The cross-cultural exchange that Built To Spill and Marine Research engaged in for their Air Mail split single was my first introduction to both bands. Those more in the know at the time might’ve thought the combination a bit weird. Built To Spill, after all, was entering its Warner days, when the compact indie pop nuggets of yesterday began to expand into epic guitar hero songs with blazing solos courtesy of Doug Martsch. In fact, to this day “Carry The Zero” gives me chills, so awesomely anthemic is the last half of the song (and it makes me sad that nothing on the band’s latest effort, You In Reverse, comes close to that feeling).

Marine Research, on the other hand, was going through a metamorphosis of its own, albeit a sudden and tragic one. Air Mail was the UK band’s introduction to America, but previously we knew them as Heavenly, one of the coolest twee-pop bands ever to cross the Atlantic. Marine Research formed out of the ashes of Heavenly, which was stricken by the suicide of drummer Matthew Fletcher, who was also the brother of singer Amelia Fletcher. For a while, the band wasn’t planning to reform at all, and even when the group decided to give it one more shot, they refused to do it under the Heavenly label—after all, it wasn’t the same at all without Matthew. We know the rest of the story now; Marine Research went on to produce a single album before the group went their seperate ways, and some of the principals found themselves in Tender Trap, which has move even further away from the Heavenly template. But back then, no one had much of a clue what Marine Research would look or sound like. I imagine most people assumed, however, that they would not be trying the guitar hero route that Martsch and company were pursuing.

So two bands, not that similar to each other except for their varied connections to the Pacific Northwest music scene—Built To Spill having been a part of the scene, and Heavenly being adopted by local legends K Records. They decided to exchange covers: Built To Spill did Heavenly’s “By The Way,” and in return Marine Research covered Built To Spill’s “Sick And Wrong.” Both songs were fantastic, but especially “Sick And Wrong.” The original is classic old-school Built To Spill, with the quirky guitar lines reminiscent of other great early songs like “Big Dipper” and “Car,” but Marine Research’s take sits on a different level altogether—with a fleshed out pop arrangement and an awesome bridge rap from Amelia Fletcher, the song sounds fully realized. And while there’s a certain pleasure in hearing the Built To Spill version after the fact, my heart still belongs to Marine Research.