Academic Year 2000-2001

April 24, 2001

SoVoSo rocks! Okay, so that isn't news, but I thought I'd share. We had an incredible time last weekend, performing Thunder in front of (somebody correct me) 600+ people, with the best sound system we've used so far -- including wireless mikes!!!    I just updated News & Shows... should have a recording of Thunder later this week. And don't forget to sign up to be on our mailing list of fans!

March 1, 2001

Major updates to the site, including updates to News, Shows, and Sounds (sorry, no music, just fixes to our repertoire list). Take especial notice of the Shows section -- we're going to be performing at Decompression next week, and a bunch of gigs in April.    I've also added two new nifty tools to the site: a simple form for anyone who wants to get on our mailing list, and a Stats Page, which will eventually include all the vital stats you ever wanted to know about the Ecphonemen.

February 20, 2001

Love Sucks IV was a huge hit, as usual... Thanks to everybody who came out!!!    SIF, please give us money! :)    Yayy, Leon's our new Sound Engineer!

December 6, 2000

Some sad news to share with you: we've just been informed that we did not make it into the NCCA competition. (They require an audition tape of two or more songs, which we sent in about a month ago.)    There's always next year!

December 2, 2000

We performed at our first private gig of the year, for the Valley Influence Group, at a posh Marriot hotel in (somebody correct me) Topanga Hills? Met some very cool, very eclectic people -- VIG is a networking group for about two dozen businesswomen and men who meet weekly to hang out, make connections, and do whatever it is businesspeople do.    Let's hope we can perform for them again sometime soon!

November 11, 2000

SCAMfest rocked! Thanks to the Claremont Shades for hosting one AWESOME night of a cappella!!!    And, we finally have a mailing list for you folks who want to know what the heck we're doing without having to check the webpage every couple of hours... email us at ecphonema@ugcs to get on the list.

November 8, 2000

Here we go!    Our first performance of the year will be this Friday, November 10th, at the Claremont Colleges' SCAMfest! We'll be the second group in a long list of fantastic southern California college a cappella groups, including the USC Sirens, the SoCal VoCals, and of course the hosts, the Claremont Shades. Email us to get more info.

October, 2000

Well, auditions are over, and, as with any marriage, we had to make sure we got "something old and something new," as well as something borrowed... but both of 'em are purple! Something Old: Joe Cook! Yes, Animal is back, with B.S. in hand! We've arranged to borrow him from Out Of Context, where he works as a "stratospheric tenor" and resident long-haired freak. He hopes to bat .500 this season -- half solos, half VP! Something New: Jon Hunt! This super-experienced and super-cool frosh is a baritone with real New York roots. Something witty here (remind spy network to dig up dirt ASAP).    We've also chosen a slew of officers, which you'll be able to see on our Officers Page, just as soon as we have one! Go Joe! Either that, or I'll just stick them in a table here in the news. In any case, expect to see lots of little updates around the site in the new future, including (eventually) a mailing list for our fans! Whoo-hoo! The future's so bright...

June, 2000

Yes, we are finally recording a CD! Things are going slowly, but we are hoping that everything will be ready to print (burn) before the end of the year. Since we started early, you'll actually be able to hear our complete repertoire from last year with the original soloists. Needless to say, we are all very excited about this. Keep in touch with your friendly, local, purple, Ecphoneman to hear more about this.

Academic Year 1999-2000

October 14th, 1999

A uditions are behind us... and it seeems decisions are getting harder every year. This year we had the largest and most talented pool of auditionees ever. Many candidates had excellent voices that simply do not match up with our range needs at this point in time, while others showed great potential for future years with a little more training. We would like to encourage anyone who did not make the group this year to try again in future years.    I n conclusion, Ecphonema would like to welcome its four newest members: junior Jason "Chewie" Chua, whom you all learned to love as a tenor in the Caltech Chamber Singers, Chris Kurtz, that energetic dude from Out of Context fighting not to be "just another baritone", freshman Marc Popkin-Paine, who will be competing for the "wailing tenor" position, and grad student Zander Nicholson, our new much-anticipated bass.

September 16th, 1999

Auditions are coming! Three Ecphonemen left our ranks, trying to graduate and pursue various other life goals, so we'll be looking to fill their places. If you want to sing, if you know someone who sings, or even if you would just like to see your roomate sing somewhere else besides your room, e-mail us! More info will follow...

