Ah, Parent's Weekend. We started it off with a trip over to BC for an awesome show with the Bostonians, a fellow co-ed group. Other notable guests at the show were BC Dynamics, MIT Resonance, and the BU Dear Abbeys. Each group had awesome performances whether hilarious, awe inspiring, or just damn impressive. One of my favorite performances was the jagged solo delivered by a Resonance member in their rendition of "Home" originally performed by Marc Broussard. After this show with one of the more energetic audiences in a while, we headed on to the real purpose of college gigging... the party. All five a cappella groups crammed into one of the infamous mods of BC campus. After a ridiculously large inter-group game of cups and ping pong balls, dance party, and shmoozing for a couple of hours, the fun came to an end and we called it a night. Despite the awkwardness of so many strangers in one room, it panned out to be a good time. It's always a culture shock heading from Tufts to BC campus, I'm always like wow, I can't believe there are so many attractive people on one campus.
The next day we had more parental funnnn with a short little performance at Parent's day festival on the sofia gordon steps. The real fun came at the wine and cheese party we always host for the Mates, some alums, and parents. This year it was held at Gabbi's shnazzy place and... oh man... was the wine a-flowin. After stuffing our faces and in the words of Jason, getting "to meet everyone else's parents and go, 'oh, that explains it.'" And let me tell ya, there were a buncha those. I dont want to name any names (alex green). We started our private performance for our biggest fans. Afterward, parents moved it on out and we rounded out our parents weekend stocking up on the leftover wine-- or maybe that was just me... either way! Parents weekend really is great, we get to show our parents what we've been doing with all of our time and they get to see us after the droves of unreturned phone calls. typical college. Then we get to see them all kvell like mad like its our first recital, its cute.
--Alex Rodman, current group A'10
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
THEY'RE REALLY HERE; Retreat
So, I'm sitting on a couch right now, surrounded by the rest of the Mates, in an undisclosed location (ok, Killington) in Vermont, and We've just woken up after a well-deserved and much-needed night of sleep after much revelry. The place we're staying, Killington Kastle, is a huge ski lodge made for multi-family of large-group ski trips in the winter, and we managed to find the place for almost a quarter of the price of what it would normally be during the ski season. This place is a-freakin'-mazing - we have beds for everyone, a hot tub, a sauna, and a huge fireplace. This is shaping up to be an awesome Retreat, but in more important news...
WE HAVE PRIME!!!!
We are so pumped about this album. We popped the CD into the van on the way up here, and other than a few moments where we actually overloaded the speakers' bass response (thanks, Ian!), the album kicked our collective asses pretty uniformly into next week. We can't wait to see everyone at the Release show, which is, finally, at 9:30 PM THIS FRIDAY at the Remis Sculpture Court in the Aidekman Arts Building on the Tufts Campus. BE THERE!
--Alex Green, Publicity Manager, Current Group A'10
WE HAVE PRIME!!!!
We are so pumped about this album. We popped the CD into the van on the way up here, and other than a few moments where we actually overloaded the speakers' bass response (thanks, Ian!), the album kicked our collective asses pretty uniformly into next week. We can't wait to see everyone at the Release show, which is, finally, at 9:30 PM THIS FRIDAY at the Remis Sculpture Court in the Aidekman Arts Building on the Tufts Campus. BE THERE!
--Alex Green, Publicity Manager, Current Group A'10
Friday, October 24, 2008
A little from the road - David Wiley in Europe
And now, a narrative from David Wiley, one of our Amalgalumns:
After 20 hours of traveling (including a 2 hour delay my final leg from Rome to Bari, thanks Alitalia) I arrived barely one hour before my first rehearsal with the professional "Orchestra Sinfonica di Bari". This is a full-time salaried symphony that does several concerts each week with guest conductors & soloists from all over the world. It is a fully government-supported by the Province of Puglia, in southern Italy at the heel of the boot right on the Adriatic. I think our plane was delayed for the following reason: our ancient MD-80 jet plane had a window shade right next to my seat 10A closed with -- no kidding -- silver duct tape, and a sign marked "Inoperativ" written on the silver duct tape. A real confidence-booster, especially with the real possibility of being late for my first rehearsal, with 70 Italian musicians waiting.
