Sit-Down: Moving Mountains

This weekend is Marist College's Spring Concert. For those not attending, it is also Bamboozle weekend. The festival is headlined by Paramore, Weezer, Something Corporate, Drake and MGMT.

I am attending the Festival on Sunday. For those attending the festival, I highly recommend Moving Mountains - an experimental rock project from the area. (Purchase, NY) The band will be playing a highly anticipated set on Sunday of the Festival.

I recently sat down with Greg Dunn, vocalist/guitarist of Moving Mountains. Here is what he had to say about Bamboozle, the band and pizza.

Generator Magazine: For those who don't know the Moving Mountain name, describe your sound.

Greg Dunn: As any band would probably agree, that's a tough question to answer. Our sound is always evolving, and we're still exploring that. I like to say we're an aggressive rock band with ambient, and post rock influence.

GM: You're from Purchase, NY. Was it hard starting a solid fanbase in what seems like a low-key music scene?

GD: Absolutely. We're still little known in the Purchase scene. People know us, but on a more personal level. We're all friends. Although we don't live in Purchase, we attend the College there, where there is a fairly thriving music / art scene. It's very dense, and there's a lot of musicians and artists, so it's easy to get lost in the shuffle. But yeah, we've found our fans extend around the world, and not as much concentrated in one single area. Gotta' love the internet.

GM: Name some of your musical aspirations? Do you get your sound from them?

GD: Oh god, so many. Some of my biggest aspirations (musically, and everything else) come from bands like Thursday, Hammock, Springsteen, Pedro The Lion, Peter Gabriel. It's hard to really pin point, as you become inspired everyday but so many things. Some of my more recent favorite records include As Cities Burn, Underoath, David Bazan. I do get a lot of musical influence from these people, but find I feel overall aspirations through them. I think that's more important, too.

GM: Have you prepared any surprises for Bamboozle 2010?

GD: I suppose If I told you, I'd ruin it. But honestly, nothing crazy. We're hoping to perform a new song off our record. It's going to be fun for us, as we haven't been on the road in a few months. We may pass out. We get out of shape really easily. That could be fun to watch.

GM: Who are you looking forward to see at Bamboozle 2010?

GD: Minus The Bear, Piebald, Say Anything, All The Day Holiday, Mute Math, Dear Hunter, Polar Bear Club... I'm mostly excited just to talk to everyone. I'm still, and always will be, a major fan boy. That stuff never gets old for me. To meet some of the people whom inspired me to be in a rock band. It's a crazy feeling.

GM: Are there any big plans on the horizon? (album, tour, families, etc.)

GD: We're wrapping up writing our 2nd full length (and first full length as a full band), and will be heading into the studio in the coming months. We're also finding a new place to release the record and call home. Have some tour planned this summer (which I'm insanely stoked on), and then more touring in the fall. I'm also going to be an uncle. I can't wait to be the cool uncle that's in a rock n roll band.

GM: Fill in the blank: The best band we toured with was ___________.

GD: That's tough! The most overwhelming experience for me was probably Thursday. It was overwhelming, and at points almost distracting. I had to constantly ground myself, because I couldn't believe we were sharing the same stage multiple nights in a row. I think the most fun I had was on tour this past fall with Moneen, Eisley and Say Anything. I would love to be on the road again with Moneen. They're such a great band, and you end up learning how to become a better band, just from being around them.

GM: Fill in the blank: I am on the road and I am craving _____________.

GD: Pizza. Or anything that I can find on the road that's edible. Being a vegetarian in a band of meat lovers can be tough at times..

Set times will be announced soon here. Check out the band's music here.

-Nicholas Palumbo

The Leadership Institute

On April 19th, the Dean's Circle was invited to tour the grounds of the new Raymond A. Rich Leadership Institute that was donated to Marist back in January. Raymond A. Rich, upon his passing at age 97 in June of 2009, decided that the building across the river--and previously owned by the Marist Brothers--would be best enjoyed and used by the college once more.

This estate, along with the property it's on, has deep roots in the Hudson River Valley region. The mansion that stands there today was commissioned by Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne and built by the famous Carrère & Hastings in the early 1900s. The Marist Brothers purchased the mansion in 1942 after some years of inactivity and used it to house the Wiltwyck School for Boys, which focused on helping emotionally disturbed children. After twenty years of operation in Esopus, the school relocated in 1962, and the property was sold off in parcels. Raymond A. Rich eventually purchased the main house and 60 acres of the property after his retirement in the 1970s, and the rest is history.


Above are some pictures from the Dean's Circle visit!


-Sarah Dubrule

Bonnaroo Festival Preview

Summer means three things: the great outdoors, new music and no responsibilities. And no other music festival embodies these three aspects better than Bonnaroo Festival.

Bonnaroo Festival, the annual 4 day event out of Manchester, TN, is the modern day equivalent of the Woodstock-based Festivals just an hour north of here. The festival has been praised for its wide variety of popular and up-and-coming musicians. Artists such as Jack Johnson, DJ Z-Trip and My Morning Jacket have graced the stages at Bonnaroo. The festival is also famous for its excellent camping accommodations and for being one of the only environmental-conscious festivals in the Western Hemisphere.

