Strike - September 2013

August 30, 2013strikemagazine.net Issue #3

in this issue... SUMMER CONCERT REVIEW SERIESSTRIKE TACKLES THE SEASON’S BEST SHOWS FROM DYLAN TO HEART

Bob Dylan’s Americanarama Festivalturns out to be the must-see musical bandwagon of the summer

Pink Martini with Stormshowcases elegant music for all ages at the Arvada Center

by Brett Stewart - Editor & PublisherI feel it is only apt that I notify readers of two items before I proceed with this review - One, I am the most versed Dylan fan this side of the Mississippi. Two, despite having seen Bob in concert before, I still hold him to the high standard that he should be held to. So with that said, let’s delve into the Americanarama festival. We’ll take the re-view in segments since the festival spanned about sev-en hours of different mu-sical acts. Firstly, let’s talk about My Morning Jacket. My Morning Jacket was recently included on Roll-ing Stone’s ‘Best Live Acts of 2013’ list. In fact, all of these acts were, so naturally I had high expectations for the bands. My Morning Jack-et was the least eventful of three acts, and I found their music repetitive and pre-dictable. Somewhere in the past thirty years someone came up with the brilliant idea that you can play psy-chedelic experimental rock

mixed with loud moaning and humming from the lead singer and then you’re con-sidered talented. Actually, that was Radiohead - and Radiohead is talented. My Morning Jacket is not Radiohead, but that didn’t seem to stop them from ten minute long jams ac-companied with mo-notonous moaning from the lead singer. I can’t connect the style to Dylan, so I imagine that their inclusion was centered around them being able to crowd-please younger fans. Wilco was a differ-ent story. The band is remarkably talented, and both their lyrics and instrumentals are top notch. I gen-uinely enjoyed Wil-co’s performance, and was pleased with the amount of numbers off of their senior “Yankee Hotel Fox-

trot” album. More specif-ically, “Jesus, Etc.” is abso-lutely wonderful live. Wilco proved a valuable and hyp-ing opener for Dylan. But

enough of these bands, let’s talk about the real reason we all went to this concert.

The Arvada Center for the Arts left nothing to be de-sired from their concert headlining Pink Martini on Sunday, July 7th. The con-cert was part of an ongoing outdoor summer concert series at the Center. Thus, the concert-goers came out with their picnic baskets, blankets and fold up chairs

for a wonderful evening of instrumental music. This orchestral group started off with a Spanish/Latin vibe playing music that transported you to the sunny beaches of Latin America.

by Addie Callahan - Staff Contributor

STORYCONTINUES ON 9

STORY CONTINUES ON 8

our album picksStrike takes on newcomer Jake Bugg along with Queens of the Stone Age’s new epic, “... Like Clockwork.”

STORY STARTS ON 3

While there was plenty of bad 80’s music, (Well, mostly Metallica) there were also plenty of hits that resonate as loud to-day as they did in their heyday.

STORY ON PAGE 6

we still love the 80’s

entitled white kids“I’m a white, male, mid-dle class American, and life is so hard.” - A reality check. STORY ON PAGE 10

what the Boss meansto musicWe delve into what makes Bruce ‘The Boss’ and why exactly he’s so im-portant to music as a whole.

STORY ON PAGE 12

Page 2 Strike Magazine Monday, August 30, 2013

The Strike StaffBrett Stewart

Editor & Publisher

Larson RossManaging Editor

Alex ShultzChief Graphic Designer

Contributing WritersAaron Bilek

Addison CallahanChad Earnest

Nash JekotChristiana Junta

Justin HeinLarson Ross

Brett Stewart

Publication Designed and Compiled By Brett Stewart

Attributions

STRIKE RETURNS TO PRINTwhat to expect for the final three months of Strike publicationsStrike has always been the most unique endeavor - a publication run entirely by high school students. So once we completed our 2012 cycle of magazines, we went back to the drawing boards. We wanted to create something new, sustainable and reli-able. Oddly enough, those are three words that I doubt anyone would put towards publishing a newspaper these days. But then again, we aren’t ones to care much for what we’re supposed to be doing, anyway. So here we are before you in 2013 as a newspaper. Now what? Now we’re going to print two more issues in Oc-tober and November, for a grand total of three monthly issues this year. The reason behind printing on a monthly basis brings us back to wanting to be-come a reliable publication. One issue Strike had in 2012 was the inability to predict the exact dates of our publica-tion beyond the season in which we were printing it. Now, you can expect Strike to be available wherever you just picked it up at the same time for the next two months. This cycle al-lows us to keep regular columns and design, which is beneficial to both our

readers and contributing writers. Another change you’ve likely noticed by now is the lack of an art section. This is because Strike at heart is pri-marily for the publication of written material, of which we have an excess of. So naturally, it made sense to tie up our loose ends to print what you, the reader, wants anyway. Not to mention it saves us quite a bit of money in color ink, which as you’ll see, we’ve elected to use sparingly. So why bother? We bother because Strike didn’t end last winter. We had too much we still needed to say, and not much time left to say it, consider-ing the majority of our staff are soon-to-be graduates. As always, we are continuing to publish the content that might not otherwise see the light of day. Opinions and stories deserve to be told and showcased. Remember, Strike is still Strike. You can hold us to the standard you came to recognize from us last year, and we expect you to. Each of these three is-sues will be top quality with the best content we have available to publish. In November, Strike will close shop, at least, in print. An unbelievable one

hundred and twenty eight pages later. (Not accounting for how much larg-er newspaper pages are) So come and join us on our final bout. We plan to go out with a bang, and certainly not a whimper.

got what it takes?Strike is currently in the middle of it’s final print cycle, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to stop showcasing young writers! Strike’s website is always full of content! Head over there today to

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Springsteen 1: Thomas Uhlemann

Bono 1: Helge OverasBob Dylan 1:

Alberto CabelloJake Bugg 1: Solly Darling

Bono 2: Xraypyx

Blumchen: Jasmin WagnerPink Martini:

K. KendallSuburbia Photo: Rainer KnapperSpringsteen 2: Bill Ebbesen

3-D Printed Heads: S. Zillayali

Page 3Strike MagazineMonday, August 30, 2013

THIS SUMMER’S HOTTEST MUSIC RELEASESthese albums should rocket to the top of your playlists this fall

Queens of the Stone Age triumph with ... Like Clockwork

In an age of pop singers buying their way to fandom and viral Miley Cyrus twerking videos, any sort of pause in a band’s momentum can leave it in a void of obscurity. However, the laws of popular culture seem to not apply to Josh Homme, the driving creative force and only permanent member of Queens Of The Stone Age (henceforth to be referred to as QOTSA). Homme put QOTSA on the shelf to focus on producing albums for the Arctic Monkeys and to perform with Dave Grohl for over six years. Yet, after years of hiatus, he still came out with a literal chart topping album, ...Like Clockwork. As most are aware, though, chart suc-cess does not often correlate to qual-ity music, so I decided to investigate the quality of ...Like Clockwork track by track.

