Built Like Alaska - Biography
Built Like Alaska is an esoteric Central California-based indie rock band, best known for their bucolic, nervy-Americana songcraft that shares a kindred spirit with such groups as Sparklehorse, geographical neighbors Grandaddy and Earlimart. After several variations as a trio and a five-piece, the band is now a quartet comprised of Neil Jackson (vocals/guitar), Davey Burtch (drums), Sean Norman (guitar, keyboards) and Anthany Rossi (bass). Since Built Like Alaska began performing together in 1996 at dive bars and house parties around the Modesto area (which Grandaddy had put on the map), they have put out two EPs and two critically acclaimed full-length albums while touring the United States. In their breakout year of 2005, they also scored the Scott Coffey film Ellie Parker, which starred Naomi Watts as a struggling actress.
The band came together as a three-piece in Oakdale, California upon songwriter Neil Jackson’s return from attending college at Humboldt University. Playing regionally throughout the Central Valley and north in the Bay Area at wherever they could land a gig, Built Like Alaska’s brand of acoustic psychedelia was captured on the band’s self-released EP, This Song Will Bury You in 2000. With a similar alt-country tilt as late-era Mercury Rev and Earlimart—and with Jackson’s introspective, sedate and often-maudlin lyrics—they would eventually sing on with longtime friends Grandaddy’s private label, Sweat of the Alps, and release their debut full-length album Hopalong (2003). The album’s at turns sunshine pop-cum-melancholia was mastered by nearby chum Lucky Lew, and Jackson’s fragile, off-keel vocal delivery distinguished the group from their championing labelmates, Grandaddy. Not long after, BLA also self-released another EP called Pamphlets and Films.
Though Hopalong barely raised an eyebrow outside of California and in indie-embracing alt-weeklies, high-octane San Francisco-based indie label Future Farmer Records signed Built Like Alaska the following year. They would release the band’s sophomore album, Autumnland (2005), which showcased Jackson’s warm, pensive songwriting. Jackson himself said of the album that it “is like smelling the air full of chimney smoke from the first fire of the year or making a homemade Halloween costume when you were a kid, comforting feelings a person hopes they never lose.” With Grandaddy member/artist David Burtch on the drums and Susane Reis’ haunting back-up vox and keyboards (particularly on “Almost the Earth”), the 14-track album further realized the depth that Jackson and company were reaching for. Songs were as variegated as the minute-long “I’ll Keep You Warm” to guitar-driven doozy “Wet Hay in a Barn” to the lush arrangements on “Dirty Mouth,’ thus saddling Built Like Alaska alongside bands like The Flaming Lips and Death Cab For Cutie and further distancing from strict Grandaddy comparisons.
Future Farmer would also release Hopalong that same year, which enjoyed critical acclaim after having been glossed over two years early. BLA toured the United States on the strength of both albums. As of 2009 the band had returned to the recording studio to begin work on their third LP, meanwhile playing shows up and down the West Coast with occasional forays outside of California. Jason Lytle and Neil Jackson often share a stage together, playing songs from each other’s catalogs. In 2010 they released Don't Mess With Xmas, followed by In Troubled Times, 2011.
