webmaster's blog

Here's an update on all the things we've been doing since Winter Break, and it has been a lot!


Winter Break Tour
This year for tour, we went to the Northeast! From Boston to New York to Philadelphia, we got to sing in all kinds of places, stay with and meet the Stypes members' families, and just hang out as a group. So many great things happened over tour, but I don't want to bore you with a gigantic list, so I'm just going to do a top ten. Introducing...

The Top Ten Events from Winter Break Tour!
10) The "Riffoff" with the Binghamton Crosbys
While hanging around NYC, we got to have a real life "riffoff" with the Binghamton Crosbys! They were singing at the Columbus Circle entrance to Central Park, so we did the appropriate things, waited a couple seconds and jumped right into one of our songs. It was a ton of fun and both groups took it really well!
9) Sightseeing in All of the Cities
For some members of the group, going into the city was just another day in their hometown, but for others it was an opportunity to sightsee around some of the US's most awesome urban landmarks. From Quincy Market in Botston to Times Square in NYC to Independence Hall in Philadelphia, we got to have some fun and be super touristy while we travelled.
8) Eating All of the Local Foods
One of the best parts about visiting a city is eating the famous local food. In Boston, we ate New England Clam Chowda' out of bread bowls in Quincy Market. In New York, we had bagels and lox for breakfast and had some late night New York pizza. In Philadelphia, we all had our cheesesteaks. It was all so delicious, but we're ok with St. Louis BBQ.
7) Hanging Out with the Awesome Stype Alums in NYC
When we were in New York, we were fortunate enough to be housed by our alumnus, Andrew Zenker, in his hotel: The Paramount. We got to sleep in comfortable beds, and grabbed dinner with SIX of our alumni! It was a great night and we were so happy to get a chance to see some alumni who aren't around all the time.
6) Singing at the Half Shell in Central Park
When we were in New York, we were hanging out in Central Park when we came upon the Half Shell. Naturally, we decided to test the space and got up and in and started singing. We got a small crowd of about 25 people stop and come listen!
5) The Amazing Host Groups
In Boston, we got to hang out with The Noreasters! In Princeton, the last stop on our tour, we were generously hosted by The Nassoons and The Tigerlilies. We got to meet some new aca-people, hang out in their neck of the woods, and have some fun with likeminded people.
4) Hanging Out with the Guys
One of the best side effects of touring as a group is the enhanced group cohesion developed over tour, and this year was no different. For the Freshmen, it was an opportunity to really get to know all of the older members. For everyone else, it was an opportunity to get to know the Freshmen and also to learn some more about all of the other members. We came back to St. Louis more of a unit and more of a family.
3) The Wonderful Families who Hosted Us
Other than the one hotel and the two nights at colleges, we were housed for the rest of tour by the wonderful families of Stereotypes. In Boston, the Lamere family had us in their home for three days and even helped us put on an incredible concert with the Weston HS Town Criers! In New York, the Ungers had us over for the night and helped us put on a great show in Chappaqua, and the Rowseys had us over for a night and fed us a phenomenal home-cooked Italian meal! In Philadelphia, the Wickershams had most of us over, with home-cooked meals and blankets a-plenty. We have to give a special shout out to Mrs. Kania, who had some of us stay over last minute and was a generous and incredible host. Mrs. Lamere (AKA Mom) even wrote a blog article about having us over. Check it out here!
2) The Weston HS Town Criers
Our first stop on tour was Boston, and while we stayed at Danny's house, we were able to perform with one of the nation's top high school a cappella groups, The Town Criers. They blew us away with their professionalism and talent. Performing with them was a ton of fun, and they should all hit us up if they ever enroll at Wash U!

1) Singing Outside Faneuil Hall
However, the highlight of the trip was in Boston, when we decided to sing outside Faneuil Hall for fun. We started singing "Some Nights" by fun. in a circle to each other, by the time we finished the song, we looked around and noticed a sizeable crowd watching us, so we did two more songs for the crowd and had a blast. It was an incredible opportunity and we are so thankful for the audience that stopped to listen!


Overall, tour was a phenomenal success. We loved every second of it and can't wait for next year's!