“Keep Your Eyes Peeled”: The al-bum kicks off with the shattering of glass in the dark streets of an uncar-ing city. The violence doesn’t spark a riot, merely trudging acceptance. Both musically and lyrically, this song constructs an image of a grimy, decaying cityscape somewhere in either the depths of Hell or Detroit (is there really that much of a dif-ference?). The tuned-down guitar

drone draws on Homme’s metal past, but high vocals and a pseudo bright and hopeless bridge keep the listener from sinking down into the dark core of himself. On a first listen the track suffers from pacing prob-lems, lingering a little too long for a traditional opener. However, on re-peated listens it really comes into its own.

“I Sat By The Ocean”: The song leaps out of the dark oblivion left by “Eyes” with an immediate launch into a lively, distorted, three-step heavy blues-waltz. The atmosphere is expanded with delicious slide work and lyrics describing a night of vindictively drinking away the pain of a lost love. While energetic and catchy, the song doesn’t quite reach its full potential. All the pieces of greatness are there, but the puzzle hasn’t been fully constructed, mak-ing “Ocean” easily both the catchi-est and weakest song on the record, though the weakest portion of a masterpiece is hardly something to scoff at.

“Vampyre Of Time And Memory”: Bouncy synths which usually pep-per dance grooves are corrupted, twisted to sound dark and obscure before fading into a lonely piano march and an unusually bare Hom-me signing of uncertainty and vul-nerability. The track slowly builds, adding depressing, yet somehow hopeful, Hendrix-esk bursts of solo-ing and a teasing of orchestral might, building the song to a cacophony of noise that can only be described as ordered chaos before sliding back into silence, leaving a listener feeling a piece of their soul missing.

“If I Had A Tail”: Up to this point, the usually omnipresent sexuali-ty found on most QOTSA records has been strangely absent, but this song unleashes a raging sea of dis-turbed, perverse, oozing, and sleazy sex that could transform the entire population of Utah into sexual devi-ants. The lyrics of “If I Had A Tail” distort the differences between sex, money, and power, dissolving them all into a primordial sludge of desire. The guitar work accents the lyrics with it’s coating of grime and on-off rhythm, bouncing off the vocals and swinging into seductive solos and breakdowns, keeping the listen-

er enthralled until Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys fades in like a half-remembered dream.

“My God Is The Sun”: A true des-ert rock powerhouse complete with industrial, edgy bass, precise bursts of electric guitar power, echoes of vaguely angelic noise, and a house-destroying solo followed by a slaughterhouse-carnival of a break-down all blaring under the confi-dent swagger of Homme’s images of burning, godly vengeance, death, desolate roadways, and raw energy. Calculated, but not formulaic, in it’s intensity, “My God Is The Sun” is the kind of all out rock anthem that has been sadly absent from popular mu-sic for the past few years.

“Kalopsia”: Meaning the delusion of things being more beautiful than they are, Kalopsia attempts to ex-plore its titular idea both in it’s melo-dy and lyrics (written in part by lyr-ical master, Alex Turner). The slow, dreamy sections that the song be-gins with, and periodically falls back into, describe scenes of sadness with thoughtless beauty. Yet the peace-ful melodies have a dark undertone to them, frequently dropping the listener and letting them fall from

by Larson Ross - Managing Editor

“the shattering of glass in the dark streets of an

uncaring city.”


QOTSA Continued...ignorant bliss to horrible under-standing, abandoning them to the harsh reality that the electric feed-back rips them into. The lyrics of these sections are filled with pictures of the evils of our society that hide behind the veil of the everyday. This is the most experimental and inter-esting song on ...Like Clockwork, and possibly anything QOTSA has ever created.

“Fairweather Friends”: Recruited on the premise that QOTSA “need-ed a real queen,” Sir Elton John makes an invigorating appearance on piano and backing vocals. Hom-me succeeds massively in reminding his fans that he is one badass guitar-ist by finally letting himself off of his self-constructed chain and indulg-ing in spiraling riffs that culminate

in a tremolo calamity of the highest order. The lyrics are simple, but the emotions behind them have an edge that convey dismissive hatred.

“Smooth Sailing”: Homme is a uniquely cruel song-smith, delight-fully messing with his audience’s ex-pectations by playing the guitar and bass off of each other early in the song, leaving gaps in the beat that keep listeners waiting for the next beat, but never quite sure of when it will come. Homme continues this theme lyrically, rattling off lines like “It’s all emotion, no stopping it now. I got nothing to lose, and only one way UP,” with a devilish smirk. Even without the pure joy that the constantly changing tempo brings, this song would still be elevated to greatness for lines like “I blow my

load over the status quo,” and “Ev-ery temple is gold, every hook is de-signed. Hell is but the temple, of the closed mind.”

“I Appear Missing”: “Missing” un-furls as a rolling, lonesome, and busy ballad reminiscent of the slow build of late Led Zeppelin, but with the moroseness of Joy Division. At six minutes, “Missing” can feel like a drag with it’s frequent choruses, but the instrumental ring followed by quick bursts of guitar squeal com-bined with the layering of effects that seem to surround every instru-ment make it worth every second.

“...Like Clockwork”: It is a very rare thing to have the last song on an al-bum be a contender for its strongest track, but ...Like Clockwork’s title track is the most emotionally im-pacting song to appear on it. Neil Young levels of falsetto croon above In Rainbows style haunting piano as the guitars and bass wait in restless anticipation, exuding mysteriously deep layers of sound before falling into the background and filling the song with a murky fog of subcon-scious emotion.

Unless something absolutely ex-traordinary comes out in the next few and fleeting months, ...Like Clockwork officially wins my per-sonal Album of the Year contest. A listen to this in its entirety is manda-tory. Go forth.

“Homme is a uniquely cruel song-smith...”

Coldplay returns to the studio & Dylan unearths Bootleg Series 10

Last year Coldplay ended their con-cert series with the announcement that they would likely not be return-ing to music for a couple of years. This month they broke their musical silence with a new single for the new Hunger Games film. The single, ti-tled “Atlas” is an excellent return to form from a band that strayed musi-cally with their last album. “Mylo Xyloto” relied heavily on the inclusion of non-instrumental technologies, mostly through heavy use of computer generated sounds. The album was likely a product of Coldplay being cast into the main-stream with a twenty year old pro-ducer convincing them that this was “real music.” Regardless, the album struggled along, at one point even including Rihanna. In all honesty, we aren’t really sure if Rihanna actually has any music of her own, because each year we watch her occupy the Grammy stage latching onto other act’s songs, like a parasitic leech.

Regardless, the album was a stretch from their previous work. This single sounds like a track cut from “Rush of Blood to the Head” with it’s mystical piano and light synth tones. The only fault of the song may be in it’s lack of lyri-cal purpose, since the lyrics seem to just be Chris Martin reciting a mix-ture of inspirational quotes and his observations of lunar occurrences. We’ve never applauded Coldplay for their lyrical genius, though, as their strengths lie elsewhere. Fortunately, those strengths are highlighted with tracks like this. Still though, it’s a good song and it’s worth a listen. More importantly, it’s a whole lot better than anything else on the musical pop charts right now. We applaud Coldplay’s return to form and look forward it’s in-troduction into the highly coveted Hunger Games soundtrack. Unfor-tunately, this may be all we see from the British band for awhile, so make sure that you don’t overplay it and run the risk of tiring it out on your playlist.

