Zero 7: "In the Waiting Line"

The Garden State soundtrack was a crucial element of my undergraduate study sessions. Today, as I finish up what feels like my graduate thesis but is really a creative nonfiction story for a Travel Writing class, I need all the good study mojo I can get.

My roommate arranged this song for our a cappella group, Emanon, to learn this spring. In the meantime, I'm going to be zenning out. The parallels between today and my freshman year at Northwestern are striking; I still have a Mountain Dew at fingertips' reach, along with my books, notes, and a thesaurus. I feel relaxed, confident in my abilities, but unbearably nervous; what if I'm not prepared? But singer Sophie Barker is still frozen in time in this video from 2001, calmly pointing out through what may be a drug (or caffeine)-induced haze what should be obvious: "Do you believe in what you see? / Motionless wheel, nothing is real," she sings. "Everyone's saying different things to me, different things to me. / Everyone's taking everything they can, everything they can."

Let's hope clarity emerges from the wisps of ideas. That seems to be how it works.

fun.: "We Are Young"

In college, I sang alto in my music sorority's a cappella group. As a junior, I started arranging music for it -- personal favorites like Katy Perry's "Hot 'n Cold," the Barenaked Ladies' "Pinch Me," even the estrogen-laden, Grammy-winning Moulin Rouge version of "Lady Marmalade."

If only we'd had their costume budget.

After awhile, "That song would sound great in a cappella!" became one of my patented (and much-teased) catchphrases. I started an iTunes playlist of songs I wanted to arrange someday -- Sara Bareilles and Amy Winehouse, Led Zeppelin and Maroon 5, Lily Allen and Alanis Morissette. I just knew that everything would sound new and interesting and original in our own voices, with our own melodic undercurrents and featured solos and quirky performance gimmicks. ("Let's all start facing the back, snapping, and turn together" was getting pretty fancy, as far as we were concerned.) It was all in good fun, and our weekly, riotous rehearsals were a reminder of why I love making music, especially with friends.

Eventually we graduated, and my copy of Finale music composition software sat dormant, half-finished arrangements of the Beatles and Jason Mraz doomed to languish on my laptop forever.

After college, many of us stayed in the Chicago area, and we've been singing together in more or less official capacities ever since, each fitting rehearsals in between first jobs, graduate school, and settling into our individual metropolitan lifestyles. We floundered for awhile, struggling to find the time to get nine or ten busy people in the same room, but music is what brought us together in the first place, and through sheer will and the luck of proximity, a cappella music has remained a part of our weekly ritual, a building block of our friendship. (Life lesson: No one will ever get sick of "King of Wishful Thinking.") Recently we reorganized, renamed ourselves, and put on our first performance of the year. It was rocky in places, but it felt great to sing harmony with my friends just for the pure joy of it, and now each of us are revved up and eager for more. Song ideas and even completed arrangements have been flying across our email listserv, and I feel myself getting swept up again in a cappella fever.

And so I started a new iTunes playlist of songs to arrange.

First up on that list is today's jam, fun.'s "We Are Young," the lead single off the band's sophomore album Some Nights, to be released this month. This acoustic version downplays the drama of the studio version, with its building chords, gospel-like chorus, and Janelle Monáe cameo:

But lead singer Nate Ruess is just as mesmerizing here as when he fronted The Format. He also has the most understated Wikipedia entry I've seen for an artist, or anyone. That simplicity, also reflected in the band's name, plays so well in this song, in which Ruess pleads over driving piano riffs and backing vocals for someone to "come and carry me home tonight" because "tonight, we are young." The chorus swells and voices join in and the song becomes an anthem for the current generation, or any generation: "So we'll set the world on fire, we can grow brighter than the suuuuuuuuuuun!" [Emphasis added, because it's absolutely the most fun part of the song to sing, and when it comes to a cappella, having fun is what it's all about.]

This is fun.'s first charting single -- they've been around since 2008, literally a week after The Format broke up -- but if the songwriting stays this simple, the execution this unadulteratedly guileless, the lyrics this joyfully unrestrained, then we're all in for some serious fun.

(I'm sorry, I just had to.)

You know you've made it when your song is featured in a Super Bowl commercial:

Marcy Playground: "Sex & Candy"

Released in 1997 on Marcy Playground's debut, self-titled album, "Sex and Candy" was the band's only hit. It reached #8 on the Billboard chart, spent 15 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, and sent their debut into the platinum stratosphere.

Then, despite releasing four more albums, the three-man band -- frontman John Wozniak, bassist Dylan Keefe, and drummer Gonzalo Martinez De La Cotera (replaced a decade later) -- never came within throwing distance of the U.S. charts again. (They did get a little love in Canada, which makes sense when you realize Wozniak was born in Minnesota. They stick together, those nor'derners.) Marcy Playground did land a few songs on a handful of movie soundtracks, but I'd be willing to bet the royalties on "Sex and Candy" that they'd love to not be filed away as one-hit wonders. This is call to arms, Wozniak: You wrote a great song with relatable lyrics and a pop hook, and it was a huge commercial success. I know you've got it in you to do it again.

As do you, dear reader. Go forth toward your weekend with hope, joy, and stamina. And maybe some sex and/or candy, if you've got the time.

And hey, if you have even more time, come out to my band's show this Saturday night. It's also our drummer's art opening. We'll be playing 7-8 at J.J. Java in Evanston, followed by my a cappella group, Emanon (formerly Old Ladies in Red), and a bevy of other talented musicians. Come on out for some IN-PERSON live music!