Newsline

Newsline: The ACB ICCA Bracket Contest

By Mike Chin on December 30, 2009 in Newsline

The A Cappella Blog is proud to announce the first ever A Cappella Blog International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella bracket contest! Demonstrate your knowledge of collegiate a cappella and take your chance at winning fantastic prizes including a BOCA prize pack. There is no cost of entry, and everyone will be welcome to enter when we launch the contest shortly.

The rules and terms of the contest appear below.

The Rules
1) You pick the winners of each competition in the 2010 International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella tournament. Entrants can only earn points for competitions that occur 24 hours or more after they enter the bracket contest.
2) For each of your chosen groups that advances to the semifinals (finishes first or second in the quarterfinals), you earn 2 points. If your group does not finish first or second, but does end up advancing because another group drops out of the competition, you will not receive points for the quarterfinal, but will be eligible to earn points if you correctly predict the group to move on from the semifinals.
3) For the semifinals, if your chosen groups win, you get 5 points. The same rules apply to semifinals as to quarterfinals.
4) For the finals, if your chosen group wins, you get 10 points, if your chosen group finishes second, you get 6 points, and if they finish in third place, you get 3 points.

Prizes
1) The first place winner will receive the complete Best of College A Cappella (BOCA) compilation set.
2) The second place winner will receive a copy of the 2010 BOCA CD.
3) The third place winner will receive five A Cappella Blog Save the Music wristbands, complete with a donation in their name to the VH1 Save the Music charity.

First through third place winners will be announced on The A Cappella Blog site.

Tie-breakers
Ties will be broken by the following rules:
1) Correct pick for overall tournament champion.
2) Most correct semifinal round picks.
3) Most correct quarterfinal round picks.

Newsline: The ACB launches the most comprehensive collegiate a cappella directory ever!

By Mike Chin on December 29, 2009 in Newsline

We are proud to announce the launch of The A Cappella Blog Group Directory. This directory not only offers a comprehensive list of today’s collegiate groups, but also includes search and sort functions that make it easy for you to find groups in your area. This directory is free and open to the public, and just another top-notch service for ACB readers. You can check it out here.

The ACB will launch its 2010 publication season Monday, January 4, 2010! From January through may, we will post original content each and every weekday!

Newsline: The ACB to host an ICCA quarterfinal!

By Mike Chin on December 28, 2009 in Newsline

The A Cappella Blog is proud to announce that it will be hosting an ICCA Mid-Atlantic quarterfinal on Saturday, February 27, 2010 at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY. ACB Production Manager Mike Scalise and ACB Content Manager Mike Chin will have emcee duties for the night, and the event will feature performances by Nazareth College’s own all-female group Call4BackUp, as well as several prize pack giveaways for those in attendance. You do not want to miss this show!

While the card is subject to change, the evening's competitors are, at this moment, scheduled to be:

SUNY Potsdam A Sharp Arrangement
Lehigh University A Whole Step Up
University of Rochester After Hours
Rutgers University Casual Harmony
The Cornell University Key Elements
The Syracuse University Mandarins
The SUNY Potsdam Pitches
The SUNY-Potsdam Pointercounts
The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rusty Pipes
Rochester Institute of Technology Surround Sound

Stay tuned to The ACB for more news, and be sure to check the Varsity Vocals site to buy your advance tickets.

The ACB will launch its 2010 publication season Monday, January 4, 2010! From January through may, we will post original content each and every weekday!

The Sing-Off: What Went Right, What Went Wrong, and More

By Mike Chin on December 22, 2009 in Newsline

The Sing-Off’s four episode run is behind us, which means that it’s now time to take a look back what the show did right, what went wrong, and what we can take away from this experience.

The good news, right off the bat, is that several million people tuned in to the show. This is big because it affirms that a cappella can appeal to the masses when you offer it up to them. It remains to be seen if people will listen to a cappella if they have to track it down for themselves, if they will attend live a cappella shows or if they will actually spend money on an a cappella recording. These are all areas in which to grow and test the waters. Nonetheless, this does establish that a cappella is palatable to a larger audience than has ever tried it on for size before. What’s more, this show has offered millions of people a frame of reference—the next time they hear of a Sweet Adelines completion in their area, they can connect that to MAXX Factor. If there’s a newspaper blurb about a native son competing with his collegiate group, the reader’s mind can go from the abstract to The Beelzebubs.

With greater exposure for a cappella comes the chance that more people will take part in it. Over the last four years, I have interviewed dozens of leaders from collegiate groups across the country and abroad, and one of the questions I often ask is how they got involved in a cappella. One of the most common answers is that they saw a cappella in action at a younger age—be it when a collegiate group came to perform at their high school, or when an older sister invited them to come up for Family Weekend. With millions of people watching, there’s the hope that that many more people are getting their first taste of a cappella, and will be that much more driven to try it for themselves.