The turn of the decade in 1969 was a pivotal time for Bob Dylan. He had grown tired of fame and mass-es of fans, he had attempted to iso-late himself and his family deep into the countryside, and he had put away his rock n’ roll electric guitar to once again don an acoustic one. 1969’s “Nashville Skyline” was a pure return to folk roots and in less than six years, Dylan would be releasing one of his most acclaimed records, “Blood on the Tracks.” The inbetween of these two peri-ods was blurry at best, until now. All we had was “Self Portrait”, a world reknown piece of crap, and we had it’s followup, “New Morning”, which was quite excellent. “Another Self Portrait” is an ex-cellent portrayal of the missing years in this era. The album is full of takes from New Morning that are wonderful, and a number of tracks

feature George Harrison exiting his comfort zone. Notably, the rendi-tions of “Time Passes Slowly” and “New Morning” are fantastic on this release. We’re also treated to a number of stellar renditions of old folk num-bers. Dylan isn’t just a great writer, he’s a masterful interpreter. It seems like at this point in his life, he wel-comed a break from fully original content to have some fun in the stu-dio with friends. The deluxe version of this album is a must. It includes the remastered, never officially released Isle of Wight concert. While this concert has been widely pirated, the bootlegs haven’t done it justice. The new mastering is of the highest quality, and the performances sound the way they should: full and driven heavily by the backing from The Band.This concert is suburb, and Dylan revisits songs from the 60’s in his Nashville croon, making for some memorable renditions of classic tunes.

COLDPLAY DYLAN’S BOOTLEGS


REVIEWS CONTINUED...these albums should rocket to the top of your playlists this fall

Jake Bugg enters the industry with debut release album

With the eyes of the musical world on the stages of Glastonbury this summer, we didn’t expect nineteen year old Jake Bugg. The newcomer folk-rock Brit earned his spot on the stage this summer from the BBC’s program to discover new and young talent. His self titled debut album is certainly different from the norm, but is it worth the hype? Right off the bat, you immediate-ly notice two things about Bugg: his voice and the brand of folk he’s ad-opted for himself. While the Dylan/Bugg comparisons drawn by critics are far from accurate, there’s an ob-vious source for them. Bugg’s voice is unconventional and unique, a high pitched croon that finds it’s way into one octave and remains there; his range isn’t anything to boast about. Regardless, his voice suits his music, and that’s what counts.

The brand of folk that Bugg has adopted for himself is where this truly becomes interesting. In a day of what I like to call ‘folk pop’,” the Mumford & Sons, Of Monsters & Men, stereotypical modernized folk pop music, Bugg separates himself from the herd. His style can most adequately be described as aged, a form of folk that slowly fell apart in the mid 1970’s. It’s heavy John-ny Cash influence is apparent with it’s palm-muted acoustic riffs and rhythmic lyrics. A return to more traditional values is excellent, but a problem remains. Bugg is a budding songwriter, and this means he has little life ex-perience to pull from. His lyrics pri-marily focus around being a rebel-lious teenager in a dead end town. This mentality grows old quickly as the album’s meaning becomes mo-

notonous and drags. Being a diver-sified songwriter is vastly important in a genre such as folk, and Bugg falls victim to his youth in this arena. Let’s talk about a couple of the tracks on the album. “Two Fin-gers” stands out as the obvious crowd-pleasing single, which is okay, because it’s a fun song. Bugg excels in his slower, ballad-like tracks more than his loud jams, though. Songs like “Fire” are the hidden gems on this album, and we as listeners are hooked into these tracks as soon as we are removed from them, since they are so short. Yet, since the days of Lou Reed & The Velvet Under-ground, brevity can be charming and beneficial. “Perfect Day” didn’t come along by being overly specific or detailed. With that said, that’s what strikes me as the most annoying part of the

Bob Dylan comparisons. Dylan is re-markably detailed, and has massive range. Short of the genre of music and the dangerous, chain smoking, never-smiling public persona both occupy in their young years, there isn’t much to compare here.

The album is a fun listen, and Bugg’s talent is apparent. I strongly believe that his second album will likely be far stronger when it comes along, and hopefully that will be a trend. Bugg has the potential to go far, or to be a one-hit-wonder; only time can tell. Fortunately, at nine-teen, Jake Bugg has plenty of it.

by Brett Stewart - Editor & Publisher

“In the arena of songwriting,

Bugg falls victim to his youth.”


WHY WE STILL LOVE MUSIC OF THE EIGHTIESa reminder of the decade that created the soundtrack of our lives

The music of the 1980’s: what do you usually think of when you hear someone even mention that decade? Do you think of trippy music videos that consist of bad hairdos, stuff get-ting smashed, and the lead vocalist staring at you creepily while he or she mutters something to you with a set of synthesized instruments playing in the background? I know I do, but your impression of this mu-sic may be different based on your experiences. Either way, no matter what reminds you of music from the 80’s, it’s guaranteed to be awesome. Now, if you don’t know what makes music from the eighties so awesome by now, then you’re in for a lesson. First, synthesizers. The sound of the most majestic set of electronic instruments can be heard in basically every song that was ever

released in the eighties. Take “Mr. Roboto” by Styx, or “She Blinded Me With Science” by synthesizing pio-neer Thomas Dolby. Both songs rely heavily on synthesizers. They have well set rhythms, that flow well with the vocals in each song, all while still being a joy to blast out of any stereo that you happen to be playing the music on. Personally, I believe that a decent set of tracks from the eighties had just the right blending of analog and digital musical enhancements to make each song great to rock out to. Unlike dubstep, or whatever oth-er swag-based electronic music that one can find today. Moving on, another thing that seems to make music from the eight-ies awesome is that there is practi-cally a track for any situation that you happen to be in at any moment.

Take the “Eye of the Tiger” by Sur-vivor, this song can be used during your everyday life for such activities as: working out, needing to get off your ass to do something, some epic montage of your choosing, shower-ing, walking down the street (like in the music video), etc. Or if you happen to need a pick me up in your life, then try listening to “You Make My Dreams” by Hall and Oates. Fall-ing head over heels for someone? Then listen to “Head over Heels” by Tears for Fears. The eighties was the soundtrack to our everyday lives. I suppose I could fit in one more reason why eighties music is so great, if you’re not sold already. As with any music, there needs to be a general way to dance to it. (Unless it’s dubstep) Nowhere is this more prev-alent than in eighties pop. So many

different great dances came out of the eighties like ‘The Safety Dance,’ ‘The Robot’, Van Halen’s ‘Jump,’ ‘The Electric Slide’, and lastly ‘The Sprin-kler.’ All of these dances have start-ed a cult phenomenon that spread into the nineties, and beyond. Music from the eighties implemented the revised idea of creating new forms of dance to go with different types of music, instead of what was con-sidered traditional in the past. (Al-though the seventies certainly had it’s share of oddities when it comes to dances) The eighties brought us a lot of neat things, but undoubtedly one of it’s greatest lasting achievements was the music that we all have heard time and time again. (At least, and especially, if you happen to be a reg-ular at Skate City.)

by Chad Earnest - Contributing Writer

Nothing is quite more 80’s than U2. Their 1983 album “War”

included some of the most iconic songs from the era, and some of the most passionate. Politically charged “Sunday Bloody Sunday” addressed

severe issues in Northern Ireland.


