Month: February 2019

New Tunesday – February 26, 2019

Women of the World

Winners of the inaugural Varsity Vocals AcaOpen have a long list of accolades and rightfully so. Singing songs from around the world, this quartet born out of Berklee just released their version of the American Negro Spiritual, “Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho.”

Ringmasters

While performing in Germany, the 2012 BHS International Quartet Champions out of Sweden rung sweet chords inside a local cathedral.

Citizen Queen

The girl group backed by the star power of Pentatonix is still on the rise and their latest song “Never Enough” features a simple yet powerful delivery.

Vadé

Who doesn’t love Jamiroquai – especially when it’s sung this well? This a cappella quintet out of London claims influences from Take 6 and Committed among others and it shows.

On’lar A Cappella

Some great fun out of Turkey produced by Grammy-winning engineer, Bill Hare.

Jared Halley

The one-man a cappella sensation is back with a five-song medley from Journey.

The Techtonics

As part of their series called #SmashHitSunday, the UK a cappella stars and 2016 ICCA Champions are pushing boundaries with their latest release, tackling subjects outside of their comfort zones.

After School Specials

From the Claremont Colleges consortium in California, the 2018 ICCA Wildcard Finalist released a hot cover of Ariana Grande’s “Greedy.”

AcaBelles

The standout group of women from FSU gave us a live cover of Demi Lovato this week.

Stratus Quartet

Topping the field of High School Quartets at Arvada High School last week, the future of barbershop looks bright.

 

New Tunesday – February 19, 2019

Quite a few new favorites this week – be sure to listen to them all!

Pentatonix

Proving they can cover just about anything, the latest release from a cappella’s biggest stars is a cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence”. It features a particularly deep solo from Scott Hoying, showing yet another side of the versatile baritone, as well as a solo feature for bass Matt Sallee. And with the video they announced ANOTHER world tour! Get your tickets at ptxofficial.com.

DCappella

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the release of The Little Mermaid, the Disney a cappella group released a special video of “Part of Your World.” The group is right in the middle of their first ever US Tour – make sure you catch this act live!

The Edge Effect featuring Tiffany Coburn

The guys of Edge Effect do collaborative tracks like no other group in a cappella. This time they teamed up with Voctave‘s Tiffany Coburn to breathe new life into a classic.

m-Pact

Who can resist the jazzy crooning of a classic Chet Baker tune – especially on Valentine’s Day?

Forte A Cappella

One of the best high schools groups out there + top music video producer Ryan Parma + a Shams Ahmed arrangement? Ok.

Nomadic

The first full group born out of June bootcamp just dropped their next cover – this time it’s Ariana Grande’s “No Tears Left to Cry” featuring Archie Gopal and Lynique Webster on lead.

The Techtonics

Frequent top competitors at ICCA treated us to a live video of a performance of “Youngblood” originally by 5 Seconds of Summer.

MVP

A relatively new group out of Australia, this all-female quintet splashed onto the scene with a third place finish at AUSACA in 2018.

The AcaLumni Project

Now an annual tradition, this worldwide virtual group released their latest song in honor of Valentine’s Day covering Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud.”

Countermeasure

This Canadian CAL group toured Japan just last year and just released a Cowboy Bebop anime tribute cover of Tank!

Festival Statesmen Chorus

Who doesn’t love a fun Queen cover? From their A Cappella Jukebox Musical and Adelaide Fringe Fest show “Choir Boys” The Festival Statesmen Chorus.

2019 CARA Nominations Announced

The much anticipated annual Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards nominations were announced today and both long-standing favorites and new stars are among the talents honored.

Standouts include Boston-based experimental group Birdland Avenue who landed five nominations for Come Around including Best Non-Scholastic Debut Album, Best Electronic/Experimental Album, Best Pop Album, Best Electronic/Experimental Song (“Rabbit Hole”), Best Original Song by a Professional Group (“Breeze Baby”) and DCappella who earned four nominations for Best Non-Scholastic Debut Album, Best Rock Song (“Immortals”), Best Showtunes/Soundtrack/Theme Song (“The Glory Days”), and Best Professional Arrangement for a Non-Scholastic Group (“Immortals”).

We also saw multiple nominations for The Swingles, Pentatonix, 多么幸福 East West Collective, and Rebel Bit.

On the Scholastic side A Cappella Academy, The G-Men, The A Cappella Group, VoiceBox, The Coda Conduct, The Sons of Pitches, and Dragon Scales were among some of the groups heavily recognized for their work this year.

2009 International Quartet Champions Crossroads led in barbershop music with four nominations in barbershop and arrangements.

See the full list of nominations and then follow along as we catch up with nominees and broadcast live from BOSS and the CARA Ceremony in April.

New Tunesday – February 5, 2019

January was filled with such great music – we can hardly believe it’s already February.

Here are this week’s newest hits:

Home Free

A little a cappella Travis Tritt, anyone?

Pitch Slapped

Not only did Pitch Slapped create an amazing arrangement of Charlie Puth’s “Attention” but they also NAILED it live at Berklee Caf in December. Consider us floored.

Nor’Easters

In case Pitch Slapped wasn’t enough, here’s more great cover music out of the Boston collegiate scene.

Rockapella

With adorable dogs and a vocal feature by percussionist Jeff Thacher, there’s nothing not to like about the latest cover from Rockapella.

Peter Hollens

In his latest release Peter Hollens portrays the villain that everyone loves to hate: Scar.

Sam Robson

Certainly was a good week for one man covers of Disney classics of the Lion variety.

Jared Halley

No one was more excited to hear “Hooked On A Feeling” come back in Guradians of the Galaxy than your author, so an a cappella cover is just icing on the cake.

Inverse Vocals

This sextet out of Michigan dropped their first video – a live take of Thirdstory’s “Still in Love” and we just may be.

Colorado All State Choir

Now an annual tradition, the All State Choir makes beautiful music from the balconies.

Kevin Ross

Not one, but two awesome mashups of TV theme songs? Yes, please.