To paraphrase Frank Zappa quoting Edgard Varese -- the present day a capella group refuses to die.
And if you doubt it, I refer you to this fabulous video of Hide and Seek by the charmingly yclept post-modern songstress Imogen Heap.
Okay, she's not an a capella group except through the miracle of overdubbing, but you know what I mean.
This song apparently first became a hit when it was used on THE OC or one of those other dopey teen soap operas. I, however, discovered it in the fall of '06, when it was featured in a montage at the end of the debut episode of Ray Liotta's ill-fated TV crime drama SMITH. (Ill-fated in this case means actually being cancelled while its second episode was in the process of being broadcast. The TV equivalent of a Broadway bound show closing out of town during the first act.)
In any case, I doubt a more haunting four minutes and thirty-three seconds of vocalese has been heard anywhere recently, let alone on a bad TV show.
Food for thought: Heap's little android doo-wop ditty is also the first big a cappela hit since...yipes...Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy" (and if you think I'm gonna link to that piece of offal, you've got another think coming).
BTW -- I know I promised to post about this swell new Tim Buckley video comp DVD but I just can't get my brain in gear today.
Later this weekend, I swear.
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Actually, the Imogen Heap song is not strictly a capella because there is some vocoder augmenting some of the vocal lines to create the android effect, a'la Laurie Anderson's "O Superman". Close enough, though.
Wonder if people stop and actually listen when this comes on at Starbucks...
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