thebaritoneguy

Being a spectator and follower of California Drum Corps and shows. IMHO, if the judges didn't want Impulse to succeed, they would not have given them the credit to win Div III last season. When Impulse was dropped into Div III last season, they went on first at every show (I think) and still kicked little tiny Div III butt, while scoring very close to Jersey Surf who was 3 times their size? and funnier? Funny obviously isn't Impulse's thing anymore as they evolve, with this new (not old or returning) VK, everyone can enjoy non competetive entertainment once again. Impulse seems to be more about better programming and teaching / training. What a great horn sound for a 21? person hornline. Impulse was refreshingly clean compared the groups before them. I believe once they close their holes and get all the members waiting to be put in the show (from what I hear), in the show, Impulse will be a force to reckon with. It's too bad the rest of the kids in So Cal don't see Impulse is (in my opinion) a great teaching and performance program in So Cal to be part of. Most of SCV's snare line is all Impulse alumni and a few horn players. I hear in conversations that there are two Impulse alumni in BD's pit. There is some good training happening at Impulse, kids need to be aware of this and take advantage. Mr. Pee-Wee, It's almost sad to compare Impulse to the Old, "original" VK who in the late 80's and early 90's were all about serious execution before gags, slapstick and childrens TV show characters (which were all executed well too). Too bad this new corps using the VK name (which anyone can do if they file the DBA in any of the remaining 49 states in our country) doesn't take performance as seriously as the Original VK did. Impulse seems to do this with more reverence to the original VK while the staff and management of the new VK chooses not to. But hey, if having fun is all they want to do and hope somebody likes it, they should be in exhibition and using another name so they don't traumatize the kids competively and depress more alumni. No diss to the kids, just my observations of what seems to be a self serving situation with the people who started the new VK. While I'm at it, here is a short review.....Gold is a great grassroots drum corps, but had absolutely no business outscoring Impulse last night. After seeing the show and the recaps online, the drum judge really screwed Impulse, after receiving great scores up north just a week earlier. I saw those shows and last nights drum performance was better. I hope they (judges) get it right tonight. Gold nevertheless is serving the drum corps interests of a community with little money, like PC used to in the early to mid 90's. Mystikal, was....well needing members and doing music no one in the audience could relate too. Not sure why these and the new VK exist when a larger Impulse would represent So Cal much better from a national perspective. Again not to diss any of the kids, it's just there are more, small, not so good, corps when an Academy like program could be happening in So Cal instead. And I hear a new Kingsmen Jr corps is coming next season? Good luck with that. We'll see who survives all this. Last corps standing will be the winner. VK - doing what they want because they want to, don't seem like they are addressing the judges or the audience. Impulse - many of us older folk (30-50) types only hear serious music, but this is music from a very popular video game, so today's teen population get's it, eventhough we may not. So they designed a show to a niche viewer...their prospective members. Academy - no surprise they just mugged PC in an alley and took their lolly pop. On the way to the top 12 and only 6 hours south. What will So Cal do now? Ans: continue to feed top 12 corps with more talent from the area? Mandarins - small and mighty Div 1 rides the crest again. PC - same show different melody. More recognizable than previoulsy, just as marching band like as ever. Maybe white or teal jackets will help. Doing a full national tour isn't apparently ending their belief they are punished competively for not doing a full Div I tour. $2,000+ dollars for members and still not making semi finals kinda sucks. (sorry for the harsh words) It's been disappointing watching this well run, well financed organization put out a full corps that has dropped places one after another. They may be higher than 21st this year, who knows, but Academy seemed to have taken what PC did as a growing corps and organization and slapped them across the cheek with it last night competitively. SCV - it's gotta be clean to win. It sure seems designed to win. BD - WOW 68 or 70 horns? signature sound, formulaic show, decent performance. A more interesting visual show performed as well will beat this show in Pasadena. BD may be creatively stagnating again like they did during the 87-93 period. Todays winners have performance and design. A great design and awsome performance isn't enough, they both have to be awsome and over the top.

Congrats to both Impulse and Fever. You were both great from what I could see this weekend. With all the holes and shows being incomplete, it's all good from here. Next weekend in So Cal will be exciting with the rest of the California Div III corps on the field. Mystikal, Gold, VK. Sure SCV beating BD is Awsome!. It's been since 1999 since we've seen the two titans go at it with tenths of a point separating them. Also we get to see Academy for the first time in Div I go up against Pac Crest, that will be interesting. What a great summer this is going to be in California!!

