Month: December 2018

Merry Christmas from Acaville!

We hope all of our listeners are enjoying the ’round the clock holiday music on the station. In case you need just a little more, here are a few new holiday releases to enjoy.

PLUS – tune in at 3 pm EST/12 pm PST on Christmas Day to hear the Alexandria Harmonizers’ Holiday Show – The Secret of Christmas. The concert will also air on Friday Night Live at 9 pm EST/6 pm PST on December 28th to close out our 2018 Holiday season.

The Swingles – This Christmas

Voctave – O Holy Night

VOCES8 – Lully, Lulla, Lullay

DCappella – All I Want for Christmas is You

BeatVox – All I Want for Xmas

Pitch Slapped – Intro (Christmas & Chill)

Bluebird – Winter Wonderland

Pop-Up – Carol of the Bells

Legacy – Have Yourself A Merry Christmas

The AcaLumni Project (featuring Jamie Howe of KeyStone) – Little Saint Nick

Shawn Thomas – Last Christmas

And finally, the head on over to Facebook to see the latest release from OneVoice (Briarcrest School) – O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.

 

The Issue with Song Lyrics

Open any news site and you’ll find another piece of art under the microscope, and lately we’re seeing a lot of songs (and movies, and cartoons, etc…) – many which are lifelong favorites – pointed out as problematic. Is it justified? Is it outrage culture gone too far?

The debate about “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” certainly isn’t new. It’s been called a “rape anthem” for some time. This year, we’re seeing more arguments in favor of keeping the song, as, in historical context, it’s actually a story of female empowerment.

A little closer to home, the Princeton Tigertones recently made national news for deciding to remove “Kiss the Girl” from their set list after a student journalist called out the song for “toxic masculinity.”

The original song was sung by a crab, on behalf of a mermaid princess who was in pursuit of the prince being encouraged to kiss her. It’s not only fictional, it’s animated fantasy. However, the journalist, Noa Wollstein, may have a point – not with the song itself, but with the way it was performed. In the Tigertones’ performance, they would bring up a female audience member and attempt to end the song with an unsolicited kiss.

We’re not here to make a decision for you, but here are the conversations for consideration we see:

  • Should art be stopped if it makes someone uncomfortable? Is there a gradient?
  • Can we pick and choose which topics are are ok or not ok? Can we continue to sing about suicide, guns, sex, and other topics?
  • Have we gone too far? Not far enough?
  • Is intent important? Does it bear any weight in the appropriateness of a song?
  • Does presentation matter? What about context?

 

New Tunesday – December 4, 2018

In addition to all of the great variety of a cappella you can hear ’round the clock here at Acaville Radio, we’re going to bring you some bonus releases each Tuesday to make sure you’re finding all of the latest and greatest this talented community has to offer.

Here are our favorites this week- and yes, there are a lot of holiday tunes – a trend we expect to continue over the next few weeks:

The Swingles

The first video featuring the group’s newest soprano, Federica Basile, is a smash hit. You were expecting anything less?

Voctave

There may be nothing more beautiful than Voctave singing holiday songs. It’s certainly something to look forward to each year, and their latest release “O Come, O Come Emmanuel/The First Noel/I Wonder As I Wander” is as good as it gets.

Y-Studs

Combining the magic of Queen with Hanukkah? We’re here for it.

Six13

More Queen. More Hanukkah. More awesome.

The Turkish a cappella group teamed up with Finnish beatboxer Tuukka Haapaniemi for this performance of  Kerimoğlu Zeybeği, mixed by Bill Hare.

Face

Leave it to the all rock band in Colorado to reimagine O Little Town of Bethlehem to the tune of House of the Rising Sun.

Upper Structure

Treat yourself to the talent that just oozes out of these Berklee College of Music students with their lead track from their 2018 ICCA Competition Set, “Freedom.”

Highline Vocal Jazz

In celebration of nearly one year as a group, Highline treated us to an inspired arrangement of O Holy Night.

Venice Vocal Jam

Singing an arrangement by Homestay Music (you know them – it’s Erik Bosio, Vinther Sørensen, and Jussi Chydeniuss) we get some Beatles love out of Italy.

Beatsync

This Toronto group typically performs with a great deal of tech, but for their DCappella Tour submission, they stripped it all down to just acoustic voices.

Scott & Ryceejo

Enjoy this new take on a classic carol from the husband and wife duo out of Utah, singing Silent Night with support from Spark Singers.

AcoUstiKats

You may have become acquainted with this group through The Sing-Off, but the tradition lives on years after the show was retired. Here are the current ‘Kats singing a Nick Johnson arrangement of Deck the Halls:

Association of International Champions

Another gem from the 2018 AIC show, this week we get to relive and enjoy “It’s a Small World” by the full AIC Chorus.

Some A Cappella Favorites For Your Hanukkah Celebrations

If there is something that we can rely on, it is excellent Jewish a cappella, and with the Hanukkah holiday upon us, we thought we’d share a few of our favorite a cappella songs that celebrate, parody, and bring joy to the Festival of Lights!

New from Six13 this season, a take on Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, with a classic Six13 twist.

The Y-Studs will make a trip to DC for the Hanukkah Celebration at the White House this Thursday. Here is their Hanukkah version of Andra Day’s “Rise Up”:

The Maccabeats have toured the world to share their music. Candlelight is one of their most popular Hanukkah tunes:

And lucky for you, they released a new video for this holiday:

Shir Soul gave us a great rendition of Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah while paying homage to the reigning kings and queen of a cappella, Pentatonix:

And don’t forget their latest release that was featured in last week’s New Tunesday:

And the kings of Jewish a cappella improv, Pella Productions give us an 8 Nights of Hanukkah Mashup:

Chag Sameach!