Marauder-Man

From a recent Merced Sentinel...big news Marauders Snare Vanguard in Drum Tilt Forgery! The 1960 Merced Marauders want a share of the 1998 DCI high percussion award given to the Vanguard and they are prepared to go to court over it. It all started after the most recent Marauder Alumni meeting at the IHOP off Ave 18 outside of Merced, when young Steve Badaschi, grandson of Joe Badaschi who anchored the 1960 line, noticed while looking through old news paper clippings and microfiche that his grandfathers line kind of played the like great 1998 SCV line with the snares tilted. Of course Joe hadn't seen anything since 1961, the year he felt drumming as a whole started it's fiery downward spiral, and also because 8mm reels were no longer made of winning lines. Joe became infuriated over someone copying his invention and the fact he was given no credit for it. Joe tells it like this...after the famous lines of 57-58-59...we decided it was just too hard to find good talented people who can not only play double-traditional, but also play clean triple-ratamacues along with it. We were forced to go with match grip, by far the most common and easiest of all grips to play, #### monkeys can do it....anyway, we thought switching to match would give bass drummers and mallet players alike a chance to make the snare line and enjoy some of the glory in the spot light. Then one guy, I think it was Joe Henderson said, "why stop there"?...why not tilt the snare drums a full 90 degrees and play like basses...you know this made since...for years we had been trying to play clean with each other by listening to the bottom head where the snares were....the rotation would send the sound down the line instead of away from it....we don't care what the crowd hears...so we did it...it wasn't easy...left hands made the adjustment fairly normal, but those poor right hands getting caught up in the guts like dolphins on a tuna boat was a hard transition...we decided for practice we would play the right hand on the top half of the bottom head 9 to 3 (o'clock), then for shows we would switch to 3 to 9 (o'clock), basically giving us a nice crispy area of the head to play on. It took weeks, even months to get our 16th notes together and people laughed at us....but slowly it started to gel, we were doing something revolutionary and people started to take notice. I think the first time we all started to notice a change in the line was at the Salinas Rodeo Night Parade. The only dirt flying that night was the horse crap on our shoes...our triple ratamacues were crispier than ever, even if the crowd couldn't hear it....depending on what side of the street you were on, you got a different sounding rudiment all together...basically everything was split (see Marauders v Blue Devils lawsuit) and it was amazing. After viewing the 1998 SCV show on his grandsons fancy DVD player, Joe became violently angry, not so much about the dancing as Joe refers to most DCI shows these days, but the fact that SCV had their snares titled in a somewhat similar fashion. "They can't even do it right" yelled Joe....what kind of bullcrap is that...where's the ratamacues, where's the power, where's the grunts...I'm suing all of them and DCI too if they don't give me that trophy and some cash for my pain and suffering. We started this activity and we should be acknowledged...you wanna know how many times me and the boys practiced in the middle of winter in a field of cows...we deserve better. DCI is currently investigating this case and was unavailable for any further comments....also, calls to former SCV instructors Jim Casella and Murray Gusseck were not returned. stay tuned.

Cadets had their ears blown-off in 1987 too after beating us by a tenth... that was ONE crazy night.... it was extremely hard to lose that year, but they are still one of my favorite Corps....they know how to peak better than anyone in the game. Mike N. 1987 SCV snare

stay tuned for much much more. Marauder-Man

Back in 1957 I marched with the Merced Marauders...an elite group of junior college drummers who simply wanted to be more than just average...the 16-man snare line played double traditional grip, simply because we could and we knew match and standard traditional were just plain inferior grips. The tenor line consisted of 4 bad ### guys cut from the football team, they were the only guys able to carry the all-metal tri-tom setup we had from Ludwig, none of them could read or play a simple rudiment, but they were intimidating. Our bass line was 3 guys, all playing a 36" bass with the same mallets, nobody really cared about them or cared if they were together. They were often picked on at Maurader tail gate parties and bake sales. Our practices were once a week and were usually at Thompsons cattle ranch off 99...their we would not be interrupted, and we could focus on being the best line ever. We had no instructors, we simply taught ourselves. A few of the more talented guys would run things every now and then, but that stopped after one of them was severely beaten for being cocky. All of our music started and ended with triple ratamacues (by far the most difficult of all rudiments) and a hearty grunt from the tenor line. The grunt was usually clean. I would have to say since 1957 drumming has been on a steady decline (IMO). No more grunts, no 16 man snare lines, and now just a bunch of ####ty instructors looking for a beating. Bass lines are now playing different size drums, what's up with that, cant the group even afford the same equipment, and they are far from being together..I saw one group who had 5 guys playing different music all together...man that was funny. Cymbal players all dancing around..what happened to just welding an old 16" paiste to the snare...when we needed a crash we hit the thing...and hard. Our solos..ok the whole show consisted of us in front, the whole time...every once in awhile when we needed to play softer, we would march backwards down the 50 (stupid). Now days I see drumlines or should I call them dancers, running all over the place....in my day the snare lines would never separate...our legs were literally sewn together to the guy next to you before each show..I remember that one show where Steve Jordan made a wrong move and his poor leg just opened up like a can of meat...man we laughed at him, but you know what..steve never made that mistake again. What was great about that year, was that we all went to the same school, we were all local....we were at every bake sale and every bong party...no flying in once a month... we weren't millionaires. Yep, things have changed...now everything looks like a #### broadway show, you got diesel trucks with big flashy paint jobs, tour busses and fancy uniforms, guys dancing around with flags (don't get me started) and the drumlines not alwas in the front....we were better, our grunts were better, we marched back and forth better, and we played a ton of those #### triple ratamacues...you just don't see that anymore....I haven't gone to any shows since 1958, but I hear through all my alumni buddies along with the 1972 dolphins that we were the best...I know we were.If anyone needs proof, our next alumni party will be at Cattlemens Restaurant on February 11th...Steve Pista will be bring his 8mm reels to show on the projection screen...it's B/W, but you get the idea. Lefty Stevens