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The funky fresh guys rocking the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Aeroplane” are the Baumboys, an a capella group made of Microsoft employees. This clip of them winning first place at the Northwestern Regional Harmony Sweepstakes also includes their rendition of Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away” and a comedy number about getting sexed up by a video game addict. “We kind of got the idea that we could, if we dedicated ourselves, compete with this,” says “group president” Dave McEwen. “So we wrote down our goals, in typical Microsoft fashion, and used it as a cyclical iteration to make ourselves better.” Glaven.
While it may not score them points at their next performance review, the men of Microsoft’s a cappella group, the Baudboys, have met their goal.
About five years ago, the programmers-cum-pop singers started reinventing their sound with an eye on the Harmony Sweepstakes, billed as the “premier American showcase for vocal harmony music.”
They won the Northwest regional event and will compete Saturday in the national tournament in California.
The group, which split off from another company group called the Microtones in the early 1990s, performed to a packed atrium on the corporate campus Wednesday.
“How cool for Microsoft to have something like that coming from within the ranks,” said Shari Fowler, an employee who spent her lunch hour watching the concert.
No comment.
Microsoft’s Baudboys singers scoring big with their gigs [Seattle Times; HT mackro]
Baudboys at NW Harmony Sweeps 2008 [Youtube]
I prefer the Microtones – their barbershop settings of the Harry Parch songbook are amazing.
They must be Ivy League grads. Those a cappella groups are all the rage there. I worked at a record store at Penn back in the mid-90s and this group called Off The Beat was one of our biggest sellers.
They’re biggest competition is the Apple Dumpling Gang from Apple.
*sorry that’s a horrible joke. I suck.
Please don’t tell me that a cappella will be the new kickball. Because I play and am good at kickball, but can’t sing for shit. My self esteem couldn’t take the hit.