Nelly

How the heck does this thread have such a low rating? Come on, now...

Maybe I'm the lone crazy person here, but the first thing that came to mind was "Wow, those sound incredibly like last year's drums". Which is not a bad thing, actually. Dynasty snares can be made to sound good (ie Phantom), and though BD has had quite a few gross tuning jobs, I thought this past season was markedly better, and this video seems to stay pretty close to that sound. Seriously. Go watch a video of their 09 snare line, then watch this video. Very similar sounds. It's like the emperor's new clothes...everyone's beside themselves with joy over how much of a 180 in sound this is, but eh...only vaguely.

I think that a lot of the people in this thread are really jumping to conclusions. They haven't even gone so far as to change their name back to "Spirit of Atlanta", and yet a bunch of y'all are already assuming that they're going to come out with a 1980's-esque Spirit swing show. That's a bit of a jump, IMO. They've changed their housing location, not completely cleared out their design team. I think you're getting your hopes up prematurely.

Um...seriously? Wow.

You're as insightful and refreshing as always. Being unnecissarily cynical and rude makes you so cool and original. Really.

Holy crap, you people need to stop getting so up in arms about all of this... the TC was proposing this hypothetically, just to talk about in good fun. It seems like some of you are just reacting so violently to someone (very indirectly) suggesting that, get this, the judges are, in fact, human beings and therefore neve quite objective. Heck, he wasn't even saying that much, really... But I'll bite and contribute. I think, market wise, HNC in first and CC in second would be the best combination. Crown winning would be a little too far-fetched to swallow just yet, and so even the people that want it would feel a little weird about it. Cadets, however, were everyone's pre-season choice, and the whole no-narration thing this year would be successful in the New Coke/Classic Coke type of way. That being said, Crown in second would be plausible, I think. I agree with the Troopers thing, though.

You didn't recommend the Varsity for eating? For shame.

WOW...Boston beat Cadets in drums, when's the last time that's ever happened?

Listen to the perc judge from 2006 for Cavies and Phantom. Runs into a guard guy for both, and in Phantom's case, it's the actual devil

Guys, before we get too incensed, let's remember that we're talking about a sports journalist -- one of the most absurdly unimportant occupations in existance. It's only through, relatively speaking, the high levels of disposable income in our culture that (a) overgrown children are paid insane amounts to run in circles chasing a piece of plastic, and (b) those guys can ride the futility choo-choo even further by getting paid to write about it. I think this article really helps put it in perspective: http://www.theonion.com/content/news/natio...sperately_seeks

When I was in 7th grade, my HS band did a WWII show, and one of the drill sets was a Swastika...it got changed after the first football game.

Hey, if it makes you feel better, I do wish that Phantom had stayed with Pearl. There...I'm less of a weirdo

Well, I actually love the sound that Dynasty gets...you had better save this quote, 'cause it'll be the first and last positive comment on this thread. Seriously though, the snares and basses especially have a sort of "boxy" sound. I think it's good, especially for indoor lines. Outdoors, it sounds good too, but not as much...But it's definitely different, and will come off as a bit obtuse to those who like the older plastic head sound. I can see what you're saying about a metallic sound when it comes to the quads, but, once again, I personally think that that's the best quad sound you can get, closely seconded by Pearl, with Yamaha at a distant third. It all just comes down to a difference in taste, really.

You can hate me all you want for this, but I predict that they just won't stack up to Spirit's 96.

That may be true, but the extra weight in the quads also has to do with the frame, which keeps them from sagging like used diapers, which is something Pearl does horribly.

And if some guy on an internet forum that says he's a band director gives anecdotal evidence for something, it must be true.

edit: nm, it works now.

Like someone said a few post ago, we basically have a whole song/movement devoted to the horns -- the ballad. Why shouldn't the battery and pit get some time for themselves also? As to the whole "they're integrated into the shows now" thing...Yeah, they are spread more evenly now, but it definitely seems like there's way, way less total time given for drum breaks now than back in the older days. This seems more true in the lower ranking corps especially...kind of as if the staff weren't as sure how to integrate it properly or something. I mean, you can absolutley have a good half of a movement or even a whole movement devoted to percussion alone if you do it right.

Well, it could be bad, since I know that their tenor mallets at least are pieces of ####, but it could also lead to a decent line of promark marching products. Let's hope so.

Wow, that picture really accentuates how short what's-her-face-in-the-center is. And does anybody know why Gusseck isn't arranging the book?

I can't remember if it's this guy or not, but I do seem to recall a soulless Cadet bot posting this same generic message over the past 3 years. Not that I don't think the Cadets won't be awesome or anything. Just sayin'.

My fantasy show would be based on the music of Batman. It would start with a rolling intro using something from the batman begins soundtrack that builds, like epesticus (sp). Then the opener would be the danny elfman batman theme at a balls-out tempo. The next piece would be the old batman tv theme, arranged as a percussion feature much like Cadets 2000. The horns would hit for stuff like "wham!" and "kapow!". The guard would act out badly choreographed fight scenes. The ballad would be corynorhinus from batman begins. The closer, I'm not sure about...but it would reprise to the opener and end all loud and exciting.

The lack of perspective of the original post is pretty ridiculous IMO.

I'm basically saying that bluecoats get pretty overhyped on this board.

Is it really that hard for you to grasp that not everyone worships the ground that the bluecoats walk on? Every time someone on this board says anything negative about bluecoats, it's like they've committed thoughtcrime or something. It's brutal. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love a lot of the stuff they do...but the "bluecoats are rising" mania can be kind of ridiculous and one-sided sometimes.