Arts & Life, Music

Spotlight on local bands: Struckout

Q. How did Struckout get together?

Daniel Speer:
In 2012. I guess I could start at the very beginning. Before I was in this band I was an intern at a reggae studio and over that summer, I decided that I didn’t want to be an audio engineer.
I had the goal coming out of summer and going back to college that I would start a band.
Josh, this kid from my dorm, would play on his practice pad because he used to be in marching band. So I just asked him if he wanted to be in a band. He didn’t have a drum set, and I told him I knew a place where he could rent one.
I started writing songs on my bass guitar. I met Brad, he is the kind of guy that looked like he played guitar, so I asked him if he did, and then he joined the band. So it was Josh, Brad, and me until about winter.
It was weird and awkward because I had never been in a band where I had to tell people what to play. Usually someone writes a song and we figure it out along the way.

Q. Very technical stuff man!

DS: Yeah! I never had to do that before. Usually it’s more organic because we were just writing songs and [messing] around. Eventually they left because they weren’t enjoying it anymore. They wanted to have fun, but I was like “Music man! The Music!” They figured it wasn’t as fun because we were playing to nobody.
I’ve been in bands since I was 14 and they have all [messed] up. I went to my friend Marcus who I had been in a band with before. I told him I had nine songs and needed someone who played guitar because I couldn’t keep being in bands that just explode in my face and not have anything to show for it.
Marcus said he could help me, but it was only temporary because he was going to grad school. In the dining hall I met James Goldmann who is this total metal head and didn’t have anything in common with, but I get him now. We get each other in a way. So he drummed and he joined my band.

Q. So those are the guys currently in the band?

DS: [Before Marcus had to leave,] over summer … we decided to play as many shows as possible to get our name out there so that people at least know we are a band.
We put out an ad on Craigs List, which was the last place we thought we would find our new guitarist, but that’s how we got Ian Horelica. We put something like “We’re a weird punk band, expect no money.” The first couple practices were strange because we were getting used to somebody new. Now the whole band together though, it feels right.

Q. Where did the band name come from?

DS: When Brad and Josh were in the band we were originally called “Culero.” If you know Mexican Spanish it means coward. Unfortunately, in Salvadorian Spanish it’s a homophobic slur and I didn’t know this because I am Mexican. So a Salvadorian friend told me that it was weird that I would name my band that since I’m so “politically correct” and he told me what it meant … and we had to change the name.
Brad just brought up the name “Struckout.” It was kind of like half shrugging, this is a fine name it sounds cool. When you’re in high school and 14 and haven’t written any songs, you always want to name your band first or have the album cover. When you are actually in a real band, it’s like ‘Oh, we have songs I guess we should name this.’

Q. Who are you guys most influenced by?

DS: There is this metal band call Boris and I always liked how they played all kinds of metal, stoner metal, speed metal, punk influenced metal and shoegaze metal. I thought we could be the punk band version of that, where it’s like, post-punk and three-chord punk. That’s why our first album is a mess.
Bomb the Music Industry is my favorite band, but I knew we couldn’t sound like them. Their influences are how I construct my albums and what I talk about. A lot of folk punk groups like Paul Baribeau and Defiance, Ohio influenced my lyrics.
Sonically though, Ian calls it the “3 M’s,” MewithoutYou, McLusky, Modest Mouse. This is kind of true when I think about it. Some of that comes through in terms of what we sound like. I’m not trying to be that, but it happens. The band is always a mulch of everything I like.

Q. If your band had a spirit animal what would it be?

DS: I’ve always felt an affinity with the Buffalo, but I feel like internally I’ve always been a cockatoo, because I’m freaking out all the time. The people that actually know me think man that guy never shuts up!

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In review: Struckout’s “You are not good at this”
Our rating: 4/5

Loud music is usually defined by two extremes of a spectrum, one side being disastrously awful and the other, surprisingly enjoyable. Local Long Beach “punk-ish band” Struckout falls on the latter end.

Struckout is doing something right by encapsulating intense raw madness with angst filled lyrics that will get you moving and quite possibly in the mood to punch someone in the face.

The vocals are often talked or shouted which is perfect combined with the other elements of punk music such as heavy bass lines, guitar shreds, and hardcore pounding drums.

Their first album took a look at a variety of genres of punk from powerviolence to post-hardcore. Their latest release is less messy and has a unified sound throughout.

Their most recent release on bandcamp “You Are Not Good At This” delivers the same intensity as their first released “I’d Hate Me Too” but sonically this release is more polished. In fact, their latest release features two rerecordings of older songs, “Polaroid of a Punchbowl” and “Avoiding Parables”.

This decision should be praised considering they both are some of the best tracks from their debut album, but also because they show how the band has only gotten better with these new recordings.

“You Are Not Good at This” seems like the product they intended the world to hear in the first place, but possibly didn’t have the time or resources when they were starting out as a band.

Check out Struckout’s new EP on bandcamp here.

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