Blog

We caught up with one of Young Oceans’ band members/songwriters, Eric James Marshall, and asked him a few questions about the band, their future, and their favorite memories. Read our interview below!

Where did your band start out making music?

We were all involved in various bands and projects in New York and came together to record a collection of songs that I had originally written for our church.  It had no name, no plan.  We just wanted to create something that we might want to lay on the floor and listen to.

What does the name “Young Oceans” signify?

I’m not always sure.  I think its meant to be a paradox, or something unknowable to us.   When was it that our oceans were fresh and new?  Who can say. It’s also a reference to our history and our future… There’s a translation of Psalm 103 that reads, “you’re always young in His presence.”  I love that.

What has been the most exciting project for your band to date?

The most exciting thing is always the thing we’re currently immersed in.  It’s a privilege to create art like this. We don’t take it lightly. Right now, we’re fighting to get a concept record out there that humbly distills the mystery and the action of partaking in the Lord’s Supper.

What are you most looking forward to in the future when it comes to the direction your band is going?

We’re excited to get in front of people and perform this music. We’ve not played live at all the last 5 years. Don’t know why exactly. But now feels right.

If your band could open for any other band/artist, who would it be?

Neil Young circa 1992.

The new school year is upon us, meaning that yet another Block Party will soon be in the books. Join us this Saturday, September 2, at 5 pm in the LaHaye Parking Lot for more fun times at one of our favorite SA traditions. We’re excited about this year’s artist and vendor lineup, which you can see here!

If you don’t feel like clicking the link that will take you to the lineup, just know this – at Block Party, you can chomp down on a barbecue sandwich from Smoke Ring BBQ whilst enjoying Vegan Llamas rock the stage. Soon after your sandwich, you’ll crave dessert, which will be available to you in the form of Hershey’s ice cream from Frosty Penguin, a small yet substantial cider donut from our friends at Mama Crockett’s, a funnel cake from Cross Concessions, and so many more options. Of course, as you watch Soar Dunk fly in the air and Flying Houndz Frisbee dogs perform their crazy tricks, all of this action will make you parched for some good iced coffee/cold brew, causing you to mosey on over to Nomad Coffee and/or Golf Park Coffee Co. The aforementioned vendors are only a preview of the many options you’ll have!

Our artists will provide all the genres of music that could possibly make someone think “I love this event!” From rock by Vegan Llamas to rap from CJ King and Social Club Misfits back over to EDM from Capital Kings, you’ll never want to take your eyes off the stage.

Needless to say, this year’s Block Party will be a memorable one. Tweet us about your excitement at libertysa. We’ll see you soon!

When you think of Student Activities, you may associate a few different words with our name. One could be “fun”, which is fitting; with 80+ events each school year (including concerts, movie nights, game nights and more), we strive to consistently provide good times for every student. You could also associate “diverse”, simply because of how many different events we put on each year. We hope that you associate “recognizable”, as we want all our events to be uniform in their standards of excellence. Amidst all the words one may think of, one important word that we always want to be associated with is “growth”.

Looking back on the past 25 years of Student Activities, growth is very apparent for us. Take Coffeehouse, for example – the show began in the old Schilling Center (which most of you probably don’t remember). It then moved to the Vines Center, but it was sideways so that only one side of the seats could see the stage. Today, the entire Vines Center tunes in to Coffeehouse each semester – 8,000+ students, to be precise. Coffeehouse is one of many examples of the growth in our department over the years. With the growth we’ve had and are so proud of, we strive to go further each year.

The past couple years, we’ve focused more on growing in the area of cultural engagement. It’s actually one of our four values – among loving others, teamwork and professionalism, cultural engagement is one of the most important parts of our mission. Therefore, we’ve been spending time over the past few years thinking through what cultural engagement means and how to put it into action. Among leading workshops so that our staff is informed on how to engage in culture, another way we want to challenge thinking is through discussing what we choose to engage in and why. We want to engage with people, not only through our events and our staff, but also in social media, our blog, our website and our presence in general.

Our Student Activities staff handbook includes this Purpose Statement on the first page:

“[Our] events serve two purposes. First, they provide students numerous opportunities to interact with one another, fostering a stronger sense of community within the student body, and laying the foundation for lasting relationships. Second, students are presented with opportunities to engage a variety of elements that make up the culture surrounding them.”

The second part of the Purpose Statement describes that our goal as a department is to present students with opportunities to engage in culture, and what better way to do that than for SA to engage first? One way we’ve been doing that is by posting about upcoming releases in the entertainment world every Monday so that our blog readers are aware of what’s going on. We’ve also released posts “reviewing” recent shows we’ve watched, music we’ve listened to and movies we’ve seen – all for the sake of discussing what is culturally relevant. At the end of each post, we give a disclaimer saying that we’re not explicitly promoting the content we write about – instead, we’re seeking to engage in culture and discuss our thoughts on what’s happening. In an age where you’re constantly inundated with entertainment that you’re forced to form opinions on, our posts are a way for us to be right there with you, figuring it out as well.

