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Eugene, Or 97401
343-9661
UNIVERSITY
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Valley River Center
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485-1554
ODE ARCHIVES
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@ www.dailyemerald:com •
FEATURES
Womenspace benefit features
Mister Sparkle as headliner
■Organizers said the male rock
band’s performance may allow
more men to help their cause
By Mason West
Oregon Daily Emerald
A musical benefit for the nonprof
it organization Womenspace might
bring out the likes of Ani DiFranco
or Tori Amos as headliners.
But at 8 p.m. Feb. 2, experimen
tal Eugene rock band Mister
Sparkle will top a bill of male per
formers at WOW Hall for a Women
space benefit — and DiFranco they
are not.
“We’re kind of a combination of
Spacehog and the Foo Fighters,”
said lead singer and bassist Jerry
Leach. “A lot of the songs we per
form deal with abuse or being con
trolled, but they’re not feminist. ”
Womenspace development di
rector Jacqui Lomont said having a
male rock band play a benefit “al
lows us to reach a different section
of the population.” Last year, an
other local band played a benefit at
-John Henry’s and though the music
was not to Lomont’s taste, the re
ception of the crowd “shook some
of my stereotypes.”
The drive to put on this benefit
concert all came from Leach; it’s
something he said he’s wanted to
do for five months. After Leach
saw Mister Sparkle drummer
Mike Baker and his wife take cus
tody of their six-year-old niece, a
victim of domestic abuse, Leach
felt a fire ignite.
“Seeing something like that
made me mad, and I wanted to do
something about it,” he said.
Leach targeted Womenspace as a
place to divert his energy and have
some impact. He enlisted the help
of friend Sam Densmore’s band,
Sam Densmore’s Silverhawk and
Ennis Bee, to fill the bill.
“I think this show is great be
cause it’s coming from a sincere
place in the hearts of the organiz
ers,” Densmore said. “It’s a proac
tive event rather than just a rock
show.”
Courtesy Photo
Womenspace does not allow
male volunteers in the emergency
shelter. They provide for female
victims of domestic abuse and their
children, but Lomont said men are
involved in the organization by
serving on the board and volunteer
ing to do outreach in schools
around Eugene.
“This is another way for men to
help,” Leach said.
Leach also said he wanted to give
some attention to a local charity
when so many national causes
have been spotlighted. Leach has
always been an Oregon-boy, having
grown up in Coos Bay with Mister
Sparkle guitarist Dave Hiner and
Sam Densmore.
“I dated (Leach’s) sister in the
eighth grade,” said Densmore.
As kids, Leach and Hiner
amused themselves in Coos Bay
with pranks such as taking lawn
ornaments from people’s yards
and placing them in front of other
people’s houses. Leach said there
is no shortage of lawn ornaments
in Coos Bay.
“Sometimes people wouldn’t
even notice the switch,” he said.
The friendship between Leach
and Hiner is where Mister
Sparkle’s name originated. Leach
said the two made a habit of quot
ing an episode of the Simpsons in
which Homer bears a resemblance
to the icon of a Japanese dish
washing soap called Mister
Sparkle. While struggling to come
up with a name, Leach said Mister
Sparkle just came to mind.
The name for Densmore’s band
also has Coos Bay ties: His elemen
tary school’s mascots were “The
Silverhawks.”
“I thought it was a cool name
when I was eight, but we always
lost all of our games, cool name or
not. So I figured I’d sort of reclaim
the name,” he said.
Densmore currently resides in
Coos Bay, “right between Seattle
and San Francisco.” He returned
home in 1999 after being hit by a
car in Olympia, Wash., to nurse his
wounds, and has enjoyed “being
away from all the rock scene B.S.
“Events such as this benefit make
the point that local and under
ground artists are still valid artists
whose contributions to their com
munities count,” Densmore said.
E-mail senior Pulse reporter Mason West
at masonwest@dailyemerald.com.
Newest champ of synth music arises
■With its album ‘Dead Media,’
British band Hefner has brought
back the warm hum of synths
Hefner Dead Media’
Derriere le Garage
★★★★☆
By Mason West
Oregon Daily Emerald
There was a golden age of
“synth” music that reached an apex
with the 1982 release of the beauti
ful soundtrack to “Blade Runner.”
Since that age regrettably passed,
only on rare occasions have bands
re-introduced the warm electronic
hum of the synthesizer to the cur
rent music scene.
A new champion has arisen:
British rock band Hefner.
The band’s latest album, “Dead
Media,” starts with a track by the
same name that unapologetically
fills the ears with a loud synthesiz
er picking out two chords note by
note, The brash sound is a shock at
first, but after the vocals and other
harmonizing synths kick in, the
song achieves aural euphoria.
On the band’s Web site,
www.hefnet.com, lead singer Dar
ren Hayman states, “I’m sure heav
en sounds like this.”
Though the title “Dead Media”
works well with the band’s ap
propriation of forgotten musical
technologies, the album’s songs
deal more with looking for con
nection and reminiscing about
good times. “China Crisis” incor
porates the desire for love and a
nostalgia of past opportunity in
the lines: “It’s not the walk that I
take through the park to her place
/ It’s the breath she takes in be
tween the words her mouth
makes. / Oh curse my mind for
not ceasing my mouth when the
moment was perfect.”
While the electronics have a pre
vailing influence through the al
bum’s -15 tracks, the second song,
“Trouble Kid,” returns to more
comfortable roots with a basic
marching rock beat — though the
solo in the middle is all synth.
This track is just stupid pop, but
it’s fun.
Actually, there’s a good deal of
silly, but delightful pop on “Dead
Media.” “The King of Summer” has
the dirty feel of a Rolling Stones’
song — the kind of tune sung with
a cockily curled lip. “Half a Life,” a
boyish lament, continues for more
than four minutes repeating the
main lyric “Life without my sweet
heart is only half a life,” over and
► over. But songs such as “The Nights
Are Long” and “Waking Up To
You” break through their simple
pop sound and express real feelings
of loss and hope — with head-bob
bin’ beats.
Hefner matches the visual pres
entation of their CD to the sounds
contained on it. The back cover
and liner notes of “Dead Media”
boast drawings of various synthe
sizers from the Roland, Korg and
Moog companies. The text in the
liner notes is not devoted to lyrics,
which can be found on the Web
site, but is instead occupied by a
lengthy discussion of the various
microphones and machines the
band used during recording. What
geeks. Hayman doesn’t expect his
new love affair with synthesizers
to end. On the Web site, he states
they will remain a part of the
band’s future projects. Hooray!
E-mail senior Pulse reporter Mason West
at masonwest@dailyemerald.com.