Academic Year 1998-1999

October 10th, 1998

Auditions are over! Ecphonema would like to welcome its two newest members: first year graduate student Bret Naylor, a veteran of the UCSD Tritones, and Paul Vigil, our new wailing Tenor. We look forward to the upcoming year with these two dynamic gentlemen!.

September 28th, 1998

Auditions have been moved. We decided not to hold auditions during rotation as originally planned. Instead, they have been moved back to the beginning of the following week to avoid conflicts. Auditions will be held Monday 10/5 and Wednesday 10/7. Remember - if you can't make one of the listed times but still want to audition, let us know. We'll work you in!

September 22th, 1998

Announcing auditions! With the advent of the new academic year and the graduation of some members last year, Ecphonema is seeking to fill out it's ranks. Today we recruited at the activities fair for new grad students. Friday we will be wandering around and singing our hearts out at the undergrad fair. See you there!    Auditions will be held on the evenings of September 30 and October 1. See our audition page for information.

September 20th, 1998

Microphones! Thanks to the Caltech Student Investment Fund, Ecphonema is now the proud owner of a set of Sennheiser e835 Microphones. Stay tuned as we build and learn to use our soundsystem over the next year. The next target: mixing board and amplifiers.

September 10th, 1998

We are back! The returning five members of Ecphonema have returned from their summer exploits and begun the process of rebuilding.

Academic Year 1997-1998

June 17th, 1998

So in the aftermath of Bill Nye, Ecphonema has, for the most part, shut down for the summer. The only important remaining news is that the Student Investment Fund awarded Ecphonema $450 to purchase microphones. Since a few members of the group already have their own mics, it's looking like Ecphonema will be performing at least some concerts with full audio power next year. Watch out!

June 12th, 1998

Well folks, it happened. And it rocked. Ecphonema sang at Caltech's 1998 graduation commencement ceremony. The graduation speaker was TV personality Bill Nye the Science Guy, and we performed a sixty-second arrangement of his (techno) TV theme song. In front of two thousand people. With seven microphones. And with ten thousand watts of power. Aww yeah. We have a videotape and should be getting an audio recording soon (the sound on the videorecorder was fairly weak). I'll put a movie of it up on the web site as soon as I figure out how.

May 28th, 1998

It's official, folks! It may only last sixty seconds, but it's going to be our coolest gig ever to our biggest audience ever. Hang on to your hats, and make sure you're on campus and attending the big bash on June 12th. Uhhh... most everyone who's on campus will probably be there, I imagine. If you don't know what event I'm talking about, look up June 12th on the Caltech Academic Calendar.

May 18th, 1998

Well, Spiral Mouth came last Friday, and kicked butt all over Avery courtyard. Damn they're good. We held our big concert ("One Loud Noise") also at avery a couple of days before. Joe has left town, so it's down to seven of us for decompression and our mystery special performance at the end of the year. Stay tuned.

May 8th, 1998

Joe Cook was sacked, but the Tech failed to print the article despite hours of effort on my part to make it easy for them. Darn them.

May 5th, 1998

Joe Cook has been sacked. See this week's Tech for details.

April 27th, 1998

As you can see, the new page is in the works. As I'm typing, the Shows, Guys, Main and News frames are up and ready. I have spent way too much time on this thing today.

April 25th, 1998

Sorry this page was not updated for so long: an entire new page has been in the works and I thought I'd work on the new page instead of news updates. However, it turns out that one of these updates takes me five minutes though the new page has been in the works for months. Doh. Anyway, we're busy as hell lately. Here's what's going down on Ecphonema's calendar these days: We now have a repertoire of 13 songs! Not bad for half a year. We have a concert at USC tonight hosted by The Sirens. Also there will be the The SoCal VoCals, The USC Hangovers, the USC Loudmouths, and Pomona's rockin' women's quartet Pandora's Vox. In about two weeks we have a concert at Pomona with the Styledogs. That weekend- a concert at Tech where Ecphonema will sing everything we know. We hope? Stay tuned. The next week- Friday the 15th of May, the incredible professional group Spiral Mouth will be performing at Tech for a noon concert!! Hell, yeah! A recording? Ecphonema may be doing an informal recording to put the 1997-98 Ecphonema sound down for posterity before some of our beloved members graduate. New Web Page! Really, this time. The graphics are mostly done; check back to see a new page probably within a week.