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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — University of Iowa officials are denying any affiliation with a brass band facing criticism for allegedly sexually offensive lyrics.
The Beer Band is a group of brass musicians who traditionally play at local bars the night before Hawkeye home football games. After a recent performance, one onlooker complained that the band performed music with sexually offensive lyrics.
The Iowa City Press-Citizen (http://icp-c.com/1iRnqoJ ) reports that Lenore Maybaum, a faculty member at Kirkwood Community College, complained about the lyrics on social media, and is pressing for a stronger institutional response after learning that band members tend to include current and former university marching band members.
Some members of the UI Alumni Band traditionally participate in the Beer Band activities on the Friday night before the school's Homecoming game, scheduled for October 10.
University officials have repeatedly said the school has no direct affiliation with the unofficial tradition.
Recent complaints against the Beer Band have reached the ears of Hawkeye Marching Band Director Kevin Kastens and other band leaders. They decided none of the marching band's 255 members will participate in the tradition.
"The standards to which we hold our current members are higher than the expectations for the average Iowa student," Kastens wrote in an email Monday to Maybaum
The Press Citizen couldn't reach members of the Beer Band for comment.
Maybaum reiterated Wednesday that she hopes the longstanding musical tradition can continue, but without the lyrics that "so clearly crossed the line."
"That is an independent group activity," said Jeff Kueter, president of the university's alumni association. "From my perspective, if (members of the UI Alumni Band) do it respectfully and responsibly and have a good time, then they ought to be able to do what they remember doing when they were students."
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Information from: Iowa City Press-Citizen, http://www.press-citizen.com/
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