EUROPEAN LINGUALITY STRENGTHENS MUSICAL DIVERSITYwhile the American music scene falls victim to distinct borders

by Nash Jekot - Contributing Writer

Jasmin Wagner, German Multi-Platinum Music Artist

What do you call someone who speaks more than two languages? The term is multi-lingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? That individual is clearly bi-lingual. How about one language? That person is an American. As old as the joke is, it holds true, accord-ing to the U.S Census Bureau, Only 19% of residents in America speak at least one other language fluently. The European Commission states that 56% of Europeans are bi or mul-tilingual. The same report goes on to describe specific countries, the most lingual of them being Luxemburg at 99%, Sweden at 97%, the Nether-lands at 91%, Denmark at 88%, and Germany at 67%. With the average European being more than two and a half times more lingual than the average American, there is a clear cultural difference between America and European countries in learning and expressing different languages. We can also observe this difference in music as well. An odd situation

arises when America, a country with one of the most diverse populations has less diverse music than most European countries, which typical-ly are less culturally diverse due to national borders being drawn with some attention to race. Most music that becomes popular in America come from white singers of either gender, virtually all of these songs are also completely in english too with only few exceptions, such as Psy’s “Gangnam style.” Across the Pacific Ocean, there is another story to be told. As prov-en earlier, multilingualism is more prominent in the Europe region, and chart data reflects this. In 1998 and 1999, a German pop artist by the name of Blümchen topped the Nor-wegian music charts. German is not one of the four recognized languages in Norway. The sister event would be if a French artist produced a French song and topped America’s charts for a couple of months. However strange the phenomenon

is, simply Geography can explain why this occurs. Language students in the United States have a harder time learning language because us-age and travel to a country where that language is dominant is less practical. Spanish learners can take a 5 hour plane ride south to Mexico to practice Spanish as French learners can take a 5 hour plane ride to the French parts of Canada. For virtual-ly any other language besides Span-ish or French, citizens of the United States must travel across the ocean before they hit a country that speaks the language. Europeans on the oth-er hand are a short train ride away and even shorter plane ride to coun-tries with other languages. Not only is it easier to travel to these other countries, but they also exist much closer making for a higher likeli-hood for exchange of ideas and cul-ture. One of the most simple ways to learn a culture is through embracing its music, thus, learning about the people and critical parts of the cul-ture through their music.

The implications of cultured coun-tries coexisting near each other is quite profound. Since these coun-tries are so close in physical proxim-ity, the people are as well. Countries may have a defined border that is markable on a map, however, cul-ture does not. This explains why we can find huge Spanish communities in Texas, and even more so, sects of all different races and religions in countries all over the world. The European continent is most affect-ed by this because of the fact that Europe contains a bunch of ancient countries thrown together on the same land mass. This proximity is the main reason culture, and more specifically music, spread so di-versely through Europe rather than in America. Within Europe, the twenty-seven countries of the European Union can enjoy travel through each other without a passport and have gener-ally painless border crossings. This explains why exactly multilingual-ism swept to the average person in Europe. A culture more easily ob-served and seen first-hand is a cul-ture more likely to be embraced by outsiders and assimilated in various arts including. and especially, popu-lar music.

“Only 19% of residents in America speak at

least one other language fluently.”

about Nash’ love for the subjectNash Jekot has had a passion for the German lan-guage for the last two and a half years. Earlier this year, Nash had the privilege to travel to Germany as well as Poland to experience the language and culture first-hand. As a result of his trip, he has affirmed that he wants to become fluent in the lan-guage as well as travel more and even potentially

attend school in Germany.


STRIKE’S SUMMER CONCERT REVIEW SERIEScontinued from front page - Bob Dylan’s ‘Americanarama’ festival examined

Dylan graced the stage at about 9:30, and his set only lasted a little over an hour and a half. Fortunately, the set is perfectly executed and or-ganized, despite rumors of Dylan’s flip decisions on sets right before the shows. Apparently, he doesn’t have any issue pulling deep tracks off of 1970’s “New Morning” and he certainly doesn’t have an issue with pulling tracks that weren’t even offi-cially released. Hell, he’s said to fre-quently change the key of the song on the spot as well. So serious props needs to be given to his band, be-cause I imagine that could produce a stressful and difficult working en-

vironment for performers. If you go to a Bob Dylan show expecting him to play “Like A Roll-ing Stone”, “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Blowing in the Wind”, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Dylan doesn’t care about playing his hits or singles, he plays what he’s feeling that night. If you’re more versed in his catalog, it’s a special treat to be gifted with songs that few audience members recognize or know, but you do. For me, that was a couple numbers. Dylan decided to play “Blind Willie Mctell” during this stretch of the tour. It’s a bold move in-

deed, considering the song was never officially released. The song was recorded for 1983’s “Infidels” but didn’t make the cut. It’s a joy to hear live thirty years later. A couple of other song choices also shocked me a bit, such as “High Water (For Charley Patton)” from 2002’s “Love and Theft” and “Shooting Star” from 1989’s “Oh Mercy.” The style in which Dylan ex-ecutes his songs has also changed drastically in his older years. Now, all of the songs are done with a full band in a twelve bar blues tempo, often with regular guitar, harmon-ica and piano improv solos. Even

though “Love and Theft” dabbles with the style, I feel that this style was actually adopted by Dylan right around “Modern Times” five years later. Bob Dylan proves that he can consistently remain relevant in the music industry decade after decade and his intensive touring schedule is a testament to that. It was especially interesting to see Dylan play some of his “Tempest” numbers from last year alongside songs he wrote near-ly six decades ago. If you’re ever presented with a future opportunity to see Dylan live, don’t pass it up. It’s an experience like no other.

by Brett Stewart - Editor & Publisher

Bob Dylan with Joan Baez on August 28th, 1963 at the March on Wallstreet.

Strike’s exclusive Bob Dylan Bootleg Series - “Forever Young”In celebration of the new Bob Dylan Bootleg Series this year, Strike decid-ed to do some investigative work to create our own Series. After hours of

research and searching we compiled an 80 song bootleg series of Bob Dylan’s famous 1975 tour, “The Rolling Thunder Revue.” The official

Bootleg Series of this tour is very limited, so we decided to expand upon it. You can download the Series for FREE at strikemagazine.net


STRIKE’S SUMMER CONCERT REVIEW SERIEScontinued from front page - Pink Martini’s Arvada Center concert

Pink Martini w/ Storm Large performing at ‘Occupy Portland’

by Addie Callahan - Staff Contributor...After a few songs of this style, the head of the ensemble introduced the vocalist Storm Large, who had only recently debuted at Carnegie Hall. She kicked things up a notch when she started to improvise dance moves along with the music. This group works together like a well oiled machine, playing off of each other’s energy and remaining constantly on point and in time with the music. One of the most surprising treats of Pink Martini’s performance is that almost all of the musicians are as equally vocally talented as they are instrumentally. I found this to be a refreshing sur-prise after seeing many orchestral

groups who only have one or two vocalists in their group. Before each song, Pink Mar-tini would elaborate on how the next part of the set came to be cre-ated. The band explained how some songs were inspired by a famous musician of the past, and other songs pulled inspiration from an old ‘Life’ magazine advertisement for Hunts Ketchup. Having back-ground information on how the songs were devised really added a unique level of connect between the audience and the music itself. Pink Martini also has a wide variety of languages in which it’s songs were composed: Spanish,

