|
News flash: A cappella is hip! Seriously, there’s a growing interest in a cappella music that has crossed over to the MySpace/Facebook generation. It has officially become cool to be in an a cappella band! There are groups springing up on college campuses across the country, many inspired by The Blanks. Leading this pack of cool is a quartet of friends, The Blanks, who appear on the worldwide syndicated television show Scrubs as “Ted's Band.” In a case of life imitating art (or is it art imitating life?), the group was written into the script as a quartet of friends who like to sing a cappella music. Bizarre, huh? Group member Sam Lloyd played the recurring role of character “Ted Buckland” on all nine seasons of Scrubs on NBC and later ABC, now airing on Comedy Central, TV Land, WGN, and a host of other local/regional channels just in the US. The show is on several times a day everywhere in the US, giving the Blanks a constant boob tube presence. The kids like it. Their parents like it. Sam is joined by Paul F. Perry, George Miserlis and Philip McNiven. In 2004, the Blanks released their debut CD, "Riding the Wave" (Parody Records). In 2008 they began touring. In 2008 they also made T-shirts.
Based in Los Angeles, The Blanks perform and sing family-friendly (cool) entertainment with plenty of (hip) musical and sketch comedy. They sing a cappella versions of popular TV show theme songs ranging from “Charles In Charge” to “Six Million Dollar Man,” and commercial jingles like “By Mennen.” They’ve put words to songs without lyrics, such as the “Good Old Days,” the theme from The Little Rascals. The only instruments you’ll find on stage are talking toys - that's right, four grown men who still play with action figures. Not ones to rest on their laurels nor teeter on the edge of rebellion and artistic bravado with their choice of deodorant commercials, the Blanks wrote some original numbers that sound like songs even they might want to cover! You haven’t seen anything quite like it before. They love to sing, entertain and make people laugh, so their shows include skits, antics, choreography (the kind a 5-year old could memorize), talking toys as lead singers, and costume changes.
|