UMaine athletic director Steve Abbott, whose 2-year contract expires on Sunday, met recently with UMaine President Dr. Paul Ferguson and agreed to a 6-month extension.

“The president didn’t want to do a search this summer with everything going on,” Abbott told the Bangor Daily News. “You’ve got the Memorial Gym [and Field House] renovation, the deal with the Cross Insurance Center [for men’s and women’s home basketball games] and the apparel deal that we’re working on. A search is a very time-consuming process.”

Abbott, an Orono native, will receive $70,000, or half of his $140,000 annual salary, for the 6-month term. Abbott is eligible to apply for the position once it is posted and will make a decision about his future by the end of the summer. A major factor in the decision is Abbott’s family, with whom he lives in Portland.

“The hardest thing is not being home on [many] weeknights,” Abbott told the Bangor Daily News. “But I’m not complaining. I have a job that I love. It’s a thrill for me to be part of the University of Maine’s athletic department.”

Abbott started as athletic director on an interim basis in Sept. 2010 after Blake James left for a position at the University of Miami.

University of Maine men’s hockey coach Dennis “Red” Gendron announced on Tuesday that Jay Leach, who served as an assistant under former men’s hockey coach Shawn Walsh, was hired as associate head coach.

“His knowledge, passion, and teaching ability are beyond exceptional,” Gendron said. “His recruiting and coaching excellence was instrumental in Maine’s rise to national prominence working with coach Walsh. He knows Maine Hockey, he loves Maine Hockey, and he doesn’t accept anything less than the best from himself, from his peers, and from the players he coaches”

Leach’s coaching experience following his first stint at UMaine includes coaching the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears in 1993 for three seasons and serving as an assistant coach for the Atlanta Thrashers from 1999 to 2001, the New Jersey Devils from 2001 to 2003 and the Washington Capitals from 2003 to 2010.

“I know how important Maine Hockey is to the state,” Leach said. “The University of Maine is a very special place to go to school and also to play hockey. Maine has been very fortunate to land Coach Gendron. I have known Dennis (Gendron) for over 30 years. His passion and knowledge of the game is extensive and I would not have accepted a job like this under any other college coach. Red and I simply speak the same language and understand the task involved.”

“My vision for this program is one that will compete for championships every season. It is a sold out Alfond Arena every time we play. It is trips to the TD Garden to compete for Hockey East Championships […] and trips to the NCAA tournament,” said new University of Maine men’s hockey coach Dennis “Red” Gendron during an introductory press conference held Tuesday afternoon in the Alfond Arena.

Gendron, who signed a four-year contract worth $205,000 per year on May 27, spent three seasons as an assistant coach under the late Shawn Walsh for three years, including the 1992-93 NCAA championship season. He expressed his excitement to return to UMaine, saying, “For me, this is a dream job, mostly because of the time I spent here in the ‘90s [and] the wonderful relationships formed here that endure to this day.”

“All the wonderful coaching experiences I’ve had […] would not be possible without Maine,” Gendron said.

Gendron established that his main goal was to return UMaine’s hockey program to its former glory, which he hopes to do be recruiting quality staff and players, and holding them to a high standard.

“I want this generation of Maine men to experience what the ’93 and ’99 teams did,” Gendron said. “How will we do it? Well first, we’ll hire the best coaches and recruiters available. We’ll want to recruit men who want to win championships and men who want to become professional hockey players. We want men of character, who love hockey as we do, who appreciate what it takes to win, but also want to be great students and great citizens.”

Gendron said two of his main focuses will be on hard work and unselfishness within the team, with progress being the ultimate goal.

“Two questions will be asked and answered daily: ‘Did Maine hockey get better today? Did I get better today?’” Gendron said.

Also speaking were Director of Athletics Steve Abbott, University of Maine President Paul Ferguson and UMaine Professor Emeritus and men’s hockey coach search committee chair Dr. George Jacobson.

Ferguson said he “look[s] forward to [Gendron’s] pedigree [and] his passion [for] Black Bear hockey.”

“What we think about [is how often] would you find a coach who not only combines the best of collegiate hockey at the championship hockey at the championship level, the best of professional hockey at the championship level and bleeds blue as a Black Bear? Not very often.”

Abbott praised the men’s hockey team and how they have handled the coaching change, which he described as a “difficult experience.” He also lauded the loyalty of former UMaine players and coaches, saying they were a big help in the search for and hiring of the new men’s hockey coach, specifically mentioning volunteer assistant coach Grant Standbrook and New York Islanders general manager Garth Snow, who “taught [him] a lot about how to hire a hockey coach.”

Jacobson discussed how well the search committee worked together to find quality candidates for the head coach position.

