For much of the late 20th century, music was consumed on vinyl.
Marching music was no exception. During the earliest years of Drum Corps International — and well before — scores of drum corps performances were widely-distributed on vinyl records.
At a time when listening to music on an iPod or a phone would have been something out of a science fiction movie, records were the way drum corps performances were experienced and remembered.
"When the Squires started showing up on records, it was a thrill beyond belief. We were ‘recording artists!’” said DCI Hall of Fame member Steve Rondinaro who was a former member and director of the Watkins Glen, New York corps. “The thing about vinyl is who were you paired with on side A or side B? Was it a corps you liked ... or not so much? Who else was on the album? You knew you'd wear the grooves out on your corps but it would be nice to enjoy your album mates too."
As technology advanced, so did recording mediums. LPs gave way to cassettes which gave way to CDs and eventually digital downloads. By the 1990s you’d be more likely to find a drum corps record in the bargain bin of your local thrift store than on the souvenir trailer of your favorite drum corps.
But a seismic shift began to take place in the recording industry throughout the 2000s and 2010s. A growing trend saw more and more consumers returning to records as artists the likes of Radiohead, Daft Punk, Adele and Taylor Swift began to put out new albums on vinyl. According to industry reports, 2022 marked the 17th-straight year that sales of vinyl records rose.
In 2019, Bluecoats aimed to capitalize on the renewed focus on vinyl by bringing drum corps audio back to its original medium. But the Canton, Ohio corps, which had visions of its 2019 Beatles-centric production, “The Bluecoats,” being produced as a record, ran into a snag.
Vinyl was — and still is — back. And as a result, pressing plants were swamped.
“Every plant was completely backed up for months,” Bluecoats audio engineer Matt Skowronski said. “We sort of let it go after that and forgot all about it.”
Luckily, though, having started that process, the Canton corps’ contact info was on the radar of a major record manufacturer. They got their second chance and ran with it.
“‘One of the pressing plants that I had reached out to before, contacted us and said, ‘It's so crazy, the demand is so high, we're opening a second plant,’” Skowronski said. “That's how that record came to be so quickly, because we had already done a lot of the work before but forgot about it and gave up on it.”
For Phantom Regiment — and its marketing and merchandise director, Robert Cawthorne — putting recordings back on vinyl came together as one of many unique developments to the corps’ online store offerings over the past couple of years especially.
Cawthorne, whose own passions and interests for LPs began to flourish in recent years, saw vinyl as an opportunity to engage Phantom Regiment’s passionate fan base with music it would find familiar and nostalgic.
The corps currently has two records for sale, titled “Phantom Regiment Classics, Vol. 1 and 2,” which feature an array of Phantom Regiment staples including “Amazing Grace,” Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma,” Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” and more. The albums are remasterings of offerings that were previously available on CD.
We've just received a very limited number of The Classics vinyl records! The last batch sold out in just a few days. Get one before they're gone! https://thephanshop.com/products/classics-record
Posted by Phantom Regiment on Wednesday, August 23, 2023
“These have excerpts from over the years,” Cawthorne said. “It’s what we call ‘history bits.’ It's pieces from our history that even our current membership know, because they’ve been in our repertoire for so long.”
For Bluecoats fans, the corps’ new “Bluecoats From the 50” vinyl offering features a pair of 2022 performances, recorded live at the DCI World Championships in Indianapolis.
On one side, listeners can enjoy the corps’ “trippy” competitive production, “Riffs and Revelations.” On the other, the corps features its nostalgic and popular alumni corps performance, presented at the DCI World Championships in honor of the Bluecoats’ 50th anniversary.
“The alumni corps was such an incredible experience for everybody in it,” Bluecoats marketing manager Liz Clayton said. “I was really honored to be able to watch them in the audience. So, I'm super excited to be able to have that on vinyl.”
And according to both corps, audience response has been through the roof.
As Skowronski noted, the Canton corps’ “The Bluecoats” records were snatched up in the blink of an eye, to the point that the corps made a concerted effort to funnel further resources into its growingly-popular product and its next “From the 50” album which is now available for order.
“We had no idea when we did the first one,” he said. But, yeah, we sold them all very fast. And people are still asking for more. People are really excited. I think I've heard a lot of people say that they need to get a record player.”
Cawthorne added that he’s seen a wealth of positive response from Regiment’s alumni base.
Drum corps on vinyl was a prominent aspect of the activity for much of its early history, and the option to enjoy drum corps music again in such a unique and nostalgic manner has been more than welcomed.
“It's been a way to re-engage some older drum corps fans,” he said. “We make a few bucks on the record, but it brings them back in, so it's a win-win, I think, for everybody.”
Skowronski and Cawthorne alike shared that one of the joys of having music on records is its interactive nature.
To enjoy a record, the listener can’t just pull up their preferred song on Spotify or Apple Music. They can’t easily access it while sitting at their computer or working on projects.
Listening to a record is something you have to make a point to do, and according to Cawthorne and Skowronski, that’s part of what makes it unique and, arguably, better.
“There's an experience that comes with listening to a vinyl record that you don't quite get when you're listening to digital music or even some of the latter,” says Skowrosnki.
“It's very intentional listening,” Cawthorne added. “I wouldn't sit here in my office and put a record on, because I'd have to get up every 20 minutes and flip the thing. You sit and you listen — like, how much do we do that anymore? That's what I love about it.”
Order Bluecoats' "From the 50" on vinyl
Order Phantom Regiment's "Classics" on vinyl