SOUNDTRACK: BUILT TO SPILL-There’s Nothing Wrong with Love (1994).
This is the second Built to Spill album. They moved to a new indie label (Up Records) for this one. For this album the line up changed to Brett Nelson, on bass and Andy Capps on drums.
For this album there aren’t too many long songs. In fact many are 3 minutes or less. And overall, the feel is more lo-fi, less experimental. And yet it still sounds very much like Built to Spill.
“In the Morning” is pretty and catchy with some interesting guitar work that is downplayed in the mix. I like the rather surprising ending. “Big Dipper” is insanely catchy with two separate styles of guitar solo at the same time.
“Car” is even catchier–one of their great early songs. It’s got a great riff and verse. And the strings add a lot to the song. “Fling” opens with acoustic guitar and strings. It’s a pretty song and only 2 and a half minutes. “Cleo” is another slow song with some bursts of guitar greatness.
“The Source” has loud and quiet elements—big acoustic guitars and some crazy jamming moments towards the end.
“Twin Falls” is a stripped down and honest song. It’s just him and his acoustic guitar (with some electric guitar soloing over the top) singing an honest, sweet ballad.
“Some” has slow and heavy elements as it tells a story about a guy. It’s the longest song on the dis and one of the few where Martsch just lets loose on guitar and wails (for a long time). “Distopian Dream Girl” has a kind of sloppy feel to it (with the lead guitar being especially sloppy). The lyrics about his stepfather looking like David’ Bowie are very funny. I love the way the mildly catchy verse turns into a big catchy chorus.
“Israel’s Song” has a groovy bass line unlike anything else on the disc. And the disc proper ends with “Stab.” The song opens slowly with some quiet electric guitar but it builds for 5 and a half minutes (the second longest song on the disc). By 2 minutes, the song has become a heavy guitar song getting faster and faster until it breaks into a slow guitar picked section with strings. As the song returns to that heavy fast section, it adds a long guitar solo–combing all of the elements of Built to Spill in one song.
Although this album isn’t as “experimental” as the first and doesn’t have too many weird sounds on it, they haven’t lost their sense of humor. There is an unlisted track which is a “preview” of the next Built to Spill record. It contains several snippets of “songs” that will appear next (a decent variety of styles, too). Of course, none of these songs appear on the record and the date that they give for when it will come out is also false. It’s pretty darn funny. This album tends to get overlooked because their next full length was on a major label, but it’s still really solid.
[READ: September 26, 2015] Woyzeck
Karl Georg Büchner died in 1837 at the age of 24. In his short life he wrote 4 plays and all kinds of nonfiction. Woyzeck was unfinished and has been adapted many times for the stage and film. And now it is LaBute’s turn.
Neil LaBute is one of the most misanthropic filmmakers I know of. His films are super dark, (occasionally funny–but always dark) and he’s not afraid to address controversial issues. So he seems like the perfect person to adapt (and add to) this play.
In the lengthy introduction, LaBute comments that if you didn’t spend time looking for buried treasure as a kid “your childhood may have been even worse than mine and therefore I want to spend no time imagining it.” He says that Woyzeck is such a treasure. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 