Eugene weekly., June 19, 2003, Page 27, Image 27

(the concubot) plays
John Henry’s on Monday.
BY VANESSA SALVIA
Forests and Fires
John Henry’s hosts (the concubot)
and CFD benefit.
A
house fire set the stage for mem-
bers of Eugene’s (the concubot)
to meet. Drummer J Wagner mi-
grated to Eugene from New Jersey two years
ago, after an electrical fire gutted the house
he shared with friends. “My friend was like,
I’ve got nothing left, I’m just gonna go west‚
and I was like, ‘Hey, I’ll go with you,’” says
Wagner.
Wagner brought with him both experience
with other bands and the desire to play, then he
happened upon the right combination of people
to create a new sensation. “One of the bands I
was in [in New Jersey] was a gothic band which
I laugh at now but we were actually fairly pop-
ular,” says Wagner. “It was Sandy Gilmore and
the Blood Sucking Vampires. It was a joke
name but it stuck with us and then we got this
goth following as a result!”
Future plans for (the concubot) include
recording the next release and playing out of
state more. Catch this band Monday at John
Henry’s along with Norfolk & Western,
the Decemberists, and Pasquale. Norfolk
& Western and the Decemberists are both
based in Portland, with the latter featuring
former Eugenean Chris Funk.
Another John Henry’s show this week
will be a CD-release party and benefit for en-
vironmental action group Cascadia Forest
Defenders (CFD). A compilation CD entitled
This Land Is Our Land will be sold, and 100
percent of the proceeds will go to CFD,
aiding them financially in their efforts to sup-
port the needs of those involved in forest de-
fense.
CFD is coordinating, along with other en-
vironmental defense groups, a call to action
Wagner brought with him
both experience with other
bands and the desire to play,
then he happened upon the
right combination of people
to create a new sensation.
The first Eugene band Wagner was in-
volved in was Non-Dairy Larry, which, ac-
cording to Wagner, was “a four-piece variety
rock band. We played everybody’s songs and
everybody switched instruments so it was a
lot of fun.” Wagner met vocalist and guitarist
Greg Dalbey in 2001 and began laying down
some drum tracks for solo music Dalbey was
working on. “We fooled around like that for a
while and then decided we should play out to-
gether, so (the concubot) was originally a
two-person thing,” explains Wagner.
Logan Damiano, who plays a Rhodes
keyboard, has been a member for about six
months. Wagner says, “Since there was just a
guitar and drums there was no real depth.
Logan learned some of our songs and
sounded good and he’s been playing with us
ever since.”
(the concubot) has been working on a CD,
Extra Virgin, which they are burning one at a
time at home and individually packaging.
“The best way I could describe it is a lo-fi al-
ternative, indie rock for robophiles, and
there’s a math root structure, and a little pop,”
says Wagner.
they’ve dubbed Cascadia Summer. It is a call
to get involved for all who believe in protect-
ing the Northwest’s forest ecosystems “while
confronting the underlying roots of environ-
mental destruction through education and
creative civil disobedience.”
CFD has been engaging in direct action
through tree-sits and other activities since
1995 and are today involved with three tree-
sits at the Fall Creek, Winberry and Straw
Devil sites. The activists need food, water,
and materials to make shelters, among other
things.
Eugenean “The Secret Hippy” supports
what CFD does and dreamed up the CD as a
way to help them financially. “Basically, I
was on a tour with D.O.A., and I just started
contacting bands and meeting people, and ...
got the idea to do the CD. So everybody that’s
on the CD knows they’re on there.”
The CD’s 19 tracks are an impressive
array of bands such as Kultur Shock, Mad
Parade, No Means No, D.O.A., Jello Biafra
and The Asylum Street Spankers. Local artists
featured include the Pass Out Kings, Tom
Heinl, The Shudders, and Peter Wilde. ew
JUNE 19, 2003 27