The Dallas-based Polyphonic Spree formed in 2000, and the 22-person band seemed inconceivable. Former Tripping Daisy member Tim DeLaughter pulled together a band that gave him strings, horns, a harp, and host of voices to sing along. At the time, the band's look including choir robes and Dallas' proximity to Waco prompted the British press to speculate on the band's cult-like tendencies. DeLaughter talks about that including the origins of the robes in this week's episode.
In 2012, The Polyphonic Spree released Holidaydream: Sounds of the Holidays Vol. One, and it successfully merged the band's maximalist sensibility, its tendency toward psychedelia, and songs people can sing. It emerged from the band's annual holiday extravaganza in Dallas, which DeLaughter says will return in 2021.
We also talk about the band's new album, Afflatus, which also emerged from a live show. The Polyphonic Spree were scheduled to play a show of covers in March 2020, but decided that it wasn't safe hours before the show. As DeLaughter explains, they decided to record the songs that night to document the arrangements, and this spring he decided to release those versions of songs by Rush, INXS, The Bee Gees, Daniel Johnston, The Monkees and more. For my story on the album, go to MySpiltMilk.com.
This week's episode also includes my favorite band from this year's Eurovision Song Contest. Iceland's Daði og Gagnamagnið. This weekend, I discovered that they recorded a Christmas song in 2020, "Every Moment is Christmas with You." I've included that song in this week's episode and close with the Icelandic version of it, "Allir Dagar Eru Jólin Með Þér."
If you like what you hear or are curious, please subscribe wherever you get your podcasts—Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Pandora, or Spotify.
"Joyeux Noël, Bon Chrismeusse" from Lafayette with Chas Justus
Peggy Lee with Holly Foster-Wells
Amy Grant's "A Christmas Album" and Patrick Droney
"Do They Know It's Christmas" with Michaelangelo Matos and Flaming Lips' Steven Drozd
George Winston, The Bird and The Bee, The Myrrhderers, and Mento Buru
Calexico, Grant-Lee Phillips, and Peggy Lee
Big Freedia and Kelly Finnigan
Judith Owen and Harry Shearer, and Office Romance
Jim Brickman and the Return of Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips
"Just Like Christmas" with Low
The Goo Goo Dolls and Tori Kelly
"Mele Kalikimaka" with Ana Cristina Cash
Janie Fricke
The Beatles' Christmas Recordings with Jonathan and Julia Pretus of "Ranking the Beatles"
Rhonda Vincent, and Carrie Underwood's "The Gift"
Mega Ran
Christmas Music on the Billboard Charts with Chris Molanphy
"A Jazzy Little Christmas" with Ernie Haase and Signature Sound
"Hard Candy Christmas," with Alexandra Scott
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