“We spent a lot of time evaluating the candidates who applied themselves, and we spent at least as much time trying to generate interest in possible names of candidates from beyond [the applicants] so we could find the strongest slate of possible coaching candidates,” Jacobson said.

“I will say that there were several candidates […] who were very, very strong candidates and would have been able to do an excellent job, so we really felt very happy to have such a strong pool and therefore, a very strong selection,” he added.

University of Maine geology student Nicholas Golden, 22, passed away Sunday, May 19 due to injuries sustained from a longboarding accident.

On May 13, Golden, who was not wearing a helmet, was riding a borrowed longboard down a hill and fell, hitting his head hard on the pavement, according to a post on coryeast.tumblr.com. He passed away at Floyd Medical Center in Rome, Georgia on May 19.

Golden was born in Dallas, Texas on June 25, 1990 to Ann and Scott Golden. Golden was vice president of the University of Maine Geology Club and an avid outdoorsmen.

Having worked for The Maine Campus in one capacity or another for the past three years, it has been interesting to see what former co-workers have done after they’ve graduated. Most have gone on to write for various publications across the country, while others have gone in unexpected directions.

Kegan Zema — former Maine Campus editor of Style & Culture, whose post I took over in 2011 — falls in the latter category. Last I heard, he told me he was living in Brooklyn, N.Y., “basically running this ice cream store, this vegan ice cream store.”

He always had a keen interest in anything music, performing and recording under various names over the past few years — more than I’ve been able to keep track of.

A couple of weeks ago, Zema posted a link to a music video for a song he recorded as Dessert Lips, called “Looking Good, Feeling Good.” The new release is a complete, surprising departure from the last thing I had heard from Zema, which were a couple of bass-heavy post-punk songs he released under the name Journalism.

In the first few seconds of the video for “Looking Good, Feeling Good,” a thumping bass drum and low-end synth score a dark scene of flashing lights, alternately revealing and obscuring different angles of Zema’s black sunglasses-covered face.

Since he’s always had a great sense of humor, hearing Zema sing about “designer clothes” and “designer girls” made me wonder how thick a layer of irony he laid on the song. But if the track was meant to be laughed off as an elaborate joke, he put way too much effort into it. He ended up with a pretty good tune — it’s catchy, and the lyrics are fun and easy for singing along — but there’s enough variety and substance for “Looking Good, Feeling Good” to be more than a party-rocking anthem, though it could serve that purpose as well.

A few days ago, Zema sent me an email asking for feedback on his debut mixtape as Dessert Lips — which shares the name of the aforementioned song. The release features an extended version of “Looking Good, Feeling Good,” as well as three other tracks.

The rest of the mixtape is an interesting venture into electronic pop with each track branching out in a different direction.

It’s hard to ignore the parallels between opening track “Me, U and the Dance Floor” and the recent work of the Gorillaz: A simple-but-enchanting synth line is the thread that holds the song together, while Zema’s easy-to-grasp lyrics and Damon Albarn-like delivery make it easy to envision the song being played by a group of animated, ape-like musicians.

“Can I Join Your Synthesizer Band” comes off as kitchy, propelled forward by drums that may have been taken from one of those older household organs and lyrics that are like those of Zooey Deschanel’s oddball band in “Yes Man.” That said, the guitar solo and sense of urgency that close out the song give the tune a sense of direction.

Closing out the mixtape is “The Young and the Useless,” an Alphaville-like ballad that could have scored the school dance scene in “Napoleon Dynamite” if the band the school hired was Hellogoodbye circa 2006. Pedro and Deb would have had to awkwardly transition from slow to fast dancing when the song picks up toward the middle and concludes in an energetic lament about “looking for a love that can keep me alive.”

The initial cheesiness of the mixtape makes it easy to write this release off as another series of 1’s and 0’s clogging up the tubes of the Interwebs; but dig past the throwback gloss, and there is substance.

The only other feedback I have for Zema is this: Keep on keepin’ on, but let’s go with fewer credit card butt-swipes in the next music video.

Apple founder Steve Jobs had an interesting existence. To put it simply, he did a lot of soul searching as a young man, went on to found Apple and revolutionized modern computing and entertainment before he passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2011.

As soon as Jobs’ time in this world came to an end, studios began rushing to start work on a film based on his life. In the tech world, he who does it first usually fares best, and the same is true about movies.

Directors Aaron Sorkin and Joshua Michael Stern are currently working on films about Jobs, competing to see who can finish first. Unfortunately for them, they’ve already been beaten.

While the public was fixated on the race between Sorkin and Stern to the silver screen, the creative and subversive minds at popular Internet comedy website Funny or Die went ahead and made a movie of their own, titled “iSteve,” which they managed to write in three days and film in five.

