One owes inspiration to '70s hard rock. The other is named after a poisonous California wildflower.

These are some random tidbits you might not know about Sponge and Oleander, two of the biggest bands to play this year's Movin' On festival.

In fact, not many Penn State students seem very knowledgeable about either band, a feeling one Sponge fan in particular expressed.

"It doesn't seem like too many people know who they are," Josh Young (freshman-information science and technology) said.

So in the words of Prince, let's do some musicology.

In 1991, Nirvana released Nevermind. That right there may be one of the most definitive statements in rock history. The album's release caused alternative rock to crash into the mainstream. Nevermind was an unbelievable success, and no one was more surprised than the band's tragic frontman, Kurt Cobain.

Just three years later, he was dead, though his legacy would continue to influence music tremendously in the years that followed. Countless bands through the rest of the decade and beyond drew inspiration chiefly from that first wave of "grunge" bands, rather than the alternative music that preceded it.

In other words: "post-grunge."

In 1995, the year following Cobain's death, Sponge issued its debut album, Rotting Piñata. The band was often accused of being a Stone Temple Pilots rip-off, though "Plowed" and "Molly (Sixteen Candles)" were hit singles.

Wax Ecstatic followed in 1996 and was received far more favorably. Rather than continuing to ride the wave of the Seattle bands, Sponge chose to explore its '70s hard rock roots, resulting in what was deemed a much more focused effort than its debut.

Sponge continued along this track with 1999's New Pop Sunday, an album that seemed only to confirm that the band had found, and was exploiting, its strength. But in an unfortunate and somewhat ironic twist of fate, Sponge was subsequently dropped by Columbia Records not long after the album was released, because of poor sales.

For the next few years, silence was the only thing that issued from the Sponge front. It wasn't until September of 2003 that the band resurfaced with the folk/emo of For All the Drugs in the World; though critics argued that it was a return to sales, it was not a return to form.

The Sacramento, Calif.-based Oleander was another group to follow in Nirvana's footsteps. The band released its full-length debut Shrinking the Blob in 1997, and the strength of the single "Down When I'm Loaded" landed it a deal with Universal Records. Oleander's major-label debut, February Son, came out in 1999 to generally positive reviews for being a focused execution of the band's talents, exactly what worked for Sponge.

However, just as with that band, Oleander was accused of straying from hammering out a signature sound with its efforts that followed, 2001's Unwind and 2003's Joyride.

So, according to professional music reviewers, both bands seem to share the potential to develop into groups with real staying power, as evidenced by the output from their respective "heydays."

Though not all amateur critics are convinced. One such is Katie Kolesar (sophomore-biology), a Movin' On volunteer who preferred past acts like Pete Yorn and Lucky Boys Confusion.

"[This year's lineup] is not as good as previous years at all," she said.

Young disagreed, though he didn't attend last year's festival and couldn't remember who played.

"This year is a huge improvement," he said.

Regardless of the differences in student opinion, Movin' On director Jeniece Fairbairn stands by her choices for the artist lineup.

"It shouldn't matter how long ago these bands had their heyday," she said. "If it's good music, it shouldn't matter."