The band...the band...
Did not see a haiku thread so here are my contributions for this week, MMB themed:
MMB practice
Wafts in the air from Elbel
Soon: Band....take the field!
Baaaa....and: Take! The! Field!
Hail to the Victors Valiant*
Head asplodes with joy
*middle line may be either sung or hummed
And on a different topic:
Annual glut of
Pre-season boo-boos takes out
Amara Darboh
August 21st, 2013 at 10:28 PM ^
August 21st, 2013 at 10:48 PM ^
August 21st, 2013 at 10:53 PM ^
yes, it is a 13 hour day. Thirteen MERCILESS hours of the band, specifically the drum line, playing.
Love the band and their committment, but need some advil.
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:44 PM ^
egads.
nobody tell M--k S------r at the F---p.
August 22nd, 2013 at 7:38 AM ^
When did they start getting the Sundays of band week off? I dont remeber having a free day until after the first game (2003-2006 - oh god I feel so old). Maybe we did, and its just the memory loss starting.
Also, what is with the 10:30 start time, and stopping at 8:40PM?
/back in my day we marched in three feet of snow when it was 20 below zero uphill both ways. kids these days...
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:18 PM ^
I don't think that Sunday is actually off. Typically, that Sunday is first look. Usually a few hours to either rest and/or prepare for that.
They like to treat that as a closed "rehearsal" and leave it off of the public calendar.
MMB 2001-2004
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:34 PM ^
Sunday is NOT off. It's First Look, so the band does their first round of real challenges while us drum-type folks run through literally every piece of music we possess at that point.
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:43 PM ^
They give Sunday morning off for religious observance. By that point, sleeping always felt spiritual.
Senior year, it rained so so much...
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:22 AM ^
It's something like 13, but it feels like 30. Midway through Band Week my freshman year, my mom came up to Ann Arbor to drop off some stuff and took me to dinner. Once we sat down, I put about three coherent sentences together, then literally fell asleep in my food.
That's Band Week. I do not miss it.
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:34 AM ^
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:50 AM ^
Man, do I ever miss the Band Week weight loss program. You knew coming into August you'd be 15 pounds lighter at the end of the month, whether you wanted to or not. Hell, I even miss running the steps.
August 22nd, 2013 at 8:06 AM ^
I had the same experience...
unfortunately I put it all back on and then some once winter semester rolled around.
August 22nd, 2013 at 9:31 AM ^
I don't remember having that much weight to lose. In fact, looked at a few pictures from that era not too long ago and...well...wow.
Really tall.
Really skinny.
Really geeky.
Those were the days...thanks for listening.
Anyway - BONES IN THE ZONE!!!!!!!
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:43 AM ^
August 21st, 2013 at 10:49 PM ^
You could see Elbel from my daughter's first apartment. She used to call me from the parking lot so I could listen (she was after sympathy). As much as she misses it now, she didn't always miss it when she was trying to study. On the plus side, she is really familiar with a lot of the songs.
August 21st, 2013 at 11:40 PM ^
August 22nd, 2013 at 12:23 AM ^
The Fletch! Hell of a dorm. Thankfully I wasn't doing much studying for the band to interrupt.
August 21st, 2013 at 11:03 PM ^
Congrats! Joining the MMB was easily the best decision I made in college.
Your daughter is going to make a boatload of life-long friends in the coming days, months and years.
August 22nd, 2013 at 9:22 AM ^
I was one 1997-2001.
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:53 AM ^
Thanks for posting and keep posting.
Go Blue!
August 22nd, 2013 at 4:33 PM ^
I didn't even know your son was in band. I bet he's given many heaping servings of throat yogurt to the lovely coeds he schooled with. I hear the bandies get a lot of play. Proud father indeed.
August 22nd, 2013 at 4:35 PM ^
August 22nd, 2013 at 6:57 PM ^
August 22nd, 2013 at 5:49 PM ^
August 21st, 2013 at 10:38 PM ^
August 21st, 2013 at 10:51 PM ^
It's been quite awhile since the band got new uniforms. Anyone have any idea of roughly how long they usually wear a certain design before selecting a new one?
August 21st, 2013 at 10:54 PM ^
August 21st, 2013 at 10:57 PM ^
PLEASE don't let Adidas design them!
