The Bowdoin Orient

"The name has to do with the fusion of sounds we bring together," said Justin Foster '11. The band Call It The Truth is scheduled to open the Ivies concert tomorrow. "I also think it has to do with your persona, Justin," added Mikel McCavana '12. "You just tell it how it is."

OK, OK, I know. Pitchfork rated it an 8.2. They sound like Belle and Sebastian. They're from Brooklyn. They were one of the "best breakout bands of 2009." I still can't stand The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and their painfully toolish name is only a small fraction of the reason why.

Philadelphia native Kurt Vile is a rocker. His name is Kurt Vile, for starters ("it's the handle my mama gave me"). His black, wavy hair is long and hangs like a curtain over his face when he performs. Watching him play on stage is like witnessing a religious experience—he is so wholly absorbed in the chords he is strumming or picking, it's clear that whatever he's playing is coming from somewhere deep inside his grungy façade.

The campus band Mr. Suds, comprised of seniors Bryce Lednar (guitar, vocals), Sam Epstein (guitar, vocals), Brian Wu (synth, vocals), James Carney (bass) and Andrew Coleman (drums, vocals), who met their first year, has been a regular staple of the small, but ever-growing, Bowdoin music scene for years.

The Chicago-born rock trio, the Smith Westerns, started off as a highly successful MySpace group known for channeling their teen dream sound into garage rock anthems. Their first songs went a long way to capture the band's high school youthfulness in lo-fi ballads, but little to display the raw talent residing, unharnessed, beneath. Nevertheless, their 2009 self-titled debut won them enough fans to sell thousands of records and turn heads in the alternative rock scene.

Portland, Maine may ask what celestial force has hit it when Swedish pop star Robyn sweeps through this weekend, painting the quiet maritime city neon with her robot-diva-beats. She is scheduled to play at the newly renovated State Theatre at 8 p.m. on Saturday, a space with the capacity to accommodate the full-scale production of a Robyn concert. Mainers, take off those Bean boots and put on your kicks—Robyn's about to take us on a journey through the unique synths, kickdrums, looped lyrics and strobe lights that comprise her sophisticated pop world.

Although some would argue that the on-campus music culture has been deafeningly silent this fall, a few student musicians are as busy as ever composing melodies and pushing the musical envelope. Seniors Louis Weeks and Brian Wu are two such musicians.

This interview was conducted with Portland-based singer-songwriter Aly Spaltro, a.k.a. Lady Lamb the Beekeeper. Spaltro, who Bowdoin students may know from her years of employment at Brunswick Bart and Greg's DVD Explosion! is planning to further her music career come December, first with a move to Cambridge, Mass. and then to New York.

Imagine you're in the middle of a desert at two in the morning. All around you is miles and miles of void. Only the moonlight and cloud shadows color the ground; nothing but a few cacti and animal carcasses lay scattered across the desert floor.

Last Friday was the opening night of Portland's State Theatre, and it did not disappoint.

Tom Krell is a student of Kantian philosophy who splits his time between Brooklyn, New York and Cologne, Germany. He was born in Colorado and enjoys '80s and '90s hip-hop. He's a blogger. He is also the indie-lo-fi producer of the 2010 breakout solo act, How to Dress Well.

Sufjan Stevens has never been one to stay in the realm of convention.

I heard the rumors while abroad: "The police are out of control," "Bowdoin is different," "Weekends aren't fun anymore," and "The party scene is gone." I refused to believe these outlandish claims when I heard them through my computer screen via a Skype call, or read them during a Facebook chat or in an e-mail.

If music is made to be shared, then it served its purpose at Pickard Theater on Tuesday night with "Béla Fleck and the African Project," a performance centered around the revered banjo player Béla Fleck and the African musicians he is collaborating with for a 33-show U.S. tour.

Never before has more love been felt in Jack McGee's Pub than at "Heart's for Haiti," Bowdoin Musical Collective's (BMC) all-acoustic fundraising concert last Saturday. The pub was packed for the event, with students filling the space to the brim for the show, sitting in chairs and booths on both levels, layering onto couches and spilling onto the floor. The show offered the perfect means of kicking off Haiti Week. Beyond raising over $700 through open donations given willingly by students throughout the event, it also brought students together in a collective effort to support Haiti relief efforts.

Third time's the charm for Charlotte Gainsbourg, the famous French actress who has never been taken seriously in the music world—until now. With her third album, IRM, Gainsbourg had the incredible forethought to partner with Beck as the album's producer. The two have collaborated to create an album that is at once electrifying and docile, fierce and benign, an album that is nothing short of eclectic.

Last Thursday night, Crash Kings brought a musical explosion of funk, pop, rock and alternative beats to Portland's popular music venue The Asylum. By 8:30 p.m. the main floor was full of anticipating fans waiting for Violent Soho, Crash Kings, Janus, Lost on Liftoff and Sick Puppies to take the stage.

Companies at the Consumers Electronic Show in Las Vegas last month displayed new gadgets for everything from the home to the office to cars. Much to the dismay of some consumers and experts, car companies like Ford, Audi and Mercedes have presented plans to add screens above gearshifts in their vehicles that can be used to browse the Internet or play videos, among other things. As though text messaging and GPS units were not enough of a distraction, automobile drivers can now look up band biographies, research restaurant menus and check stocks on their dashboards, further expanding the possibility of risky and distracting behavior while driving—some systems even have detachable keyboards!

Hello Bowdoin, it's so nice to see you again. It's been a while (since May of last year?) but you look great, all covered in snow as expected. Obviously my time spent in sunny Buenos Aires last semester is making the transition back to the freezer box that is Maine more challenging than usual, but also that much more exciting.

