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That's what came to mind when I saw this announcement. Seems like they're mixing Pulse and American Horror Story together. Could be good, could be really weird. Hoping for more dark, edgy shows in DCI

Usually Open Class corps hold their auditions a bit later than WC corps, so it should work out. I think most Open Class corps audition in December/January, while most WC corps are on the Thanksgiving weekend

They do practice a more than most college bands. Most only get two or three days of rehearsal a week. And don't get two weeks of 12 hour rehearsals before school starts, maybe a week at most.

My last sentence was more connected to programs that take college marching band very seriously, like Western Carolina. It seems as if most colleges consider their marching band as an extension of the spirit programs, who exists to support the athletics (read: football) teams, and pump up the crowd. This is usually what we see from most bands (i.e. Ohio State, Texas, Bama, Michigan). Shows full of modern tunes, very stereotypical drill, and crowd-friendly programming. There are programs though (mostly in the South) where the band is the draw, because the sports programs are not good. Bands like Grambling, Southern, Florida A&M, schools such as that. Their football programs are not known for being good at all, so the band show is what people come to watch. These are the big show bands. And the band should not bear any of the blame for the athletic program's inadequacies. They're not hiring the coaching staffs or recruiting players. They're showing up to play and entertain. There are also programs at all levels that run corps-style marching bands, and do take it seriously. It would appear most are at the lower levels of college sports, I can't think of any full corps-style bands at the FBS level.

They weren't a part of them already? I thought they pretty much were, with most of BD's staff teaching or designing there, and a bunch of their members passing through RCC. Guess the only change now is the label.

Cool, that works for you. But that doesn't work for everyone. Some members want their college band to be really good, and perform a flashy show with actual drill. Others want the "normal college band" thing where it's just pop music and park-n-blow. Not sure you can really sum up the goal of college marching bands. Especially if it's a school where football isn't that big.

Western Carolina, sorry. Thought that was clear until I remembered about West Chester

Probably not. There are a bunch in the East, WCU is a big one on the circuit. There is the college marching band contest in Allentown every year, if Fan Network could do some sort of On-Demand video thing for that, could be interesting

I could see Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, and ASU ending the season around the ten win neighborhood. Cal and Wazzu are just bad though, same with Colorado. The ACC does have Pitt, Syracuse, and Wake. The SEC has Tennessee, Kentucky, Vandy, Miss State, and Arkansas. Every conference has their share of dead weight teams.

VK, pretty much their entire existence. Crown 08 was full of other corps references

*Cough, Cough, PAC-12, Cough, Cough*

Not without Miller you're not.

Except for a lot of Open Class corps that allow students of all skill levels in, and offer enough financial help that pretty much anyone of age can join, sure. He's "right"

Otherwise known as all of Belgium. That's a cool show, thanks for posting it

"Waltzing Matilda" maybe? As a tribute to the ANZACS that routinely get little attention when discussing WWI

Crown was 2nd in percussion in 2009. So the question is, what happened after that?

Cascades 2005- "Aerial Symphony" has a section about the Red Baron and other aerial combat. Cadets 1995 also has a lot of World War II imagery involved. I wish someone would do a WWI show, would have been better this last season with the centenary happening August 1. Maybe a show memorializing the ANZAC troops at Gallipoli? Did occur between April 1915-January 1916. So works with the 2015 season.

Bloo has probably been the closest recently. They've tackled Imogen Heap, Radiohead, and Vienna Teng in recent years. You could classify the two women as closer to indie pop, but alt rock is such a wide genre to begin with, you could make a case for it. Same with Blue Knights/Blue Stars and "To Build a Home". Vanguard Cadets did OneRepublic this year and "I'll Stand By You", Genesis did "Mad World", Watchmen did Red Hot Chili Peppers, Leonard Cohen, and Michael Jackson. That's quite a bit from this year. Pio did Dropkick Murphys last year. Boston did "Lean on Me" and "Falling Slowly". All of Crossmen's show could be counted in 2013. Just a selection. Alt rock would have to be defined a bit more if you want a full list.

I'm starting to think that Crown may have referenced the Shiny Toy Guns version of Major Tom instead of the original Peter Schilling edition. It sounds a lot closer.

He apologized to the band at large and the member he moved out of the way. It was a bad situation for all involved. The band was overtime, the kicker shouldn't have pushed someone, mistakes were made all around. In the kicker's defense, he is an athlete being paid millions of dollars a year to do one thing very well. Any situation that messes with that could jeopardize a game, or even a season. Apologies were made, now hopefully everyone can move on from this.

Most world class corps. I think all of them down to PC and Mandarins were between 140-150. Cascades and Pio are of course much smaller, and I think Surf was a bit lower than the max.

Boston 2003 had the entire drum line start out on snare for Malaguena. Pretty cool moment

I get this from watching them perform. They move so well when they do dance work, I think they could pull off a show with no equipment work and not get hammered for it.

The numbers and yard marks create some clutter, but they help with corps that march full dot system. Most staffs of those groups will paint down the pro hashes/numbers for the members, so they can get a feel for the changed math. I also remember DCI covering the logo one year. Was that 2010 or 2011 that it was a different shade of green than the rest of the field?

I hope not. Trying to wrangle 150 kids onto busses at the right time and getting the school sites cleaned up is enough of a challenge. Especially with schools that have smaller gyms, kids are already crammed in sometimes. Plus, that means more horns/drums/guard stuff to fit on trucks already full to the bursting point with equipment and props.