Film Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

It’s difficult being a film buff in this era. On one hand, if you’ve always wished Hollywood would adapt your favorite comic book tales into well-made films that did more than sell toys to kids, it’s a great time to be a lover of film and all things geek. On the other hand, the monetary success that geek-friendly properties have achieved over the past decade, alongside the other successful blockbusters of The Aughts, has lead to Hollywood developing a fixation on only stories with built-in audiences, i.e. existing franchises instead of new, unproven films. If you wanted something truly unique or at least emotionally satisfying, your options are limited.
Album Review: Yellowbirds

Songs from the Vanished Frontier is an album that is immediately attractive to the ear. “Stop Tonight” is a spacey, bubbling opening act for Vanished Frontier that leads to eight more pleasant tunes. In one of the singles from the new album “Young Men of Promise,” Cohen sings “Leaving you was like a car crash / I’m a river, you’re a raging sea.” The lyrics are delightful with a simple honesty that makes it one of the best tracks on Vanished Frontier.
June 2013 – John Mayall (Blues Jam)

In This Issue:
Nasty Bunch of Bitches // Yellowbirds // Epoch When // Crabtree
Queens of the Stone Age // Sean Nichols // The Great Gatsby
Blues Artist Martin Harley Speaks to the BandWagon About the Blues and Traveling the World

Harley’s music is modern and natural, neither contrived or overreaching and seems to speak from his heart. As an Englishman, he brings an outside perspective to the genre and while for some it is easy to pigeonhole British blues musicians, Harley is a reminder that blues as a form of music does not belong to anyone or any place.
Fiction: The Wind Sweeps Over the Prairie
Pa said I could marry anybody, as long as I had permission first. Pa said I should pick a man who knows how to drive cattle but keep a gentle hand for his wife, a man who could crack the whip on stubborn rough hide but also deliver a colt with patience and tenderness. “A horse knows a man’s intentions,” Pa would say. A horse needs a gentle hand sometimes, or even whispered words. Some people think it’s superstitious to talk to animals because animals can’t understand. They think animals are stupid and can’t tell between cruelty and kindness. Some of the boys who used to work on our ranch were like that. They would knock around an animal and think it felt nothing. Pa fired a man who used to kick the turkey out of the way during feedings. The turkey would stand by the entrance all fluffed up, showing off shiny bronze tail feathers, and that man would give it a hard kick in its chest. He wanted to make it clear who was in charge.
Local Business: Bizarre Bazaar

Vinyl lovers have a new haven in Fort Collins. The Bizarre Bazaar is a relatively new record and book store located on Linden Street, run by Jane Makarchuk and her husband Scott. Makarchuk said her family is from the northeast and had run a bookstore before.
Album Review: Afraid of Heights

Modern surf rock’s darlings Wavves make a triumphant return to the record store with Afraid of Heights, their first full-length album since 2010’s King of the Beach. Released in March, these thirteen tracks are undeniably some of the band’s best. Their lo-fi, grungy sound, consistent with Wavves’ other releases, does not disappoint.
Review: Kid Cudi – Indicud

After Kid Cudi stopped smoking weed and decided to make a rock album, critics and fans began to question whether his music would ever be as successful as his early releases. However, when he announced that he was working on his newest album, Indicud, which he stated would be his “version of [Dr. Dre’s] The Chronic 2001,” speculation began that he had parted ways with sobriety and would begin rapping again. The speculations were confirmed when the first single, “Just What I Am,” was released. Featuring Cudi’s signature hazy, stoner production, the track is primarily about smoking marijuana with the words, “I need smoke, I need to smoke,” repeated through the hook. It was obvious that the Cudi that fans had grown to love was back.