Built to Spill, Finn Riggins

[ICONIC NW ROCK] A shoe-in for the Pacific Northwest’s Rock-'n'-Roll Hall of Fame, if there were such a thing, Doug Martsch is one of the best songwriters of the last 20 years. The Built to Spill frontman pores over his work, spending weeks in confinement creating records like 2009’s There Is No Enemy. Better still, he sweats his guitarmanship as much as his lyric writing, making for vibrant vocals and whining riffs that intertwine gorgeously. And while Martsch and core bandmates Brett Nelson and Scott Plouf have never quite matched 1997 masterpiece Perfect From Now On, Built to Spill has been a stone temple in the indie-rock field—sturdy, honest and always looked up to.