School Of Rock/Battle Of The Bands

[Bac-Talan]

Figured this should go here, if any object, feel free to move this. (Mods/Admins)

ANYWAYS!

This is a competition our school is competing in, a chance to win big money and hear some great music.
The link is to our local Battle of the Bands, for High Schools in the area. Each school got 1 go.

Now, I would tell you to go vote for Shorecrest. (My school duh...) but they decided not to go with internet voting (a perfectly respectable and good decision, things were getting cheap.)

Anyways, take a listen to some of these and tell me what you think.
Personally, I think that Shorecrest (Long Way to the Top) is one of the best (and not just because I go there We have bagpipes!) and Shorewood (Frankenstein) is darn good too.

Let's not forget the link!

CLICK HERE

[Maveritchell]

(Edit: After reading this I realize it sounds kinda condescending. Please don't interpret it that way, I'm only really critical because I love marching band so much.)

I love listening to marching bands. I've played most of those songs at some point in some band, so it was interesting listening to other people's versions. Here are some completely dismissable opinions:

Your band was nice. Technically proficient. Unfortunately I don't know that "nice" is what marching bands should shoot for (you guys seemed to be a little bored, although it sounded quite good). This could have been the position of the recording equipment, though (and I know that this wasn't a gametime atmosphere, which can easily affect your attitude as a band).

Some of the other recordings:
-Frankenstein (the one you mentioned) - not really impressed. It was also nice, technically, but it was so straight. It needs to be a little more swing-y.

-Bohemian Rhapsody - Lol. This was one of the bad ones. I've performed this song a couple times in halftime shows and whatnot, and their version sounded like a tribute to an opera.

-Crazy Train - Also lol. This time it sounded like a jazz combo/concert band. How do you mess up Crazy Train? It's a classic stands tune.

-Hey Jude - Hey bad. I might have just been offended because we just performed a show with Hey Jude in it, but I couldn't listen past the first intro of the low brass, they were killer out of tune.

(I promise they get better, those are just some of my favorite marching tunes and they were pretty rough.)

-Carry On My Wayward Son - Not too shabby, it was styled well but trumpets had problems in the high register (it gets up there for them) and it was a little slow.

-Call Me Al - This is one of if not my absolute favorite stands tune (it's a Gator Band standard). They did a decent job but it's hard hearing anything different than my own band.

-Final Countdown - This one really wow-ed me. They took a killer song and made it what a stands tune should be.

(If you're interested, here's our band playing "Call Me Al-" it's such a party song, and fantastic to watch in the stands or in basketball games: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOEHiNNGXIE
And here's a pep band playing it at a basketball game - this is why it's one of my favorite songs to play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODEgC5RGRnk)

All in all, you guys were definitely one of the best bands. I'd probably give you guys a superior on musicality, if I were a judge.

[Bac-Talan]

Hmm. Thanks for the opinion Mav.
Just for your info, it wasn't just marching band. I think our final recording ended up being a mix of our jazz band, drumline, some of our best concert band, and our pipe corps.

I listened to The Final Countdown again just now, and I'm liking it better than when I first heard it.
It's like what you said, our marching band plays this too, and I like our sound better but that's just because I've heard it a bunch from us. And it sounded like they were using a full drum corps, so there were a couple points when the sound got a bit muddled (when compared to the single drummer of most rock bands) and that's all I can really pick on, being percussion myself (You play sax, right?)

And I totally agree with your comment on 'Hey Bad' (in particular, the others too for the most part)
The vocals with the low brass just don't work

And (the post grows LONGER!) nice job on Call Me Al.
(The first recording at least, I could hardly hear the band in the second )

ADDITION: Our marching band doesn't usually sound that 'nice' either. When you've got two to three times more people, playing music we haven't practiced a ton and are just playing for fun (not for contest), it gets fun.
I'm playing at the basketball game against our cross-town rivals (Shorewood) on Wednesday. I don't even have some of the music. Should be interesting...

(And another 'lol' band, listen to Stadium HS (Spinning Wheel)
Or don't.

[Maveritchell]

Oh, ok, some of those make a lot more sense in the context of not-marching-band.

[Bac-Talan]

I know! Let's try having the choir sing with the marching band!

[EraOfDesann]

Are all these schools in Washington? I recognize quite a few. In fact, my aunt teaches at one of them.

[Teancum]

What cracks me up is that half of these are Guitar Hero songs. Some songs are mainstream enough to understand them being for marching band, but Black Magic Woman (and this is obviously Santana's rendition) doesn't fit at all. On top of that it wasn't that good. More comments to come when I have time to listen to more.

