Beginning our extended month of October, we have a fairly new band that has seemingly disappeared.  Despite their claims of being on hiatus, no new material and a lack of touring tells me that it’s the end for our Austin based band (though I certainly hope not).  This week we remember Built by Snow (and hopefully inspire them to hurry and get back together). Are you rad enough dudes to read this article?
Built by Snow was formed back in 2005 by employees of a television studio in Austin. Ben Bauer, Brandon Stein, JP Pfertner, and Matt Murray used their collective enjoyment of 80’s and 90’s video games (and consoles) and powerpop to produce the catchy – if not nerdy – tunes that are somewhere between Tokyo Police Club, the Shins, and early Weezer. Clever lyrics, a fast pace, and fun songs that anyone can easily sing along to only help to make the band much more likeable and memorable. As their youtube description says, it’s “rock music for smart kids, weird kids, rocket scientists, and NASA engineers.”
Living in one of the greatest music hubs of the U.S., Built by Snow would certainly have a lot of competition in the musical world, and a competition is exactly what helped to fund their first and only EP.  Having been an unknown in a town of so many musical choices when Built by Snow showed up at a battle of the bands competition, they weren’t expecting to take home the grand prize.  The winning of a thousand dollar gift certificate to a recording studio inspired the band to continue their musical journey. Pleased with their sessions, what was originally a recording of nothing but demos turned into a seven track EP, Noise, released in 2007.
Two years later saw great amounts of activity for Built by Snow. The band released their first and only full-length album, Mega, which saw the refinement and maturation of the direction the band wanted to go with their sound and they hit the road, touring the U.S. and Canada, playing South by Southwest and its Canadian counterpart, North by Northeast.  They were featured as one of nine bands to watch in Austin Monthly Magazine and last year, the band’s song “Something in 3D” was featured in an advertisement for Google Maps 5.0 on the Android.
Since then the band didn’t make too many waves save to say that they were taking time off.  Band members have gone on to work on other projects. JP has gone on to start his own side project called Oh Look Out and taking time to be with family while Matt has begun playing with Red Falcon.  The band has had their success and fun in the music world though.  Their music videos are entertaining and humorous (spoofs/tributes to Bad Dudes, Zero Wing and Galaga for the NES and 2001: A Space Odyssey), striking a chord with those smart and weird kids, rocket scientists and NASA engineers.  The band’s split has not been for the worse and the possibility of more music certainly isn’t that much of a stretch, so we can only hope that this hiatus doesn’t last a lifetime.  And if it does, we can at least follow the links below to get our fix.
Useful Links
haha, rad! Yep, I was a rad enough dude to read this article. Thanks so much for making us the Artist of the Week! Some of the new songs that I was working on for Built By Snow are on the new Oh Look Out album… and they are free! So, at least you can get some rad new music to keep you moving for now! Thanks again! You rule!!
JP’s a team member over on kungfujackknife.com. Stop by and checkitout!
RAD!