Gaddabout

I'm sure the show could be outstanding, but what I saw last night, they have a LOT of work ahead of them. It was a bummer, because I always look forward to SCV shows. As for the Rennick perc book, I probably need to get my ears checked. I heard a LOT of Hardimon-esque buzz rolls, the kind I think SCV made hip, but I didn't hear those distinctive Rennick snare passages. In some ways I felt the SCV batterie was sort of lost in the show design. It's definitely a show I have to watch again because I can't believe I came away with the impression I did. Those pajamas looked like they were getting ready for bed. Tim Leary's bed.

Saw them last night in Mesa. My bias is Firebird Suite is overdone, so I just could not connect with it. But my old marching buddy was enthralled with them, and especially the use of 5/4 + 6/4 arrangement in 'Mars.' We both agree the batterie is outstanding, maybe good enough to compete for High Drum. Their execution is what you'd expect of a corps with a high experience level. It stood out when compared to SCV visibly struggling with multiple elements. I can see them challenging as the season goes on, just not sure where this show can grow from where they have it now. It will be constantly compared to Phantom '07, even though the arrangement has some distinct differences. I would temper enthusiasm, though. There are things about this group that just don't match up to the Big 4 right now. For example, Phantom's front ensemble is ridiculously good and well-featured, giving the show more emotional swings. BK just comes out and shouts at the crowd. It's hard to wow judges for 10 minutes at that level, no matter how athletic the show is.

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Been dwelling on the show ever since I got home last night. It was not that hot for a Phoenix night. About 100 degrees when BK took the field and probably about 5 percent humidity. No breeze, but it was mild and tolerable. Very uneven night very everyone but Phantom, which looked like they were about a month away from perfection. My thoughts: BK: Well executed show for June, but it's Firebird Suite, so ... it's hard to live up to expectations that others have done so well already. I just couldn't get inspired. Did like the standing tune at the end I Love You Baby. Some fun. I don't know if it was the heat or what, but they just didn't bring it for this show. Perhaps this will improve going forward. The batterie excelled here. What you would expect, also, from a Hardimon regiment. SCV: I've never seen so many spacing issues from this corps. Just. So. Dirty. Not a real fair assessment in June, but they looked far behind the other corps. On the flip side, the show is there. Perhaps it's just a different process from, say, Academy, which is attempting to master the front end of the show before putting the whole thing together. The horns won the day here, though. If I had any hair left, it would have blown off by about the 7 minute mark. Good grief, they can scream. The perc book was very traditional SCV, very orchestral, but a lot of the tech passages are tucked away. I wonder if they need to beef it up a bit and be more out front with it. Phantom: Just outstanding. Was not expecting any corps to execute so well last night. The design is there for another typical Phantom run, and the arrangement of Puccini is delicious. If they lacked anything, it was that raw intensity from the horns, but the tone was beautiful. Academy: I had no idea what to expect with all the staff turnover and new faces of people I am unfamiliar with. I certainly did not expect the intensity and aggression of both the show design and the performance. That left an indelible mark on the hometown audience. Just take the batterie score, which had so many notes it must look like a black page. That was very ... un-Academy. And they actually executed it for the most part. The whole corps just looks more savvy and veteran than they have in the past. They do appear to have some fresh faces on the color guard they're hiding in the back, but the featured rifle work looked very challenging to my untrained eye. That part was very clean and well executed. The general sound was so much bigger than in the past. They looked and sounded like a serious World Class drum corps out there, and no longer just a mere dark horse or underdog. I'm not familiar enough with Rite of Spring to know which song they ended with on the field, but it has the potential to be a show killer. It was a very strange and abstract modern arrangement that seemed to suck the charity they had earned from the crowd. But then the finale played standing returned a lot of the promise of the show. So wish I had seen them march it. BTW, the all-black British unis (or whatever they are) are really sharp. They should keep them going forward. They look and sound like a very angry Phantom.

I'm a journalist by trade, two decades worth of experience now. This release made me cringe. If I were the PR director, I would have crossed out the entire first graph. He's obviously not talking to the public or even DCI fans. He's delivering a message that would have been much better delivered verbally in an alumni meeting or something. It doesn't belong in a public address in any fashion, particularly since none of us on the periphery have any clue there was a need to address anything. Now the door is opened for public speculation. But I find this to be a problem with most corps. I'm going to stop now or I'll start ranting about how I (and some of my colleagues who are DCI vets/fans) have been continually rebuffed after offering our time and assistance on the local level.

http://www.emailapp.net/email/link.php?M=8...p;L=116&F=H Couldn't find the general thread.

Hannum and ScoJo come up from time to time among my friends in the music community. Some other guys who've done some composing for TV/movies, or have done extensive clinics through Vic Firth, Yamaha, etc. Certainly wasn't suggesting anyone was a household name.

Academy = Arizona State literally and figuratively. There's a crossover connection in staff, and both programs are sort of waiting to take the next step ... and maybe just wanting to be relevant to the discussion for now.

I knew someone would object to that. It's no disrespect to Tom Aungst at all. I'd certainly line up to compete for his line.

First, I doubt there'd be much objection to the statement that BD is commonly at the top or near the top of the list for many age-outs. It just is. Cavies and Cadets are certainly in that discussion. I'm not going to argue who is the top destination. Second, I'm going to argue when it comes to caption heads, there probably is a regional bias ... west coast, midwest, and east coast. Probably tiered like that. I'm in the west, so ScoJo is the name that jumps out. If I were closer to the Atlantic, Hannum would probably be fresh in my mind. Aungst is still developing his reputation, IMO. I don't think he's as well known outside the activity -- but he's certainly gaining momentum. I think once you get inside the activity one's list of "heroes" expands, but when you see the same names at or near the top of the trophy list in a given caption, it's pretty difficult not to develop a separate category of worship for them. I know a guy who works in Hollywood now, but was so star struck by Tom Float he was too embarrassed to go up and just talk to that guy. Drum corps is definitely a culture unto itself!