The site is revered for their short sketches, featuring celebrities, that usually run about 3- to 5-minutes long, so the concern about the quality of their first feature length movie is fair. Can they handle a full-length movie? Will their audience, so used to quick bursts of hilarity, be patient enough to sit through a 78-minute, 9-second video? Is the movie any good?

“iSteve” feels more like a long Funny or Die video than it does an actual feature film, which is perfectly understandable: It’s not like they were trying to squeeze out a rush job and make people spend money on it in theaters. It can be watched on funnyordie.com while your email inbox and Facebook home page are open in another browser tab, although the film is engaging enough to draw focus on just one tab.

Funny or Die recruited Justin Long to portray Jobs, which might seem like a strange choice … until you remember that he was the face of Apple, for a while — remember the classic “I’m a Mac” commercials?

The movie starts with Jobs in a darkened room, mumbling to himself as he flips through note cards he’s prepared for a keynote speech he has to give the next day. After a janitor reminds Jobs that it’s getting late and maybe he should head home, Jobs notices we, the viewers, and launches into his life story.

One of the early scenes shows Jobs working on some project in his garage when future Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak — hilariously played by Jorge Garcia, best known as Hurley from “Lost” — walks by and stares at Jobs several times before working up the courage to ask, “Hey, feel free to say no, but do you think … that … you might wanna … feel free to say no … hang out sometime, drink some soda, maybe? Feel free to say no.”

Garcia’s recessive depiction of “Woz” throughout the movie is a hilarious jab at the alleged over-glorification of Job’s importance to Apple and the repression of Woz’s historical value in the company. There are many other funny instances when Woz quietly tries to insert himself into a scene that you might not catch without an attentive eye.

Some critics have said that the film drags at times, but there are plenty of different elements that keep “iSteve” at a good pace. Jobs’s drug-using tendencies, the strained relationship between Jobs and Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the strange assertion that Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan is responsible for many of Apple’s innovations all keep the film going and provide many laughs along the way, even if the laughs aren’t as big as those resulting from a big-budget comedy.

“iSteve” may have started as an attempt for publicity and a small “eff you” to Hollywood, but the end result is actually kind of funny and worth at least one viewing, if not more. Either way, suck on this, Sorkin and Stern: Funny or Die got the “Job” done first.

Pot pals

The University of Maine Police Department received a report of a drug offense on the fourth floor of Androscoggin Hall at 10:09 p.m., April 14. Officers responded and found four males — three 19 year olds and one 22 year old — with a usable amount of marijuana. The four were referred to Judicial Affairs for possession of marijuana.

Stranger danger

A UMPD officer reported an alcohol offense at Oxford Hall at 2:14 a.m., April 12. An officer on patrol saw non-students Philipp Patrikov, 18, and Ryan Hornbrook, 19, take bikes from a bike rack in front of Oxford Hall. Patrikov and Hornbrook appeared to be intoxicated and the officer detected a strong odor of alcohol on both. The two admitted to drinking and were summonsed for possession of alcohol by a minor. The two were also given a 24-hour no-trespass notice.

Tarred car

UMPD received a report of burglary at University Park at 7:04 p.m., April 15. Officers responded and found that the suspect used a piece of tar to smash a car window and take a purse from the car. The purse and its contents are valued at approximately $200. There are currently no suspects.

BB bummer

UMPD received a report of criminal mischief at Androscoggin Hall at 5:50 p.m., April 15. Officers responded and found a vehicle with dents that appeared to have been created by BB’s fired from a BB gun. The value of the damage on the car is $100. There are currently no suspects.

Immoral markings

UMPD received a report of graffiti in Gannett Hall at 19:18, April 11. On the second and third floors, large graffiti drawn with a black marker that read obscenities was found. The cost of cleanup is $100. There are currently no suspects.

On Friday, a small fire in the Phi Kappa Sigma house caused damage to the building’s attic before being extinguished by the house’s sprinkler system.

The fire began at about 11 p.m. and temporarily closed College Ave. 15 University of Maine students were evacuated from the building, none of whom were injured.

Orono Fire Department Lt. Joel Sides told the Bangor Daily News that “[t]here was a human element involved” in the fire, but the fire has not yet been determined to have a suspicious cause. An investigation by the Orono Fire Department’s fire marshal, an investigator from the state fire marshal’s office and campus police is in progress.

UMaine spokeswoman Margaret Nagle said she was told the fire started in a mattress on the third floor.

“The big thing is that the sprinklers went off, so they were dealing with water damage this morning,” Nagle told the Bangor Daily News.

One student accepted temporary housing accommodations from the University, while the rest found other places to stay. Nagle said that as of Saturday afternoon, it was uncertain when the fraternity members would be able to return to the house.

