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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 9, 2002)
Tympanic skips between towns - and musical styles Local Band ■After a benefit show May 22, local rockers will take their diverse influences on the road By Jen West Oregon Daily Emerald During the past year, local rock band Tympanic has been gracing the Eugene music venues with its eclectic array of sounds, and its members will soon de part on a West Coast summer tour that will take them from San Francisco to Seattle. “In essence, we’re a rock band, but we have influences of jazz, funk, jam and pop.” Harvey Rogers guitarist/vocalist, Tympanic But before they go on the road, Tympanic will perform an all-ages benefit show for the American Red Cross with Easy Target on May 22 at the Wild Duck Music Hall. Their newly recorded live CD will also be available at the show. Tympanic consists of guitarist/vocalist Harvey Rogers, bassist/vocalist John Craig, gui tarist Austin Jones and drummer Ryan Dobrowski. “We all started (playing instru ments) in late middle school,” Craig said, and he and Dobrowski also played together in high school. When they came to the KWVA continued from page 7 Erin Zysett was inspired by the National Public Radio show “This American Life” to start a similar program for KWVA called, “Everyday Ovid.” The new pro gram is every Monday at 6:30 p.m. on 88.1 FM. “It started as a ‘This American Life’ rip-off, but we’re expanding it,” Zysett said. “We want to take the basic ideas of using informa tion, humor and literature and take it from here.” KWVA General Manager Char lotte Nisser said that one of the biggest problems the station faces is dealing with the Federal Communi cations Commission and radio-rela tion regulations. The FCC ruled recently that mu sic licensing companies can charge radio stations for broadcasting on the Internet. KWVA currently works with four such companies but has only signed a contract with one of them. The station now pays the company $200 a year to broad cast its songs over the Internet. The cost is based on the number of ‘hits’ on the station’s Web site, not the ac tual number of online listeners. Nisser has also been working to get better equipment because the $8,000 allotted for equipment each year only stretches to 2 CD players and a recording unit that is neces sary for news production. Nisser has worked at the station for three years and has dealt with artistic and political conflicts but said she has enjoyed the music and the people. She said that the great est thing to see is the development of the station both in structure and reach. That is why she is currently working to get money for an educa tional upgrade to update the sta University, Craig continued to play part-time with Dobrowski and ] part-time with Jones and Rogers, < whom he met while living in the i residence halls. Then in fall 2000, the foursome decided to play to- ] gether more seriously, and Tym- ] panic was bom. “In essence, we’re a rock band, but we have influences of jazz, < funk, jam and pop,” Rogers said. i Craig, the main songwriter in the : band, said it was difficult to classi fy Tympanic’s style of music be cause each band member has such a wide spectrum of musical tastes. “I’ve noticed myself writing a lot of pop-type melodies and vo cals,” he said. “Austin’s never been a pop guy at all. He’s really melodic in some of the stuff he does. It comes from somewhere totally different, so you get this amalgam of music.” Craig said many of the songs he writes for the band are about relationships. “I like to tell stories,” he said. “I like to talk about typical rela tionship stuff but told in an ab stract way.” Rogers said some of the stories may span over multiple songs. “You’ll catch part of a story in a certain song and another part of it in another song,” he said. “The songs are constantly evolving.” Ryan Messick, one of the band’s promoters, said the local venues have enjoyed having Tympanic play on their stages. He said even the skeptical venues changed their tune after hearing the band. “Eugene seems to be such a mu sic-friendly town,” Messick said. What KWVA’s ninth anniversary celebration Where: WOW Hall When: Friday, doors at 8 pm, show at 8:30 p.m. Who: Aft-female AC/DC tribute band Hefts Belles, Monkey Torture, The Sawyer Family, Pellet Gun and Honey Vfzer How much; Tickets are $7 in advance, $8 at the door and $7 for students, and are available atCO World, Face the Music, House of Records, Taco toco, the EMU Ticket Office and WOW Halt tion’s equipment. Most of the station’s current equipment was donated nine years ago because it was antiquated or falling apart at the time, Nisser said. None of the audio equipment in the on-air room, where the DJs play the music, is digital, and it is always prone to breaking, she said. “If a student were to learn on the equipment we have and go into the real world, they would be laughed at,” Nisser said. Advertisements and public serv ice announcements are recorded digitally through the software pro gram Pro Tools and then transferred onto large analog tapes called carts. Carts are essentially old-fashioned 8-track tapes, and the station has hundreds of them. They are used for public service announcements, event promotion and for underwrit ing, the form of advertising that non-profits use. “If we get the money to move up to a digital system, maybe students can comfortably go work in the real world,” Nisser said. E-mail reporter Alix Kerl at alixkerl@dailyemerald.com. Craig attributes part of their jopularity to the constantly :hanging music arrangements md use of improvisation. “It keeps us interested and ;eeps the audience on their toes,” le said. For more information about rympanic and their scheduled ;hows, go to www.tympan cband.com. i-mail reporter Jen West it jenwest@dailyemerald.com. 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