Japanese and Creole to name only a few. Having a diverse number of languages kept the set list brimming with variety and surprises that cap-tivated the audience. It was clear to the audience, if not simply by the way musicians introduced each other, that the members of Pink Martini weren’t just band-mates, but also dear and long time friends. They applauded their colleagues af-ter their respective solos and some songs featured specific band mem-bers. Above all, Pink Martini was personable and loved to interact with the audience. During two songs they invited the crowd to join

them on stage and dance along to the numbers. In addition, they also did a meet and greet after the show, at which point you could talk to the musicians as well as get a piece of their work signed. This was one of the best orga-nized and executed concerts that I have ever attended. I have tremen-dous appreciation for the Arvada Center for the Arts, who kept a very clean and beautiful venue. The ven-ue staff which consisted primarily of volunteers was welcoming, helpful and courteous. I would highly rec-ommend both a Pink Martini con-cert, and seeing any performance at the Arvada Center of the Arts.

We’re not the only people to rave about Pink Martini...“THIS IS RICH, HUGELY APPROACHABLE MUSIC, UTTERLY COSMOPOLITAN YET UT-

TERLY UNPRETENTIOUS. AND IT SEEMS TO SPEAK TO JUST ABOUT EVERYBODY…FROM GRADE-SCHOOLERS TO GRANDMOTHERS TO THE YOUNG AND HIP AND BEAUTIFUL.”

--THE WASHINGTON POST


CALCULATED MADNESS FROM THE HULL OF THE BATTLE ZEPPELINentitled white kids in suburbia - the first topic of a three column series

Attention readers: this article is intended to be a satire. I do not actually believe myself to be a dei-ty, though I can see why you might make that mistake and wish to wor-ship me. Carry on with this knowl-edge and enjoy the column.

Since the day I was born, life has been very easy for me. Everyone around me has hailed me with end-less compliments, whenever I am hungry, food is available, I’ve even received awards for doing absolutely nothing. In short, I have everything that I have ever wished for. I tell you this, dear reader, not to boast, but to inform. You see, I have recently come to the realization that I, much like Kanye West, am a god. You ask for evidence? YOU DARE QUES-TION A GOD!? Well, since I am feeling benevolent, I shall attempt to educate all of you lesser beings. The evidence: I have put for-ward absolutely no effort in my life, yet I am constantly showered with opportunity. Whenever I find myself bored, I have instant entertainment wherever I roam by way of the mys-tical devices in my pockets invent-ed for me. Why am I living such a charmed life while others across the globe and in our own fine country starve and toil? The answer should

be obvious. Some might say that this is simply a matter of a genetic lottery, that I have these advantag-es because I happened to be born a white, male, middle class American, but the truth is so much deeper than that. Think about it: all of history, not just human, but universal, has culminated in one perfect product, myself. The universe exploded to infinite proportions from a single point, sending out the perfect ma-terials to coalesce around another point to form a galaxy where trillions upon trillions of particles came to-gether to form a perfect yellow star with several orbiting bodies, one of which improbably settled in the only habitable zone in that solar system. This planet then cooled and hydro-gen and oxygen combined to make a substance perfect for incubating the materials that would eventual-ly create life. This life then spread, diverged, and evolved to the point where it was advantageous for a spe-cies to develop a large brain. This species spreads, dominates, adapts, and conquers the globe, changing the face of the world itself. It cre-ates culture and science and music and a near infinite supply of food; it has the capacity to eliminate need entirely! Instead, geopolitical forces shaped nation-states that eventually

led to America, where wealth was concentrated, people were separat-ed based on many factors, and I was eventually born. My being born into nearly the most fortunate position in all of society is no accident; it is divinity, my divinity. What it all means: I know that the revelation that a god not only exists, but walks among you must be life-changing for you, but let’s put the focus back where it belongs, on me. More specifical-ly,on what you can do to appease your newfound god. Very soon, I shall endeavor to attend universi-ty, where I will study for my future in God-engenering and tyrannical

rule over the underclasses. What I need you, and all of society to do, is give my application priority over all others and gift me all of the money necessary to complete my lengthy and expensive education. Let no others receive consideration before me, nor financial help that I myself am not privy to. After all, my life is very difficult and I have put forth ev-ery ounce of effort I have to get to where I am, and the thought of any-one from those most undesirable of classes or races receiving such con-sideration enrages me to the point of drowning the world in my wrath. In short, I deserve everything I ask for. Now deliver.

by Larson Ross - Managing Editor

Welcome to a cookie-cutter suburban neighborhood - a great place to ignore reality


THE MODERN NFL DRAFT GLORIFIES EARLY PICKSwhile later rounds and potential hidden gems don’t get the coverage they deserve

The path to the draft has always been a nerve racking and anxious time for sports fans, players and their respec-tive teams. While some of the big names involved in the recent drafts including Cam Newton, Andrew Luck and Eric Fisher have been giv-en more than enough press, some of the other names that may grow to be big stars (cough, Geno Smith, cough) only gained press through

the online forums and analysts rath-er than directly on air. Of course, in the old days, the draft was much different, not geared toward highlighting the early picks like it is now. There could be as many as six draft rounds on the first day. I miss that. While the interviews with these big stars immediately af-ter they get the big call may be lost, at least those who gained their pass

to the NFL in the later rounds still got coverage. Like any argument, there are those who disagree. I will admit the air around the modern draft is far more electric with people sitting on the edge of their seat hoping for their team to draft the next Deion Sanders or Marshall Faulk. The play-ers who are drafted in the top five get more than a moment to revel in the spotlight. Plus all the analysts will have more than enough time to do what they do best: overanalyzing the player, the team and how they will combine. Frankly, I don’t care about all this glamour. A player walking onstage and accepting a jersey from the team is enough for me. When the preseason starts, that’s the time I want to hear what the announcers and analysts are expecting. I’m pret-ty sure Eric Fisher won’t be the only rookie for the Chiefs making plays in the preseason; it’s just nice to see all these decisions from the team live. Sadly, it is impossible to get the best of both worlds for the NFL draft. ESPN is only willing to pay the big bucks to showcase the early rounds. After names such as Geno Smith, Matt Barkley, and, yes, Man-ti Te’o, have been mentioned, giving

the jersey and glory to the player who is drafted in the 3rd round, fill-ing the position of a fourth string fullback is impractical and senseless.The downside is that people are unable to witness the signing of an unlikely star such as Donald Driver or Shannon Sharpe, who were both selected in the seventh round of the draft. These two players have been two massively successful receivers with Super Bowl rings. Driver won Super Bowl XLV with the Green Bay Packers and Sharpe won Super Bowl XXXII and XXXIII with the Den-ver Broncos and has his name in the NFL Hall of Fame.

While not everyone will agree, I firmly believe that seeing more peo-ple get their big break on live tele-vision is more entertaining than giving press to the early picks when they are drafted rather than when they succeed on the field. Until then, the NFL draft will be the same repet-itive process.