My driver sped through the city ignoring all sense of safety or marked road signs to get me to the hall, arriving at the auditorium "Nino Rota" -- named after the famous Italian orchestral & film composer. We were a curious bunch: here was an Italian orchestra with an Albanian concert master with an American conductor, performing all-French repertoire. Remarkably, all went quite smoothly with no real language or communication issues (most meaningful musical terminology is in Italian), and we played through the program before the break. When I asked the artistic director about the absence of saxophone as required for the Bizet, the response was simply "tomorrow." The same response was forthcoming for the next two days, and then the saxophone actually arrived in time for the dress rehearsal later in the week. It really is an impressive full symphony orchestra, and they take great pride in their music-making as well as energetically talking among themselves when I stopped to rehearse. Each scheduled rehearsal is for four hours, and the 15 minute breaks tend to stretch to 22-24 minutes or such, no worries.
My host and hostess, a member of the wind section in the Bari orchestra, took me to dinner for the first of what would be a great week of music and abundant food, primarily fish and wine. Each meal featured no less than 15-20 dishes, all manner of octopi, squid, shellfish, mini-lobsters, some of it actually cooked -- all wonderful. Dinners began at 10 or 11 PM and dessert(s) usually arrived by 1:30 AM. Then, we would drive around the beautiful seaside towns overlooking the Adriatic, with 1000-year-old castles right next to the sea, with deep, dark caves under the cliffs with escape tunnels and ancient stone stairs down to the water. Little Smart cars, mini-Fiats that run on natural gas, and scooters driven by young beauties with no helmets buzzed all over the place until the wee hours. Open-air concerts with bands and string orchestras took place on the piazzas next to the sea until quite late, and we would wander into one performance after another. Cool breezes wafted the sea air into the piazzas and blew the music pages on the music stands. Then my hosts brought me back to my hotel near the sea to sleep soundly.
Our scheduled 9 PM evening performances were at the (11th century?) Castello Normanno Svevo in Bari. The orchestra performed in an open-air amphitheater with excellent acoustics within the castle walls. In concert, the orchestra really raised their level of performance, and the enthusiastic audience required an encore before intermission, and again at the end of the concert. The woodwind solos became a zesty dialogue with the local birds nesting high above the orchestra in the castle, to beautiful effect. We greeted the audience for an hour after the performance, and then went to celebrate with another 20-course dinner until the wee hours.
I spent the last day swimming in Bari at the beach in Monopoli at a bay next to another castle, then flew to Rome for a day seeing the sights near the Coliseum and in the Vatican City. Flew back to the states with no problems or delays.
--David Wiley, A'89
After 20 hours of traveling (including a 2 hour delay my final leg from Rome to Bari, thanks Alitalia) I arrived barely one hour before my first rehearsal with the professional "Orchestra Sinfonica di Bari". This is a full-time salaried symphony that does several concerts each week with guest conductors & soloists from all over the world. It is a fully government-supported by the Province of Puglia, in southern Italy at the heel of the boot right on the Adriatic. I think our plane was delayed for the following reason: our ancient MD-80 jet plane had a window shade right next to my seat 10A closed with -- no kidding -- silver duct tape, and a sign marked "Inoperativ" written on the silver duct tape. A real confidence-booster, especially with the real possibility of being late for my first rehearsal, with 70 Italian musicians waiting.
My driver sped through the city ignoring all sense of safety or marked road signs to get me to the hall, arriving at the auditorium "Nino Rota" -- named after the famous Italian orchestral & film composer. We were a curious bunch: here was an Italian orchestra with an Albanian concert master with an American conductor, performing all-French repertoire. Remarkably, all went quite smoothly with no real language or communication issues (most meaningful musical terminology is in Italian), and we played through the program before the break. When I asked the artistic director about the absence of saxophone as required for the Bizet, the response was simply "tomorrow." The same response was forthcoming for the next two days, and then the saxophone actually arrived in time for the dress rehearsal later in the week. It really is an impressive full symphony orchestra, and they take great pride in their music-making as well as energetically talking among themselves when I stopped to rehearse. Each scheduled rehearsal is for four hours, and the 15 minute breaks tend to stretch to 22-24 minutes or such, no worries.
