Damn, We're Good – The Huskies Pep Band

Music is a great example of a dynamic art form. Each performer of a song brings their own personality and style to their interpretation of the composer’s work. Over time a song can even come to resemble it’s earlier versions in little more than name. A great example of this is the Michigan Tech Fight song.

This first version is a restoration of a 1948 recording of Warney Ruhl and His Band performing Fight Tech Fight, Engineers! Weighing in at 2:29 this recording is not only much longer than the 0:53 recording of the song (with tags) from the 2007 Album For Your Aural Pleasure. It is vastly different in style as well, with more of a march/polka feel. The modern version also features a Wind introduction, as opposed to the drum roll-off of the earlier version, and tags at the end in place of more repetitions of the main melody.

Personally I think the newer version is much Peppier, but perhaps I’m biased. Either way, it’s interesting to see where we came from.

Fight Song, 1948 Style (mp3 3.42 MB)

Fight Song, 2007 Style (mp3 2.03 MB)

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This past weekend brought the first official events of the Pep Band Season, and a long day for the DaWGs.

Friday Night the band helped pump up the crowd at the Pep Rally hosted by the newly re-opened Mine Shaft and Rock House Grill as part of their Grand Opening weekend. Band members enjoyed bowling, go-carts, and food while not playing for the crowd.

The annual Parade of Nations was held Saturday Morning with the Huskies Pep Band participating, as usual, though this year there was significantly less musical participation overall with the Pep Band being joined only by the Houghton High School Marching Band and Batucobre, the Copper Country’s Local Samba Bateria.

Immediately following the Parade was the band’s first athletic event, the Home Football Opener against arch-rivals Northern Michigan University. The Half-Time show this week was “The Number One Hits that Make You Groan” and featured Starship’s “We Built This City (On Rock and Roll)”, Hanson’s “MMMbop”, Ace of Base’s “The Sign”, and Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Achey Breaky Heart”. Due to time limitations both the Half-Time and Pre-Game performances were cut short, but the band played far more during the game than in years past, helping to keep the energy up at Sherman Field. Sadly, NMU proved to much for the Huskies and captured the Miner’s Cup.

Next weekend brings #1 Grand Valley State to town for the first Michigan Tech night game at Sherman Field.

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Mark your calendars: The 2009-10 Huskies Pep Band Camp will be Friday, August 28 from 3:00-7:00p and Saturday, August 29 10:00-12:00p in McArdle Theatre (in Walker).

As usual, dinner will be provided on Friday by the lovely people of Mu Beta Psi Friday.   The first football game is September 19 against NMU which gives us a little more time to prepare than usual – but not much.  Leave your quiet voices at home.

If you are a returning member…  Keep checking your email for information regarding pre-registration, early stripe checkout, and the defenestration of clarinetists.

If you are an incoming students…  Have a look around.  Check out the FAQ page.  If you need an instrument be sure to come to the instrument check-out on Friday, August 28th at 10:00am (if you can’t make it to the check-out email Nick ).  We’ll see you at 3:00pm on Friday, August 28th!

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It has been a year to the day since the last real update to our website, and for that I must apologize. This is why I stopped doing my own blog

Anyway, you’ll notice some changes to the site, so take a look around, and join us for band camp Friday, August 28 at 3 PM in McArdle Theater.

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Long time, no post, I know, I know, but the off-season normally doesn’t usually bring too much news-worthy to the Huskies Pep Band. Here’s a quick run-down of what you might have missed, followed by some information about the start of the new season.

In April the Pep Band Banquet saw rookies become returnees and the normal slew of awards including the 111th Annual Aaron Buche-Vold Little Swimmers Award, and the revival of the Best Cross Dresser award (this year given to Will “Big Willie” Schultz (1st year BA!) for his stunning outfit from hobo weekend. Also announced were the new Assistant Student Directors or Semi conductors: Neil Wisniewski (1st Year Bells) and Katie Becker (3rd Year Tone). In a unique turn of events, upon the couple being awarded the “Next to Get Hitched Award”, Kenny Barnt (3rd Year BA!) proposed marriage to Kate Henshaw (2nd Year BA!) with some help from the rest of the BA! section. The proposal is available on YouTube here.

This summer, the MTU Board of Control approved the somewhat controversial Experience Tech Fee. This $64/semester fee gives students free access to the Portage Lake Golf Course, Mont Ripley, MTU Home Hockey Games, and Visual and Performing Arts productions in McArdle and the Rozsa Center. The institution of this fee will allow the Pep Band (and many other VAPA-supported ensembles and productions) to be better funded than in the past.

