Time flies, and 2009 will mark the 6th year of the ongoing invasion of Iraq by an international coalition led by the United States of America. For some, it will have been over half a decade of war; for others, nearly twenty years of a more or less undercover armed conflict in Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Now, those who believe the Iraq War is ultimately about oil, are also likely to think that two successive Texan oil tycoons and US presidents, George Bush Sr. & Jr., have embarked the country in a more or less calamitous military adventure, probably including terrorist attacks and selective murders by central intelligence to create the mindset conducive to the ongoing state of exception & war.Thus, in the light of such an arguably worrysome record, it is just a thing of beauty how in Dallas, Texas, an original and gleeful pocket of resistance has managed to resist the roughest spot of the Bush administration, stirring local awareness and bearing witness that another Texas is possible. Which is why you will have probably never heard about The Polyphonic Spree, an hedonistic orchestral ensemble somewhere in between a college graduation ceremony, a church gospel and an Ibiza white party.
For some reason, the spree, created in 2000, was experiencing a discreet surge of popularity when it suddenly started facing problems as war drums in Washington grew louder: their records company, 679 (property of Warner Bros.), deserted them in early 2003, and the review Entertainment Weekly (belonging to Times Magazine) branded them ‘fake’ and ‘artificially happy’ in 2004, and listed Together We’re Heavy as the second-worst album of the year, despite its success in the indie scene both at home and abroad, in particular in Great Britain. What is more, the ensemble sports a terrific eclecticism encompassing a broad range of techniques, such as American marching band, classical music, gospel vocals, political cabaret, pop, rock & electronic music, as well as mighty theatrical renditions.
And then, there is the band’s song-writer and alma mater, Tim DeLaughter, an eccentric artist acquainted with the Bible, American classics (Witman, Kerouac, etc.) and Far Eastern literatures, as reflected in many lyrics: Light and Day, It’s the Sun, The Fragile Army or Soldier Girl. The diversity and consistency of sources bestow upon him an interesting profile as a literary guru, not the least due to a certain sense for moral commitment and modern epics (he is father to 4 children). In any case, you won’t find nowadays so many streamlined & beautiful lyrics admitting double, triple and even quadruple-entendres, allitterations, homophonies and all sort of classical resorts showing a complex work of language engineering as DeLaughter's.
Light and Day is a particularly inspiring theme on the solar pannel epic ahead in the upcoming century to replace all non-renewables, scil. both fossile fuels and nuclear power. Now, Boynamedsue will be tempted to erase a post of what appears to be the apology of a green welly American delivering a messianic message as the impersonation of planet Earth during one of his trances. However, it only takes a bit of cosmovision to urge your fellow Texans to reach for the sun -and, possibly, get rich as well- forever.
"Just follow the day"
