Pitchfork

[Posted Friday, September 5th, 2003 06:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Twenty-two member cult-- uh, I mean, choral group, The Polyphonic Spree, recently announced U.S. additions to their ongoing summer tour. Having just finished up a round of festivals in Europe, Japan and the UK, they will move on to the States for another slew of dates that'll keep the Spree in white robes and those little socks with cotton balls sewn on the heels well into November:

09-19 Dallas, TX - Granada Theater
09-21 Austin, TX - Austin City Limits Festival
09-23 New Orleans, LA - Howlin' Wolf
09-24 Atlanta, GA - Variety Playhouse
09-25 Birmingham, AL - WorkPlay Theater
09-26 Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel
09-28 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
09-29 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
09-30 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
10-02 Detroit, MI - Shelter
10-05 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
10-06 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
10-07 Chicago, IL - Metro
11-10 Louisville, KY - Headliners
11-12 Lawrence, KS - Liberty Hall
11-13 Lawrence, KS - Liberty Hall
11-14 Boulder, CO - Fox Theater
11-15 Englewood, CO - Gothic Theater
11-17 Seattle, WA - Graceland
11-18 Portland, OR - Aladdin Theatre
11-19 San Francisco, CA - Slim's
11-20 San Francisco, CA - Slim's
11-22 Los Angeles, CA - Universal Amphitheater
11-23 San Diego, CA - The Scene
11-24 San Diego, CA - The Scene

The Spree have recently been riding a wave of success, what with the critical acclaim for their reissued debut album, The Beginning Stages Of..., and their recent deal with Volkswagen and Apple. VW and Steve Jobs gained the rights to include their song "Light and Day" in a recent commercial for their "Buy a Beetle, get an iPod free" deal, causing indie geeks to shake their groove thangs with abandon during the commercial breaks in Futurama repeats.

However, not everything is going all sunshine and roses for our fine, smiling friends. Their UK label, 679 Recordings, has dropped the Spree faster than the Pacers dropped Isiah Thomas. In a statement posted on their official website, the Spree had this to say: "[679 is] a wonderful label whom have spent the last year promoting our band in every way possible. They truly went out on a limb to help spread the gospel of The Polyphonic Spree." I'll skip the obvious joke. Luckily, the Spree is still going strong with their U.S. friends, Hollywood Records, home to such stellar acts as Hilary Duff and owned by Disney. Makes sense, in a cosmic way. Their second album, which started undergoing mixing in late May, is set to be released early next year.