When Doug Martsch spoke with Jessica, he talked about aging gracefully:
We have a bunch of records out. There’s no hurry for us to sell music. We can put out a a record every five or six years, and that’s plenty of Built to Spill music. The world doesn’t need a new Built to Spill record every year,” he says. “A new band, I could totally see that. It’s exciting to hear them put out a couple records in a hurry, but a band like us, we’re just fine.
The band’s seventh album There Is No Enemy is their first since 2006′s You In Reverse. Not a massive wait, no, but longer than some digital-age upstarts’ entire careers. You get a sense of the group’s wizened calm in slow-building standout “Things Fall Apart.” The title’s possibly a reference to William Butler Yeats’ “The Second Coming,” but the story’s more about apocalypse on an intimate scale: Still, check out the rousing trumpet solo.
“Things Fall Apart”
Here’s another album track, “Hindsight”:
The tracklist again, so you can begin piecing together the overall picture:
01 “Aisle 13″
02 “Hindsight”
03 “Nowhere Lullaby”
04 “Good Ol’ Boredom”
05 “Life’s A Dream”
06 “Oh Yeah”
07 “Pat”
08 “Done”
09 “Planting Seeds”
10 “Things Fall Apart”
11 “Tomorrow”
There Is No Enemy is out 10/6 via Warner Bros. The tour is happening right now:
09/21 – Boulder, CO @ Fox Theatre
09/23 – Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
09/24 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avene
09/25 – Madison, WI @ Barrymore Theatre
09/26 – Chicago, IL @ Vic Theatre
09/27 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom
09/28 – Bloomington, IN @ Bluebird Nightclub
09/29 – St. Louis, MO @ The Peageant
10/01 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
10/02 – Newport, KY @ Southgate House
10/03 – Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
10/04 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
10/06 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Place
10/08 – Ithaca, NY @ State Theater
10/09 – Cambridge, MA @ Middle East
10/10 – Cambridge, MA @ Middle East
10/11 – Cambridge, MA @ Middle East
10/12 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
10/13 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
10/14 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/15 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
10/16 – Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero
10/18 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
10/20 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club
10/21 – Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall
10/22 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater #
10/23 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live #
10/24 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s #
10/25 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Diamond Ballroom #
10/27 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theatre
10/28 – Tucson, AZ @ Dry River
11/15 – Eugene, OR @ WOW Hall
11/17 – Bellingham, WA @ The Nightlight
11/18 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
11/19 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox at the Market
11/20 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox at the Market
11/21 – Spokane, WA @ Big Easy
# = w/ Dinosaur Jr.
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Hell yeah.
There is a famous book by an African writer called Things Falls Apart, the writer´s name is Chinhua Ahebe, if I´m not mistaken, but I don´t know if the song has something to do with it.
Yeah, the title of Achebe’s book is a reference to the Yeats. I listened closely to the lyrics and don’t see a connection to Things Fall Apart, but maybe I missed something: Read the book a long time ago/memory’s hazy.
Two more songs (?Good Ol? Boredom? and ?Life?s A Dream?) are streaming here: http://skopemag.com/2009/09/07/built-to-spill-there-is-no-enemy/ Unfortunately it seems it is time for BTS to retire, all of these songs are very underwhelming. Doug’s vocals are too processed, the melodies are not memorable enough, the drums sound like a drum machine…
I think you’re going to find yourself in the minority amongst BTS fans with this opinion. I love it.
^ That
BTS might be getting old, but are they really “[...]wizened[..]” ? Dino Jr., maybe… (I mean look at the cover of Farm)… There don’t seem to be nothin’ wrinkly ’bout BTW though, not to my ears…
right, only BTS, not BTW… lolz… I still take issue with the usage of “wizened”
and, BTW, I <3 the new BTS.
Very nice indeed! This song, “Things Fall Apart” takes it time but yet has a nice sense of urgency as well.
Time To Retire… Do you ever have any original thoughts or do you just paraphrase from other blogs? BTS is certainly entitled to an album of their liking, because BTS fans like what they do. I hope noboby ever hears of them, comes to their shows, that way I don’t have to get packed into the front row with every Chet and Charlie that thinks they are all the rage for today! Fucking dirty white hat, Dave Mathews listening, cock gobbling frat boys, to hell with all of you and the concerts you ruin. “DUDE”!
Check out: http://www.vimeo.com/3617428 for a video of “Nowhere Lullaby” with great audio. We were shooting video for the Meat Puppets and as a BTS freak I had to ask Doug if we could get a little footage of their set. After mumbling some star struck nonsense at him he said shoot all you want.
Wow! Things Fall Apart actually gave me goosebumps on first listen. It might turn out to be my favorite song on the new album, and I definately didn’t see that coming. I’m very excited to hear the whole album. All signs point to it being excellent.
sweet, thank you for streaming things fall apart, this is definitely one of my favorite songs.
This is shaping up to be some really solid songwriting, even by Built to Spill
s standards. Better than YIR for sure.
Wish they were coming to Knoxville,TN – they always put on a Quality live show! Enjoying the new album so far – expectations are beyond met….