Columbia University Marching Band

The Columbia University Marching Band (CUMB) has performed for Columbia University since 1904. In the early 1960s, the CUMB became the first college or university marching band in the United States to convert to a scramble band format. Most of the United States' best universities now feature scramble bands, including all of the Ivy League (except Cornell) and Stanford. More concerned with outrageous halftime shows than marching patterns and musicianship, the CUMB has a reputation for edgy humor, and is often thought to be the most controversial and irreverent of the scramble bands. Since the 60's, national news outlets have covered the band's most infamous pranks. CUMB bills itself as "The Cleverest Band in the World."

One innovation of the CUMB has been the introduction of the "miscie," which rhymes with "whiskey" and is short for miscellaneous. While many of the band members carry a musical instrument onto the field, the band's miscies carry whatever they choose. Some miscie instruments of the past have included a washboard, spoons, juggled balls/pins, the Game Boy Advance, the ROLM phone, beer bottles, spare tires, steel mailboxes, condom harp, football stadium bench (no longer attached to the stadium), passenger handle from the interior of an MTA Redbird subway car, unicycle, and kitchen sink. Other, slightly more melodious, instruments have included the shofar, the E♭ contrabass sarrusophone, a didgeridoo (the didge), and the B♭......
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