Forecast for the Future

"Every individual without exception bears a potential writer within himself. The reason is that everyone has trouble accepting the fact that he will disappear unheard of and unnoticed in an indifferent universe, and everyone wants to make himself into a universe of words before it's too late. 

Once the writer in every individual comes to life (and that time is not that far off), we are in for an age of universal deafness and lack of understanding."

- Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Friday, May 30, 2008

It's summertime! Built to Spill mix!! (broken link fixed)



Hi friends,

It's summer time so I thought you should all enjoy this Built to Spill mix that I made, which Jayson Greene will either love or disown. I encourage you to love it!

Built to Spill mp3 Mix, zipped - click to download!
[NOTE: an XML file is included but the tracks are not tagged with any order, so after adding tracks to library, go to iTunes and choose "File, Import" and add the XML file.]



Also, as a bonus, here's a two song single they released in 2007 (their most recent release):

Built to Spill - They Got Away / Re-Arrange 7" - click to download

I said earlier this month to friends:

So what of these two particular songs? Well, I actually sort of enjoy "They Got
Away" and do not think it is the same song as always. Yeah, it's repetitive, but
it's also a reggae song, which is the point. I am surprised at how well
Martsch's voice works within the musical structure of reggae. It seems to sort
of fit the sonics and ideas of "You In Reverse" but works more successfully and
inspired than anything there except "Going Against Your Mind" and "Liar". As far
as "singles" go, it's not gonna do rock the world because it isn't a pop song,
but I think it's the kind of drony midtempo track that I would actually
appreciate mid-album. For some reason the fact that reggae encourages simple
repetition makes this song more acceptable and even welcome to me than the dirgy
and boring repetition on most of "You In Reverse".

"Re-Arrange" is
interesting in that it's the first Built to Spill song that sort of looks back
to the "classic sound" since Ancient Melodies came out. For this reason, I was
at least immediately welcome to hearing it. Unfortunately, yeah, a) the lyrics
make me kind of nauseous, b) the vox sound and even sound are a little Death Cab
for Cutie, and c) the best parts of the song, the softly humming guitar sighs,
are basically a redux of a rather unknown "Carry the Zero" b-side called "Now
and Then"--which is a much better song and, in my mind, truly worth holding
onto.


And Jayson Greene said:

"They Got Away" does almost nothing for me. This would be the portion of the
Built to Spill live show during which I completely zone out, where I notice that
my feet hurt and that I want a drink of water. Doug Martsch seems perfectly
content to play with the same guitar tone for the rest of his life and to play
his smeared-tone, noodly solos forever. This is the most flat kind of artistic
stasis. This is miles away from the Built to Spill that lit me on fire in high
school, the band that demonstrated new ways of songwriting and showed me that
lyrics need not be autobiographical or even specific to be work completely.

And "Rearrange." Pretty tune, promising lead-in. Then the
lyrics quickly veer off course. What the fuck is he trying for with this kind of
shit? Has he gotten so lax that he really thinks he can sing whatever the fuck
he wants before he starts up the spacey slide guitar again?

Sorry Ben,
sorry folks -- there are no "teeth" in these tunes. This is as fresh as
month-old bong water.

He's probably right.

And FINALLY:

Built to Spill covering the L. Skynyrd classic "Freebird", live! - click to download

You can find "Freebird" and a few other live BtS covers here.

Enjoy!

Summer Summer!

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1 comment:

Ian smith said...

When's the last time you want to an actual record store? Like where you have to walk through a door and can't just click "download"? Yes, we live inside a blog, but record stores are pretty great.
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