ICCA
We decided to compete in ICCA again this year. After a lot of prep work, we headed out to Springfield, MO to compete at the ICCA Midwest QF at Missouri State University. It was an incredibly tough group of competitors, and unfortunately we did not advance to Semifinals, but we'll still be there because we're hosting! Check out our ICCA set below:




Recording Weekend
Last weekend, we began the recording process for the next Stereotypes album! We spent two days in the "studio" (AKA The music practice room in the basement of one of the Residential Colleges) and recorded four songs that we are super excited to share with you... But you don't get to know yet! Keep your eye out for sneak peeks at the songs we record as we get ready to release them!

Newbies
This year, we somehow convinced three fantastic freshmen to join our ranks. #64 Ari Allen, #65 Rohan Shirali, and #66 Lawrance Lee became Mr. Southern Gentleman, Mr. Indie Indian, and Mr. Boy Wonder, respectively.

Love, Actually
The Stereotypes became well-acquainted with the concept of "marriage" this semester. In September, we flash-mobbed a wedding in Graham Chapel by serenading the bride with "Somebody to Love" during the groom's vows. We then sang "All You Need is Love" as the couple exited the chapel, in the style of Love, Actually. Later in the semester, another St. Louis resident hired us to help him propose to his girlfriend. We surprised her by singing AWOLNATION's "All I Need" in Union Station as he got down on on knee. Here's the video: http://vimeo.com/55745387.

ACappellaFest
Over Fall Break, the group traveled to Chicago to participate in the first-ever Midwest a cappella festival. We attended workshops, saw professional groups perform, hung out with other Midwest collegiate groups, and workshopped with the professional group Six Appeal. Best of all, we competed against four other groups in a collegiate competition and took FIRST PLACE! Our set included "Gold" by Guy Sebastian, "Wayfaring Stranger" covered by Jamie Woon, and "Some Nights" by Fun. We also won Best Arrangement for "Wayfaring Stranger"...props to Leo Chang! Check out our interview with CASA!

Mr. Stereotype MMXII
After selling out smaller venues for the past few years, we decided to bring Mr. Stereotype back to Graham for one of the two shows. We were fortunate enough to sell a total of 909 tickets, the most in Stereotypes history!! Our publicity blitz included many new ideas, like "teaser" flyers, chalking around campus, and block ticketing for freshmen floors and sororities. Mr. Stereotype went paperless this year by introducing text-message voting to determine the finalists. Events in this year's pageant included: Favorite Viral Video, Best Literal Representation of A Phrase, Best Pickup Line (themed to your Stereotype), and Best Interpretive Dance. Congratulations to Mrs. (that's the plural of Mr.) Smooth and Professional for winning the tiara. We invited WUTV to professionally film the event, so be on the lookout for those videos coming soon!!

Looking Forward
Over Winter Break, we will be going on tour across the Northeast. From Boston to New York to Philadelphia, we will be singing all over. Check out our shows page for more info on specific gigs over tour! In addition, we will be competing on February 16 in the ICCA Midwest Quarterfinals at Missouri State University!!! Head over to the Varsity Vocals website for more details!

We hope you all enjoyed this semester as much as we did. We can't wait to show you what we've got planned for the Spring!

Don't miss the sexiest a cappella pageant of the year as the Stereotypes go head-to-head for the prestigious title of MR. STEREOTYPE. Your vote will decide the winner, so choose wisely!

THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT THE PAST THREE YEARS SO PLEASE BUY TICKETS IN ADVANCE! You can purchase tickets from 11am to 2pm in the DUC and 6-8pm in BD.

With Music From:
Fun.
Usher
Imagine Dragons
Jason Mraz
Rihanna
The Beatles
...and more!

Tickets:
$8 for students
$12 for non-students

Featuring:
Friday: U of I Girls Next Door
Saturday: Northwestern U Significant Others

Ladies and gentlemen,
We are very excited to share with you the final product of the Collaborative Recording at ACF 2012! The song, "It's Time" by Imagine Dragons, was produced, tracked, edited, and mixed by the incredible guys at Plaid Productions and mastered by Dave Sperandio at Vocal Mastering.

And of course, we are honored to play a role on the track, alongside all of the incredible VIPs and the professional groups from the weekend we had the pleasure of meeting and working with: Six Appeal, Sonos, and The Edge Effect!

