This was going to be longer, but I am going to bed early with a migrane. Sorry. On the other hand, Merry Christmas! Updated December 25th @ 1:45 a.m. I went to bed pretty early and woke up nearly headache free, so I thought I'd add more to the blog because the Octet deserve a nice holiday post, dontcha think, Octet fans? This is a beautiful rendition of Silent Night, with awesome photos of the Octet! Yeah, boys. It even has some of the ICCA awards they won. Apparently there is an award for best choreography. And, from the picture above, it seems that they like to have fun together. Party at the Octet place! The 2008-09 Octet sings Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I love how they sing "Like a lightbulb!" even when it's the wrong phrase. And the speeded up version was awesome. There is a video of the '07 (I believe) Octet singing Rudolph during Super Sproul, but they messed up a little bit. This version was a little cleaner. That being said, Sproul is supposd to be more improvised, and messing up is okay when you're just having fun. On a personal note, when I was a kid, I had the opportunity to sing this song for the Girls Club Christmas Pagent. My performance was nowhere as entertaining as this. In fact it may have been painful for some people. Mr. Grinch was performed on/at Sproul Plaza. I'm never really sure if it's On Sproul Plaza or at Sproul Plaza...which is pretty much why I don't usually write about Sproul. The Octet and other Berkeley a cappella groups (the Tones and AiR for instance) perform every week on/at Sproul. The Octet dudes perform on Wednesday at 1 pm, (I think) for FREE, if that's an incentive to people in the area to see them. About this video. Great Bass, Nice Choreo and the red pajama bottoms - OMG LOVE! This is the current Octet singing Silver Bells (and someone next to the camera is doing homework or opening a candy wrapper). Keith M is on the solo. He's been in the group for awhile, but with the haircut, I thought he was a new guy. They did get a new guy named Aroon. Don't they sound pretty? I certainly think so. No, this isn't th Octet. This is Straight No Chaser (SNC), who are an a cappella group from Indiana U. They also competed against the Octet in (I believe) 2000 when the Octet were the ICCA champions.
If it weren't for this video, I would have never found the Octet. SNC are famous now, because of YouTube. They were able to get a record contract because of the popularity of this and other SNC songs (Including "This Is How We Do It" - which was removed from YouTube because of a copywrite issue, and was recently returned to their channel. Have a listen to that song, as it rocks the Casbah). I must say, I prefer the Octet. They dress better and (because of KennyK), each member of the Octet was introduced to the YouTube audience, so it's kind of like we know them. I still don't know any of the SNC guys' names, and they have a slick & fancy website. Anyway, 12 Days will always have a place in my heart because it's good solid a cappella singing. Enjoy. |