This year, Bonnaroo 2010 will be held on the same site in Manchester, TN on June 10-13. The superstar line-up is headed by Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon, Stevie Wonder and Jay-Z. The entire line-up can be found here.

In celebration of the festival, I recently took part in a press conference (over the phone) with members of Weezer, The National and Rise Against. I learned about what each band is doing to prepare for the festival and other fun facts about each band. Here is an excerpt of what I asked Scott Shriner, the current bassist of one of my favourite bands - Weezer.

Nicholas Palumbo: As you know Jay-Z and Beyonce collaborated this past weekend at Coachella. Is there any Bonnaroo artist that you would be interested in collaborating on stage with?

Scott Shriner: What would be cool? I guess just for me like – I guess Stevie Wonder would be unbelievable, that guy is such a hero of mine. And I think there was an old Jay-Z/Weezer kind of mash up song a long time ago. So maybe we can get him to come out and do something with us too.

Nicholas Palumbo: What kind of festival food do you crave?

Scott Shriner: I don’t know. I’m not a big fan of ribs. I’m just not into having giant rib bones in my mouth that much. But I do like the messed up sausages that are all burned up and been out there all day long. So I guess that gets you kind of craving that.

I will definitely be taking the trip down for the festival. Will you?

PS: Check out the late night tent roster and the new Ben & Jerry's Bonnaroo-inspired flavour.

-Nicholas Palumbo

I Was There: The Flaming Lips

With the countdown for our Spring Concert weighing in at 14 days, it certainly is the season for springtime college festivals.

Last night, Vassar College's ViCE organization held its spring concert for its student body and surrounding committee. With a fall line-up of Grizzly Bear and Beach House - who arguably have the best albums of 2009 and 2010 respectively - how was the spring concert going to top such a musical line-up.

The bill featured the likes of The Hood Internet and Stardeath & White Dwarfs headlined by The Flaming Lips.

The Hood Internet opened the whole show. The duo, best known for their Chicago-town pride and mash-ups, set up their laptops and mixers and went to work. I immediately went to work trying to figure out all the artists/songs used - but was able to only identify half of the samples. Lykke Li, Cut Copy, Kanye West, Biz Markee...the list goes on. The Hood Internet have several mixtapes available for free (.mp3, .zip format) at their website here.

Stardeath and White Dwarfs played next. In the moments leading up to their performance, few people in the crowd had no clue has to who exactly this band was, why the band was opening for The Flaming Lips and more importantly, "How would the crowd react to them?" Those who knew about the band only knew that they worked with The Flaming Lips on their recent reworking of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. However, those who seemed skeptical quickly put all distrust behind them. Certainly, S&WD put their music where their mouth is and put on a great, long psychadelia/noise set.

I made my way to the photo pit for The Flaming Lips, shaking with anticipation. Their live sets are littered with fun visuals, including loads of confetti, lasers and balloons. However, words will never be able to describe fully what it is like to be down in the photo pit and shoot for a concert where hundreds of things are happening at the same time. The band played hits from their discography, which dates back to 1986's Hear It Is. The encore was the only tracks I took note of, which included "Eclipse," the last and final song on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Wayne and Co. politely asked the Stardeath & White Dwarfs on stage to play the recomposed song off of their album. Following that, the band went into a confetti-fueled sing-a-long to the commercially popular "Do You Realize??"

Some photos I took of the show are below...

-Nicholas Palumbo

Steve Hofstetter at Mahoney's

The first, and hopefully not the last, comedy show at Mahoney’s Irish Pub and Restaurant was held Thursday, April 1. Steve Hofstetter, the original columnist for Collegehumor.com and touring comedian, was the headliner.

Hofstetter was not against making fun of any topic; Twilight, abortion, race and Walmart employees were all part of the show. The Marist crowd including those who took advantage of discount tickets that were given out to college students in order to promote the comedian to colleges. There was a Vassar crowd there as well, across the room with about three tables and the stage in between. They understood less of the more intellectual jokes than the Marist students (or so the opening comedian observed, and later thanked the Marist students for).

Hofstetter currently hosts “The Sports Minute (Or So)”, formerly hosted “Four Quotas” on Sirius radio for two years, and was a weekly columnist for Sports Illustrated and the NHL. He has appeared on CBS' "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," the syndicated "Comics Unleashed," E's "True Hollywood Story," Showtime's "White Boyz in the Hood," ESPN's "Quite Frankly," VH1's "The Countdown," CW's "The Daily Buzz", and G4's "Attack of the Show.”

His first album was “Dark Side of the Room”, the first ever pay-what-you-want album, “since it was going to be stolen anyway.” It is currently available as a free download for the first 1 million students . “Cure for the Cable Guy,” his second album, reached #20 on the comedy charts. His third album was recently released, titled, “National Lampoon’s Balls!” He has also written three books.

Read more about Steve and check out videos of him on his website and follow him on Twitter @SteveHofstetter.