As we go into the school year, we want to continue this growth on a personal level. We’ll continue posting amateur entertainment previews/reviews on our blog and our social media (amateur because we are not critics or professionals), as well as putting on events that propel us to think critically. We also will continue handing out free cups of joe, so come grab one and talk to us about your thoughts on what’s happening around us in culture! We always want to hear from you.

Parking is getting fuller, Green Hall Chick-Fil-A is unveiling all its changes (including breakfast, btw), and new buildings continue to pop up on campus. All of this could only mean one thing – students are baaack (almost)!

For incoming freshmen, we want to welcome you to campus by putting on some of our favorite events for you. Thursday, our staff will be walking around meeting you as you move in and bringing you some information on our upcoming events this semester. We’ll also be a part of the VIP event on Thursday at 5pm, put on by the Bookstore. Come visit our table and meet our friendly staff! After the event, we’ll go straight into a Bingo Night at the LaHaye Event Space at 8pm – you won’t want to miss it.

Friday will bring about new events and opportunities to meet our staff. At noon, we’ll be outside at Montview Lawn, providing games and cotton candy for FREE! Friday evening at 10pm, we’re hosting SA @ Nite, which is a late night event in the LaHaye Event Space. This event celebrates everything you think of when the word “throwback” is mentioned – 2000s tv shows, karaoke, snacks, games and more!

Saturday’s events continue the celebration of a new school year! Count yourself (and three of your friends) in for our campus-wide Scavenger Hunt at 3pm, where we’ll be giving away big money prizes. That night, we’ll conclude the fun-filled week with an Outdoor Movie Night, where we’ll be showing the new Pirates of the Caribbean and Guardians of the Galaxy movies!

We can’t wait to see you come to our events! Don’t forget to bring all your new friends!

Block Party is coming upon us quickly – so quickly that we can barely believe it! In just under three weeks from now, we’ll be celebrating the new school year with great food, attractions, music and so much more. One reason we’re particularly excited is because of our upbeat, dynamic headliner this year – Capital Kings!

Capital Kings is an American Christian pop duo including producer/rapper Cole Walowac and singer Dylan Housewright. Housewright wasn’t always a member of the duo, as it was formed by Jon White and Cole Walowac in their hometown of Washington, D.C. When White left the duo in early 2016, Housewright joined Walowac within a few months to continue making music.*

The self-titled Capital Kings debut album was released in 2013 and made it to the Top 5 on the Billboard Christian Albums Chart. In 2014, they released a remix album of their first production that also included a new song, “Be a King”. They released a second album, II, in 2015, and  “Love Is on Our Side” is a new song that was released in June. Capital Kings has been featured on albums such as Tobymac’s This Is Not a Test and Group 1 Crew’s #STRONGER. They were also nominated for New Artist of the Year at the Dove Awards in 2013, and for Rock/Contemporary Song of the Year in 2015.

Capital Kings’ music is the kind that makes you want to get on your feet and have the time of your life, which is exactly what we expect to see at this year’s Block Party! Check out their music and more information here!

* http://trueartist.org/download/CapitalKingsBio.pdf

This will be our last week of writing previews for upcoming entertainment releases – we know, it’s gone too soon! Looking back on this summer, it has been exciting to look forward to new releases in the music/movie/tv show realm each week. The school year is upon us, though, causing our SA team to switch gears a bit and pay attention to other aspects of events and the blog. We hope you’ll continue to read our posts this semester as we’ll be posting weekly!

Friday’s music releases can be found here! And of course, you can look at Metacritic’s upcoming releases calendar anytime to see what’s coming up soon. It’s quite the resource!

A wide selection of movies will be showing this weekend in your local theater – if you need more information, check it out here.

Thank you guys for checking out these posts this summer! What are you listening to/watching? Let us know! We’re libertysa on social media and our email address is studentactivities@liberty.edu. We love hearing from you!

Disclaimer: Student Activities does not explicitly promote the albums/television shows/movies we write about. As always, we seek to engage with and review what is happening in our culture in order to interact with it in a godly manner, which is why we do what we do. For more information about movies/music that we do promote, check out our FAQ page!

This week, we had one of our staff members, Clay, write about what he’s been listening to lately. Read below to see some of his thoughts on a new album by Manchester Orchestra!