Thank you so much to everyone for the support we have gotten so far this year! We can't wait for you to see what else we've been working on. Shoutout to CASA for putting on a super successful festival!

Enjoy the track!

This weekend at AcappellaFest was absolutely incredible! We want to thank all of our fans that came out to support us on Friday night, where we were able to take FIRST PLACE in the Scholastic Competition. A major shout out goes to Leo Chang (#62) for being awarded Best Arrangement for our song "Wayfaring Stranger". Check out all three songs from Friday night or you can see all three videos below.
(And check out The A Cappella Blog's Collegiate Competition Event Review!)

Saturday was another day filled with activities. First thing in the morning we had a masterclass with Six Appeal, getting to know the group and allowing them to work on our sound. They are an awesome group of guys who we can now call our friends. The rest of the day, different Stypes attended different workshops, including (but not limited to) Aca-Jedi Mind Tricks, Sex on Stage, Songwriting, Advanced VP, and Essential Listening. We learned a lot that we can't wait to put to use with the group this year.

Because we won the competition on Friday night, we had the incredible opportunity to sing a song for the crowd at Saturday night's Professional Showcase featuring the amazing Sonos and The Edge Effect. Sonos' arrangements were so unique and creative, and their originals were inspiring. The Edge Effect might be the first a cappella group to successfully get the crowd to rush the stage. Overall, the concert was an insane showing of a cappella at its finest.

Finally, Sunday came around. As winners of the Scholastic Competition, our last perk for the weekend was the ability to participate in the Collaborative Recording. This is a massive effort put on by the guys from Plaid Productions that involves all of the professional groups, the winning collegiate group, and all of the VIP ticket holders for the weekend. We had a blast doing our part for the recording and can't wait to share it with you.

The Stereotypes can't be thankful enough for all that we were given this weekend, all the people we met, and all the memories we will remember forever.

We are so excited to be competing in the Collegiate Competition at AcappellaFest in just 5 days!!! And what's better, we get to compete alongside After Dark! Want to come see the competition and save some money? Use the promotion code "STEREOTYPES" for a $10 discount. We'll see you at AcappellaFest!

Thank you to everyone who auditioned this year. We were so fortunate to see so much talent this year, and the decisions made were very difficult. Without further ado, we are so excited to announce the new members of The Stereotypes...

#64 Ari Allen
#65 Rohan Shirali
#66 Lawrance Lee

Thank you to everyone who came out to audition for us this weekend. It was a pleasure to meet all of you and to hear you all sing. To those who do not see their name on this list, please do not be discouraged. The talent was incredible and made these decisions very hard. Please do not let this deter you from auditioning again in the future.

Congratulations to the following people! We look forward to seeing you again and getting the chance to sing with you. Please come to the Danforth House lounge (same as auditions) at the specified time below.

Monday, September 3rd

David Brablec - 11:30 AM
Ari Allen - 12:00 PM
Billy Jacobson - 12:30 PM
Camden Perkins - 1:00 PM
Enddy Cho - 2:30 PM
Jake Feinerman - 3:00 PM
Arjun Kumar - 3:30 PM
Rohan Shirali - 4:00 PM
Jun Bae - 5:00 PM
Davis Jenkins - 5:30 PM
Jeremy Sandler - 6:00 PM
Kevin Thomas - 6:30 PM
Johnny Lee - 8:00 PM
Lawrance Lee - 8:30 PM
Evan Witt - 9:00 PM

Here we go! Auditions weekend is upon us! To all those auditioning, good luck. Auditions are a blast and we can't wait to hear all of your kick-ass voices.

For those who still haven't signed up for an audition but are interested, please email Michael Schwartz.

Finally, if you want to know more about our audition process, take a look at the auditions page!

Hey everybody,

The Stypes are back and gearing up for this year's auditions. We have a lot going on the next couple of weeks, and can't wait to start seeing some new talent to add to the group. If you want to see where we are performing, check out the shows page. In addition, go learn more about the group by visiting the about us page and to learn more about our audition process, check out the auditions tab on the left.

And come check us out for DORMSTORMING!!!!!

And a treat for the a cappella fan in all of us...