New Music

Seriously, it's so totally beyond me that people like Rockapella have to stand by and watch people like Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears sell out huge houses when they each have more musical talent in their little fingers than Justin or Britney will have, EVER.

And it's not just the guys who are in Rockapella now. Tonight, I saw Elliott Kerman and his jazz group (www.elliottkerman.com) and Sean Altman and the Groovebarbers (www.seanaltman.com). Both of these guys were in Rockapella in their 'Carmen Sandiego' incarnation and have since moved on to other endeavors.

Admittedly, I've been trying to get to see Sean Altman for a while and now that I saw him, I'm glad I did. I have seen Rockapella a couple times, but recently...long after Sean had moved on. However, I have to say, though his group was not quite polished in the same way as Rockapella is now, they had an energy which I think at this point elludes Rockapella. And I think this is because of Sean's presence. He was the goofy one on 'Carmen Sandiego' and he still is goofy. He stands a head taller than the reast of the group members, but his facial expressions and his overall joy at being onstage draws the eye above the others heads to Sean's smiling face. At the end of the show, he called up the Rocakapella members who had shown up and they did a rendition of a song that Sean wrote, Zombie Jamboree...which is a fixture at Rockapella concerts but it was immediatly different hearing Barry, the former bassist do his thing...The last time I heard Rockapella do this song, it was no where near as rich as it was with these people singing it. Though, there were at least two people on each part and they almost overpowered the soloist, but it was ok. The sound was great.

I enjoyed Elliott's set, but I always found him a little bland and I felt his songs were somewhat repetitive: verse-chorus-verse-music break-coda(repeat verse 2)...but he clearly was enjoying being up there and it was good musically.

These guys work so hard and are so good that they deserve more acclaim than they get. But the best thing about them is that they know what their image is and they stick with it. They definitely don't try to be something they're not.