“Manchester Orchestra delivered its 5th full-length album and it does not disappoint. The album is reminiscent of their older pieces (such as Mean Everything to Nothing) but with a more matured subject material. A Black Mile to the Surface was strongly influenced by lead singer Andy Hull’s gift of fatherhood and its gravity. Hull and guitarist Robert McDowell worked together to create the soundtrack to the incredibly weird “Swiss Army Man” using only vocals. It is apparent that this played a huge role in the development of A Black Mile to the Surface, with the harmonizing backtracks found on nearly every song.

The album feels like a culmination of all Manchester Orchestra’s previous work. The raw vulnerability of “Shake It Out” meets the magnetic poetry of “Simple Math” to create songs like “The Silence”. The album does not only pay tribute to what the band has become, but also what Andy’s life has become. Songs like “The Sunshine” and “The Parts” lend insight into his love for his daughter and wife.

Beginning to end, the album carries out as though it is one continuous thought. Littered with multi-song progressions that help build crescendos and continuation, A Black Mile to the Surface is the perfect album to make sense of life changes.”

What are you listening to/watching? Let us know! Tweet at us (libertysa) or email us at studentactivities@liberty.edu. We love hearing from you!

Disclaimer: Student Activities does not explicitly promote the albums/television shows/movies we write about. As always, we seek to engage with and review what is happening in our culture in order to interact with it in a godly manner, which is why we do what we do. For more information about movies/music that we do promote, check out our FAQ page

“People often talk about the future of hip-hop music like it isn’t right now. As if the future were some far off paint splotch occupying our collective imagination. On the contrary, the future is now, and some aren’t afraid to take it where it’s going.”

The above lines are the first of Social Club Misfits’ bio on their website, and they’re enough to make you want more of an explanation. What does it mean to say that the future of hip-hop is now? Who isn’t afraid to take it where it’s going and how can they even do that? It’s almost as if Social Club is asking questions that they set out to answer in their own music.

The hip-hop duo is comprised of Marty and Fern from Miami, Florida. Social Club Misfits has multiple EPs and albums under their belt by now, each one “pushing boundaries and redefining the possibilities of what faith-based music can accomplish” *. The inspiration behind the duo’s music comes from their upbringings, and this theme of “where you came from” is woven throughout each EP and album. You can hear more about Fern’s upbringing here, where he discusses negative influences and how God impacted his life and music.

The topics of negative influences and redemption are no secret in Marty and Fern’s stories, which brings about the word that they continuously discuss – “misfit”. A “misfit” is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a person who is poorly adapted to a situation or environment”. The word holds a great amount of weight considering who Social Club Misfits is and how badly they strive to show that they aren’t adapting/conforming into the culture that they’re currently in. You can hear this idea of nonconformity in each of their productions as an obvious theme.

There is much more to be said about the up and coming hip-hop duo, but we will leave that responsibility to them. Listen to their music and read more about their story here!

*www.socialclubmisfits.com

At this point, we’re only a couple weeks away from the school year – hopefully you’re feeling excited about returning (or coming here for the first time)! We’re shifting into gear over here at SA, planning events and preparing for your return. We can’t wait!

Music releases for this week can be found here, hopefully not as disappointing as last week’s could have been for you. If you need a little hope in future music, you can cheat and read ahead to find out the next couple weeks’ releases (you’re allowed just this one time).

There are movies being released this weekend from all across the board. Read about them here and then go buy a pricy ticket at your local theater!

What are you guys listening to/watching? Let us know! We’re libertysa on social media and our email address is studentactivities@liberty.edu. We love hearing from you!

Disclaimer: Student Activities does not explicitly promote the albums/television shows/movies we write about. As always, we seek to engage with and review what is happening in our culture in order to interact with it in a godly manner, which is why we do what we do. For more information about movies/music that we do promote, check out our FAQ page!

It’s Wednesday, which means we’re only two days away from new music and movies! So far, we’re hearing a lot of buzz about the releases from this past weekend – tweet at us (libertysa) and tell us what you’ve been enjoying!

This weekend’s music releases aren’t quite as exciting as weeks past, mainly because there aren’t a lot of albums coming out. Maybe you’re a big Brett Eldredge fan, and in that case, this could be a good weekend for you (and for you too, people who say “I only listen to country music in the summertime”).

On the other hand, there are quite a few movies coming to the big screen this weekend – just take a gander at this here list to see more!

What are you guys listening to/watching? Let us know! We’re libertysa on social media and our email address is studentactivities@liberty.edu. We love hearing from you!

Disclaimer: Student Activities does not explicitly promote the albums/television shows/movies we write about. As always, we seek to engage with and review what is happening in our culture in order to interact with it in a godly manner, which is why we do what we do. For more information about movies/music that we do promote, check out our FAQ page!