That about wraps it up for the off-season, so on to this coming year. Preseason Band Camp will be held Friday, August 29 From 3 PM to 7 PM (Dinner provided), and Saturday, August 30 from 10AM to noon. Immediately following the Saturday portion of Band Camp is the first Football game, against Winona State. The rest of the season’s schedule will be posted soon. Also, band members using calendar programs that support the iCal format can subscribe to the calendar here (webcal) or here (http).

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This past weekend the Husky Women’s Basketball Team participated in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional Tournament in Springfield, Missouri. Unbeknownst to the team, the Athletic Department arranged for a small contingent of the Spring Breaking Huskies Pep Band to make the trip as well.

Thursday morning two vans left Houghton, both bound for Springfield, but one going through Wisconsin to pick up breaking students, and the other going through the Lower Peninsula for the same purpose. Early Friday morning both vans arrived in Springfield to rest briefly before the Ladies’ game. The game was a hard-fought battle between the Huskies and the Miners of Missouri S&T (Formerly University of Missouri-Rolla) that the Miners ended up coming out on top of. That evening at dinner the band Huskies showed their trivial prowess by dominating the network trivia game at Buffalo Wild Wings, at one time with the three band tables in the top three spots at the restaurant and the “MTU Gold” Table winning three straight rounds to be ranked 28th in the nation.

Saturday morning the vans set out again, this time with fewer detours, making it back to Houghton in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

A fun time was had by all, in spite of the 37 hour, 2200 mile drive for a paltry 27 hour stay, but with any road trip, isn’t the trip at least half the fun?

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To the surprise of many, the WCHA has invited the Pride of Pastyland, for the third year running, to be the official host band of the WCHA Final Five Tournament in St. Paul, Minnesota. Unfortunately, this year the Final Five tournament does not coincide with the St. Paul St. Patrick’s day parade, so the band will be looking for alternate venues where they can spread our special band of organized chaos.

In other news, Semiconductor and DaWGs Staff elections were held yesterday in rehearsal. Results still aren’t in Results for the Semiconductor race won’t be known until the Pep Band Banquet on April 6, but there was good competition all around. Nick Enz even said that this year’s batch of potential arm-wavers is quite possibly the best there has been in a long time. For the DaWGs staff the EERC Tree was elected president but was declared an unconstitutional candidate, so Scott “Ace” “Sieve” “I rigged my own presidential election” Nelson, 3rd Year Sieve..erm…’rumpet, is the new president-elect of DaWGs. For Vice President Katie Becker, 3rd Year Tone, beat out rookie Tenor Chelsea Kittinger. In a surprising turn 3rd year Flute Megan Knudstrup beat out nth year Bone Mike Oxlong for Treasurer. By a difference of one vote 2nd year Tenor Heather Courier defeated rookie Concussionist Brittany Ondraka, who has been named rookie rep for the remainder of this year and the begining of next year.

In other, other news, Faculty Director Nick Enz, who has been expected to be in his final season with the Huskies Pep Band, has announced that he will return again next year, reprising his role as director of both the Pep Band and Wind Symphony. Students from both ensembles have been rejoicing at the news that they will not lose their beloved director. This is Nick’s fourth year as Faculty Director of the Pep Band, a post he gained unexpectedly after the abrupt departure of his predesesor, Alton Thompson. At the start of his first season many returning students, unaware that Thompson was no longer with the Band, took Nick to be a rookie, but soon found him to be one of the greatest directors the band has known.

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Not every band can say that they regularly participate in zero visibility, sub-zero parades. Here is a picture of those band members that braved the 2008 Heikenpaiva Parade.

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This Winter Carnival was a joyous time as always.  Some of the highlights include the one nibble the BA!s got while ice fishing and the broomball team taking 4th place (Kenny actually made an opponent puke with one of his ubershots!)

Here is a video of Carny Kenny bringing people into the golf course!

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Also, check out this article from the Detroit Press mentioning the band.

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With the Spring Semester in full swing, many eyes are focused on the Broomball rinks. This year is a momentous one in Pep Band broomball with 6 teams being fielded by members of the Pep Band. In the DHH League are the perennial Instruments of Pain from the band at large and The Bones of Contention from, oddly enough, the Bones. In the McNair League we find the ChuBAcabras from the BA! section, who last year competed in the Off Campus League. The band is best represented (at least in terms of the number of teams) by The Bones (Bones), The Nick Enz Experience (BA!s), and The Forte Force (band at large.)

And this time of year any eyes not looking at the Broomball rinks are looking at the snow statues going up around campus and thinking about everything that goes into Carnival. Groundbreaking on this years 8-1/2 Hole Golf course will take place Tuesday evening and band members are getting prepped to participate in activities like Ice Fishing, Ice Bowling, Human Dogsled, Curling, Skiing, Broomball, and many more. Also, for the second year in a row the band is able to take a breather with only Hockey performances.

Look here for updates on everything carnival and DaWGs Broomball.

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