Moving from corps to corps is usually relative to how many veterans are returning, how many age-outs are jumping on board, etc. For example, if you're marching bass in X corps, but want march snare and your corps has a line full of age-outs and prodigies, you might look elsewhere depending on your competitive spirit. Conversely, if you want the experience of marching in the most competitive environment, you're going to go looking for the places with the most competitive reputations. If you look at the "name" caption heads, they're usually going to draw the most age-outs and have the most intense competitions. I think it's generally true, but not universally true. As it relates to BD, that's up for interpretation, but ScoJo tends to draw a crowd wherever he goes. I don't think it's like that every section, but I believe it to be somewhat true for the battery.

Open the roof, slap a DCI logo on some misty mates, fund the organization for a year selling "Official DCI Misty Mates" and $5 ice cold bottled water (you put it in your Misty Mate).

They buy clothes at fashion shows, with one dollar down, Oh boy! Tip your hat! Oh joy! She's the cat! Who's that mistah? 'Tain't a sistah! Sweet Georgia Brown!

I'll just add this ... if I were a battery player and I was considering auditioning for a corps playing a lineup of, say, 70s funk horn bands, I'd probably audition someplace else. I'd have no interest in keeping 2&4 for a drum corps.

Ha! Now we're getting really silly but I can't stop myself. I'm not even sure what my logic is here. I'm not fans of every drummer on this list ... SNARES Vinnie Colaiuta Virgil Donati Dave Weckl Thomas Lang Jojo Mayer Keith Carlock Pat Petrillo TENORS Terry Bozzio Carter Beauford Gary Novak Tommy Igoe BASS Smitty Smith Mike Portnoy Todd Sucherman Gregg Bissonnette Neil Peart PIT Steve Gadd - Drum set Akira Jimbo - Timpani Gary Husband - Marimba Trilok Gurti - Hand percussion Stanton Moore - 'Funky' gong bass Rick Marotta - Slapstick

I've seen Vinnie offer up demonstrations on snare that would make him highly qualified for any snare line. I've watched him toss out sextuplets with his left hand at about 118 BPM (against a swing pattern, which was just insane). His flam combos and exchanges are otherworldly (master of the reverse flam!). Trust me, his hands are golden. I'd love to see these two guys match up with Rob Carson to see who has the best singles. I'm not certain Carson would win. (Ironically, they'd all be matched grip!) Unlike the WFD guys, these three would have smoooooooooth singles. No pulsing, no broken streams. There used to be a video of Carlock playing a marching snare solo for one of his exit performances at North Texas. It was every bit as good as what you'd see at I&E. He marched center snare at NTSU and has unbelievable hands (even if he's sold out on Moeller). I'd be comfortable with him on a snare line. Todd is an amazing technician with wonderful hands. I *know* he could play on a line.

A couple of major issues: 1. Licensing. DCI doesn't come equipped with an ASCAP license, so directors can't go roaming through their pop CDs to find nuanced songs to perform. They have to secure the legal rights to the music. Pop charts = not cheap! Especially if you have to pay per performance, which is standard. Marching bands etc. buy packages of pre-arranged pop songs, but they're not allowed to mess with it. They bought the arrangement and a limited use license. 2. Melody and harmony. There's not a lot of it unless you go back a few years. There are some songs that could benefit from a strong brass arranger, but most of it would be like trying to put glitter on poop. When you're competing against, say, Phantom Regiment who are blowing hard on the classics with built in technical pluses, you don't want to handicap yourself with a lesser score. 3. Perception. Even with a challenging arrangement of a pop song, there's a general perception problem that it's not high art. Maybe even more damning is the fact that college marching bands already unload these tunes with regularity, and drum corps officianados typically like to think of drum corps as elevated above marching band (please let's not start that discussion again ... and just agree that perception/bias is there). You never know the point of view a judge might be coming from, but you can be relatively sure they're more familiar with classical than pop music. You stand a great likelihood coming across judges who prefer classical over pop and see pop as a sub-level art form. It's a risk a competitive corps probably shouldn't take.

I find the issue of dirty lines a bit hairy, personally. I'm on the field and I hear pure-as-snow clarity; you're 150 yards away and you hear mud. The reality is virtually every line starting at, say, 15 on down is dang near perfect come finals week. Mistakes are so nuanced that it requires some serious training to hear the ticks and misses. After awhile I think people just start hearing what they want to hear. And who is anyone else to disagree? You say you hear dirt and you have strong convictions about it, there's no debating it. We could replay it and listen to it together and we'll maintain the same impressions. I've always felt in the absence of the tick system, percussion judges are as influenced by the overall corps performance as they are the battery's or the pit's. The music can sweep them up or bore them to tears, and it impacts their scoring. I think this is especially true if a pursuing corps has a particularly strong and emotional performance ... the next corps to follow is probably going to take minor beating whether they deserve it or not. I think BD '08 is probably a decent argument for a return to two percussion judges. That pit's performance deserved a dedicated ear, IMO, and whatever issues that battery had didn't stick out to me worthy of the drop they had in scoring.

Carmine is a really cool guy, an earnest educator of the young. Considering his solid training as a kid, I imagine him having some interesting things to say about drum corps.

Yes, but aren't those Bb angklungs? KIDDING! Those kids are amazing.

Only if you're 14 and it's 1972.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA8Qy-wqirw...feature=related

Because you can't improve on perfection, but other corps might catch up with an extra three weeks.