There are too many factors to assume this. You must be listing to someone who has not been to both rehearsals, or Golds, or Mystikals or Fevers or Revolutions or...... Just wait and see and leave the overhypring on the internet to the ...uh hem..."established" over hypers.

And staff...the performers are no different than the other Div III corps, the Impulse staff are awsome teachers, which may explain why so many Impulse Alumni make Vanguard each year. I think half their snare line is Impulse alumni. Speaking of "Getting the job done", Impulse has never come out this early. Saturday, June 16, 2007 Pleasant Hill, CA Precision West Division III 1 Impulse.........57.050 2 Fever.............56.300 3 Blue Devils C..45.100 This could change tomorrow at Stockton, Fever was pretty tight. Without recaps, it's hard to see where the respective strengths and weaknesses are according to the judges. For Impulse, Not bad for 22 horns, 6 guard and 34 percussion. All they have to do now is close or fill the open horn spots, and add a few more guard. If there are stray brass players out there, you should consider jumping on with Impulse what "potentially" looks to be another championship year. The Final Fantasy 7 music they are playing is totally cool. Very diff from Blue Star back in 04. This is a decent score for Div III in mid June. The balance of the 34 percussion to 22 horns was amazing and without the drums having to play ppp the whole time. Whoever is writing and teaching their drums is a genius. The horn performance was a bit rough in the trumpet section, but they were putting a lot of air through the horns. Guard was very respectable for 6. Actually, for what they have, and only two tunes on the field (seemed like 5+ min of show from what I could see), to accomplish what they just did....the entire staff is genius. Once they close the wholes and finish the show, they will be amazing for Div III. If I may comment on a post I read... Impulse will not be "fighting it out" with VK or anyone else for that matter. They simply do their best, and the scoring is up to the judges. They are a professional group of people with their feet on the ground. GO IMPULSE!!!! GO FEVER!!!! (these are the two who "may be" challenging for the Div III crown)

Not true, Impulse only had a little over 100 brass people register over their website, over 60 actually visted, and only 30 something horns have shown from what I was told by my buddies over there. I know the guys at Impulse were hoping for more horns than that, but it seems Impulses main draw is percussion.

True, but the excellence of a unit a person performs with is usually an indication their training was good. Ambition is also a good factor. But like on the TV show "the apprentice" it doesn't matter if you run a successful business or graduate from Notre Dame or Harvard with a business degree. Performance quality to complete a task and how well you work with the team makes all the difference. my 2 cents

Will it be the 87/88 uni? or the 92, 93 uni? Shouldn't they have the uniform that made the name famous too?

I don't see why not. They are capitalizing on a once great corps, why not plagerize the shows they are taking credit for too? (ouch) Shame on me. Let the Flames begin.

Not sure why Impulse is constantly overlooked. Granted they have only scored 90's and placed 6th in 04 and 05, last year they had a drop in membership and was forced into Div III where they won it with only 52 members (over a much larger Revo corps), while placing 8th overall on the heels of Surf who was more than twice Impulse's size. With reports I've been getting, their brass caption head was on SCV's Brass staff from 99-03 and came in half way through the season last year to help the horn line, now he and the brass caption head from last year are working the line. Their percussion staff is half new (and better) and half the same. The pit may be different. The front ensemble guy who has made Impulse's pit so astonishing over the last 3 years has taken a step back just to focus on being the director for Pulse, the Impulse winterline that has placed in WGI finals all two years of their existance. We'll have to wait and see on that. There is also a new Color guard caption head who marched with Riverside Community College Marching Tiger Field guard. Impulse won guard in Div III last year and the guard was decent the last three years, so we'll have to wait and see on that as well. The show music they are doing this year is pretty serious stuff from Final Fantasy 7, which Blue Stars did a FF show two years ago placing 3rd. "Pixelation" was the show title, though I think Impulse will be doing different selections. And they are electing to be Div II this year, so membership must be up. According to some reading I've done, they have had over 300 applicants on their website and ton of drummers and significantly increased interest in the Brass line. Though they are keeping pretty quite, I plan on keeping a eye out for Impulse. They may surprise everyone. Most likely not win it, but they very well may be in the hunt. :-)