Strata (file)
Photo: Wind-Up

Strata's Eric Victorino channeled three kinds of pain into the band's single "Never There," which is featured on the just-released soundtrack to "Elektra."

The first is your garden-variety bad breakup, which soon expanded into the second kind: an existential angst that imbues the song's darkly dramatic lyrics.

"I think the reason why musicians write breakup songs is that breakups force you to examine your life," Victorino said. " 'Never There' started as a breakup song and turned into the idea of being in a certain place in your life and realizing you're not even in it. You're just kind of going through the motions."

However, until recently, the singer was suffering from a third and arguably more palpable kind of pain: He spent several months battling a series of ENT ailments that forced the band to cancel a tour last summer (see "Strata Invite Fans To Go Bowling With Them").

Assuming that his sore throats came from constant singing, Victorino ignored the pain for years. "Then I found out I had Ashlee Simpson disease — it was acid reflux," he said. "When they stuck the camera in my throat, it looked like pulverized meat."

On top of that, Victorino had "a whole train wreck of problems" with his sinuses, due to a broken septum, the result of a scuffle in his teenage years. "I was putting extra pressure on my vocal cords to hit notes because I couldn't use my head voice," he explained. "After a year of touring, it really wore on my throat."

After surgery to correct his septum, medication for acid reflux and several weeks off the road, Victorino's head voice is opening up, his throat is mending and his vocal cords are springing back to life.

Still, the singer was glad to give his pipes a break to film an appropriately dark and dreamy video for the song in San Francisco last weekend. Aligned with Victorino's vision of a disaffected soul, director Sean Turrell helped create a video that carries the concept of mental detachment to a visual medium.

"It's like 'Fight Club' without the fighting, just the general feel and social commentary of it," Victorino said. Shot in an office tower, the video combines performance footage with cutaways to a white-collar worker struggling to make sense of his stark, corporate environment, and ultimately questioning his own existence.

For Victorino, it was a vision realized and an inspiring experience. "It was amazing," he said, "like filming a mini-movie, which is the way I think a video should be."

For more on the "Elektra" soundtrack, see " 'Elektra' LP Serves Up Rare Cuts From Evanescence, Jet, Taking Back Sunday," and check out everything else we've got on "Elektra."

• Strata

Strata (file)
Photo: Wind Up Records

You've got to hand it to Strata: They've got balls.

Well, actually, one ball. After they were forced to pull out of their tour with Nonpoint and Skindred due to singer Eric Victorino's ailing vocal cords, they did what any responsible group would do. They went bowling.

"We found out we had to cancel the rest of the tour, and we're not the type of band that sits around, so I told the guys we should do a 'Bowling Across America' thing," said guitarist Ryan Hernandez. "Our drummer, Adrian [Robinson], is going to buy his own shoes, I thought it was time for us to get embroidered bowling shirts and Hrag [Chanchanian, Strata's bassist] owns his own ball."

And thus, the Bowling Across America Tour was born. While Victorino rests his voice in New York, his bandmates are heading back home to California, stopping at bowling alleys along the way to roll a few frames with fans. Dates are posted on the band's Web site (www.Stratadirect.com).

"Fans can come out and bowl with us. It's us and our two crew guys, and we'll take on fans," Hernandez said. "If [the fans] win, they'll get a free CD or something. I just wanted to do something fun for our fans, I didn't want to make us canceling the tour a disappointment. We have a week to kill, anyway."

The tour began Thursday night in Chicago, stops Friday night (August 27) at the AMF Sonesta Lanes in Denver and wraps up Saturday at Salt Lake City's AMF Ritz Classic Lanes. And fans don't exactly need to bring their A-games to compete: Chanchanian's average is only about 160, while Hernandez rolls a paltry 120.

"Whenever I bowl, I start out getting strikes, but as the games go on, my scores get lower and lower," Hernandez said. "That's not too good."

But a lack of talent hasn't stopped Strata from issuing an open challenge to any band out there. Inspired by "The Big Lebowski," they're ready for some serious competitive play, yet so far they've had little luck finding any opponents.

"Bands just want to play Halo on their tour buses. And bands would take it to us in Halo," Hernandez said. "So we'll take it to bands on the lanes. Plus, bowling is good exercise. It strengthens the arm, which is important."

• Strata
• Nonpoint
• Skindred

Strata live on the Snocore Tour in St. Louis, MO 02.14.2005

• Strata