“The downside (of the draft) is that people are

unable to witness the signing of an unlikely star.”

The disheartening fact about this rant is that I have experienced driv-ing in Rome: where the people are fanatical lunatics when they are in a car. With that said, American driv-ers are still more idiotic than any driver I saw in Rome. I am going to start off by addressing people that need to go back to elementary school and take a class in sharing. Some people get a car and suddenly own an entire lane. This usually does not bother me if I can slow down and move into the other lane behind this other driver that won’t let me over. However, if I try to slow down when there is a car behind me I am subjected to the enraged or displeased face of the driver behind me. It has taken me thirty minutes to get to a place that is ten minutes away because no one was willing to let me over into a lane even though I had my blinker on! To be fair, I do have a fairly passive personality, but people need to learn

that they do not dominate an entire lane. Tailgating is by far one of the most annoying actions I have encountered in my time driving. Chances are I am going the speed limit or five over the speed limit in hopes that the other driver will leave me alone, but they rarely do. What if I have to slam on my breaks? The driver tailgating me hits my car and it is possible that the impact causes me to hit the car in front. I just died. The person in front of me just died. The person tailgating hypothetical-ly just killed two people. Tailgating does not make sense in any situa-tion! Following a friend can be miserable. Usually there is a least one friend that tells other people to follow them to a place, but they haven’t the slightest clue what they are doing or where they are going. So, the person other people are sup-posed to be following ends up going

sixty in a forty zone. Then, they take a wrong a turn and instead of one person being lost, everyone is lost and usually ends like this: “Everyone is terrible and incompetent; who has an iPhone?” Then there are the people driving that make me ask, “why?” or “how did you get your license in the first place?” These are the people that cut me off too close for comfort, en-dangering my life and then I laugh at them five minutes later when we are both stuck at the same traffic light. Girls who do their makeup in the car, guys who try to impress the la-dies in their car and people who text, eat, or talk on the phone in the car also qualify as part of this group. People tend to have trouble with anything involving the direc-tion left. Turning incorrectly into the right lane instead of the left lane while completing a LEFT turn is one example. Congratulations, that wrong turn prevented anyone who

turned correctly from getting into the right lane. I hope it was worth it. The left lane on the highway is meant for passing. Instead of being used for passing, the primary use is for people who are either: grouchy and releasing their anger by driving fast or people who feel that their plans are more important than everyone else’s and because of their superiori-ty need to arrive at their destination faster by dawdling in the left lane. Let’s be honest, there are very few people in America who know how to correctly handle a roundabout. So, when there is a roundabout, or even a simulation of a roundabout, drivers become con-fused and it is like a fairy swoops down a takes away their sense of judgment (myself included, I have no clue if I do roundabouts correct-ly but at least I am careful!). Oddly enough, no driver seems to avoid roundabouts though, for that would be too much effort.

by Christiana Junta - Contributing Writer FROM THE VAULT... WHY DRIVING MAKES ME SAD

FROM THE VAULT articles are excerpts from our website, giving the light of day to articles that might have been buried online otherwise


WHAT BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN MEANS TO MUSICthe first of three Turntable columns

by Brett Stewart - Editor & PublisherWhen opting to print Strike as a newspaper this year rather than a magazine, I was ecstatic to write this column. So, let me tell you a bit about the purpose of these articles before we venture forth into this is-sue’s topic. The Turntable is designed to give my generation a glimpse into older, classic, music. More specifi-cally, rock and roll. Hopefully along the way, I can visit some artists and albums that inspire you as much as they do myself, and you can find some enjoyment in them. I want to rediscover some classics with you. So, let’s talk about the Boss. I was going to title this arti-cle “What Bruce Springsteen Means to Me,” but then quickly realized it’s much, much larger than that. Bruce isn’t an individual connection, it’s a group one. It’s a nationwide, world-wide one. His music connects us all, and his connection to the working class American has been invaluable to our country’s culture. His music has made us laugh, cry, rally and mourne.

“Born To Run” is my album. By that, I mean that if I could choose one

album to listen to for the rest of my life, it would be “Born to Run.” “Thunder Road” is one of the best songs ever written. From the mo-ment the screen door slammed, and Mary’s dress waved as she danced across the porch to Roy Orbison singing for the lonely... music would never be the same. Listening to “Thunder Road” is an emotional experience, it makes you want to cry, but also run and live life. “Lying out there like a killer in the sun, I know it’s late but we can make it if we run” resounds deep through your soul. It’s not a song, at least not anymore. It’s an experi-ence, it’s the American Dream and it’s our collective voice that Bruce reflected back to us. The entirety of “Born to Run” is golden. It’s so packed with beautiful imagery, epic instrumen-tals, anthems of youth and rebellion and sympathy for the downtrod-den American, that it’s impossible to take in with just one listen. Oh, and it’s only eight tracks. The song “Born to Run” will elevate your mor-al to a level you thought impossible, and the hauntingly beautiful piano of “Backstreets” is inexplicable. Bruce is excellent at con-necting to us. Because he’s one of us, but graced with the gift to say what we’ve been trying to say, but can’t find the words for. “Born to Run” is the anthem of every American try-ing to make their way through the world. Jump forward nine years and we have “Born In The USA”, possi-bly one of the most influential and prominent albums of the 20th cen-tury. It’s the song that echoed the

mentality of a nation. The story of a Vietnam veteran degraded by his own nation. From “Bobby Jean” to “Dancing in the Dark,” Springsteen mastered the rock and roll we loved with his iconic fierce but poignant and fiery lyrics. I need a whole paragraph to talk about “I’m On Fire.” When I heard “I’m On Fire,” I knew that I wanted to pursue music in my life independently. Yes, it was that good of a song. In less than three minutes, Bruce executed what is in my opin-ion, the best studio recorded song of the era. The minimalistic lyrics are excellently utilized to create a mu-sical experience like no other and from a musician’s perspective, Bruce

mastered something that none of us quite understand, but strive to be. After over four decades of performing, Bruce was rated the best live act of the year by Rolling Stone. With concerts lasting over three hours, the setlist isn’t “worth the paper it’s written on” according to the Boss. He goes on a journey with the crowd, and lets them take the lead. This is the music my parents grew up with, it’s the music I grew up with, and it’ll be the music my own children grow up to. No matter where we go in life, Bruce doesn’t let us forget where we came from or who we are. That’s what Bruce Springsteen means to music.

“From the moment the screen door slammed,

and Mary’s dressed waved as she danced

across the porch to Roy Orbison singing for the lonely... music would never be the same.”

Born to Run, 1975 Born in the USA, 1984


THE DAY MUSIC TRIED TO DRAG ITSELF OUT OF IT’S GRAVE AND WAS BEATEN BACK BY AN IBANEZ

a comedic Sleigh Bells review from the Strike Online Vault

by Larson Ross - Managing EditorEarly this year, an album came out that changed the way we look at mu-sic, by making everything else seem like an artistic masterpiece with the vision of all the great thinkers of the renaissance and ancient Greece combined. That album happens to be Reign Of Terror by Sleigh Bells. I am going to review this album track by track; in this way, you’ll never have to subject yourself to the ear-bleed-ing nausea that Reign causes.

