Just in case anyone's interested The Polyphonic Spree have put together a an 8 minute teaser mashup for their forthcoming album "The Fragile Army" featuring a few of the songs that will be on the album.
It's sounds a little discordant with them all mixed up willy nilly but by the sounds of it "The Fragile Army" should be a pretty exciting album.
Probably not many of you will be bothered except maybe Rowan, but it seems the The Polyphonic Spree have ditched the robes in favour of a military-esque look for their forthcoming album, The Fragile Army.
I'm really digging the new "fragile army" get up actually, the whole idea behind the robes was to give them a strong collective identity rather then 25 members all wearing their normal street clothes, and the modified army look still does that job brilliantly. In fact I think it's as 'shocking' as when we first saw a 25 member strong band all decked out in robes and if anything it casts off a little of the religious culty shtick that they always seem to be tared with in interviews, as well as subverting the idea an army being something destructive with the red cross and heart flourishes which Tim commented about in an interview saying, "The heart is a symbol of care of thoughtfulness. The cross represents first aid, that as humans, we're all capable of. It's just a reminder'".
As for the music, I've heard a few of the songs that might be on the album and if I'm totally honest they sound a little more like Tim's previous band Tripping Daisy then any of the previous albums. I kinda liked the grandiose sound of "Together We're Heavy" so I hope they build on that and don't shift away from it too radically. I'll wait until I've heard the complete album before making any judgements on it.
"We refer to it as our badge of strength and we always liked the fact it was in abstract form. A mass of some type, not particular to robes."- Tim
Just finished my essay "Discuss Lawrence’s use of language in the treatment of sexuality in Lady Chatterley’s lover". So now I can finally give you the update from my birthday that I've been promising.
Meeting Tim Every time I travel down to Manchester I see someone who I know, last time I saw Andy Train who I know from Foundation sat in a health cafe that we went into not five minutes after we'd just stepped off the train. So just as we were pulling into the station I wondered who I'd see this time around, and before I'd even got off the train I saw someone I knew. Meghan who looked absolutely thrilled to see me and who was getting on the train I just got off to go back in the direction I'd just come from. Anyway as I said I'd travelled down earlier to either take a look around Manchester or as I joked about, to try and meet Tim De Laughter and the Spree. So I caught a bus down to Oxford street to try and find the venue, I walked past the student union and saw two huge tour buses and wondered if this was the place. I was looking for someone to ask and thought that I could maybe ask that guy who looks exactly like Tim De Laughter...
"....."
He was just stood there near the buses chatting away to one of the people unpacking the gear! I know this sounds really sad but I started getting really panicky and jittery! I went over closer to the people unpacking the equipment expecting to be told to get lost, only when Tim finished talking to the roadie he walks over to me, by which time I'd got my copy of the album out
Shakes my hand and speaks in a slow Texas Accent "Hey, I see you've got a copy of together were heavy there, you want me to sign that bugger for you there?" Signs the Album ' "Smile" Tim 2004' "....." "Do you like the album" "Yeah, very much so" "How long have you had it" "Uhm..since the day it came out" "Cool, and what's your favourite song?" Mind goes blank "Uhm, err, well I think When the fool becomes a king is just awesome" "Yeah thats a great song"
We talked for a while until he had to catch a lift to a meeting, I can't remember what we talked about exactly as I was kind of out of it a little but he asked how far I'd travelled and such and were from ('ull). The I was just standing around chatting to Louis for a while (he's the Spree's French Horn Player) and Bubba (there roadie and Tim's brother in law). Bubba saw me just standing there and told me to make myself useful by shifting some of the gear into the building, one of the sound engineers told Bubba I wouldn't want to lift anything because I'm a fan.
Would I like to help unload the the Spree's instruments? Would I ever! So we unpacked two trailers full of boxes and suitcases into the elevator to take it up onto the second floor and I thought that that would be it, until Bubba probably realising I was going to ask anyway invited me to come up too! I got to see all the instruments being unpacked and set up on stage (I didn't think they'd all fit on at one point) and hang around all day in the Academy. It was breathtaking when they dropped the backdrop down which I was expecting to say "The Polyphonic Spree" and instead there was one word spelled out in big letters
HOPE
Then I got to watch the Spree sound check! Not only sound checking but once Tim got back they started practising the intro to a new song that they're working on. I thought it was going to be a song that they were practising for the show but it turns out that it's for a complication CD there contributing too soon, it's a cover version of the Beatles "Sargent Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band" which I could hear the choir practising all day! When Tim got back before the show they were going through the intro and making it up on the spot, Tim stood in the centre of the stage and the band around him playing there instruments, stopping them every so often to make adjustments to certain parts! it was awesome to watch and I'm probably among the first people to hear it before it's released properly!
The Show Mandarin, the support band that I'd met earlier in the day were okay, it's terrible but if I'd heard them on there own without waiting to hear the Spree then I probably would have liked them a little more but they were about average.
When the Spree came onto the stage one by one they'd dropped the house lights and you could just see there shilouttes and a little movement on stage. I caught a few minutes of the intro on my camera, it was just like Stillwaters performance in Almost Famous, the one where they come on in darkness and build up into the song. All you could see was Tim in the centrer of the stage and several other band members kneeling on the floor. Illuminated briefly by camera flashes giving us a glimpse of the band, the guitar plucking becomes faster and morphs into the beginning of "We sound amazed", the choir is building up and up as Tim turns around and raises his hands to the stage lights which flare up a little and then off again, raises them again as if he's willing the lights to come, more and more turn on until the whole stage explodes and the band kick into the song, Tim in a bright pink robe! The crowd goes crazy!
"Tape them all together and shove them off! Keep them all together and keep them warm!"
At the build up to one of the song Tim was standing there with the biggest grin across his face, shaking slightly as if he was going to burst with happiness, it was as if the more the crowd gave the more they'd give! They make you feel so great! The crowd singing back every word and throwing there arms in the air when the band does, the music just makes you want to dance about and wave your arms about like in "When the fool becomes a king" when they sing "Hail to the sky, hail to sky!" *explodes*. it was just breathtaking! Tim was jumping right to the front of the stage so that the crowd could almost touch him, and putting his arms up in the air! With "Two Thousand Places" he used the gold microphone that makes his voice sound all distant and echoey. Running through "Suitcase calling", "one man show", "Hanging around the day" (that's it! That's what we talked about, Tim asked how I'd heard about them and I said I'd heard that song on a free CD) and finally "When the Fool becomes a king" which he mixed in with "Together were heavy" which the crowd sang while the band stepped of into the crowd and walked around!
"See those superstars, tidal waves of broken cars again! I'll be flying higggggh!"
Like the album they went straight from "Everything Starts at the Seam" into "When the fool becomes a king" which is the greatest track on the album, it swoops and soars from section to section building up until the band explodes into the new section of "Its the sun" that's at the end and it's just Uplifting and beautiful! On the CD it's made me cry a few times and it was very close to doing it on the night! The flute player started making some odd sounds with her flute, almost like trying to beat box with it and then burst into "Soldier girl" and the crowd went berserk (including me) and began po going up and down to the song! He got everyone to say "Together were heavy" over and over until everyone was saying it and it became really loud and finished with..
"Together were Heavy, and together we can do anything"
Just in case anyone's interested The Polyphonic Spree have put together a an 8 minute teaser mashup for their forthcoming album "The Fragile Army" featuring a few of the songs that will be on the album.