The Polyphonic Spree - The Beginning Stages of

The Polyphonic Spree
Beginning Stages Of

If your idea of a great band is about 25-30 members dressed in the same long robes playing various different orchestral and non-orchestral instruments or singing in a rousing indie pop chorus, then The Polyphonic Spree may just be for you. This band truly does have a huge cast and does perform in suspiciously “cult-like” robes, but the sound that comes out of them is pretty amazing. A soaring chorus of voices backed by a modern day orchestra type sound a la Brian Wilson’s Smile. Crazy horns, whistles, bells, strings, gongs… you get the whole works.

I haven’t gotten their newer CD/DVD Together We’re Heavy, but I can certainly vouch for the tracks off of their amazing initial album The Beginning Stages Of The Polyphonic Spree. Tracks like Have A Day feature their typical dynamic buildup of instruments around a common theme, often only a few chords. The choral blasts on “It’s The Sun” give me chills.

Like the band Grandaddy, who they’ve opened for, they take disparate simple themes and sometimes wacky instruments and combine them into what is almost theatrical music. No small wonder that their music has been a quick pickup for both TV and Film, most recently in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Their most well known song, however, is certainly the rousing Light and Day / Follow the Sun which had been nearly overplayed on indie radio and featured in a TV commercial or too… still a great song though.

by Bryan