True Shred Guitar:The only true way to start an album is clearly fake crowd fanfare. Is this Sleigh Bells warning me that only fake people can enjoy this music? Who can tell? All I know is that nothing says “Hey, this band is edgy” like having the singer curse out and try to hype up the cheer machine for the first minute of the song.The ac-tual song starts at precisely 1:11, and I could not be more sorry that it did. The song has the perfect mixture of terrible Ibanez mashing, generic pseudo-sexual lyrics, and screaming to make it sound as though a hor-rendous 80’s hair metal new wave experimental band playing under a bridge breeded with garage-band drum presets. I wish I had been in the studio to hear this conversation that must have commenced: Producer 1: “How can we make this band seem dangerous?” Producer 2: “Why don’t we have the lead singer say f*#k, and

then censor it the second time she says it?” Producer 1: “Sweet feathers of Quetzalcoatl, that’s brilliant!”

Born To Lose:Opening: Plastic Ibanez squealing and an electric drum beat, and NES era boss music, we’re off to a good start. This is a slower song, show-ing off the singer’s actual voice, so you know what it needs? If you said “Screaming!” in triumph to your computer screen then you are both correct and possibly schizophrenic. If you instead thought “Bears” then you should be ashamed. Seriously, it’s as if the echo of the singer has tourettes. I shouldn’t have said that, it makes me yearn for some Nirva-na, but I must continue. Two songs in and I already want to smash my computer like a midget in a mosh pit. This is going to be a great expe-rience.

Crush:Why are they trying so hard to make this sound like real arena rock? Ar-en’t they going for the indie appeal? Could they not fill an actual stadi-um? Upon reflection, that is prob-ably true. The tourettes echo has grown more confident, I feel like it will soon take over. The only words that I can hear clearly through the blaring sludge of overzealous guitar is “I’ve got a crush on you.” With all the depth that a sixth grader has to

offer, the singer goes on to explain the feeling, but I can only pick out one word every sentence or so due to the guitarist apparently thinking “You know what sounds cool? Repetitive, evenly paced barre chords played with absolutely no emotion. HEY GUYS, LISTEN TO ME! IT’S SO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!” No, shut up. My anger is now Liam Neeson in Taken levels.

End Of The Line:Hm, some peaceful, slow guitar riffs, melodic harmonics? This sounds nothing like the Sleigh Bells I’ve come to know and detest at the same level that Churchill hated Stalin. Maybe this will be the point where the album takes a hard look at itself and says “You need to change, man.” Nope, I was naive to even dream of such a thing. This song destroys the promise it had by introducing strange almost-rap and Muse style breathing. Also, they somehow managed to auto tune a guitar. It must have been the same settings they used on Nicki Minaj, because only something that heavy-duty could warp the sound that much. They must have blotted out a star somewhere to power that software.

Leader Of The Pack:So far, it seems to follow the lead of End Of The Line. This is a good si— and it’s back to half-hearted thrash-

ing. That cannon shot at the begin-ning should have warned me, but I chose to ignore it. How I regret that decision.

Comeback Kid:WHAMMMY BARRRRRRRRRR!B A R R R R R R R R R R CHOOOOOOORDS!M U S S S S I I I I I I C WORDSSSSSSSSSSSZZSSSSS!DISTORTION!Wait, distortion seems a little ex-treme, let’s just do overdrive. And let’s keep those 8-bit sounds from earlier, and the garage band drums.

Demons:Rejected Motley Crue guitar riff begins, and so does my anguish. If only I could replace my memories of this album with pictures of cats. But alas, no amount of internet search-es will ever cleanse this horror from my mind. Do you see now what I go through for you people?! I know you never asked for it, but you wanted this, you cruel, baseborn fools. So I must continue, even if it ends in madness or worse, appreciation of this “music.” My only consolation is that this experience is over halfway over.

Road To Hell:Did she just rhyme baby with babe? Did she just do it over 10 times? Why is there an awkward bridge with just

There are few movies that stand the test of time. Star Wars is one of them. The six films that director George Lucas released are must-watches, so much so that they are almost an adulthood “right-of-passage.” Ap-parently, Disney thought so too. Recently, Disney decided that it was high time for another Star Wars ad-venture to begin. This is a very risky decision for Disney. The entire Star Wars fran-chise has been on the societal pop-ularity decline for quite some time now. Most avid Star Wars fans would agree that Star Wars Episodes One, Two, and Three were not nearly as impressive as the earlier produced Episodes, Four, Five, and Six. Some attribute this to the acting, the addi-tion of unnecessary characters (our “favorite” Gungan Jar Jar), and many other aspects which degraded the overall reputation of the Star Wars franchise. Despite all these factors, Disney must see potential. Their plan for making sixth, seventh, and eighth movies has fans everywhere trem-bling with uncertainty. Fans could be in store for a world of disappointment should Disney botch this next movie. With fans already on the edge with the past three movies, they will be wary of these new movies. The largest reason that people fell in love with Episodes Four, Five, and Six was for their believable and engaging feel. When they were being made, little

of today’s movie editing technolo-gy was available to them. Therefore, having to physically make most of the settings and props, the movies carried with them a feeling of re-alism that made you feel as though you were part of the adventure. Be-cause we can assume that Disney will continue to use CGI and modern filming techniques, unlike the film in 1977, it would be fair to suggest that fans may still feel the same way about these new films as they did for Episodes One, Two, and Three. However, it is important to note that Disney does have a keen eye for potential. After buying the Marvel franchise, Disney proceed-ed to invest in the production of the summer blockbuster, The Avengers. By recognizing this potential, Dis-ney was able to rake in one billion dollars. While they are taking a risk, it had paid off once; they might as well try their chance again. So what does this all mean? We should plan for the seventh ep-isode of Star Wars to be a box office smasher, or at the least, a medium grossing movie. Fans will certainly go to it on opening night, but if after that, if it does not receive positive re-views, movie-goers everywhere will return to watch the original films instead of watching their favorite childhood franchise fall into the pit of ruined classics.


THE DAY MUSIC TRIED TO DRAG ITSELF OUT OF IT’S GRAVE AND WAS BEATEN BACK BY AN IBANEZ CONT...

heavy breathing? Is it supposed to be sexual, or just remind me of a fat man gasping for air after walk-ing back to his car with a bag full of purchased cookies? Only two of the questions above can be answered, but I shall attempt to answer them all anyway. Yes, yes, because… Sym-bolism? Lastly, nope, it’s supposed to be a beached whale on fire.

You Lost Me:This is hyper 80’s nostalgia, the kind that even modern Hollywood strays away from. I thought Kurt Cobain smashed this style of music into oblivion like a llama in a car com-pactor. Apparently not. That llama is still crawling miserably from place to place, leaving the occasional kid-

ney behind it. Why can’t someone put it out of its misery?

Never Say Die:Don’t tell me what to do. I will say what I want to, Sleigh Bells. Die, die, die, die, die, die. That’s not an in-struction, but simply a sign of my re-jection of you. This is the same drum beat from “Born To Lose,” and I hate you for it. Did you run out of presets? I am so very done with the whisper, overpowering guitar combo, please make it stop. Please. Please. Please, I beg of you. Nope, it’s 3:40, but it feels like a timeless expanse of darkness and Christmas ornaments. Oh, I see that there is one more song on the record……………Why?