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:26 AM ^
The current set was put into use before the 2004 season to replace the original 1994 set, and I think was intended to last ten years.
Honestly, given the alternatives in band uniform fashion these days, this uniform is pretty great. It was designed with a lot of specific traditional touchstones in mind, and looks fantastic in both a stadium and concert setting. Don't mess with a good thing.
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:39 AM ^
August 22nd, 2013 at 9:35 AM ^
I was there for the uniform replacement in 1994 and couldn't have been happier about the upgrade. My previous year's uni was a bit Frankenstein. They had to take 2 pairs of pants and combine them to make them long enough for me.
Good times.
August 22nd, 2013 at 10:46 AM ^
I was there for the uniform replacement in 1977 (give or take a year). We got rid of the old unis that had almost 20 components. When we left the field after pregame or halftime, the asistants had to sweep the field to pick up the parts that had been left behind. Safety pins were our friends!
MMB Trumpet 74-78
August 23rd, 2013 at 3:49 PM ^
were the most hideous ones in my estimation. That bizarre Un-Michigan blue on the front and back of the jacket. Plus, our section leader was always calling for "capes" during the special drum cadence to the stadium. We'd swing our shoulders back and forth to get the capes twirling ... except there weren't any capes to the new uniform. *sigh*
August 22nd, 2013 at 7:04 PM ^
You're talking about 1994, so I know it's you!
I actually miss band week(s) for some bizarre reason. At least it was warm then. I always liked that better than those November nighttime practices. And school wasn't in session yet, so you didn't have to worry about class.
Of course, if if I tried to do it now my body would probably crumple by about day 3 (especially if I had to high-step again). But back in the day it was awesome!
August 21st, 2013 at 10:59 PM ^
I love the band but unfortunately believe this to be true:
Ohio State's band SLAUGHTERED Michigan's band. If this were a football game, it would have been Florida State/Savannah State. I remember the Ohio State band nailing a straight line across eight yards of formation, and the Michigan band doing a half-assed boogaloo before farting away quietly for the remainder of their show. The Best Damn Band in the land is an affront to college marching bands in the sense that they appear to work hard, have discipline, and wear clean uniforms while playing a mean version of Stravinsky's Firebird.
--Spencer Hall
August 21st, 2013 at 11:24 PM ^
The MMB has a new director this year. It'll be interesting to see the changes. The old director (Dr. Boerma) will still be duing music arranging, though.
August 22nd, 2013 at 12:44 AM ^
August 22nd, 2013 at 1:56 AM ^
but these sentiments simply aren't true. OSU fans know their band's songs and love their band. That's not a bad thing.
August 22nd, 2013 at 4:24 PM ^
They may love the band, but the band just doesn't play during the game itself. I swear I could count on one hand the number of times the band got up and played during a timeout, after a first down, etc during last year's game. Ohio Stadium feels like a pro stadium atmosphere, not a college atmosphere like Michigan Stadium.
I've got a whole wing of my family with OSU season tickets. They're passionate fans and alums and NONE of them know the words to "Fight the Team."
I'm not arguing the band sucks. They're plenty good. I just don't see any comparison to Notre Dame, for example, regarding the band's impact on the fan experience.
August 22nd, 2013 at 2:01 AM ^
Yeah, this is not even close to being accurate. Like, 100%, totally, completely wrong.
August 22nd, 2013 at 4:56 AM ^
Yeah, what those two said. You see TBDBITL bumper stickers all over the place in central Ohio. Many Buckeye fans revere Carmen Ohio more than the national anthem. Bars and nightclubs will blare the instrumental version of Hang On Sloopy during the entire football season. It's definitely part of their culture.
August 22nd, 2013 at 11:03 AM ^
I wasn't at the stadium watching The Game but in a bar in Columbus. Notwithstanding, I can assure you I saw what you saw both bands perform based on videos from the Official Band Parent Channel.
The OSU band played its spelling lesson and proceeded to sit on its collective hands in the cold listening to Seven Nation Army for 4 hours. They may be as mic'd up as the Michigan band is at Michigan Stadium, but they have no role in the OSU culture at all.
I think in the context of the quote, the author was making his comparison between TBDBITL and MMB halftime performances. Not solely based on what you mentioned above in Script Ohio or Seven Nation Army (most over played song ever). Below are the videos of both performances. Which performance was better? To each his own.
Michigan
Ohio State
Not looking to stub any toes and denigrate MMB but put his quote into context with video behind it.
OSU fans don't know whatever their fight song is and don't care. I'm not sure if it's Hang on Sloopy or Down the Field and they aren't either.
You can't make this stuff up. You want others and I to believe Ohio State fans don't know what their own fight song is and don't care? This, after you challenge/generalize OSU fans for not knowing what their fight song is yet you don't know it yourself. We're talking about an university marching band that next to the football team and Horseshoe is the most sacred thing on campus. I know we get nicked named "mouthbreathers" but I don't honestly think an OSU fan would be ignorant enough to not be able to distinguish between the state Rock Song (Hang on Sloopy) and the Fight Song (Down the Field).
*Started this post never hit enter. I'm sure someone has said something similiar to what I posted.
August 22nd, 2013 at 12:12 PM ^
Boerma should have committed seppuku after this. Thanks for the informative post, even if you have chosen the wrong colors.
August 22nd, 2013 at 2:45 PM ^
As expected, band hating on MGoBlog.
You seem to have no concept of the volume of pressure on both the band members and the director. It's a lot. Funny enough, having marched in the show that you see here, I can tell you that a significant number of OSU fans congratulated us afterwards.
I can also tell you that the OSU trombone line came to play for us when we were in Columbus, and they sounded like flatulence. If they're proud of that, they can be proud of that. Their goal seems to be volume. Our goal is beauty. They are happy to sacrifice quality sound for volume. Power to them. We are tolerant of sacrificing volume for quality sound.
The drill for the America show, I will concede, was not terribly good, and the OSUMB has a louder and fuller sound. However, we as a band made a concerted effort not to blast our sound, because it sounds ugly. So while we may be quieter, our playing is actually smoother and far prettier.
What we have is that your set of band values do not match the band values of the band directors. You like volume. They like quality. Quality is what sets the MMB apart from other bands. We could, like the SMB, decide before a game that we "want to blow the faces off the people on the sideline." Or we could decide that we're gonna do the best damn show and play the best music in the most nuanced way possible to give a very special show.
My basic conclusion is that you should not go around decreeing what the MMB needs to do. You are one among millions of Michigan football fans and marching band fans. This is not your decision to make.
And hey, if you really want the band to do something, maybe you could donate. That'd be a productive way to vent your anger. You'd be able to get an audience with the band staff. That'd be way better than comments on a blog!
August 22nd, 2013 at 4:04 PM ^
and it's not loud enough for anyone around to hear it, did it really happen?
(And please, spare me with your pressure bit. The team you're playing for has pressure and have everything they do analyzed by thousands. The head UMHS has pressure. The Marching Band? Not so much.)
August 22nd, 2013 at 6:48 PM ^
And, if a band plays loudly enough to be heard but is out of tune and sounds horrible, is it really worth hearing? Maybe to a drunken fan, but not to the band, its members, its community and fans, and its directors. Pardon them for not appealing to the drunken fans.
We have a top band, distinguished for its quality of musicianship (a legacy and tradition of excellence that was set forth by long time director and Band Director legend Dr. William Revelli). Take pride in that. It's like having a classy team and coach that wins most of the time (Bo Schembechler) rather than a dirty one that takes the championship every year (Nick Saban). Sure, they may be doing what you want, but you don't want to know what they do to get there.... Our band is quintessentially Michigan for its musicianship relative to pure volume.
And also understand that the situation our band is in is hardly conducive to an acceptable acoustic environment. Big House has been referred to as "the quietest 110,000 fans in the country." With good reason! It retains hardly any sound.
And, having listened to the OSU trombone line play, I can tell you that I don't think the sacrifice in quality is worth the volume. I don't want to listen to them! I actually want to listen to our band. It's musically intense and brilliant. Sets them way far apart from the rest of the marching band world.
I could say more, but I won't. We have arguably the best marching band in the country. They are plenty loud enough. Listen closer, and realize that the OSU band does not sound good to a musical ear. Go Blue.
August 23rd, 2013 at 10:57 PM ^
August 22nd, 2013 at 7:08 PM ^
That is all.
August 23rd, 2013 at 9:39 AM ^
More "band" sound now that we're miked. Can't swear into the mikes. :\