[Maveritchell]

What cracks me up is that half of these are Guitar Hero songs. Some songs are mainstream enough to understand them being for marching band, but Black Magic Woman (and this is obviously Santana's rendition) doesn't fit at all. On top of that it wasn't that good. More comments to come when I have time to listen to more.

It's likely that some of those that you look at and think "Guitar Hero" have been marching band standards long before they were part of GH. "Frankenstein," for example, is a great song for Guitar Hero, but it's been used in marching bands for a long time. That being said, I don't wouldn't be surprised if a few of them are being used because of them being in Guitar Hero, just pointing out that a lot of those are standards.

[Teancum]

Yeah, but Black Magic Woman is hardly a marching band standard. It's certainly not something to pump up the crowd. It just seems like there's a lot of these that aren't really a standard marching band song that have come back due to the re-introduction of kids to classic rock. Iron Man is another example. Which, btw, shouldn't be a marching band tune. They did what they could with it, but you lose what the song is speeding it up like that. Off-topic of Guitar Hero itself, there's a coupl'a others that ruin the original rather than add to it like a marching band song should. Black Betty comes to mind first. Ouch.

[Maveritchell]

There are definitely a couple of rough ones in there, and I can agree with you on Black Magic Woman. However, you might be surprised by just how many of those songs are pretty common for marching bands. Iron Man actually is pretty standard for marching bands - I know it was big at UGA and a lot of high school bands in the south use it. I didn't actually listen to their version of Iron Man, so I can't weigh in on that (yet) but I know that the versions I've played haven't been sped up from the original (nor was UGA's, I believe). (Keep in mind most of the times songs like that are used it's just focused on one riff - with Iron Man it's mostly all the "Here comes Iron Man" part. Rarely when bands use these are they played all the way through.) It's not bad to listen to when you've got a good band behind it - which is true, of course, for every song.

That being said, I'm much more in favor of bands playing songs that they can get all the way through and that fit. Give me Earth, Wind, and Fire over Black Sabbath anyday.

[Teancum]

Just so everyone knows, I'm not trying to be overly critical. There's quite a few good ones in there. I'm listening to em at work.

[Bac-Talan]

Why is everyone (OK, so maybe just the two other people who have posted here) so worried about being condescending/overly critical? I appreciate criticism, and you guys are being really nice about it anyways. (No "my tortoise playzerz this song better thn u!!1!!" )

So anyways, like I said, our band's playing the big basketball game tomorrow, our music (on the topic of what's 'typical' for marching band) includes: the national anthem (duh!), Tequila, The Final Countdown, Disco Inferno, Holiday, Walk This Way, and some other stuff like that. We play a lot of this style of music for pep band, and then march with more parade-band stuff later, including arrangements of Scottish/Irish tunes (Scot. the brave, Highland Cathedral and such)

Now I know that's not really all that common (the celtic stuff) so what is? What does your band usually march with, Mav?

[Maveritchell]

It changes from show to show, a couple of my favorite shows this year have been our Beatles show and our Saturday Morning show. (Saturday Morning show)

A lot of the time our music is popular tunes (not R&B, though, for obvious reasons), because college bands tend not to really be "show bands" like DCI. We're just there for halftime entertainment. (I prefer it this way, because marching bands, in my opinion, sound a lot better playing catchy music than art music.)

[Grev]

Nice stuff. The guitar player is good at holding his music "right". I play guitar, and for me its challenging at the moment to keep concentrated and not off track when I play melody with my teacher!

Some shows have good stuff, like my towns high school has some nice stuff. (My sisters friend performed some big place after he was heard at the highschool)

Your band was particularly good.

[Bac-Talan]

Are all these schools in Washington? I recognize quite a few. In fact, my aunt teaches at one of them.

Yep, all in Washington. All in Western Washington too, I think. Where does your aunt work?

And Maveritchell, that's some darn nice marching!
I couldn't really hear the music, not well, but still cool!

[EraOfDesann]

Are all these schools in Washington? I recognize quite a few. In fact, my aunt teaches at one of them.

Yep, all in Washington. All in Western Washington too, I think. Where does your aunt work?

She lives on Vashon but teaches at South Kitsap.

[Bac-Talan]

Sorry for the bump, but I have to say: We won.

Right, please return to ignoring this thread.

[Grev]

Congratulations for a well deserved win!