Bluecoats 2014

[packetslave]

From Facebook:

"2014 SNEAK PEAK: We will be playing "The Hymn of Acxiom" by the wonderful new artist Vienna Teng."

"Also, according to his twitter, composer Eric Whitacre is currently transcribing this powerful piece for chorus."

This is awesome. Vienna's music is amazing, and THoA is especially beautiful. Listen to it here

(she's not a new artist, though; she has 5 CDs going back to 2003).

[drumcorpsfever]

I love the Bluecoats. Somehow they come up with new music that no else has done - they've got a knack for finding gems. Thank you Bloo! Looking for continued excellence in 2014. This will be very powerful! Beautiful... I can almost hear their awesome brass line playing this. One of these days, perhaps in the new year will come an Ott Award.

[Newseditor44]

What an absolutely stunning and beautiful song. Would love nothing more than to be sitting in the middle of the horn circle with them playing this. Wow!

[Lincoln]

From Facebook:

"2014 SNEAK PEAK: We will be playing "The Hymn of Acxiom" by the wonderful new artist Vienna Teng."

"Also, according to his twitter, composer Eric Whitacre is currently transcribing this powerful piece for chorus."

This is awesome. Vienna's music is amazing, and THoA is especially beautiful. Listen to it here

(she's not a new artist, though; she has 5 CDs going back to 2003).

It's a beautiful and haunting piece - and it's going to be so nice to hear Bluecoats play it.

[fsubone]

Wow. Can't wait to see Doug Thrower's take on this. Has the same feel that Creep did, and Flume. Lot of Imogen Heap sound in that song, still hoping they take on "Hide and Seek" one of these years.

With Bloo's low brass section, this thing will shake LOS.

[packetslave]

Wow. Can't wait to see Doug Thrower's take on this. Has the same feel that Creep did, and Flume. Lot of Imogen Heap sound in that song, still hoping they take on "Hide and Seek" one of these years.

Funny you should mention "Hide and Seek". Vienna explicitly mentions Imogen in her live performances of THoA. They use the same (or similar) vocal processing gear to get the effect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVJGE_zNNBE

[charlie1223]

Bluecoats always choose the BEST source material! I just *sometimes* wish that some of it worked better on the field... But this does have a "Creep" vibe which we know they can do very well.

And understanding the lyrics of that song I'm really intrigued if Bluecoats will do a show about invasive, dark, and somewhat religious nature of technology and theinternet in our lives... hmm... would be topical! Also, Acxiom Corporation is a real marketing technology and services company. Acxiom collects, analyzes, and parses customer and business information for clients, helping them to target advertising campaigns, score leads, and more... (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acxiom)

USA Today interviewed Vienna for an exclusive preview feature. From the story:

The Hymn of Acxiom is...a beautiful work that gets progressively creepier as it continues. Teng uses the piece to capture the way people related to technology and the information gathered about them, and there's almost a religious quality to it. "I think the reason we agree to be spied on, basically, is that, on some level, we do want to be known," she says. "There is that unsettling parallel with religion and the way technology works now. At some level, as human beings, we have this deep need, this deep desire to be understood, to be seen, to have the sense that someone knows everything we do.

"Then there's the question of what that entity does with that knowledge. In religion, the message is that God loves you and embraces you while holding you accountable for being your best self. Whether Acxiom databases do that is much more questionable."

Lyrics:

Somebody hears you. You know that. You know that.
Somebody hears you. you know that inside.
Someone is learning the colors of all your moods, to
(Say just the right thing and) show that you're understood.
Here you're known.

Leave your life open. You don't have. You don't have.
Leave your life open. You don't have to hide.
Someone is gathering every crumb you drop, these
(Mindless decisions and) moments you long forgot.
Keep them all.

Let our formulas find your soul.
We'll divine your artesian source (in your mind),
marshal feed and force (our machines will)
To design you a perfect love—
Or (better still) a perfect lust.
O how glorious, glorious: a brand new need is born.

Now we possess you. You'll own that. You'll own that.
Now we possess you. You'll own that in time.
Now we will build you an endlessly upward world,
(Reach in your pocket) embrace you for all you're worth.

Is that wrong?
Isn't this what you want?
Amen.

Edited December 24, 2013 by charlie1223

[BlahBlahBlah]

Great to hear that another corps is doing Hymn of Acxiom.

http://oregoncrusaders.org/about-oc/2014-show/

[oldbandguy]

WOW...what a beautiful piece of music! This will be right in Doug Thrower's wheelhouse.

Can't wait to hear it on the field. Way to go 'Coats design team.

[DrumManTx]

Bluecoats always choose the BEST source material! I just *sometimes* wish that some of it worked better on the field... But this does have a "Creep" vibe which we know they can do very well.

And understanding the lyrics of that song I'm really intrigued if Bluecoats will do a show about invasive, dark, and somewhat religious nature of technology and theinternet in our lives... hmm... would be topical! Also, Acxiom Corporation is a real marketing technology and services company. Acxiom collects, analyzes, and parses customer and business information for clients, helping them to target advertising campaigns, score leads, and more... (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acxiom)

USA Today interviewed Vienna for an exclusive preview feature. From the story:

The Hymn of Acxiom is...a beautiful work that gets progressively creepier as it continues. Teng uses the piece to capture the way people related to technology and the information gathered about them, and there's almost a religious quality to it. "I think the reason we agree to be spied on, basically, is that, on some level, we do want to be known," she says. "There is that unsettling parallel with religion and the way technology works now. At some level, as human beings, we have this deep need, this deep desire to be understood, to be seen, to have the sense that someone knows everything we do.

"Then there's the question of what that entity does with that knowledge. In religion, the message is that God loves you and embraces you while holding you accountable for being your best self. Whether Acxiom databases do that is much more questionable."

Lyrics:

Somebody hears you. You know that. You know that.

Somebody hears you. you know that inside.

Someone is learning the colors of all your moods, to

(Say just the right thing and) show that you're understood.

Here you're known.

Leave your life open. You don't have. You don't have.

Leave your life open. You don't have to hide.

Someone is gathering every crumb you drop, these

(Mindless decisions and) moments you long forgot.

Keep them all.

Let our formulas find your soul.

We'll divine your artesian source (in your mind),

marshal feed and force (our machines will)

To design you a perfect love—

Or (better still) a perfect lust.

O how glorious, glorious: a brand new need is born.

Now we possess you. You'll own that. You'll own that.

Now we possess you. You'll own that in time.

Now we will build you an endlessly upward world,

(Reach in your pocket) embrace you for all you're worth.

Is that wrong?

Isn't this what you want?

Amen.

First of all, still getting goosebumps from that, and I've listened to it way too many times since yesterday. I can already hear 2:15 to 2:46, that build there musically is just candy to my ears.

Secondly, does that not sound like a show theme PERFECT for the Bluecoats? Not to mention really cool, it'd be like a dark version of Cavaliers 2006. I'd love to see them tackle a theme like that, could be amazing. VERY excited to see where they go with this.