Tim's Auditions This Weekend

People keep asking me what's going on, so here's the scoop:

Tim is in LA auditioning for the new NBC reality series "Sing Off." There are over 200 groups auditioning for 8 slots, so chances aren't very good. Tim is auditioning with 5 different groups, 4 of them his. Each group gets 3 minutes to present one piece and were instructed to have a back up piece ready just in case. One of the two was supposed to be a "recognizable cover". Saturday is the last of 4 days of auditions spread across 4 cities. Groups from the first day are already getting call backs.

Despite the fact that Tim is well known for having groups that are not your "run of the mill" a cappella groups, we have little hope of any of his groups getting into the show. Because of the nature of TV, we're sure even if they liked more than one of the groups, only ONE can be put on the show (how would it be if the TV audiences could see that 5 of the 8 groups were actually Tim competing against himself? Might turn their show into a comedy--Tim trying to arrange and present 5 songs each week, and then getting cut and "sent home" and then showing up the next week still because his other group is still there?).

Also, judging from what we know about TV, we are pretty sure they aren't looking for the 'best' group--they're looking for 8 groups that will give them really intriguing, fun-to-watch TV. That usually means groups that have high chance of breaking down and fighting within themselves during the taping, or groups that are outlandishly fun to watch and full of antics offstage, too, or groups that are so incredibly amazing that people are awed, etc. These people aren't running a competition, they're searching for stories to tell that will be compelling and make people come back next week to see what happens--stories that make you love and hate the characters, and stories that shock and awe or elicit a "oooooh, puppies!" kind of response. They are looking for characters. With 200 nearly indistinguishable (sorry, acappellaheads, but if you're totally honest with yourselves, you'll admit it's true) a cappella groups around, Tim's "differentness" will be an asset, but not necessarily enough to even get him a second look.

So, with so little hope, why did he even go? It felt right. Every audition he's done in the past year has taught him unbelievable amounts of valuable stuff. And we agree with Mosaic--the path to success in vocal music is to do every audition for everything possible. So off he went, dozens of costumes in tow, to audition.

The groups: King4 (4 Elvises--Elvi?--singing a cappella arrangements of Elvis songs); Wonder Voice (an a cappella cover band that has "Tim" arrangements--not run of the mill, in other words); Plumbers of Rome; and moosebutter. He's also singing bass for a really awesome Vegas jazz group called 5th Avenue. Toxic Audio also auditioned, and, although he's not involved in this one directly, he IS the principle understudy for 2 of the male parts.

Below are videos of some of the audition pieces, but not the actual auditions themselves (which happen tomorrow) or even the casts he took to the auditions.

Wonder Voice, just "I Will Survive" (7:24-10:37), but with "Across the White Rabbit" (3:30-7:10) as a back up:





Plumbers of Rome, just "Tainted Love" (0:00-3:30, but watch the whole thing--I LOVE their "Fred Jones" and "No Digggity"--listen to the variety in their voices! And those instrumental sections? Richard does a killer cello.) One of those others is the back up, but I don't know which:



moosebutter, but not this cast for either song:

and the long version:

I think their back up is "Canada" or "Witch Doctor." Not sure.


There are no videos yet of the King4, but I think they're singing "All Shook Up".


And 5th Avenue, who I think might be singing a disco song they just arranged as their principle audition piece, but I think the other is "How High the Moon." Tim is singing bass. They're really really good. Here is their promo video: