High-Tech Hijinks

They're billed as the "world's largest rock-and-roll band." In fact, the University's, er, marching band has been called everything from inspired to insipid. Now it may get a new label: High-tech.

The 26 cuts on the Band's newest recording can be played on a regular CD unit. But pop the disc into a computer's CD-ROM drive and it turns into a virtual scrapbook of more than 250 wacky snapshots of Band members at play. The album covers the range of the LSJUMB's musical offerings, from classics such as "All Right Now" to newer arrangements of tunes by post-punk rockers such as Green Day, whose lead singer asked for a copy of the disc.

The accompanying 12-page booklet includes a tribute to Arthur Barnes, Stanford's director of bands and "the silver-haired master of funk" whose unique arrangements have fueled the Band's music since 1963. Barnes, who will retire next spring, conducted four numbers. He's glad to go out on a high note. "The best they've ever done," he says of the recording. "It's vintage Band." Is that good or bad?