Many people think Band of Horses and Built to Spill have much in common, but to me they couldn’t sound more different. That’s because the bands call to mind different stages of my life. Built to Spill summon the marijuana-hooked, self-conscious, intellectually suspect little brat I once was, while Band of Horses speak to the (more) mature person I am now.

Don’t get it twisted; as I will show later, Built to Spill’s lyrics are more profound than Band of Horses’ by a long shot. But though Built to Spill helped shape who I am, I can barely stand to listen to their old albums for the same reason I don’t listen to those Led Zeppelin or Mötley Crüe records anymore—the nostalgia they evoke is practically crushing. Another reason I prefer Band of Horses to Built to Spill is that music with gut-level appeal is more important to me nowadays than music that appeals on a cerebral one.

When Band of Horses arrived on the blog-rock scene a couple years ago, everyone agreed on two things. Number one: They were awesome. Number two: They were the second coming of Built to Spill.

From mainstream critics to Amazon.com reviewers, everyone compared the two bands. It’s understandable. After all, they share:

1. Geography. Both have recorded in that green, rainy part of the world referred to as the Pacific Northwest, although Band of Horses—not long after recording their debut Everything All the Time—departed Seattle for Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, and Built to Spill hails from Boise, Idaho.
2. A Producer. Seattle-based magician Phil Ek—who is also responsible for albums from Modest Mouse, the Shins, Mudhoney, and even David Cross—produced most of Built to Spill’s catalog and all of Band of Horses’. (Side note: Almost nothing has been written about this Phil Spector of the indie rock era. I can’t find a single lengthy profile, and he doesn’t answer my email requests for interview. Weird.)
3. A preference for pop-minded grooves and guitar-centric anthems that are a bit too crunchy for radio, but not masturbatory enough for Deadheads and Phishheads.

Still, I find the two bands as different as can be, right down to their monikers. Built to Spill is a semi-ironic ode to self-sabotage: Comic, cute, and lyrical. In the great tradition of band names that sound funny at first but later seem natural (Smashing Pumpkins, Flaming Lips, Gnarls Barkley, TV on the Radio), it succeeds.

Band of Horses, meanwhile, is a pun so slight you don’t notice it at first, and then when you do, you wish you hadn’t. As an image it’s disgustingly earnest, invoking a sense of strength and unity that seems misplaced considering that founding member Mat Brooke departed after its first album. As a band name, it’s as lame as the title of its first album, Everything All the Time, which is a goddamn line from an Eagles song.

“Is it true you ripped off the title of your record from ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ by the Eagles?” Seattle Weekly writer Mike Seely asked lead singer Ben Bridwell two years ago.

“No, but now that you mention it, I do remember that lyric,” he said.

The group’s music, meanwhile, seems to exist solely for the sheer ecstasy of a perfect riff. The best Band of Horses songs—like “Islands on the Coast”, “Weed Party”, and “Ode to LRC”—feature melodies stripped down to their platonic ideals; simple, ecstatic guitar riffs that get in and out quickly, subsisting on hooks and not containing much that isn’t critical. (That’s partly why their albums are barely half an hour long.)