Dumpster Diver Rock

Local musicians preach sustainability through lyrics, antics

By Cliff Newell

Pamplin Media Group, Apr 9, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

'Recycleman" aka Peter DuBois, plays guitar during a Dumpster Divers set at last month’s Better Living Show in Portland.

JONATHAN HOUSE / PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP

Recycleman and the Dumpster Divers are writing a new chapter in the history of music: Sustainable rock ’n’ roll.

It’s got a good beat, you can dance to it, and then you go out and practice sustainability.

At least that’s the intention of Recycleman (Peter DuBois) and the Dumpster Divers – Bruce Reduce (Dennis Tracy), Chris P. Compost (Chris Palmedo) and Todd Trashoff (Todd Aschoff).

Together this fearless foursome from the Portland area has delivered the good news of sustainability to over 125,000 Oregon kids, often hundreds at a time.

The quartet immediately grabs your attention when they come onstage, especially Recycleman, who looks like some wacky combination of medieval Scottish warrior, gladiator and space-age superhero. His get-up includes a cape, which only true superheroes can wear.

Then the group launches into its songs, one sustainable smash after another – “Away With Waste,” “Climate Change Rap,” “Fossil Fool,” “Get Ready For a New Day,” “Milk Jug Stomp,” “Stinky Stinky Landfill” and more. The Divers save the best for last. At the very end of the concert, Bruce Reduce whips off his baseball cap/hairy wig to reveal his totally bald head. And the crowd goes wiiiiiilllllld!

Certainly, this is a lot of fun for DuBois and his cohorts and even lets them feel like rock ’n’ roll stars (“For about five minutes,” DuBois says). But the big idea behind all the electric guitars, organ, drums, crazy wigs and capes is sustainability. They are telling kids: Paradise starts with you.

“We’re a blend of ’90s rock, ’60s and ’70s funk, reggae, country and a little rap,” DuBois says. “We’re also accessible to everybody. We’re not thrash metal speed rock, so adults like us, too.”

The Divers are beloved at dozens of schools in the Portland area, and their Web site includes rave reviews from school administrators like “best assembly program ever.”

“It’s kind of a captive audience,” DuBois admits, “but we play to 500 or 600 kids at a time. That was the size of the crowds Buddy Holly used to play for.

“We’ve fine-tuned it to a show. We’ve come up with a winning formula,” he says.

“Kids like to sing along with our songs, but what they like most is to get up and dance. It’s not often they have the opportunity to do that, and it’s really fun.”

Occasionally, there are cynics.

“Sometimes a kid will look at my kilt and say ‘Nice dress,’ ” DuBois says. But he maintains, “It works 99 percent of the time. Except for early morning assemblies.”

PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP: JONATHAN HOUSE • Keyboardist Dennis Tracy surprises the crowd by taking off his hat and wig.

Still, if all they did was move and groove and have fun, Recycleman and the Dumpster Divers would just be another rock ’n’ roll band. Their songs are cheerful, but this is a band with a serious message.

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