The Valley is a place where you can find musicians of every stripe, from young, starry-eyed popsters whose egos generally outsize their skinny jeans to gritty, middle-aged cover bands to aging blues men whose refusal to evolve beyond “three chords and the truth” only makes them more endearing. In almost all of them, though, one can find ulterior motives, be they aspirations to fame, a steady paycheck or a niche for one’s personal posterity.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, but neither is it completely pure. So when one encounters a group like Smith College’s a cappella singers The Noteables, there’s a special kind of warm feeling that can only be gleaned from the innocence that results from casual involvement.
Of The Noteables’ 14 members, only one is “thinking about becoming a music major—sort of.” Another is considering going into music management of some sort, but that’s about it for professional goals that even begin to approach anything musical. So, for just about all of them, these women are in it just for the love of it—and that’s special. There’s an unmitigated joy in their performance because of this; there doesn’t appear to be any hope in the back of their minds that there’s a record executive in the audience, or even a hot groupie that they might wind up going home with, and there’s no illusion that anyone will make any money from her talents.
When I first heard The Noteables on a weekend radio show on UMass’s WMUA, I was impressed by their skill in both arrangement and execution, and their repertoire on the 2009 release Animal, Vegetable, Noteable, which included eclectic selections ranging from a Beatles Abbey Road medley to Collective Soul’s “Shine” (though they incorrectly credit this on the CD cover to Dolly Parton, who recorded a cover of the song in 2001), to Madonna’s “Borderline,” The Turtles’ “Happy Together” and the Mario Brothers theme song.
I was so charmed, in fact, that I sought them out for an interview. The ladies of the Smith College-based a cappella group would prove to be not only the talented bunch they seemed to be, but also inspirational in their genuine love for, appreciation of and dedication to music—and fun.
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Fun was the theme when I met the Noteables at Smith’s Campus Center to attempt to interview 13 of their 14 members at once. Smiles were abundant and eyes bright; postures were lithe and alert and wits equally so. I was immediately given some complimentary temporary tattoos bearing the logo of the Smith Pioneers, which is the name of all the school’s athletic teams, from track and field to crew. I was also given the April Fool’s Day issue of the Sophian, Smith’s student-run newspaper, which for this all-parody issue was titled the So Feezy—a reference to rapper Lil’ Wayne that I must admit I am too old to fully grok.
The group’s members are Caitlin Bunning, musical director (or “pitch”—she holds the pitch pipe); Katie Bucaccio, assistant musical director; Jade Bowden, business manager; and Red Smith, Melanie Colvin, Rachel Simmons, Hannah Kistler, Yuna Kim, Elizabeth Bayne, Kate Meizner, Claire Abisalih, Karen Gilbert, Sara Kelly and Juliane Casey. Upon being told (by them) that they have “a very large range,” I promptly dared them to match my not unimpressive FM-flavored baritone. This unleashed a gaggle of voices that sounded like Elaine Benes in drag for some comical Seinfeldian purpose, and they did tolerably well, Jade and Red taking the low trophies. Katie, they all agreed, gets the nod for the glass-shattering high notes, though she gets a little competition here and there.
Almost all of The Noteables play some instrument, mostly piano and guitar. Meizner is in a band and deejays (live), while Casey (aka DJ Om) has a radio show on Smith’s WOZQ 91.9 Tuesday from 8 to 10 p.m. with co-host Ingrid Jacobsen (aka DJ Downward Dog). Its name is “Smith Spirit,” and its theme is “college student spirituality.” Casey’s the one who says she’s interested in possibly getting into music management, though for now she’s a psych major.
The group has been a Smith tradition since 1982, so it’s coming up on its 30th anniversary. This batch of warblers is currently working on the sixth studio album, All Chairs (get it? no tables) with producer/engineer Mark Miller at Westhampton’s Slaughterhouse Studios.
“He’s a great guy, awesome,” they say of the ubiquitous Valley record-crafter. “We apply for funding through the college and do the [tracking and] mixing there.”
Miller has equally fond words for The Noteables: “Doing ‘Killer Queen’ was really cool. And with ‘Good Vibrations’ (the Beach Boys), I was also recording the same song with an Amherst College a cappella group (The Zumbyes) during the same time period,” he says with a chuckle. “It was tricky keeping the tracks separate in my mind. One day when I have some free time, I might try mixing the two versions together and see what it sounds like, just for kicks.”
The Noteables’ venerable artistic charter—an institution at this point—is treated with great respect by each successive group of singers, which can change as often as every semester (though some hang around for their entire college tenure).
“Our group has very old traditions in it, certain activities that we do every year to keep the group alive,” says Bunning. “Every song has a soloist who’s voted in as a soloist, so it’s kind of like you get to leave your mark as a soloist, and the arranger gets to leave their mark as an arranger.”
The Noteables’ process is also a little less cutthroat-competitive than some of its contemporaries, too, says Bowden: “Unlike a lot of the other a cappella groups at Smith, we make it so once you get your solo, it’s your solo. Other groups sometimes make it so people can ‘challenge’ your solo if they think they can sing it better than you.”
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Still, the Noteables say there’s no real rivalry between the various a cappella groups on campus, except perhaps during song choosing (there’s a sort of gathering of the tribes every semester to assure that they won’t wind up doing the same songs).
One of the most amazing things about these women is their ability to deconstruct every aspect of a song and arrange their voices to replicate, impressively, the sounds of instruments, including strings, horns, keyboards, bass, guitar and just about any other instrument you could think of. There is also a significant beat-box element to their a cappella compositions wherein at least a couple of the girls are pumping out drum and cymbal sounds.
“When we do songs, we definitely pick them based on being able to fill out the parts with our voices,” says Bowden, “like making sure there’s not some extremely high synth part that we couldn’t do.”
The group performs quite often; in fact, right after our April Fool’s Day interview I accompanied them to the Mendenhall Center (Smith’s primary theater building), where they put on a surprise performance as an opening act for the SIKOs (Smith Improv and Komedy Organization), a comedy troupe that was also enjoyable and equally tuned into the pure fun vibe. In front of an audience of about 50 people, Katie Bucaccio performed her lead on Cher’s “Believe” not only with serious skill, but, in total commitment to the sentimental cheese of the song, in a Tigger suit. (It’s unclear where the suit came from, but it seems to have become a signature outfit for The Noteables, making an appearance at almost every outing).
Next up was Casey, who sang the lead on the Flight of the Conchords parody song “Business Time,” which turns an “I’m gonna make sweet love to you, baby” R&B ballad into something awkward and mundane (but probably more honest): “Then in the bathroom brushing our teeth/ That’s all part of the foreplay, I love foreplay/ Then you go sort out the recycling/ That isn’t part of the foreplay, but it’s still very important.” Casey keeps a smile on her face the whole time as she mimics Jemaine Clement’s deep, Luther Vandross-style vocal velvet, and the rest of the members sway in the background like a barbershop quattuordectet on a city street corner.
The Noteables’ next scheduled public performance is during Smith’s honored “Illumination” tradition (in which multi-colored lanterns are hung all along the campus) on May 14 (8:30 p.m. at the Public Safety Arch near the Neilson Library). It may be your last chance to see this group, as several are graduating seniors, but if you can’t make it, make sure to get a copy of All Chairs, and/or check out Noteables merch and links at www.smith.edu/noteables or www.facebook.com/smithnoteables. You can see a video of them performing Cher’s “Believe” and Sara Bareilles’s “Fairytale” at a concert hosted by the BU Sweethearts on March 4, 2011 at www.youtube.com/watch?v=aO03gjqTq-E.
