BY SARA BRICKNER
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Celebrating 15 Years
of Spillage
Following the sound to success
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wo months ago, Warner Bros. re-
leased a single documenting
Northwest staple Built to Spill’s
brief foray into reggae: “Rearrange,” a
cover of The Gladiators, and “They Got
Away,” an original tune that clocks in at
just under seven minutes. I assume that’s
what we’ll be hearing at the WOW Hall on
Sept. 19 — that, and maybe some stuff
from their 2006 full-length, You in
Reverse.
But when I speak with frontman Doug
Martsch, who’s preparing to perform in
Aspen, he informs me that in fact the band
played those songs during their last tour
(whaaaa?) and is now laying them to rest
for a while. Far be it from me to claim that
perhaps a release tour should include per-
formances of whatever it is you’re releas-
ing, but at least Built to Spill has new ma-
terial to offer its adoring Eugene public.
Martsch calls the new stuff “melodic,
slower tempo, softer sort of songs.”
Actually, he said “poppy” before correct-
ing himself and
using “melodic,”
but after 15 years of
toeing the line be-
tween underground
fame and main-
stream
stardom,
Martsch can do
whatever the hell he
wants. And he has
— from bluesy solo
stuff to reggae to,
well, pop. This
genre-hopping per-
Built to Spill,
Camper Van Beethoven,
The Delusions
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9 pm Wednesday, 9/19
$20 adv., $22 door
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LIVE
MUSIC
(Blues, Rock, R&B & Swing)
FULL BAR • VIDEO POKER
No Cover Wednesday or Thursday!
EVERY TUESDAY:
Rooster Blues Jam
6:30pm sign-up • 7pm start
EVERY WEDNESDAY:
Irish Session Band
EVERY THURSDAY:
U-JAM You Play, You Sing!
SEPTEMBER
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32 SEPTEMBER 13, 2007
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 TH
2006 #1 harmonica
Hank Shreve Family Band • $3
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 TH
West Coast Rhythm Kings • $4
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 ST
Etoouffee• $5
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 ND
Portland award winners
The Strangetones • $6
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 TH
15th Anniversary Party • The Vipers
Featuring Deb Cleveland • $4
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 TH
Mike Tracey Band • $3
1626 Willamette, Eugene • 344-8600
plexes music reviewers, who ascribe
generic terms like “college rock” and “jam
band” to Built to Spill’s brand of layered
guitars and enigmatic, hoarse vocals. Sure,
the band improvises live (what talented
band doesn’t?), but the jam band feel is
likely a result of a songwriting process that
starts with jamming.
“The last time we made a record, I
would just record all of our jams, and then
I’d go back through it later on and see what
things sounded sort of interesting,”
Martsch says. “I’d make CDs that were
just little snippets, just 15 or 20 seconds of
a jam, and then I’d listen to those and see
which ones really stuck with me.” Then,
the band puts together the pieces, and a
song is born. It’s much the same with the
lyrics; those, too, come in separate, unre-
lated parts that acquire their meaning after
the fact. “There are only a handful of our
songs that are about something,” Martsch
explains. “A lot of it’s just about how the
words sound, not what they mean.” ew