Built to Spill - Plays the Songs of Daniel Johnston LP - Clear w/ Yellow & Blue Splatter (/500)

Ernest Jennings (2020)

I love Built to Spill and have for twenty five years or so.  Sure, I tend to favor their records from the 90s, but I've never heard a Built to Spill record that I haven't liked.  They are all just varying degrees of excellent and I tend to rank There's Nothing Wrong With Love and Keep It Like a Secret as the most excellent of the bunch.

However, when we get to their latest, an album of Daniel Johnston cover songs, it's difficult for me to get very excited.  To be blunt, while there's absolutely nothing bad about the album, it's kind of boring.  I'm not sure if that's because of Daniel Johnston's songs or if the execution is simply not very inspiring.  No matter the cause, you just kind of cruise through this light and airy record which has a habit of fading into background noise when you're listening to it.

I am admittedly not particularly familiar with Daniel Johnston's output, so I'm not going to compare these BTS covers to his originals.  All I can do is judge the album in front of me on its own merits and I just keep coming back to the fact that it isn't very exciting.  They just come across as paint by numbers jangle pop songs.  And while I like them, I can't fathom a time where I would look at my Built to Spill records and decide that this is the one I'm going to listen to when all of the others are significantly more interesting.

Built to Spill - Plays the Songs of Daniel Johnston:
https://built-to-spill.bandcamp.com/album/built-to-spill-plays-the-songs-of-daniel-johnston

Built To Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love LP - Yellow Vinyl

Up/Sub Pop (2015, Reissue)

I first discovered Built To Spill, probably sometime in 1995.  At the recommendation of a friend, I picked up the "So And So, So And So From Wherever, Wherever" 7" from a used bin.  I was pretty floored with how great it was and that continues to be one of my favorite Built To Spill songs all these years later.  Very soon after that, I grabbed a copy of this record.  I am one of the lucky ones who has been sitting on an original pressing of There's Nothing Wrong With Love for about 20 years.  Because of that, I'm probably not quite as excited about this reissue as a lot of folks are, but I still decided to pick up a copy and at least I can compare it to the original pressing here.

So as far as the pressing itself goes, I think it sounds great.  It's every but as warm and inviting as my original copy.  The treble leaning guitars shimmer just as brightly and the low end of the bass is as full as it has ever sounded.  Unlike the recent Leatherface reissues where I could notice a real difference between the original and new pressings, There's Nothing Wrong With Love sounds just as good as the original.  From a sound standpoint, there's no reason to not grab this pressing and be pretty content.

Musically, this album is just wonderful.  Though I think Built To Spill eventually topped this when they released Keep It Like A Secret, There's Nothing Wrong With Love still stands as my second favorite of their records.  The songs are not as complex as some of the extended jams they would go on to release later in time, but there is something so perfect about the simplicity and honesty of this album.  The songs are all supremely catchy and with surefire classics like "Car," "Big Dipper" and "In The Morning," some of Doug Martsch's very best work is collected here.

If you've been one of the many waiting so long for this reissue, there's no reason to be on the fence.  It is absolutely worth picking up and is really an essential part of any good indie rocker's record collection.

Built To Spill - "Car":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6omZ5GsuGrI

Built To Spill - "In The Morning":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJCC3QPtv5o

Record Store Day Haul #2: Built To Spill - Untethered Moon LP

Warner Brothers (2015)

Releasing the new Built To Spill record on Record Store Day was a neat move I think.  It really wasn't limited (10,000 copies!), so if you wanted it, it's unlikely you had to line up in front of a record store to get a copy.  It also wasn't limited to only being released of Record Store Day, you could just buy it then first.  Plus there was the scavenger hunt aspect where 500 blue vinyl copies were randomly inserted for the Record Store Day release, though I'm a little skeptical that actually happened as not one single copy has turned up on eBay.

A new Built To Spill record is always cause for celebration and it's a nice change of pace from the reissues that tend to clog up Record Store Day.  Built To Spill has yet to disappoint me with a record and Untethered Moon is no exception.  What I can say about it is that it is not as immediately impactful as some of their other albums.  It's deliberately a slower burn and it's a record that I like more and more every time I listen to it.  Maybe it doesn't have some of the surefire pop singles some of their other albums have, but you'll be challenged trying to find another record that's so easy to enjoy from start to finish.

Built To Spill has a tried and true formula of jangled out guitar in the verse, Doug's high pitch vocals and blasts of fuzzed out lead guitar.  It's a formula that has worked for quite a while and Untethered Moon delivers more of that sort of greatness.  Built To Spill has long been one of my all time favorite bands.  It has been far too long in between albums, but you can bet I'll be listening to Untethered moon constantly to try to make up for lost time.

