We are the WORLD FAMOUS, award winning, super-duper

Humboldt State University Cal Poly Humboldt Marching Lumberjacks!  

The only remaining, real SCATTER BAND from a public university

and the only SCATTER-MARCHING

BAND IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE!



TL;DR

this AIN’T your typical college band.


The Marching Lumberjacks (MLJs) take pride in being one of the last remaining student-organized and student-run organizations in college bands today. Pride in being exceptionally non-traditional, and fun!


What we feel a college band should be.


We don’t do that marching in step stuff - at least not intentionally, we don’t do latin fanfares, lame marching band competitions, and we don’t waste our time making sure everyones feet are exactly 6 inches off the ground or any other boring stuff like that.


Hey, if you marched in high school, hey, thats cool. But we do things a little differently here.

If you really have a bug up your rear to march in neat, orderly, boring straight lines, we suggest an Army band. They're pros at that kinda thing. This is college - it’s supposed to be fun!


MARCHING STYLE


It's been said as geographically isolated as Cal Poly Humboldt is, one can almost imagine that the students when developing their marching style, did so without ever seeing an ordinary marching band.


Most college marching bands follow a high-stepping, baton-twirling drum major and extensively practice their neat, straight lines. In contrast, the Marching Lumberjacks follow the direction of an Axe Major wielding a large axe, and abandon straight lines for a happy game of Follow the Leader. Sometimes a dozen or more musicians follow their line leader from the parade route, through the crowd, and into nearby shops before rejoining the band. When the band comes to a halt, the Marching Lumberjacks execute a proper Lumberjack victory thrust. The command 'Parade Rest' causes the band members to sit or lie down in the street. These and other traditional antics make the Marching Lumberjacks crowd-pleasers, earning them numerous parade awards.


The band's policy of 'any march-able instrument' has allowed band members to supplement the usual brass, woodwind, and percussion sections with such diverse instruments as violins, didgeridoo, battery-powered electric guitar, washboards, kazoos, finger cymbals, and the band's signature percussion instrument, the marching KEG. Supplementing the odd-ball percussion are the occasional dancers, jugglers, clowns and even some very talented musicians.  And Gordon.


From Seattle to San Diego, The band participates in many parades and festivals up and down the West coast. We follow our championship Jacks athletics teams wherever they go and participate in tons of local events right here in beautiful Humboldt County.

And yeah, we do weddings too.


We’ve been on TV shows, (Jay Leno, Bill Maher) Local and National news outlets, in MOVIES (The Majestic with Jim Carrey, Some new thing on Apple TV+) and have been pictured in countless magazines and newspapers including the oh so prestigious New York Times, SF Chronicle, LA Times amd Mad River Union. And oh yeah... way the heck back in the '90s we were pictured the National Geographic - marching right into the ocean! So that was pretty cool.


Simply put, WE’RE FAMOUS!!!! Woo-HOOOO!


We believe in always having fun, but take our entertaining seriously! Whether it’s the students and alumni of HSU, the wonderful families and kids that line the parade routes or the masses out in Movie and TV land, We love to put on a show, and we guarantee to make you smile or your money back or something.


OUR CULTURE AND VIBE

We are An Adventurous, Authentic, Compassionate, Environmentally Responsible, Forward-Looking**, Free-Thinking, Friendly, Quirky, Socially conscious yet completely irreverent banned. So they tell us.


Come check us out!

KISS OUR AXE!*




**even while marching backwards











*guarantee void where prohibited, invalid in all 50 states, consult your doctor, etc.