Episode 52

Welcome back from summer break - we got sort of a late start, but we’re gearing up for a great year. It’s our junior year of the podcast, which makes us a little smarter, a little cooler, a little more sexy.
Get ready - a new year of Acappella U starts now!

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We’re still here. . . .

. . . we’re just enjoying the last few weeks of summer vacation

Unless you’re an overachieving wanker trying to graduate in three years, you don’t go to college in the summer. You waste time and money just hanging out. In an effort to emulate our students, we like to do the same thing here at Acappella U. Why look - we even took all summer to write this post! Slackers indeed.

Ah but don’t fret. Just as the new crop of freshman hotties is rolling onto campus, Acappella U will once again be pumping out the beats for the good of all mankind.

Episode 51

Finally, the fabled Rock Band / Guitar Hero III episode hits the Internets. Along for the ride is Mickey Rapkin, author of the just-released docu-book Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory.

“More Than a Feeling” (Boston / Stanford Mendicants)
“My Name Is Jonas” (Weezer / U. Illionois Xtenison chords)
“Miss Murder” (AFI / U Penn Off the Beat)
“All the Small Things” (Blink 182 / MIT Logs)
“Dani California” (Red Hot Chili Peppers / Colorado College The Back Row)

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Episode 50

Acappella U turns 50 and we celebrate in style at the ICCA Finals in NYC. Check out the juicy footage we got of these amazing groups.

“Turn The Beat Around” (Gloria Estefan/FSU All Night Yahtzee)
“Whipping Post” (The Allman Brothers Band/NYU N’Harmonics)
“Welcome To Paradise” (Green Day/Ithacappella)
“All the Things You Are” (Gene Puerling/USC SoCal VoCals)
“Tusk/Alma Mater” (Fleetwood Mac/USC SoCal VoCals)
“Dirt Road” (Gabriel Mann/USC SoCal VoCals)

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Episode 49

We had some problems posting the part time version of this show, but it’s up in working order now. Here it is!

This is about as normal an Episode of Acappella U as you’re likely to find - great music, listener mail, inane commentary, everything that makes the show great and turned Joey into a celebrity (yeah right), and not a drop more.  Next week we’ll be hanging out in NYC for Episode 5-oh and the ICCA Finals, but for now much on some Rambler Bits dipped in Cream of Testimony.

“Take On Me” (Ah-Ha / SOU Dulcet)*
“Brighter Than Sunshine” (Aqualung / U of R Midnight Ramblers)*
“How to Save a Life (The Fray / Midnight Ramblers)*
“Breathe Me” (Sia / Stanford Testimony)
“I’m Not Going Down” (Jason Gray / Testimony)

* Available for download on acaTunes

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Boston U Interview

Joey was recently interview by a Boston University student for a newspaper there. Here’s the transcript for anyone who cares!

Q: Why is collegiate acappella so popular?

A: Well, you have to separate that into two questions: Why do so many people want to SING in groups and why do are so many non-singers fans of collegiate a cappella.

For singers, that’s sort of like asking why people eat ice cream - it’s awesome by its very nature! I think a lot if a cappella singers are drawn to the music because of the way it FEELS to sing as a part of a group and to harmonize with one another - it’s very pleasurable. I watched a surfing movie the other day and one of the guys they interviewed talked about going through the ‘tube’ of the wave. He said it was the greatest experience in his life, a visceral thrill and ecstasy that he couldn’t match anywhere else. That’s a cappella singing to a lot of us. There’s also those who revel in being a rock star without having to be able to play an instrument. In fact, I have it on good authority that a large percentage of male singers do it for the chicks. Continue reading Boston U Interview…

Acappella U HD now up and running, is coolest thing ever.

Let me start out by saying that Acappella U HD is 100% FREE TO THE PUBLIC. We’ve taken some flak for charging for the Full-Time version of the Audio show, this is one way we’re trying to give back.

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Sometimes in life realized ideas come out as cool as they were when they were little baby ideas in your head, and after you’ve spent lots of time and money raising your idea through childhood and adolescence, it grows up and gets a Ph.D. in Biomedicalneuroscientifical Engineering from MIT and builds a really cool robot that restores sight to little blind orphans. It’s then that you stand back and say, ‘Well I guess that didn’t suck. In fact, I’d even say it was worth it.’

Today is that day for Acappella U HD. You COULD say that Acappella U HD was THE WHOLE POINT OF ACAPPELLA U FROM THE GET GO. To do something unprecedented: to put a kid who’d never seen a collegiate a cappella show into the front freaking row of an Off the Beat concert, or the ICCA Finals, or whatever, and say ‘Fuck, that was awesome.’ Or to have someone’s invalid grandma be able to see their little precious grand baby sing in 720 glorious lines of cataract-impeded resolution. You can’t do that on YouTube. Behold greatness:

Continue reading Acappella U HD now up and running, is coolest thing ever….

Episode 48

Live from Costa Rica. . . . it’s Acappella U! Even though Joey’s traveling abroad we’ve got some brand new a cappella hotness for you - specifiacall a few tracks from the smokin’ new release out of U Penn’s Off the Beat!
Here’s what we have tee’d up:

“Anna Molly” (Incubus / Off the Beat)
“Mercy on Me” (Christina Aguilera / Off the Beat)
“Sister Golden Hair” (America / Rochester Yellowjackets)
“Make Me Your Girl” (Brian McKnight / CSUN Acasoloa)
“Drive” (Incubus / UCB Artists in Resonance)
“The Kill” (30 Seconds to Mars / Off the Beat)

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Updated Links

The links page is being updated in large chunks. Soon enough we should have all (or at least most) of the groups that have been played on the show on there, as well as some other rather interesting a cappella websites. Go check out your favorite group’s website, or go to the forums and request a group to be put on there that’s not!

Episode 47

Wow. So this took a while, but FINALLY our On The Rocks premiere episode is finished! See, originally this was supposed to be OTR AND Divisi, but then the Divisi stuff wasn’t finished yet and. . . well, you get the picture. The point is, Pete Hollens et. al. have put together a great CD. We plug in some Appalachian State a cappella to fill the gaping hole left by Divisi (is ‘gaping hole’ politically correct??) and talk about our new show, Acappella U HD

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