The Xtension Chords is a
college acappella group I belong to at the
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Composed of 12-14 guys, we perform our own
arrangements of popular songs from most
modern music genres. We focus mainly on
Top 40 songs from the 80's and 90's, but we've been known to do the occational
vocal jazz piece and even a little
choral stuff once in a while. Our group is almost as much about
comedy as it is about
music. Most of us are
theatre buffs who just don't have the time to be in
school plays or the
balls to be
theatre majors, so we make up for it by putting together
schtick that we perform between songs.
We got an amazing response from our hosts this year on our tour of the East Coast. I think we're as good now as we've ever been before, and quite possibly a lot better. I mean, hell, somebody at Swarthmore College threw her bra on the stage. I still have that thing at my house. We also made it to the semi-finals of this year's National Championship of College Acappella, marking us as one of the 6 best groups in the Midwest. Well, one of 7 if you count Chapter Six from Milikin University, who competed with professional groups because they are freakin' awesome.
We've got two CD's out, Aftershock and No Purchase Necessary, and we're currently working on a new one, titled X Appeal, which will hopefully be available in October of the year 2000. Among the songs on the new CD will be "The Sound of Silence" by Paul Simon, "Light in Your Eyes" by Blessid Union of Souls, and everybody's favorite, "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by Brittney Spears. Hoo ha!
Our website, which is "maintained" by me, is at http://www.uiuc.edu/ro/xchords. There you can even see a picture of me in a goofy pose.