Grammy-nominated vocal wizards The Bobs’ new tour celebrates their 14th CD, Get Your Monkey Off My Dog, and the DVD release of the documentary chronicling their history, Sign My Snarling Movie: 25 Years of the The Bobs.

The clever wit, talented voices, and charismatic dynamic of the award-winning a cappella group the Bobs have been delighting audiences for more than 20 years. Their impressively complex vocal arrangements exercise the diverse range of the group in both creative original songs and well-loved classics.

After Western Onion Singing Telegram service closed in 1981, employees Gunnar Madsen and Matthew Stull saved each other by teaming up and placing an ad in the San Francisco classifieds for a bass singer. Their only reply was from bass singer/songwriter/recording engineer Richard Greene and after six months of rehearsal, the Bobs debuted at a Cuban restaurant open-mic night in Berkeley, California, with the covers “Psycho Killer” and “A White Sport Coat,” which were met with rave reviews.

They began writing original complex arrangements, which required another voice for harmonizing, thus Janie Scott joined the group. Kaleidoscope Records produced The Bobs self-titled debut album in 1983. In the next decade, the a cappella group burst onto the national scene with half a dozen albums, a world tour, and TV and radio appearances.

The Bobs received a Grammy nomination for their arrangement of the Beatle’s “Helter Skelter,” which won the award for Best Arrangement at the first Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards in 1992. The description that accompanied the award said, “Rather than translating instrumental parts to voices or relying on clichéd syllables and voicings, Gunnar and Richard created a new vocabulary of sounds and textures. The arrangement deconstructs the song line by line, transforming the Beatles classic into an a cappella, post-modern performance art piece.” The Bobs also won the category Signed Professional Best Album that year and have since won numerous CARA Awards.

Their repertoire also includes multiple collaborations with dance companies. In 1987, the Oberlin Dance Collective commissioned them for the set of songs “The Laundry Cycle.” The Bobs’s work with the dance troupe ISO received a commission for the Lincoln Center, a one-hour presentation on PBS, and a spot in the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of American History.

In 1990, founding member Madsen retired from the group and Joe Finetti joined, adding vocal percussion and sound effects. Dan Schumacher joined the group in 2004. Lori Rivera replaced Scott, until 1998 when Amy Engelhardt filled the soprano Bob slot. Their 11^th and most recent album, Rhapsody in Bob (2005), is a testament to the progressive innovation of the Bobs as a mainstay of new wave a cappella.

—Alissa Bourbonnais