DRUM AND BUGLE CORPS

...over the July Fourth Weekend, I managed to take in the 'Syracuse Brigadiers' a first-class drum and bugle corps band from the sacred land of Syracuse New York. Mid-State New York is quite a dream, I like to think that it has the scenery of Vermont but the heart of the mid-west. Anyway, needless to say, the Brigadiers were mind-blowing. I am talking about a hundred people banging the shit out of their drums, vibraphones, and horn tooting everywhere on high, and it comes 100% free from all judgements. This music is for everyone.

It also, just kind of pushed me over the edge of something I have been thinking for awhile. That marching bands are the ideal form of music. They are free from the political-social games which plague rock'n'roll and jazz. The silly games of young vs. old, new vs. past, knowledge vs. experimentation, the Drum and Bugle Corps band tap into the heart of the community and blast out some gnarly tunes. For god's these bands have names like 'the Phantom Regiment' or the Toronto Optimists or how about just the Glassmen don't forget about the Seattle Cascades And they all include a huge enough cross section of people that it only contributes to the mind-blowing qualities of the total experience. Image a band featuring a gay lawyer, a 18-year old gymnast, a volunteer fireman, a cat-loving mom, and a high school biology teacher???!!!????!!! I guess this stuff was huge in the 60's, at the heart of old-school-mom-and-pop-family-Buick-we-survived-WWII-cheeseburgers-and-milkshakes will-save-America...but if this is what the 'hippies' rallied against??? If so, they were dead wrong. This shit rules. Perhaps we need to go back to this music in order to see what would happen had our parents generation not gone so nuts for rebellious rock music and instead joined town-sponsored-marching-bands.

That is where we should be, I mean, shouldn't we? Or should we still be on this whole sectioned-off-from the world kick that the magazines tell us liberal arts kids to be on with our "far out" arts from the 60's?!?.... Hell No!! I think this music needs to be seen as a ridiculous folk-art that is particularly American and definitely Nationalistic in the best sort of "let's celebrate the arts" kind of way.
Play those vibes girl, and play them for all to hear!!
These people doing this stuff have the best intentions, period. To play music, compete, and wear cool looking uniforms. Let me know, what choo'all think about this....I am soaring,
Listen to mp3's here!! WHOO-HOO!!

  ¶ 2:16 PM