In Brasso continuo we'll explore the traditions, rituals and folklore surrounding the drum corps activity. If you know of a ritual, bit of folklore or tradition associated with a corps, e-mail the details to dave@dci.org. If you have a picture of that particular ritual or tradition, e-mail that as well. Thanks! This great drum corps hoax, about the existence of a "lost" corps from the glorious past, was submitted by a Southwind baritone player. "I can't say much about its birth, but I can tell you this hoax began somewhere deep within the horn bus some late night on the road to Colorado. It's the legend of the greatest corps never to march in the history of drum corps: Kraus-Andersen of Minneapolis. Their long and involved history evolved originally from a small inside joke among the riders on Southwind bus 149 (officially dubbed the brass bus), but it later became a joke that spread among the entire corps," the anonymous contributor said. According to Southwind legend, the Kraus-Andersen corps began after the '71 merger between the Kraus Town Cadets and the Andersen Valley Regiment. Everyone raved about the bootleg recordings of their 1974 show, which was supposedly the greatest show of all time -- but the corps was disqualified in semifinals for marching overage members. As a result, their scores were shamefully struck from the record. Kraus-Andersen struggled to hang on, and DCI finally ousted them in the '80's only to have them return as an exhibition corps, free from DCI's age limitations. Like all good hoaxes, this one spun off into many different variations. To Southwind members, "Kraus-Andersen began to represent everything great, and spawned pre-show catch phrases such as "Do it Kraus-Andersen style," according to the anonymous contributor. "Following the 2002, the legend of Kraus-Andersen only served to grow larger on the Southwind Web site message board. Signatures on messages claimed membership to the corps in the late '70s, first as members, then as brass arrangers and finally to positions as farcical as First String Quarterback. Stories spread from camp to camp and message to message, talking of Kraus-Andersen's glory days, marching horns made of iron and inventing the jazz run. I think you even might find that Kraus-Andersen is operating their own souvie store at www.cafeshops.com/krausandersen."