My host and hostess, a member of the wind section in the Bari orchestra, took me to dinner for the first of what would be a great week of music and abundant food, primarily fish and wine. Each meal featured no less than 15-20 dishes, all manner of octopi, squid, shellfish, mini-lobsters, some of it actually cooked -- all wonderful. Dinners began at 10 or 11 PM and dessert(s) usually arrived by 1:30 AM. Then, we would drive around the beautiful seaside towns overlooking the Adriatic, with 1000-year-old castles right next to the sea, with deep, dark caves under the cliffs with escape tunnels and ancient stone stairs down to the water. Little Smart cars, mini-Fiats that run on natural gas, and scooters driven by young beauties with no helmets buzzed all over the place until the wee hours. Open-air concerts with bands and string orchestras took place on the piazzas next to the sea until quite late, and we would wander into one performance after another. Cool breezes wafted the sea air into the piazzas and blew the music pages on the music stands. Then my hosts brought me back to my hotel near the sea to sleep soundly.
Our scheduled 9 PM evening performances were at the (11th century?) Castello Normanno Svevo in Bari. The orchestra performed in an open-air amphitheater with excellent acoustics within the castle walls. In concert, the orchestra really raised their level of performance, and the enthusiastic audience required an encore before intermission, and again at the end of the concert. The woodwind solos became a zesty dialogue with the local birds nesting high above the orchestra in the castle, to beautiful effect. We greeted the audience for an hour after the performance, and then went to celebrate with another 20-course dinner until the wee hours.
I spent the last day swimming in Bari at the beach in Monopoli at a bay next to another castle, then flew to Rome for a day seeing the sights near the Coliseum and in the Vatican City. Flew back to the states with no problems or delays.
--David Wiley, A'89
Saturday, October 18, 2008
From the Inside: A look at the first two months of the Fall
When the Mates arrived back at the end of August, we were unbelievably pumped for the coming year. We were small, having seen some tough departures from invaluable seniors graduating and younger members with great potential leaving Tufts, but it wasn't anything we hadn't faced before. Besides, we had tons to look forward to, from an awesome Orientation week, to an exciting round of auditions, a quick sprint to Homecoming and the completion of our next album!
The Orientation week shows (Gantcher, the Alumni Legacy reception, dorm sings, Bagel Brunch, O-show in the chapel) were a bittersweet mix of old and new. Those performances were our last opportunities to sing with recent alum Evan, and we had to say goodbye to three of songs that had been crucial parts of our sets for the past two years: "Love the One You're With", "The Pretender" and the amazing bringback of "Where The Streets Have No Name". But they also featured two rockin solos from our soon-to-not-be-Babies-anymore ladies, Jilly and Brie. Jilly gets to check in with her emo side (and Alex Green fondly recalls his fauxhawk from yesteryear) with a kickass rendition of the popular Paramore song "That's What You Get". Seriously, what an awesome Baby Solo: we love singing it, and Lori gets to headbang. Everybody's happy. Brie has brought down the house at every show since we introduced "Son of A Preacher Man" to our set. Dusty Springfield never saw this one coming, and the audiences can't get enough of our resident (real!) fiery redhead. We're all too happy to let them keep screaming themselves hoarse. This is truly the Mates at its sexiest.
O-week also saw the less noted, but equally important debut of a new round of "Mates houses" - Alex Rodman's sweet party pad where she lives with her gang of hockey boys, my house, hereafter dubbed "the Classy Residence", and LoriJason&Alex-town with its futons and ridiculous brown velvet chair. Jason also has two tiny turtles that provide endless hours of entertainment. I miss the familiar comforts of 20 Curtis, which was coated in the memories of the previous two years, but this year's junior class is picking up where they left off and doing it in style.
Once we settled in to our respective homes, and O-show was in the books, it was audition time. We literally papered the campus, covered it in chalk, and made ourselves a general nuisance in any place a freshman might be found. Auditions, as anyone who has been through them knows, are both the best and worst time of a Mates semester. For those of you whose beer-soaked memories of college may have blurred a little with the passing of the years, the Mates Room on Chetwynd is still as unbearably hot and stinky as you remember it. Writing covers almost every square inch of the walls, and we're making headway on the ceiling, but we're trying to conserve space! In a pre-auditions purge/cleaning frenzy, we tossed the old barrel of cheese balls that was starting to grow roots.
But thankfully, there were a few bright spots, and their names are Gigi, Maia, Jenna, and Ari. Ladies and Gentlemen, what a fantastic group of Babies we found. We knew right away that these four were going to fit in seamlessly into the group dynamic, and stand out as stars in their Mates careers to come.
