Red Sox fans: The boys from Hyannis Sound will be singing the national anthem at Fenway Park this Friday. Game on.
No national anthem video available, unfortunately. You'll have to settle for this July 4th clip of Hyannis Sound singing that 80s/Outfield song "Your Love." Enjoy.
So, this is a new ad for the French fashion house Lanvin. Very collegiate a cappella, no? Maybe that Men.Style.com fashion trend story wasn't such a joke! (Read that here.)
A shout out to my good friend Elizabeth for sending the shot over. She writes a big-time fashion blog called White Lightning. Check her out here. She's hilarious.
Check it out. There's a full-page story in the latest Newsweek about love and (yes) collegiate a cappella, featuring the 2008 ICCA champions, the SoCal Vocals. Read that story here.
Side note: We interviewed Julia Hoffman, an ICCA judge, about that 2008 final and the proliferation of jazz hands and show choir choreography in the competition. Click here for that story.
Sara Bareilles, John Legend, Ingrid Michaelson—they all started in collegiate a cappella. Well, Chris Mann (an alum of Vanderbilt's all-male Dodecaphonics) may be the next to crossover. Mann is signed to Sony/BMG, and his debut album is due out next year. You can get a taste of his music now at his website, chrismannmusic.com.
Check out this video of Chris singing with India.Arie. The picture is fuzzy, but the sound is sweet.
On Saturday night, a new a cappella musical called In Transit is getting a workshop at the York Theatre Company in Manhattan. And I'm going to be there signing books.
I caught a rehearsal today and, well, the show is FANTASTIC. And, as expected, the creative time is littered with collegiate a cappella alums. Sara Wordsworth, the author, sang in a Columbia University graduate school group called Redline. James-Allen Ford sang in Mixed Company at Yale and then, yes, the WHIFFENPOOFS. Kristen Anderson-Lopez...she sang with the Williams College Ephlats.
The plot of the show (according to the press materials): A cappella on the express track! From below the city's streets springs a brand new musical, inspired by the rhythms and sounds of life on the subway. There's not an instrument in sight as a colorful array of commuters find their way in NYC. Mixing reggae, pop, soul, beat box and more, IN TRANSIT is unlike anything you've ever seen-or heard-on stage before.
Come check it out on Saturday night. And stop by my table to say hello!
For ticket information visit www.yorktheatre.org or call 212-935-5820. Tickets are $35. But save 10% if you use the discount code PITCH.
Have you folks seen the film Once? It's an Irish flick that became a surprise hit in theaters last summer. (It later earned an Oscar for best song.) It's a sweet little film, recommended for all music fans.
I mention it here because someone just sent me this clip of Hyannis Sound singing "Falling Slowly," a song featured in Once. It's nice to see an a cappella group take a chance on an obscure song. Especially when they do it this well. I'm working on getting a comment from the Once team. In the meantime, check out Hyannis Sound's version here, followed by the original:
Pitch Perfect, out now from Gotham Books, is a behind-the-scenes look at the bizarre, inspiring, and hilarious world of competitive collegiate a cappella.
Author Mickey Rapkin lives in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in The New York Times, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, Details, and Time Out New York. E-mail him at mickey@mickeyrapkin.com.
Red Sox fans: The boys from Hyannis Sound will be singing the national anthem at Fenway Park this Friday. Game on.
So, this is a new ad for the French fashion house Lanvin. Very collegiate a cappella, no? Maybe that Men.Style.com fashion trend story wasn't such a joke! (Read that here.)
The boys at College Humor take a swipe at a cappella. The joke's about a 90 seconds in. Hilarious.
In honor of the Olympics, we're posting a clip of the Canadian a cappella group The Heebee-Jeebees training for Beijing. Keep up the good work, men.
Check it out. There's a full-page story in the latest Newsweek about love and (yes) collegiate a cappella, featuring the 2008 ICCA champions, the SoCal Vocals. Read that story here.
Sara Bareilles, John Legend, Ingrid Michaelson—they all started in collegiate a cappella. Well, Chris Mann (an alum of Vanderbilt's all-male Dodecaphonics) may be the next to crossover. Mann is signed to Sony/BMG, and his debut album is due out next year. You can get a taste of his music now at his website, chrismannmusic.com.
Have you folks seen the film Once? It's an Irish flick that became a surprise hit in theaters last summer. (It later earned an Oscar for best song.) It's a sweet little film, recommended for all music fans. 