Built To Spill - "All Our Songs":

https://soundcloud.com/builttospill/all-our-songs

Built To Spill - "Living Zoo":

https://soundcloud.com/builttospill/living-zoo

Record Store Day Haul #3: Built To Spill - Ultimate Alternative Wavers 2xLP - Gold Vinyl

Modern Classics Recordings (2014, Reissue)

Like the Pinback LP I wrote about yesterday, this is a shining example of what Record Store Day should be all about.  A classic Built To Spill album from 21 years ago never having been released on vinyl until right now.  Regardless of anything else that was for sale on Record Store Day, this release would have always gotten me lined up at the door of my local record store.

Honestly, I'm surprised it took this long for Ultimate Alternative Wavers to finally get a vinyl reissue.  Even though it's always kind of been the forgotten record of theirs, Built To Spill is big enough and has an old enough fan base that you'd think this would just be a gimme.  Well, at least it's here now.  They did a great job with the artwork.  The gatefold cover is super high quality, the gold vinyl looks good with the art and everything sounds really good spread out over two LPs.  My store charged $35 for this bad boy, which seems pretty steep to me.  But I just don't see how I'd ever pass up the chance to own the very last Built To Spill record I needed to complete my collection on vinyl.

The music on the record is the same as it always was.  It's not quite as good as everything BTS released after it, but it's certainly not too dissimilar either.  Lots of long dynamic guitar solos, great pop melodies and pretty much everything else you'd expect from this band.  Particularly, I've just always loved "The First Song" and "Nowhere Nothin' Fuckup."  Definitely a worthwhile purchase, albeit, an expensive one.

Built To Spill - The First Song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBVoHOq3JRc

Built To Spill - Nowhere Nothin' Fuckup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2KfqL13Omg

Helvetia & Built To Spill - Spooky Action At The Sufferbus 7" - FlexiDisc (/1000)

Helvetia & Built To Spill - Spooky Action At The Sufferbus 7" - Flexi Disc (/1000), a photo by Tim PopKid on Flickr.

Joyful Noise (2013)

Despite my deep, undying love of the 7" singles series, I couldn't bring myself to plunk down for Joyful Noise's 2013 Flexi Disc series. A, because there were really only 2 bands announced that I liked and B, I can't get all that excited about flexis. In Joyful Noise's defense, this is just about the best sounding flexi I've ever played and they obviously have put a great deal of care and work into the artwork, packaging and the like. But I honestly couldn't tell you why they just don't up the price of the series a bit and put out real 7"s. Seems wacky to me.

Anyway, since I wasn't going to buy the series but I had to maintain my complete Built To Spill 7" collection, I went to eBay. Picked this up for $18. Probably too much to pay for 1 song, but far from a rip off and certainly cheaper than buying a whole series of records I didn't want. The song is pretty good. You can certainly hear the Built To Spill in there, but I think the song is more driven by the Helvetia folks. It's upbeat pop that just screams of the 90's. It reminds me quite a bit of bands like Some Velvet Sidewalk or other K records pop shenanigans.

This record was essential to add to my Built To Spill collection, but unless you're a completist, this isn't a record that should at the top of your overpay on eBay list. Can't find the song streaming anywhere unfortunately.

Collection: Built To Spill 7"s

Collection: Built To Spill 7"s, a photo by Tim PopKid on Flickr.

Time for another collection picture, this time focusing on a long time indie rock favorite, Built To Spill. The first Built To Spill record I bought was out of the used bin at Flipside Records in NJ. I took a chance on the So & So So & So From Wherever Wherever 7" for 2 dollars. Well, I'm sure you can see by the picture above that I was immediately taken by this band and set out to get everything else. As Built To Spill has grown and changed over the years, they're one of the very few bands that has never lost me. I can always appreciate the direction they're going and while I don't think that they're one of the better live bands I've seen (a bit too jammy for me these days) their records are pretty flawless.

Built To Spill - Car / Girl - Face The Music -Green Vinyl
Built To Spill - Car / Girl - Face The Music - White Vinyl
Built To Spill - Joyride - K - Black Vinyl
Built To Spill - So And So So And So - Saturine - Black Vinyl
Built To Spill - Distopian Dream Girl - Up - Black Vinyl
Built To Spill - Car / Scarin - City Slang - Black Vinyl
Built To Spill - In The Morning - City Slang - Black Vinyl
Built To Spill / Marine Research - Split - K - Black Vinyl
Built To Spill - Untrustable - Warner - Clear Vinyl
Built To Spill - Center Of The Universe - Warner - Clear Blue
Built To Spill - Center Of the Universe - City Slang - Black
Built To Spill - Strange - Warner - Clear Blue
Built To Spill - Conventional Wisdom - Warner - Black Vinyl
Built To Spill - Don't Try / the Source - Warner - Black Vinyl
Built To Spill - Water Sleepers - Warner - Black Vinyl
Built To Spill - Ripple - Warner - Picture Disc
V/A - Spunk Issue 6 - Spunk - Black Vinyl

Missing: Actually, I don't believe I'm missing anything. If you know of any wacky variant that's not in my picture here, let me know.

Built To Spill - So and So So and So from Wherever Wherever:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wog1iKR7550

Built To Spill - Joyride:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gncB-kQUUgQ