Check back on The Maine Campus for more updates as they become available.

“College is a time for trying new things,” is a sentiment has been pounded into our generation’s head for years and years because it is true: You’re in a new place filled with new people to meet, new adventures to be had and new drugs to become dependent on.

Once you’ve tried everything there is to try, consider expanding this school of thought to your iTunes library. We listen to what we like because it’s good stuff, but it’s possible that the artists and genres we’ve been ignoring are fantastic as well. I continue to relearn this all the time, but never more so than in August 2010, when I started listening to post-rock.

It’s a primarily instrumental genre characterized by atmospheric guitar work and long, progressive song structures. It’s a style of music that has opened my ears to the world of instrumental music and other genres I had overlooked. Everybody should at least give post-rock a shot, but it’s tough to know where to start. The term “post-rock” is broad and encompasses a radically diverse set of bands.

Let me help. I’ll tell you about eight great albums to get you started on your post-rock listening, depending on what music you enjoy now. This isn’t a top post-rock albums list, since I’ve left out more challenging bands like Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Rather, use this list to figure out what the best entry point into the world of post-rock is for you.

“The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place” by Explosions in the Sky

Explosions are arguably the world’s biggest post-rock band and easily my favorite, probably because they were my first. “The Earth” was the first album of theirs I listened to, and it blew me away. The group uses a setup of drums and three guitars to create a shimmering, light-but-aggressive soundscape that is mountainous. I’ve called “The Earth” my favorite album of all time, and I don’t think I’ve changed my mind.

If you enjoy bands such as The xx, Exitmusic, M83 and The Verve in their early days, then check out this album.

“Young Mountain” by This Will Destroy You

It’s their first EP, meant to be a demo, but it’s my favorite release by them. I saw TWDY perform in a small club in Boston for $12, and it was the best concert I’ve ever been to. Their music nowadays is closer to drone music — check out their album “Tunnel Blanket” if you’re into that. In the beginning, they were similar to Explosions, except that they were warmer-sounding and a bit edgier. If you’ve seen the ESPN documentary “The Fab Five,” then you’ve heard the best song from this album, “Quiet,” which played over the film’s final minutes.

Check this album out if you are into bands like Silversun Pickups, Fever Ray or any of the groups I listed for Explosions.

“Ágætis Byrjun” by Sigur Ros

If a casual music listener knows a post-rock band, it’s probably Sigur Ros, one of the few post-rock groups to appear on American late night television, performing on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” in March. “Ágætis Byrjun,” released in 1999, is their best album. Their best song is probably “Festival,” which played during the climax of “127 Hours.”

Check this album out if you are into film scores or bands like Beach House, Bon Iver and Liars.

“Shutter Release” by Lymbyc Systym

Of the records on this list, this is the one that strays the furthest away from traditional post-rock, but it is also one of the best. This pair of brothers have rejected the term and make electronic-inspired instrumental rock music, the best of which is found on this album. It’s melancholic and exciting, but if that’s not your thing, listen to their more optimistic new album, 2012’s “Symbolyst.”

Check this album out if you are into bands like Radiohead, Yeasayer or Alt-J.

“If I Could See Dallas” by Japancakes

Post-rock and country don’t tend to have much in common, but they overlap here, primarily through Japancakes’ used of pedal steel guitar, which gives their otherwise Explosions-like music a Nashville twang. It’s an interesting change of pace that’s infinitely relaxing.

Check this album out if you are into country music or bands like My Morning Jacket and The Grateful Dead.

“Everywhere and Right Here” by The Six Parts Seven

This album is actually more soothing that the Japancakes one. It has an almost lounge jazz feel with its use of vibraphone and relaxed tempo. No songs stand out in particular, but when taken as an album, sometimes this one hits the spot.

Check this album out if you are into jazz or bands like Massive Attack, Eels and Funkadelic’s long jams.

“All is Violent, All is Bright” by God is an Astronaut

For those who like their rock alternative and their testosterone levels high, here you are. God is an Astronaut’s sound is spacy but hard and edgy. “All is Violent” is a powerful assault that periodically stops for menacing quiet portions that give you a second to catch your breath before your heart rate picks back up.

Check this album out if you are into alternative rock or bands like Brand New or My Bloody Valentine.

If These Trees Could Talk’s self-titled album

This record falls somewhere between God is an Astronaut and Explosions. I guess they sound like a more conventional and straightforward version of the aforementioned post-rock greats Mogwai. If Explosions in the Sky had a rough time in high school, this is the sound of them getting revenge on all who had the nerve to bully them.

Check this album out if you are into the same groups listed for This Will Destroy You and God is an Astronaut.