Ben Folds's A Cappella Manifesto

Ben Folds posted a 1,000-word a cappella screed on his website.

An excerpt: "The term 'street credibility' is not something that we need to banter about about with a cappella. Its irrelevant. 'Cred' (latin root credo) is fickle and can be manipulated, and those most concerned with it are marketing people and ex indie rockers going through mid life crisis. I’d prefer to concentrate on the concept of integrity. A cappella is all about musical integrity if nothing else and it will keep us honest."

Nice. The full story is here (courtesy of The Daily Swarm).

Smokey Robinson Joins the 'Sing-Off'

A string of special guests have just been announced for Monday's live finale of The Sing-Off. They include: Natasha Bedingfield, Bobby McFerrin, Boyz II Men and Smokey Robinson.

It's too bad that BYU's Noteworthy was kicked off already, because they do a great cover of Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten."

The First 'Sing-Off' Controversy?

Full story here.

'The Sing-Off' Is a Hit

From a story just posted on Variety:

Airing from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., "The Sing-Off" (2.3/6, 6.9 million) gave NBC its top 18-49 numbers since Sept. 28. While there was a predictable dropoff for "The Jay Leno Show" (1.5/4, 4.8 million) at 10 p.m., "Leno" still bested every ABC broadcast in the demo Monday: "Jennifer Hudson: I'll Be Home for Christmas" (1.2/3, 5.6 million), "Find My Family" (1.4/3, 5.4 million) and "Castle" (1.1/3, 4.3 million).

Full story here.

The Bubs: Before 'The Sing-Off'

Congratulations to the Tufts Beelzebubs on making it through to the second episode of The Sing-Off. Glad to see the judges were, ahem, nicer to the Bubs than David Letterman had been a few years back. If you're new to the blog, check it out:

Before Ben Folds was on 'The Sing-Off...'

...he was on the radio (with me) talking about a cappella.

In anticipation of tonight's premiere of NBC's The Sing-Off, it seemed like a good time to revisit Pitch Perfect's coverage of Ben Folds.

Here's the two of us interviewed together on WNYC's Soundcheck—talking about the rise of collegiate a cappella. (Give the clip a second to load.)



And here's Ben's interview from this blog, back in June 2008.

Is Wyclef an A Cappella Fan?

Have you seen the ad for the T-Mobile myTouch 3G? Check out these images. It seems that Wyclef is using the phone as a pitch pipe. Any a cappella groups out there doing this?





Check out the commercial here: