about it" ending as much as the rest of the song

the Marquee Moon of 90s indie rock

https://i.imgur.com/q15jhZe.jpeg

“Didn’t add up…”