The tiniest of trends emerges this month, as two a cappella records are slated for release in April. Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella! (due April 28 on Epic) is a 16-track album of college a cappella groups performing Ben Folds songs. So you get the Leading Tones (from Ohio University) doing “Brick,” Mosaic Whispers (Washington University in St. Louis) doing “Still Fighting It” and the like. Folds produced the album over the course of two months, traveling the country to record the vocal groups. A documentary film of the project could be in the works.
Ben Folds’ “Not The Same” performed by the Spartones from Greensboro, N.C. (download):
Full-time a cappella group Sonos will issue Live@KCRW via iTunes on April 7. The L.A. outfit has covered Fleet Foxes, Bjork, Rufus Wainwright and Radiohead (follow the link above to their MySpace if you want to hear their version of “Everything In Its Right Place”) and has a full-length release planned for May.
And just because, here’s a German version of the scene from The Break-Up in which brother Richard explains to his family about his a cappella group, the Tone Rangers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efr0justpSI