After the necessary sing-in nuttiness in the Mates Room, at the Classy Residence, and Kelly's diner, and the requisite sleep that follows, we hit the ground running with the new Babies and some new (and not so new songs) to make our three-week dash to Homecoming. While we worked really hard during those weeks' rehearsals, we also took care to welcome the Babies in typical Mates style: we had Thursday night hangouts in Eric's suite in Latin Way, girl time, and guy time. Some ladies from the Jills hosted a crazy Baby Mixer, and Ari continued to cement his reputation as a P.I.M.P. (in his mind, anyway). There were some memorable alum visits to rehearsals, some productive and some not so much: a stampede of Mates Men stormed a rehearsal one night, Erin Bergin and Sarah Kupper dropped by with some coffee and bagels and donuts, and Matt Reveley and Lisa Jacobs offered some wisdom and expertise with bass and blending workshops.
Homecoming was a resounding success, despite the horrible weather and the precarious health of most of the group, but we fought through sickness and rain and gave the crowds a night to remember. Jilly and Brie reprised their O-show performances of "That's What You Get" and "Son of A Preacher Man", and we added three new songs to the set. "Let It Die", the second single off the Foo Fighters' newest album, is another kickass rock-out song for Eric. I've continued my trend towards ballads that start with the letter G with "Gravity", originally performed by Sarah Bareilles. And Alex Green got typecast with "Geek in the Pink", a popular, '90's hip hop song from Jason Mraz.
We had another moment of proof for the "Our Alums are Better Than Your Alums" game, when y'all stormed the chapel just moments before we went onstage, and then tore it up outside in the drizzle. The circle had some familiar faces, and some that, for most of the current group, were brand new. I promise myself every year before Homecoming that I'm going to go back and listen to the old favorite songs that we sing every year, but I never do. Instead, we all muddle through songs where only two people actually knew the arrangement -- and it's hilarious. Chang Sho and Johnny D's continue to stay in business purely because of the Mates.
Now that Homecoming is history, we get to slow down and relax a little bit... HA! Not really! So far in October, we've launched the new website, performed at Community Day, had TIME!, started this blog, had our first college gig of the year, and done tons of mixing for the upcoming album.
(I've doubled back to add:) Oh, Time! I can't skip that! This is absolutely my favorite of the weird Mates traditions we have. This year, we told the Babies we were going to see Duwende perform in Boston, and a whole bunch of alums would be there. Only one of them managed to figure out that Duwende was in town the previous week, so the wool was pretty effectively yanked over their eyes. We started things off with a sprint to the van, (and Hot Damn, our babies can run!) some circles around the Powderhouse Square, and trips to Jilly's room ("Roxanne"), Eric's suite (maritime sports), and Alex Rodman's house (flippage and dancing), before hitting the road. I won $10 playing lottery scratchers at the gas station, and we made it to Maine and L.L.Bean in one piece. Lori swapped out her slippers, I continued a long line of Mates buying slipper-socks, and the boys bought matching coffee mugs. Pictures in weird hunting garb are forthcoming.
As I write, Parents' weekend is underway, and we've got the first of our two performances (the public one) in just a couple hours on the steps of the beautiful new(ish) Sophia Gordon dorm, across from the equally beautiful new(ish) music center. After that, Mates, Parents and friends will be heading over here to the Classy Residence, where we'll be partaking in some wine and cheese and other yummies, and we'll do our second performance of the day for the people who really matter. Prime is T-minus two weeks. We're performing at Milton Academy on Halloween; retreat is the week after. The semester is flying!
In song,
Gabbi A'10, current group
The Orientation week shows (Gantcher, the Alumni Legacy reception, dorm sings, Bagel Brunch, O-show in the chapel) were a bittersweet mix of old and new. Those performances were our last opportunities to sing with recent alum Evan, and we had to say goodbye to three of songs that had been crucial parts of our sets for the past two years: "Love the One You're With", "The Pretender" and the amazing bringback of "Where The Streets Have No Name". But they also featured two rockin solos from our soon-to-not-be-Babies-anymore ladies, Jilly and Brie. Jilly gets to check in with her emo side (and Alex Green fondly recalls his fauxhawk from yesteryear) with a kickass rendition of the popular Paramore song "That's What You Get". Seriously, what an awesome Baby Solo: we love singing it, and Lori gets to headbang. Everybody's happy. Brie has brought down the house at every show since we introduced "Son of A Preacher Man" to our set. Dusty Springfield never saw this one coming, and the audiences can't get enough of our resident (real!) fiery redhead. We're all too happy to let them keep screaming themselves hoarse. This is truly the Mates at its sexiest.
