The Polyphonic Spree
American choral rock band
The Polyphonic Spree is an American choral indie rock band from Dallas, Texas, formed in 2000 by singer and songwriter Tim DeLaughter, formerly of Tripping Daisy. The band's pop and rock songs are augmented by a large vocal choir, and instruments such as flute, trumpet, French horn, trombone, violin, viola, cello, percussion, piano, guitars, bass, drums, electronic keyboards, and EWI.
History
DeLaughter's previous group, Tripping Daisy, came to an abrupt end in 1999 when guitarist Wes Berggren died of a drug overdose. The Polyphonic Spree was formed, in part, in reaction to Berggren's death.
In 2000, DeLaughter collaborated with twelve other musicians to put together a sound that reflected the music he grew up with. He wanted to explore the orchestral palette and pop sensibility of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Paul McCartney and Wings, Electric Light Orchestra, the Association, the 5th Dimension, and the vocal style of Ozzy Osbourne from Black Sabbath. Within two weeks, The Polyphonic Spree created a 30-minute setlist with them donning their signature white choir robes, and opened for Grandaddy and Bright Eyes.
Shortly after their first show, another twelve musicians joined the band to the point of them becoming a collective, and they recorded The Beginning Stages of ... The Polyphonic Spree, which contained all nine songs (sections) written for their first show plus a tenth track ("Section 10 – Long Day"). The album was intended to serve as a demo recording for booking the band for live performances. As a result of the attention they received from the press and other industry pundits after performing at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, the band was invited to perform at London's Meltdown Festival curated by David Bowie in 2002.
“The Polyphonic Spree” enters the record as american choral rock band. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Polyphonic, Spree and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q611845. VIAF identifies the subject as 128147211. The Library of Congress control number is no2003034495. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2000, 1999 and 2002.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Polyphonic Spree” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.