TX Suh-nare

I think I learned what drugs do to drum corps designers from that show. Yet another reason why I'll stay sober. I am NOT putting a chicken in my drum corps show.

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Liberty

NO MAN! THE ELEVATOR! OH MY GOSH, I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING!!! Oh, that's funny. Good thing he's whippin up the Big Apple because he'd get shot here in Texas.

end (sorry, watcing NFL Draft)

Yeah, the bus rides are fun, especially when you're with the seniors in the back listening to the most random assortment of crappy music on someone's mp3 player. I miss marching into the stadium with our krunkest beats ever. I miss listening to the cheerleaders rant about what they named our cadences. The little things like that Also seeing the first bass's mallet tip snap off and whiz right by your band director's ear...good times. Good times

cops (by the way, how long has this been going on?)

If you guys went to the DCI countdown, you might have noticed something about the style done in the movie Drumline... It's exactly the same thing as the 1970s drum corps. Same music (in fact, one of their pieces was in the Bridgemen show), same marching, same crappy drill. Where our style of band ("corps" style) and drum corps has been ever-changing, their style ("traditional" style) hasn't changed much at all...except the drumming has gotten simpler (instead of lots of chop-busting-sixteen-count rolls and backsticking, it's now beats, fewer rolls, and more backsticking).

Yeah, I've seen a lot of promo stuff about this. My band got a poster of their bbq, I talked with one at the Countdown, there's a little buzz about these guys in my area. I just wanna know, well, Who ARE these guys?

OK, top three, lets go 1. 2002 Cavaliers (that's coming from a Cavie hater) 2. 1993 Star of Indiana (let's face it, that show's years ahead of OUR time) 3. 1996 Madison Scouts (Come on! A Mis Abuelos, Malaguena, need I say more?) I think I like these because they all push the edge of the "norm" of drum corps in there own ways. Cavies did it visually, Scouts did it musically, Star just completely changed the standards of everything. Standard uniforms, standard drumming style, standard visuals, standard guard usage, standard props...etc.

Man, I don't know. LD Bell has some hotties, but Cinco Ranch in Katy does, too. Sorry, CR, but LD Bell's cymbal girls have really become one of the big features of the whole band. I mean when you hear about cymbal lines in BOA, what's the first thing you think of? Yup, probably LD Bell, too.

Yeah, that was good stuff! I just might never get out of my seat in the Alamodome! Just to add another name on the list, if you can find it, Capital Regiment might have mp3s of their '06 show. The opener is "Equus" by Eric Whitacre (I know because I got cut from the camp the line first learned the parts). Hardimon wrote some good stuff for it and the brass is AMAZING! I don't know too much of what PR or other top-ranked guys will sound like, but, as of now, DCI is looking to have an overall good year in 2006. Can't wait for it!

If you use props, you walk a fine line between classy addition and just plain (bleh). Props should be used to compliment a certain part of a show, but I don't think it should ever overcome the music, or in the Cadet's case, become the show. It's kind of like smothering grade A, all American Cheddar Cheese on an omlette. It's there to enhance the meal, not take over the meal. That's what I think the Cadets' design team's doing. Smothering the crap out of that omlette. I can see this as their "personal style," but I think this prop buisness (sp?) is getting out of hand! Just march and play! That's worked for the last 32 years, it should hold to 33.

WHAT?! Make me choose between those two?! Why must you torture me so?!

Word up to the Houston Dynamos, the new MLS pro team. I'm stoked, since before I became "enlightened" in the ways of percussion, I was a soocer fan, and I can't wait to watch them on espn2. WOOHOO!

2003. No questions asked. Second is 1997. SCV, and BD pwned supreme Then go bck to 1989 with Phantom and da Vanguard.

As Time Goes By. 1997. Listen to the mellos and be blown away.

house

Well, this is interesting. The difference in drum preference really boils down to this-low to medium sound from the drum (Pearls most defidently), medium to high (Premier usually), high to reefed (mormally Yamaha), and reefed to straight up cranked (Dynasty, or what I know as Dy-Nasty's) Most directors don't like the low and fat sound of their drums, so they put more tension on the top head. That may give you a bit more rebound faster, but to me, a low tuned Evans drum head on top of wooden Pearls (none of that Carbon Fiber stuff [bleh]) is not only nice low sound, but it feels wonderful on your hands.

Well, if you ask me, since McIntosh and Kuhn worked together in the Cavies in the early 2000s, you'll see the '01 Cavie drumline style in Canton, OH. I personally am more for the smooth feel and rich sound of '99-'04 SCV. Not only does it look relaxed, smooth, and vey comfortable, that stuff was consistently clean. Now we know Kuhn's d-lines aren't ALWAYS that great, and I don't see the Bluecoats becoming the perfect line, but Cassella will change up the drum style for sure. If he doesn't, well, it wouldn't be Jim Cassella.

How about "Pathways?" That is ALWAYS stuck in mine, even right now. I can play the greatest drum break there like a Lord of the Rings fight scene on TIVO. Play it, rewind, play it, rewind... You get the point. And Madison 1996. A Mis Abuelos (the opener) and Maleguena are AWESOME!!!! And the EIGHT MAN TENOR LINE?! HOLY SNAP! Dirty as that spot under my fingernails but still! EIGHT TENORS?

I actually saw a Madison Scouts video (either 1995 or 1996) where a judge gets NAILED. It's on multi-cam and it's viewed in on the drumline. The brass line in front of it has them going right...right into I think the percussion judge. He never knew what hit him...Homeboy horn player rams him and keeps going like nothing happened, and the judge gets laid out FLAT!

When you can correctly spell and pronounce "Scheherazade"

The Vanguard and Cavies might let you miss a rehersal during spring training if you have an important band function, like a concert or something. Not sure about Crown, but they probably will.

60%?! I'm one that thinks that there should be a GE score, but 60% is WAY too high! There's not just the show! There's a band down there, too!