Over the last couple of years when we’ve written about The Polyphonic Spree it mostly focused around their enthusiasm for holiday music. On August 6, the choral-rock ensemble will release their properly punctuated album – Yes, It’s True. – their first set of new material since 2007′s The Fragile Army. The Tim DeLaughter fronted act, who harnessed the power of crowd-sourcing to help fund their new record in raising $100,000, will head out for a 12-date summer tour, which includes a high profile appearance at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, as well as a pair of New York City-area shows at the Music Hall Of Williamsburg and the Bowery Ballroom on July 9 and 10 respectively.
05.11.13 | Dallas, TX | Homegrown Fest
05.25.13 | Arlington, TX | Levitt Pavilion
06.13.13 | Manchester, TN | Bonnaroo
06.25.13 | Columbus, OH | Newport Music Hall
06.26.13 | Indianapolis, IN | Deluxe at the Amber Room, Old National Centre
06.28.13 | Minneapolis, MN | Varsity Theater
06.29.13 | Kansas City, KS | Kanrocksas
07.01.13 | Chicago, IL | Park West
07.02.13 | Muskegon, MI | Coast West Music Festival
07.05.13 | Philadelphia, PA | Theater of the Living Arts
07.06.13 | Washington, DC | Sixth & I Historic Synagogue
07.08.13 | Allston, MA | Brighton Music Hall
07.09.13 | Brooklyn, NY | Music Hall of Williamsburg
07.10.13 | New York, NY | The Bowery Ballroom
If you’re not into a night with the choral-rock ensemble, then maybe you’ll be interested in hitting one of these recently announced tours…
The Polyphonic Spree got into the Christmas spirit early this year, dropping Holidaydream: Sounds of the Holidays Vol. One back in mid-October. For their first full-length album since 2007 the psychedelic choral-rock act mixes Christmas classics such as Winter Wonderland, Silent Night and Let It Snow, with a couple of originals that should spruce up your holiday mixes. The record also features a fantastic cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Happy Xmas (War Is Over), which got its inspiration from a anti-war billboard campaign that Lennon and Ono ran around the world in 1969.
[Photo by Steve Wrubel]
Originally recorded by the Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir, the tune was released on December 1, 1971, and reached number three on Billboard’s Christmas singles chart. With the anniversary of Lennon’s passing this past weekend, it seemed only appropriate to feature The Polyphonic Spree’s wonderful animated video for the tune, which they released late last week.
The Polyphonic Spree are in the midst of their 10th Annivesary Holiday Extravaganza tour, which brings the troupe to Chicago’s Logan Square Auditorium tomorrow night.
The video for the upcoming holiday collection from the Polyphonic Spree gets the yuletide season off to a spirited start. It’s a short whimsical story about some North Pole elves making presents, whereby one elf misplaces his sandwich and sends it down the assembly line. Hopefully, the kid who receives that particular present likes Arby’s. The album, entitled Holidaydream: Sounds Of The Holidays Vol. One, contains holiday standards, a pair of originals and a cover of Lennon’s Happy Xmas (War is Over).
Back in December we pointed you in the direction of an unearthed Christmas tune from the Polyphonic Spree, that dated back to the recording sessions for their 2004 sophomore album Together We’re Heavy. The psychedelic choral-rock act, who haven’t put out an album of new material since 2007, look like they may be gearing up for a big 2012 with a 10-date spring tour lined up and last week releasing an animated music video for the brand new track What Would You Do? The song, which features the band’s signature lush vocal sound, also has a bit of a hard edge courtesy of a healthy dose of Flaming Lips-influence acid-rock guitar sounds. Let’s check it out…
We’re barely two days into December and we’re clearly feeling the holiday spirit around these parts. Earlier this week we posted She & Him’s performance of the Christmas Waltz, and today we’ve got one from another act that should be making Christmas music, rather than that horrible overwrought schmaltz that is usually playing in every store that you walk into. The Polyphonic Spree may not be a band that we’ve heard much from in recent years, but earlier this week the psychedelic-choral-pop act released their new holiday-themed single – It’s Christmas. The tune, which dates back to the sessions for their sophomore album, was recently unearthed and mixed, and is now being made available for the first time in a variety of formats, including a special, limited edition color vinyl.
On December 10,the band will host their 9th annual Holiday Extravaganza at the Lakewood Theater, in Dallas, Texas, to which fans are encourage to bring both a canned food item to benefit the North Texas Food Band and a toy for Toys For Tots. Earlier this week the group released this music video of It’s Christmas, culled from past events. Let’s check it out…
As we celebrate five years of Hidden Track, I could think of no better selection for this week’s Cover Wars than Five Years by David Bowie from his 1972 album Ziggy Stardust. What I’ve always liked about this tune is that the listener always feels like the “Five Years” refrain should come at the end of the first verse, but it doesn’t. In case you missed it, late Sunday night we launched the redesigned Hidden Track – newer, better, wider, more social and guaranteed to make you want to listened to these five (ehh? 5?) covers or your money back.
We’ve got five years, stuck on my eyes
Five years, what a surprise
We’ve got five years, my brain hurts a lot
Five years, that’s all we’ve got
The Contestants:
Artist: Arcade Fire Live Show: .2 Contamination: a Tribute to David Bowie The Skinny: Arcade Fire contributed this cover to a 2008 David Bowie tribute album which features covers from The Dresden Dolls and many other artists. A great cover that Arcade Fire has also had the pleasure of playing with Bowie.
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Well, Selection Sunday is this weekend and we here at Hidden Track are gearing up for our third annual Cover Wars: March Madness tournament. What we do is we take the winners of selected weekly Cover Wars throughout the past 12 months and put them up against each other with the winner being crowned Cover Wars Champion of the Year.
The first year’s winner was Mr. Blotto with its cover of 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover by Paul Simon. Last year, Perpetual Groove emerged victorious with its cover of the Talking Heads’ This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody). We are going to have 32 entries this year, but so far only 29 tickets have been punched. We need your help to select three more covers to make it into the brackets – so starting now through the rest of the week the battle is on for the final three slots among these ten covers.
2D featuring Nathain Haines performing FM by Steely Dan.
READ ON to see the other nine covers vying for the three play-in spots…
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