Some bands can't wait to hit the road to promote a new record--the shows are fresh, the songs are brand spanking new and the good vibes are renewed.

Not indie-rock heroes Built to Spill [ tickets ].

"We are never that attached to an album," Built to Spill [ tickets ] frontman Doug Martsch said in an interview with LiveDaily. "In fact, when we finish an album, we usually are kind of burned out and don't want to play any of the songs. But on this tour, we do a few songs off the new record [2006's 'You in Reverse']. We do a pretty good balance of all the records.

"When we record, we listen to the songs a bunch. We just get burned out on even hearing them at all. When we finished [1997's] 'Perfect From Now On,' we didn't ... play one song off that record on tours for three to four years because that was one on which we were especially burned out. There's probably some magic there still, but you're completely immune to it."

It's coming around to that time again for Built to Spill. Martsch said he's written a few songs for a forthcoming album. He's not quite sure, however, if he's happy with them.

"I'd almost say we're ready to make a record, except almost everything is kind of slow. I haven't quite been able to figure out if that's just what it is and we'll do it, or if we need to put more upbeat songs into it."

Martsch explained he's unsure what inspired the slower tunes.

"I don't really know why that stuff happens. Lately, whenever I write a song, I write something really pretty and soft," he said.

Martsch has been writing alone lately, but "You in Reverse" was the opposite. It was a collaborative effort amongst the different band members and even Martsch's wife Karena, a poet.

"Different records are different. [The band] will get together and just jam for hours at a time and just record it. The jamming serves the purpose of trying to come up with parts and ideas of songs," Martsch said.

"It's not jamming like we're all noodling around. We're just trying to come up with interesting parts. That might be about half of the material. Maybe half of it is stuff I just wrote by myself. I put the parts together. For example, 'This jam part fits well with this part that I wrote myself. … These two jam parts go together. … Change the key of this one or the tempo of this one and it'll fit with this one.' Then I write the lyrics, and my wife sometimes writes the lyrics," Martsch said.

"She's a poet. She's just sharp and has the same sort of sensibilities as me and sense of humor. We work different methods. Sometimes I'll use things she said without it being a lyric suggestion. Sometimes she'll jot down a bunch of stuff. Sometimes I'll have the song and I'll just record myself playing it and just mumbling words. Or she'll listen to it and write down what she thinks I'm saying or what I should be saying."

In the meantime, there's still more touring left to do. The US tour wraps with a three-night stand in Seattle Oct. 4-6. Then it's off to Australia. For now, there are no future plans to tour the US.

"I don't think we're going to be doing any more touring in the US until we've got some recording done," Martsch said. "We might do a handful of things here and there, like if someone wants to play a festival or something. Then we'll go to Europe again next summer. I think, with the US, we're going to try to lay low after this tour. We've been out so much in the last two years."