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The Best Releases of August: Music Staff Picks

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Tropical Fuck Storm – Deep States Aussie noise rock band Tropical Fuck Storm’s third album, Deep States, is as messy and disorienting as the doomed political landscape it was birthed out of. Reflecting mind-poisoning social media discourse twisted through the filter of a distortion pedal, vocalists Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin deliver some of their most compelling melodies over lacerating guitar and synth lines. The opening track, “The Greatest Story Ever Told”, writes from the perspective of Jesus’ second coming to Earth to proclaim in a grand chorus “There ain’t no end of days.” Even at its loudest, a sense … Continued

Music
The Best Releases of June: Music Staff Picks

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Spellling – The Turning Wheel The Turning Wheel, Chrystia Cabral’s third album under the project Spellling, offers bewitchingly captivating progressive folk and neo-soul songs. A shift towards natural instrumentation marks a stark change from 2019’s synth-heavy Mazy Fly, giving these songs a new liveliness, and pushing Cabral’s songwriting towards the theatrical. The sonic palette on its own can be bewildering at first–veering off without warning into performances of soul, hard rock, classical, folk, and of course, synthwave. It’s no surprise that the personnel list reveals more than thirty performers–all of whom sound great. The songs are left with an enchanting … Continued

Sports
Grayson Schmidt

Time to Bring Back Iowa Baseball

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With March Madness and the NCAA wrestling championships right around the corner, Iowans will be plenty busy when it comes to watching sports, and since the Hawkeyes are projected to make a good showing in both, this only amps up the entertainment value. However, this is always the case regardless of the year. Hawkeye wrestling is traditionally a powerhouse which automatically garners interest, and combine this with the fact that this state lives and breathes wrestling and there will always be a following. The same can be said for basketball. Next to football, it is the second highest revenue generating … Continued

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Why Johnny Football Gets the Heisman

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Coming into this season, the “sophomore slump” question was on everyone’s mind for Johnny Manziel. He came out of nowhere last season and led Texas A&M to a 11-2 season, including a 41-13 dismantling of Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. He also managed to break SEC records set by Cam Newton and Tim Tebow, as a freshman mind you. But this year there seems to be a new “Johnny Football” over in Tallahassee. Another redshirt freshman quarterback named Jameis Winston has his Florida State Seminoles undefeated and currently ranked second in the nation and likely to compete for a national … Continued

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The Dark Horses

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Each year college football is filled with upsets, dark horses, front runners and thrillers, and his season is no different. With a little over half of the season played, we have seen the mighty fall, teams climb their way up the polls, and unknowns become household names in just a matter of weeks. Now anyone who even pays the slightest attention to college football knows the traditional powerhouses, we know Alabama, Ohio State, and Florida State are good teams. But I want to focus on those we had low, to absolutely zero expectations for coming into this season. Missouri: –          … Continued

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Not Cocky, Just Confident

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There is something to be said for humble baseball players. Guys who do not run their mouths or act like they are the greatest man to ever walk on a diamond, but simply go out every day and play ball. I have always been a supporter of someone who lets his play do the talking, but once in a while a player comes along whose ego is justified. If a player is only 20 years old, batting third for a major league baseball team, coming off a Rookie of the Year season, and is batting .302 with 10 home runs … Continued

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What We Have Learned So Far

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By: Grayson Schmidt More than any other sport, baseball is a sport of patience. This holds true as a player, and as a fan. 162 games is a long (almost too long) season and since we are only two weeks in, overreaction should be kept to a minimum. Baseball is a streaky game and a team dominating or struggling after only playing around 12 games is no cause for panic. However, I do feel as if the past 14 days have shown us a lot about our own expectations. So I am here to simply make observations and point out … Continued

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Brawl Makes World Baseball Classic More Interesting

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Saturday night, Mexico and Canada had the WBC looking more like the WWE after a 9th inning benches clearing brawl that left multiple players on each team ejected from the game. The instigator of the fight is debatable, but the root of the fight had to do with the World Baseball Classic’s tiebreaker rule which has to do with runs scored. The Canadians were already up 9-3 at the time, but, because of the rule, attempted to put more runs on the board. This started with a bunt single in the top of the 9th by Canada’s Chris Robinson. Mexico’s … Continued

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Celebrities on the Gridiron

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I am a simple man when it comes to television. Anything that is funny,  has to do with sports, or rednecks hunting, catching, or making whatever I will usually watch. I love shows like Swamp People, Call of the Wildman, and Moonshiners. It is backwoods ingenuity at its finest. But my latest obsession is with the A&E show Duck Dynasty. It is fascinating to me how a family of ZZ Top lookalikes can start and operate a multi-million dollar corporation. I just love all of it, the shaggy hair, bushy beards, American flag bandanas, and camouflage sports coats. But recently … Continued

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