HOME CONTACT US DISCLAIMER: Music hosted on this site is for preview purposes only. If you like what you hear please buy the artist's work. You can find much of it here:

Hail to the Victors If Prince’s fabulous halftime show at Superbowl XLI teaches us anything it is this simple equation: R&B + marching band = awesome. The little purple pal has joined an elite troupe of R&B artists who in recent years have learned that hiring 50 high school kids dressed in garish uniforms to perform meticulously choreographed drum and brass arrangements of their hits will always be a showstopper. We remember a rambling outro on the Lucy Pearl album in which Raphael Saadiq daydreams about marching band covers of their songs, but it was Gwen Stefani who really got the ball rolling in 2005. She was quickly followed by Kanye West on Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, Outkast, and Kanye again, this time with Jamie Foxx, at last year’s Grammies. But pop stars dressing up as majorettes are just the beginning. The real madness starts when marching bands are allowed to do their own thing. Watch the Penn State Drum Line’s silly, knockabout version of Thriller, witness the Jackson State Marching Band’s hip-hop influenced show (complete with Hustle & Flow references and an amazing break at 2:00), but most of all marvel at the 2006 Pride of Arizona’s mind-blowing Radiohead medley. And it doesn’t end there. Josh Davis (using the name Motorcycle John rather than DJ Shadow) has compiled a couple of excellent marching band funk collections and then there are a slew of contemporary brass bands like the Rebirth Brass Band, the Youngblood Brass Band and Hot 8 who ply their own great tunes alongside some staggeringly good (usually Motown) covers. Lucy Pearl - Marching Band Interlude [mp3] [buy] Hot 8 - Sexual Healing (Marvin Gaye cover) [mp3] [buy] ??? - Chameleon (Herbie Hancock cover) taken from Schoolhouse Funk Vol. 1 [mp3] Posted by: Scott 06/02/07