For a generation of indie rockers, Built to Spill’s 1999 record, Keep It Like a Secret, is one of the great heavyweights—often mentioned in the same breath as Pavement’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Modest Mouse’s Lonesome Crowded West.

Situated between two longer, more meandering albums in the band’s catalog, Keep It Like a Secret (the band’s fourth release) plays out almost like a pop record—nimble, confident and endlessly resourceful, but also daring and transcendent.

In February, Keep It Like a Secret hit its 20th anniversary, and Doug Martsch, Built to Spill’s singer, guitarist and sole constant member, found himself revisiting the work.

“I think the record still sounds really cool,” he says over the phone from a Seattle green room. “I listened to it a little bit before we learned the songs. [Producer] Phil Ek did an amazing job recording it. It’s ambitious. I like that about it.”

On opener “The Plan,” the band spends half the song developing one of its catchiest hooks before taking a sharp turn, digging into a massively discordant bridge shrieking with feedback. When the melody finally returns, the song opens bright like a clearing in a forest. On mid-album highlight “Time Trap,” the band spends two minutes developing a groove, giving it space to bloom, only to stop abruptly and begin the first verse at a different tempo.

“There’s this balance in music,” Martsch says. “I don’t know how it’s accomplished, but I’m always trying to do it, where things are conventional and are pleasant to the brain, but are challenging, too. The Beatles did it, so it’s not a new thing.”

Keep It Like a Secret was the band’s second major label release. Their first was the ponderous, nearly doomed Perfect From Now On. Filled with interweaving guitar parts and sinuous counter-melodies, Perfect went on to be a critical hit. But by the time it was finally released, it had become something of an albatross to Martsch. After a painstaking original session that saw Martsch playing everything but drums, neither he nor producer Ek were happy, so they started over from scratch. After another full recording session, this time with a band, the master tapes from the second session melted while en route from Seattle to Boise. The version of Perfect From Now On most fans know is the result of a third recording session. By the time it was completed, the eight-song set had consumed most of a year.

“The record before was a real drain,” Martsch says, thinking back. “Working on those songs took so long. It became really complex and taxing. I was burned out.”

When time came to start working on its follow-up, he opted for its diametric opposite: shorter songs and more collaboration.

“I think it was the first time where we made a record where the guys were more set in the band,” he says. “We all played together a lot and had been for a while. It was more collaborative in spirit and music.”

Twenty years later, the album still sounds fresh, unperturbed by the changing currents of music in the intervening years. Counterintuitively, Built to Spill’s strange status as a major label band without any major singles may be the secret to its enduring success: rather than coming to the band from a specific single, fans tend to form connections with entire albums.

“We’ve been blessed to have a long career without any of the pains of success,” Martsch says as he prepares for the night’s show. “The fans who are there have found it on their own. Nobody shoved it down their throat at some point. Nobody’s waiting to hear just one song. It’s incredibly satisfying, the career I’ve been able to get out of this.”

Built To Spill
Nov 21, 8pm, $32
Rio Theatre, Santa Cruz
folkyeah.com

San Jose music fans were treated to a rare surprise Monday with a secret show from indie rocker veterans Built to Spill at Café Stritch in what was arguably one of the coolest shows to happen in San Jose in the past decade.

The concert was not publicized beyond word of mouth, but it still drew more than 200 people to the new eatery and bar on South First Street.

PHOTOS: More images from Built to Spill at Cafe Stritch.

The secret show landed between Built to Spill’s two sold-out San Francisco dates at Slim’s and a show Tuesday night in Santa Cruz at the Rio. The free San Jose show was supposed to be Built to Spill’s only day off during their three-week tour. When they found out that tour openers Slam Dunk were headlining their own show at Stritch, Built to Spill volunteered to play it as well, not even knowing where the show was at or any details about it.

“We’re doing this shit because it’s fun to do,” said Built to Spill lead singer/guitarist Doug Martsch. “It’s still a job and all that, but we’re lucky we get to do this. We still think of ourselves as a young punk rock band. We’re all in our 40s. We made a bunch of records. We happen to be on Warner Brothers, but this is fun.”

Built to Spill went on after opener Andy Barnes (of Worker Bee and Dinners) and played a set entirely of covers, which Martsch explained to me he felt ok with since no one was actually paying to see them.

The band ran through classics, including “Beast of Burden” by the Rolling Stones, “Don’t fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult featuring an member of the audience on cowbell, “Here” by Pavement, “How Soon is Now” by the Smiths, “Abba Zabba” by Captain Beefheart and the closer “Age of Consent” by New Order, which turned into a psychedelic jam that lasted thirty minutes.

The crowd was all smiles. The couple hundred people who packed the small performance space danced, sang along and even occasionally crowd surfed. And it all happened right here, in San Jose.