O-week also saw the less noted, but equally important debut of a new round of "Mates houses" - Alex Rodman's sweet party pad where she lives with her gang of hockey boys, my house, hereafter dubbed "the Classy Residence", and LoriJason&Alex-town with its futons and ridiculous brown velvet chair. Jason also has two tiny turtles that provide endless hours of entertainment. I miss the familiar comforts of 20 Curtis, which was coated in the memories of the previous two years, but this year's junior class is picking up where they left off and doing it in style.
Once we settled in to our respective homes, and O-show was in the books, it was audition time. We literally papered the campus, covered it in chalk, and made ourselves a general nuisance in any place a freshman might be found. Auditions, as anyone who has been through them knows, are both the best and worst time of a Mates semester. For those of you whose beer-soaked memories of college may have blurred a little with the passing of the years, the Mates Room on Chetwynd is still as unbearably hot and stinky as you remember it. Writing covers almost every square inch of the walls, and we're making headway on the ceiling, but we're trying to conserve space! In a pre-auditions purge/cleaning frenzy, we tossed the old barrel of cheese balls that was starting to grow roots.
But thankfully, there were a few bright spots, and their names are Gigi, Maia, Jenna, and Ari. Ladies and Gentlemen, what a fantastic group of Babies we found. We knew right away that these four were going to fit in seamlessly into the group dynamic, and stand out as stars in their Mates careers to come.
After the necessary sing-in nuttiness in the Mates Room, at the Classy Residence, and Kelly's diner, and the requisite sleep that follows, we hit the ground running with the new Babies and some new (and not so new songs) to make our three-week dash to Homecoming. While we worked really hard during those weeks' rehearsals, we also took care to welcome the Babies in typical Mates style: we had Thursday night hangouts in Eric's suite in Latin Way, girl time, and guy time. Some ladies from the Jills hosted a crazy Baby Mixer, and Ari continued to cement his reputation as a P.I.M.P. (in his mind, anyway). There were some memorable alum visits to rehearsals, some productive and some not so much: a stampede of Mates Men stormed a rehearsal one night, Erin Bergin and Sarah Kupper dropped by with some coffee and bagels and donuts, and Matt Reveley and Lisa Jacobs offered some wisdom and expertise with bass and blending workshops.
Homecoming was a resounding success, despite the horrible weather and the precarious health of most of the group, but we fought through sickness and rain and gave the crowds a night to remember. Jilly and Brie reprised their O-show performances of "That's What You Get" and "Son of A Preacher Man", and we added three new songs to the set. "Let It Die", the second single off the Foo Fighters' newest album, is another kickass rock-out song for Eric. I've continued my trend towards ballads that start with the letter G with "Gravity", originally performed by Sarah Bareilles. And Alex Green got typecast with "Geek in the Pink", a popular, '90's hip hop song from Jason Mraz.
We had another moment of proof for the "Our Alums are Better Than Your Alums" game, when y'all stormed the chapel just moments before we went onstage, and then tore it up outside in the drizzle. The circle had some familiar faces, and some that, for most of the current group, were brand new. I promise myself every year before Homecoming that I'm going to go back and listen to the old favorite songs that we sing every year, but I never do. Instead, we all muddle through songs where only two people actually knew the arrangement -- and it's hilarious. Chang Sho and Johnny D's continue to stay in business purely because of the Mates.
Now that Homecoming is history, we get to slow down and relax a little bit... HA! Not really! So far in October, we've launched the new website, performed at Community Day, had TIME!, started this blog, had our first college gig of the year, and done tons of mixing for the upcoming album.
(I've doubled back to add:) Oh, Time! I can't skip that! This is absolutely my favorite of the weird Mates traditions we have. This year, we told the Babies we were going to see Duwende perform in Boston, and a whole bunch of alums would be there. Only one of them managed to figure out that Duwende was in town the previous week, so the wool was pretty effectively yanked over their eyes. We started things off with a sprint to the van, (and Hot Damn, our babies can run!) some circles around the Powderhouse Square, and trips to Jilly's room ("Roxanne"), Eric's suite (maritime sports), and Alex Rodman's house (flippage and dancing), before hitting the road. I won $10 playing lottery scratchers at the gas station, and we made it to Maine and L.L.Bean in one piece. Lori swapped out her slippers, I continued a long line of Mates buying slipper-socks, and the boys bought matching coffee mugs. Pictures in weird hunting garb are forthcoming.