Moving ahead, I would like to take a closer look at several areas of the show.

The Judges

The long and the short of it is that the judging panel for this show was not good. The theory behind the judges was OK—you have Ben Folds, a likeable semi-star with a good ear for music and a basic familiarity with a cappella. You have Shawn Stockman who has sung a cappella professionally. And you have Nicole Scherzinger to score the hat trick of celebrity notoriety, a pretty face, and a reassuring voice to support the contestants (despite not really knowing a cappella).

The Sing-Off: The ACB Endorsement goes to…

By Mike Chin on December 19, 2009 in Newsline

After much careful deliberation, The A Cappella Blog’s official endorsement for the group that should win The Sing-Off goes to Nota.

As stated in our piece about Nota earlier today, the group represents the total package. With just six members, Nota sounded as full as any group on the show, and each member carried his weight as a fine musician. The group was entertaining, engaging the audience and improving its visual presentation every time out. The lead soloist is fantastically talented, likable, and the most generally memorable figure from the competing groups. What’s more, Nota showed an ability to adapt on the fly—it’s hard to imagine that, just days prior to going on stage with Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” various members of the group, including the soloist, had never even heard the song before.

In addition to the men of Nota’s undeniable talents as musicians and performers, as the only non-collegiate contestants left in the competition, they’re the most sensible choice to receive the Sony recording contract. The membership isn’t about to undergo massive turnover each year, and they don’t have a school schedule to compete with for recording and publicity engagements. Nota is prepared for professional musicianship, and now is their time to shine.

Every voter gets up to ten votes for the show, and voting is open until 9 a.m. EST Sunday. The finale will air live, Monday at 8 p.m. EST on NBC. Be sure to check back here at The A Cappella Blog for our full review of the final show that night.

The Sing-Off: Why The Beelzebubs Should Win

By Mike Chin on December 19, 2009 in Newsline

There is a case to be made that The Beelzebubs, the all-male collegiate power out of Tufts University, deserve to walk away as The Sing-Off’s big winner.

To start with, The Beelzebubs walked into this competition with the confidence of champions. That’s not to say that the guys are cocky or brazen. On the contrary, they’re one of the few groups that came on the show and seemed to have a very clear sense of just how good they were—and actually were very good. The ‘Bubs have long resisted participation in the ICCAs and other competitions. By all reports, one reason is so that they are not bound by competition schedules and can focus on their own endeavors, including touring and recording. The other reason, though, is that, as one of the preeminent groups in collegiate a cappella, they don’t feel that they have anything they need to prove in a competitive setting. One has to assume that the lure of competing on this national stage was enough to motivate the guys to step into this competition, and they have proven their case. They are more than good enough to compete, and were just waiting to pick their spot.

From the get-go, The ‘Bubs have offered up a stronger visual presentation than any other group on The Sing-Off. Many will argue that choreography has nothing to do with music, and to a large extent, this is true. When you’re trying to engage an audience, though, and particularly a nation of viewers, the bulk of whom are unlikely to have much technical knowledge in music, the way in which tell your story on stage can have a profound effect on how accessible and entertaining your group is. In considering who should win this competition, it’s important to consider that it’s a show designed for the masses, voted on by the masses, The ‘Bubs have gone a long way toward making themselves the people’s champions.

In addition to their wide appeal, The ‘Bubs have demonstrated tremendous creativity and prudence in song selection. With the exception of the song the judges picked for them, none of the songs the group picked for the show were really obvious. “Magical Mystery Tour,” while well-known, isn’t exactly one of The Beatles songs most prominent in the general public’s consciousness, and made for the off-beat choice of starting off the show with a song without a soloist. “Right Round” showcased their contemporary and fun style, and offered up musicality while rapping. “Come Sail Away” was big and ambitious, giving them an opportunity to belt, choreograph, and push the limits of the stage. The Who medley exposed them as guys with more than a cursory knowledge of classic rock, appealing to yet another segment of the audience. There were moments of brilliance for other groups—Nota’s “Stayin’ Alive,” MAXX Factor’s “Rehab”—but no other group was so consistently on point with its decision making as The ‘Bubs.

One advantage The ‘Bubs enjoyed in this competition was being able to pull on a deep catalog. As one of the ACB’s guest commentators noted, many of the songs they used were ones earlier incarnations of the group had previously recorded. Some might find this unfair—after all, how could a 12-week old group like Solo compete with the history of The Beelzebubs? On the contrary, though, a vote for The ‘Bubs is more than a vote for a bunch of college guys. It’s a vote for an organization that has been around for nearly 50 years. It’s a celebration of a cappella history—it’s evolution, and the ambition of this organization to perpetuate its standard of excellence and desire to innovate over that period of time. For all of these reasons, The ‘Bubs are undeniably worthy of high honors in this, a cappella’s most watched competition of all time.

