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Built to Spill Live Preview: 8/18-8/19, Thalia Hall, Chicago

Photo by Isa Georgetti; Collage by Lê Almeida

BY JORDAN MAINZER

“You feel the wind at your back / It makes you feel so bold / But when the wind forgets your name / The world can be so cold,” sings Doug Martsch on “Elements”, a swaying standout from Built to Spill’s upcoming When The Wind Forgets Your Name (Sub Pop). It’s an appropriate sentiment after which to name the album, a collection of songs about trying to capture a sense of familiarity and empathy. For us, that warm acquaintanceship comes from the band’s trademark chug full of drippy, reverb-soaked guitars, Martsch’s falsetto, and meaty bass and drum fills. Though Built to Spill now consists of Prism Bitch’s Teresa Esguerra on drums and Blood Lemon’s Melanie Radford on bass, When The Wind Forgets Your Name was recorded with its previous incarnation,  Lê Almeida and João Casaes. The two recorded bass and drum tracks with Martsch in Boise, then Martsch overdubbed guitar and vocals, and the three collaborated virtually on mixing. The result is a classic rock-sounding record, at times short and sweet and at times meandering and expansive.

Of course, Martsch is always concerned with the intangible. On “Gonna Lose”, a song whose namesake refrain is reminiscent of one of the band’s greatest songs, Martsch sings, “What could be more disorienting / Than being on acid in a dream?”, his guitars following his lead as he chants the second sentence, giving power to the layered confusion inherent in dreaming about hallucination. Further lyrics of surreal fantasy pervade the album on songs like the mellotron-imbued “Fool’s Gold” and “Understood”; even if the latter references Evil Knievel’s failed stunt in Martsch’s hometown of Twin Falls, ID, a line like, “It’s been a long time since we took a trip / To the bottom of a canyon in a rocket ship,” fits well within Built to Spill’s altered zones. “But really, I don’t know,” he eventually sighs, an evergreen statement of humility from one of the music world’s finest dreamers.

Impressively, Built to Spill find room to explore on When The Wind Forgets Your Name. As this version of the band was built out of the need for a Brazilian touring band before it became the version of the band to play further and record, they delve into reggae and dub (“Rocksteady”) and even bossa nova rhythms (“Never Alright”.) Elsewhere on “Elements”, Martsch sings as the rest of the music drops out, “Up in the sky / Another world abounds / And I don’t know just what it means / But I like the way it sounds.” The line is apropos of Built to Spill’s instrumentation in 2022. On sludgy, storming closer “Comes A Day”, Martsch sings, “How can you still complain / There’s no reason to explain / What we all go through is not the same.” Approaching music with the same sense of confident decency is why the band continues to melt hearts and minds.

Built to Spill plays Thalia Hall tonight and tomorrow night. Prism Bitch and Boise rock band Papas open. Doors at 7 PM, show at 8.