The 2008-2009 academic year at Bowdoin was both exciting and tumultuous. The College found itself coping with a national economic crisis, engaging in a highly-anticipated national election, and participating in other interesting and noteworthy events in academia, arts and athletics during the 207th academic year.

After only a few months of working for Bowdoin graduate Richard Pulsifer '62 at his house on Mere Point Road, sophomore McKay Belk knows a whole lot about wooden boat-building. Belk is one of many Bowdoin students going off-campus to find employment, only to return with new skills and unique experiences in the greater community. Belk said he contacted Pulsifer about a job after he heard about the opportunity from Bowdoin seniors Madelyn Sullivan and William Oppenheim, who have been building boats for Pulsifer since the fall of 2007 and 2008, respectively. Once he had gone through an interview and training process in which he learned how to use various tools, Belk took up his role in the boat-building process.

Shoe designer Ruthie Davis '84 has always been a trend-setter. Her shoe company, Davis, has been known to challenge even the highly progressive fashion industry. Her stilettos, boots, sandals, and flats have appeared in magazines such as Glamour, Lucky, InStyle, People, Vogue, and Bazaar, and, like Davis, are constantly pushing the fashion envelope.

When Bobbie and Tona White donated money for the creation of Watson Arena, they asked that the arena be named after someone else: Bowdoin hockey legend and coach, Sidney "Sid" J. Watson.

Some of Bowdoin's greatest athletes are not competing on varsity teams. Instead, they are busy training for and running marathons. Rachel Munzig '10 has run a handful of 5Ks, participated in the San Francisco half marathon the past two summers, ran a full marathon in Philadelphia last fall and completed the Maine Marathon on October 4 in Portland. She has never participated in a varsity sport at Bowdoin.

Students living in off-campus housing in Brunswick may think twice before cranking up the bass at the next party they host. On Monday, the Brunswick Town Council passed the Disorderly House Ordinance at its bi-weekly meeting. Though the ordinance fines landlords?not residents?of houses that repeatedly engage in disorderly conduct, it has implications for Bowdoin students living in off-campus housing.

Presidents Barry Mills joined Associate Professor of Economics Gregory DeCoster to offer a lecture on the state of the economy in Studzinski Hall on Monday, October 6. The two speakers addressed a full auditorium.

The Admissions Office welcomed 135 Maine high school juniors and seniors and their families to campus on Monday for Bowdoin's annual Maine Day.

Scully '09 had no idea that a student digest post could change her life. Sandwiched between posts about lost ID cards and student activities was information about applying to the Japan America Student Conference (JASC), a prestigious cultural exchange program.

The idiosyncratic world of Dunder Mifflin's paper supply company has been given a Coors Light, decked in flannel and tossed into Baxter House to create the newest addition to the BCN's Thursday line-up: "The Dorm Room."

The 19 candidates running for seven officer spots for next year's Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) Assembly will head straight from the relaxed atmosphere of Ivies weekend to full-on campaigning in preparation for next week's election.

Junior Joe Berte is set to continue his legacy as a crucial member of the Bowdoin Men's Baseball Team as he begins his third season as a starting infielder for the Polar Bears. The Marlborough, Massachusetts, native graduated from Marlborough High School where he played baseball, basketball, and two seasons of football.

Students currently living in chem-free dorms will get a leg-up in the housing lottery this spring if they opt to apply for chem-free housing next year. Director of Residential Life Kim Pacelli said the change was prompted by the belief that the chem-free lottery is currently "manipulated by students to secure specific housing, even though they do not actually intend to abide by the chem-free expectation."

Billy Bean, a former Major League outfielder who made national headlines in 1999 when he announced he was a homosexual, recounted his experiences in front of an audience in Moulton Union on Tuesday. Bean, who hails from a Catholic family, was a three-sport athlete in high school before attending Loyola Marymount University, where he was a two-time All American outfielder. Bean then pursued a professional baseball career, playing for the Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and San Diego Padres between 1987 to 1995.

For the second year in a row, Bowdoin made the Peace Corps's top 25 list for small schools with the largest number of volunteers serving abroad. There are currently 14 Bowdoin alumni serving as volunteers in 12 countries, earning the College a 24th place ranking on this year's list. In 2006, when Bowdoin was ranked 20th on the list, Peace Corps Regional Recruiter Christopher Lins noted that if the rankings were done on a per capita basis, Bowdoin would fall in the top five of all schools in the country.

On Saturday at 4 p.m., a plaque will be mounted in Maine Hall to commemorate Nathaniel Hawthorne's tenure as a member of Bowdoin's Class of 1825. The ceremony will include a welcome speech by Dean of Student Affairs Tim Foster and a brief reading by Professor of English William Watterson.

Business leader and philanthropist Frank Lowy will receive the Henni Friedlander Award for the Common Good on Tuesday, October 2. The Friedlander Award was created in 2005 in honor of Henni Friedlander, the mother of Bowdoin alumnus Martin Friedlander '71. The recipient of the award is chosen by a committee that includes the chair of the Board of Trustees and the dean of Students Affairs.

Devoted attendees of Jack Magee's Pub & Grill are wondering what has made the pub so popular this year. Since the pub opened for Thursday night entertainment on September 6, the establishment has drawn unprecedented crowds and long lines. As reads a poster in Appleton Hall, "Everyone who's anyone is at the pub on Thursday nights."

Bowdoin students who have opted for eco-friendly bikes instead of cars when traveling through Brunswick may be in for a pleasant surprise.