As I write, Parents' weekend is underway, and we've got the first of our two performances (the public one) in just a couple hours on the steps of the beautiful new(ish) Sophia Gordon dorm, across from the equally beautiful new(ish) music center. After that, Mates, Parents and friends will be heading over here to the Classy Residence, where we'll be partaking in some wine and cheese and other yummies, and we'll do our second performance of the day for the people who really matter. Prime is T-minus two weeks. We're performing at Milton Academy on Halloween; retreat is the week after. The semester is flying!
In song,
Gabbi A'10, current group
Thursday, October 16, 2008
The Mates have started blogging!
The Tufts Amalgamates have started a blog!
This blog will be a place where you can find stories, musings, and other information from both current and past group members. If you're a fan of collegiate a cappella, and have always wondered what kinds of shenanigans the 'Mates get into when we go on gigs, then this is the place for you. For our first entry though, we thought we might give you a little bit of history:
The Amalgamates, Tufts University's oldest co-ed a cappella group, was formed in 1984. The group's formation came about when a group of singers from the Beelzebubs and Jackson Jills, Tufts' then-only all-male and all-female a cappella groups, respectively, decided they wanted to sing with people of the other gender, and start a co-ed group. The 'Mates started by singing SATB arrangements of classics, but quickly moved on to writing their own arrangements of contemporary pop and rock songs.
Their respected status in the a cappella community was solidified with their 1996 release of Hat Sale, Get Mama! with their track "Man In The Mirror," a cover of a song by Michael Jackson. The disc, and its closing track, were widely regarded as one of the best releases ever to come out of the collegiate a cappella scene. From the RARB.org (Recorded A Cappella Review Board) web site:
"The word "perfect" comes to mind. This is a top notch arrangement with a truly professional sound."
Subsequent releases, such as Grandma's Camper (1998), Juice (2000), Bamboo (2002), Stopping For Breakfast (2004), and Baggage Claim (2006) have each garnered excellent reviews from RARB, and have all landed tracks on the Best Of College A Cappella (BOCA) Compilations of the years following their respective years. As well, they have all been nominated for Collgiate A Cappella Recording Awards (CARAs) in various categories (Best Mixed Collegiate Album, Best Mixed Collegiate Solo, etc.), and have won many of them. The 'Mates are currently recording and mixing their eleventh album, Prime, which is to be released at a CD Release party on the Tufts University campus on November 14th.
The 'Mates are currently still singing, and are well into the 160's in their number of past and present members. To see and hear more about the Amalgamates, you can visit their site at www.amalgamates.org.
--Alex Green, Publicity Manager, current group A'10
This blog will be a place where you can find stories, musings, and other information from both current and past group members. If you're a fan of collegiate a cappella, and have always wondered what kinds of shenanigans the 'Mates get into when we go on gigs, then this is the place for you. For our first entry though, we thought we might give you a little bit of history:
The Amalgamates, Tufts University's oldest co-ed a cappella group, was formed in 1984. The group's formation came about when a group of singers from the Beelzebubs and Jackson Jills, Tufts' then-only all-male and all-female a cappella groups, respectively, decided they wanted to sing with people of the other gender, and start a co-ed group. The 'Mates started by singing SATB arrangements of classics, but quickly moved on to writing their own arrangements of contemporary pop and rock songs.
Their respected status in the a cappella community was solidified with their 1996 release of Hat Sale, Get Mama! with their track "Man In The Mirror," a cover of a song by Michael Jackson. The disc, and its closing track, were widely regarded as one of the best releases ever to come out of the collegiate a cappella scene. From the RARB.org (Recorded A Cappella Review Board) web site:
"The word "perfect" comes to mind. This is a top notch arrangement with a truly professional sound."
Subsequent releases, such as Grandma's Camper (1998), Juice (2000), Bamboo (2002), Stopping For Breakfast (2004), and Baggage Claim (2006) have each garnered excellent reviews from RARB, and have all landed tracks on the Best Of College A Cappella (BOCA) Compilations of the years following their respective years. As well, they have all been nominated for Collgiate A Cappella Recording Awards (CARAs) in various categories (Best Mixed Collegiate Album, Best Mixed Collegiate Solo, etc.), and have won many of them. The 'Mates are currently recording and mixing their eleventh album, Prime, which is to be released at a CD Release party on the Tufts University campus on November 14th.
The 'Mates are currently still singing, and are well into the 160's in their number of past and present members. To see and hear more about the Amalgamates, you can visit their site at www.amalgamates.org.
--Alex Green, Publicity Manager, current group A'10
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