D.O.A.:No. I refuse. I quit. Out of 34 min-utes and 28 seconds of sound that is on this album I have listened to 32 minutes and 27 seconds. That is all the time you shall have from me, Sleigh Bells. Your album is bad and you should feel bad. Leave me in peace.

Rating: 16 out of 253 fewmets.This album physically drained my will to live and left me an empty husk whose only purpose is to stalk the earth in ironic Buddy Holly Glasses and jean jackets. Everyone has a right to their opinion, unless you like this… failure. If you do, then you no longer get an opinion, I choose your thoughts for you from now on. In conclusion, I can rec-ommend this album in one circum-stance only: background music to water-boarding.

“This is the same drum beat from “Born To

Lose,” and I hate you for it. Did you run out of presets?! Your album is bad, and you should

feel bad.”

COME TO THE DARK SIDE... MICKEY?speculation of Disney’s upcoming Star Wars films.

by Justin Hein - Contributing Writer


CHAD’S TECH DUNGEON3-D printing and the future of the technology

by Chad Earnest - Contributing WriterStill think 2D Wireless Printing is cutting edge? Well…you’re just a bit behind, maybe about 3 or 4 years at this point. Either way, something new has started to become main-stream in printed home media. That something is 3D printing. And how it has developed over the past couple of years! But before I move on, I will explain the idea behind 3D print-ing. Imagine you want to replicate a model Nicolas Cage head that you happen to have on your desk with: the lack of hair, a huge nose, and those great looking eyebrows. Well, all you would need to do with to-day’s modern 3D printers is get your laser scanner out, and place your ob-ject in the 360 degree field view of the scanner, and simply press “scan.” The laser scanner would take a few minutes to scan all of the details of your Nicolas Cage head, and would then show you the 3D model on your computer screen. Then, simply load your choice of colored ABS plastic (I would choose green), and proceed to print your marvelous creation. Presto chango! You now have a plas-tic copy of your favorite Nicolas Cage head! That’s the basic idea of 3D printing, bringing copies of any object you want, right through your home printer. Since all of you have that wonderful image of a green 3D printed Nicolas Cage head in your minds now, let me tell you that 3D printers aren’t just for seemingly pointless things like my main ex-

ample. No, 3D printing might just be one of the biggest technolog-ical revolutions of the 2010’s. Why do I say this you might ask? It’s simple. 3D printing is about to change the world of mass produc-tion, building struc-tures, medicine, and even art. Imagine if you will for a second, a world in which almost everything around you has been 3D printed. Your clothes, certain parts of your car, your shoes, the painting on your wall, and even certain aspects of your house! With advancements in the different materials that can be interchanged with 3D printers, this future that I’m proposing could only be a couple of decades or less away. In any case, a lot of things that you would normally shop for could in-stead be printed directly at home. Now that’s got to be a game chang-er considering that production has usually been central to corporations, not the consumer for over 200 years now. Being that I’m on the topic of the future, I might as well say that 3D printing won’t just be stuck on planet Earth, no, but rather the final frontier. The European Space agency has proposed the idea of packing a light amount of equipment on fu-

ture trips to the moon. And their solution to this problem, 3D print-ing. The ESA has proposed that the moon bases and tools should be 3D printed in order to achieve this goal. A couple of structures with the use of a D-Shape printer from the com-pany Monolite, would allow this to be achieved in around 1 week, which is truly amazing! It goes to show the true impact that 3D printing could have in the future. But extrapolating aside, I should mention what great things 3D printing is being used for right now. As of a month ago, Cornell sci-entists have managed to 3D print lifelike ears from rat tails, and cow ears. And with the great potential for 3D printing in the medical industry right now, organ transplants could become rather easily achieved in the

near-future due to a Scottish univer-sity’s research in the field of embry-onic stem-cell printing. With this being said, doctor’s could simply print out a new organ for the patient in a matter of hours, and then pro-ceed to transplant it without having a risk of biological incompatibility. To really wrap things up, we’ll have to keep extrapolating about the fu-ture of 3D printing, but it’ll be worth it. Because 3D printing has a vast amount of potential applications out there. We can let our imaginations run wild, because as with any oth-er technological development, that’s how we progress.

about Chad’s love for the subjectChad Earnest has a passion for technol-ogy, and wants to pursue a career in information technol-ogy. His engagement with technology has been pivotol during his time with Strike Magazine, aiding with developing new online technologies for the publication.

My Nic Cage head collection

the longer you stare at this photo, the deeper Chad searches into your soul


SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTIONa page with information about ourselves for you

IN THE NEXT ISSUE...Strike tackles travel, college searching, and the meaning of life

In the next issue of Strike we pri-marily address travel: stories from across the world, stories from your backyard, and stories from nations you may not have known existed un-

til now. We’ll also take a look college searches: how to tour a college, what to look for in a college, financial aid and more. As for the meaning of life, we’re still pretty stuck on that. We’re

in between 42 and Nicolas Cage. Maybe red pandas. Who knows? The next issue will also contain all of the same types of columns and fun tidbits that you found in this issue.

The publication will release in the last week of October, just as this re-leased in the last week of November.

WHAT’S FOGLIGHT DOING?Foglight Studios is currently in de-velopment of a short film with the working title, “Intermediate Sports.” It’s about a team of kids who suck at sports, but are forced into a

situation where they have to sink or swim. Most will sink, especially if actually forced to swim. We’re trying to get Emilio Estevez as the coach, but we’re not sure if he’ll be

open to it after the train-wreck that was ‘Mighty Ducks 3’. Either way, filming is underway and the project is set to go into post-production by the end of September, to be released

possibly as early as the second week of October. Look for it on Foglight Studio’s website, foglightstudios.com

WHAT ABOUT FOGLIGHT RECORDS?Firstly, yes, we do run a record label as well as a production company and this newspaper. What can we say, we live to entertain! So what is Foglight Records doing, you ask? That’s a

good question, with a great answer. Brett Stewart is currently working on a new album that will release short-ly after this publication. The album is being recorded with a “big-band”

feel, utilizing a horn section and a multitude of other instruments. The album is considered Stewart’s fol-lowup to his collaboration with Lar-son Ross on the last Twin Thieves

record. Stewart intends this release to be a final product of the past four years of his music, a record that con-sists of the best music he’s produced.

OUR MONTHLY QUESTION OF INTERESTdoes Strike Magazine have a mascot or cheerleader?

Why of course we do! What publi-cation would be complete without a mascot to cheer us on through all our hard work? The official Strike Magazine mascot is Tenzing

the Red Panda. Yes, he’s a real red panda in India, and we adopted him. We pay a monthly donation to ensure that Tenzing’s habitat is well taken care of, and that both he

and his friends can frolic care-free throughout their India-based re-serve. For more information about actually adopting a red panda, please visit redpandanetwork.org

Adopting a red panda is inexpen-sive and a fantastic way to give to a noble cause, considering the majes-tic animal is endangered.

Documents

Strike - September 2013