I have now made the case for each of The Sing Off’s three finalist groups. Check back for my official endorsement for who should really emerge as the winners.

The Sing-Off: Why Nota Should win

By Mike Chin on December 19, 2009 in Newsline

There is a case to be made that Nota, the lone non-collegiate group left in The Sing-Off, deserves to walk away as the competition’s big winner.

The first, and perhaps most obvious reason why Nota deserves to win is because the group has turned in the best performances. Particularly on episode two, their covers of “Stayin’ Alive” and “Down” positively stole the show, with a powerful yet silky smooth sound, near perfect solos, and an emerging stage presence. These acts are absolutely ready for a professional stage anywhere, and absolutely ready for recording.

On the topic of Nota solos, their usual front man is a true joy to hear, and unquestionably the most memorable soloist we have heard over the course of the show. He’s got a unique sound, a badass falsetto and a genuine likeability around him that gives him the tools to potentially rise as the face of Nota for a commercial recording if the group does win.

Beyond the lead soloist, Ben Folds so accurately observed after the group’s Jackson 5 medley that there is not a bad musician in this group. The fact is, in this competition, there has been absolutely no room for weak links on Nota, because the group only has six members. Despite its limited membership, Nota has offered up a full, tight, and consistently strong sound, meaning each and every member is pulling his weight and then some.

Lastly, on this blog I have more than once questioned the repetition of Nota’s Latin breakdowns that they have a tendency to use as they round out their songs. While I think they’ve leaned up this gimmick a bit more than they should (by my count, putting it into play for three out of five of their performances), I can’t deny that it has helped to distinguish the group. It’s a celebration of their heritage and identity, it’s fun, and it has given the guys a trademark sound to which no other group in the competition can compare.

Nota is memorable, distinctive, and with their musicality, personality and ability to perform, they have established themselves as the total package in this competition.

In the days to follow, I will be making the case for each of The Sing Off’s three finalist groups, before announcing my official endorsement for who should really emerge as the winners.

The Sing-Off: Why Voices of Lee Should Win

By Mike Chin on December 18, 2009 in Newsline

There is a case to be made that Voices of Lee, the lone mixed group left in The Sing-Off, deserve to walk away as the competition’s big winners.

First and foremost, the men and women in this group have quite arguably presented the best musicality of any of the remaining groups. They have been in tune, and have had good blend. Their soloists are strong. In a competition that is supposed to be about a cappella music this group has asserted itself as the pure musician’s choice to get a recording contract.

On the note of the recording contract, I would argue that Voices of Lee have the best chance of transcending the post-production, auto-tuning jamboree that is otherwise likely to follow for whoever emerges as the winning group. While I doubt they’ll avoid production effects altogether, I do think there’s a reasonable chance that this is the group whose music Sony might record and release with the least tampering, which I think is good for protecting the natural art of a cappella in general.

One of the remarkable things about Voices of Lee’s musicality is the fact that the group has accomplished what it has without the benefit of its faculty director. You might respond, ‘the other groups don’t have professional directors, either,’ but the difference as that Voices of Lee does traditionally have someone in their corner, and so, the fact that they’ve successfully made this transition to managing themselves for this competition is really impressive. On a related point, I would contend that Voices of Lee is the lone group to truly show consistent improvement over the course of this show. They have adjusted to the format, shaken the nerves, and clearly developed some internal leadership to guide them over the three nights. All of this embodies the purest spirit of a competitive reality TV show—the group is actually evolving before our eyes, and that’s a joy to behold.

Despite evolving, the group has also managed to retain a unique sense of self, and a sense of self that is music-centric. Compare them to the rest of the final four. The recently eliminated SoCals turned themselves completely over to their musical theatre gimmick, emphasizing elaborate staging and implying romantic relationships between soloists over musicality. The ‘Bubs, as tight as they have generally been, have also been every bit as much showmen—simulating buses and boats, giving Nicole Scherzinger flowers to assert themselves as nice. When all else fails, and they don’t know what to do, Nota has fallen back on Latin grooves that, while generally good, have grown predictable and, in just three nights, a bit tired. By not sidling itself with any of these sorts of distractions, Voices of Lee has centered itself on music, and the case can be made that the truest musicians left on the show deserve their reward.

In the days to follow, I will be making the case for each of The Sing-Off's three finalist groups, before announcing my official endorsement for who should really emerge as the winners.

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