Plain White T's

Wonders of the Younger

Chicago natives the Plain White T's stopped by the MLB.com studios for an exclusive acoustic performance of new songs and fan favorites, and talk about the Cubs, the White Sox, and the Dodgers.

Major League Artist: Plain White T's

In some of the most quantifiable ways, the Plain White T's count as a veteran outfit. After all, the band formed in the late '90s, when cofounder Tom Higgenson was still in high school, and the T's had several independent releases already to their credit even before "Hey There Delilah" became an international sensation and cultural touchstone in 2007. But as far as the Plain White T's are concerned, they're just entering their sense-of-wonder years. The need to hold onto or reclaim the marvels of youth is a determined thread running through the band's third Hollywood Records release, Wonders of the Younger. The message throughout is clear: They were so much older then... they're younger than that now. Higgenson had the album title and concept come to him in a place not usually associated with tender innocence: Las Vegas. It was there that he was bowled over by a Cirque du Soleil show, O, and wondered if it would be possible to capture the same anything-can-happen spirit on record. "I just loved it, and it gave me that feeling of being a kid and seeing Goonies for the first time, or Indiana Jones -so adventurous and imaginative and different. I left there wanting to make an album that gave people that same feeling." Higgenson, the group's principal singer and songcrafter, held onto that concept through the full year of writing that followed. That sense of adventure translated to the stylistic side, too. "It's funny because on our last album, Big Bad World, we had the opposite approach. We wanted to strip everything down and wanted it to feel like we're in the room playing these songs for you. That was our vision for that record, but on this album we wanted to push ourselves and make a really big and colorful recording." Given the more colorful sound of Wonders of the Younger, you might wonder if the band members wish they could rename the group after a more vivid or eccentric article of clothing. But Higgenson insists the moniker fits now more than ever. "Plain White T's goes along with the theme of the album," he says. "With a plain white T, there are no limits there. You can wear it with anything. You can put anything on it. It's that blank canvas-kind of like your imagination when you're a kid." Catch the Plain White T's on tour in a city near you.

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