MilwHC:Bands:Downer
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Downer
Original Line-up:
- Vocals: Matt
- Guitar: Mari Neiscior
- Bass: Kate Rutkowski
- Drums: Randy Neckolaishen
Second Line-up:
- Vocals: Matt
- Guitar: Mari Neiscior
- Bass: Kate Rutkowski
- Drums: Russ Kornick
Band History
A band that started pretty much by mistake (and sounded like a mistake as well). Sometime in the year of our Lord 1994, Mari and Kate, while living at the OAKLAND HOUSE, decided to start a band in the classic punk rock tradition: they had never really played before. They did the most logical thing and asked best local drummer (who also happened to be their housemate) Randy Neckolaishen (see: Demise, MilwHC:Bands: ClevelandBoundDeathSentence |Cleveland Bound Death Sentence]]...), to play along. As I remember, Randy said yeah, so's long as his friend, and also fellow OAKLAND HOUSE denizen, Matt would "sing". Matt, who had never been in a band and was actually somewhat musically retarded, had a 40 oz. of some kind of toxic fluid to his lips when he agreed--which may say something about the tragectory of the band... Randy lasted about six months and Downer nabbed Russ to play drums... a lucky break because he was cool, skilled, and very, very chill. Long story short: Downer sucked, but rocked... if that makes any sense. They played a lot of shows in Milwaukee, had some fun and (hopefully) entertained. They put out one self-titled seven inch and a song on the EXISTENCE comp and toured in 1995. Mari still lives in the greater Milwaukee area, Russ lives in River West, Kate is in Philly, and Matt is somewhere in Western Massachusetts. -- Matt
Discography
Songs
Comments
Well, Randy was never "asked" Mari and me to join Downer. He and I jammed with Brad Warsh. That was until I and Randy felt that I was confident and good enough on bass to play in a serious band. We also jammed with Jake (I forget his last name)as well for the same reason. Randy was the actual perpetrator of Downer and don't you forget it. By the way, we did not SUCK! You may feel free to suck it! Who wrote this? Matt, is that you? Anyhow, our first recording session was never pressed on account of the fact that we drove all the way to NEW YORK SHITTY in the early winter months of 1995, that is February. For fuck's sake, all we ever did for a recording before that was a 4 track with Micronaut in the basement of our beloved Oakland house the summer prior. So after 18+ hours of driving we get to 4th and B and Randy yells at us to "get out, load our equipment and shut the fuck up". No rest, no nothing. We just get there,plug in and play. Time is money, you know. Did I mention that Bill Weber of the Chrome Cranks is doing our recording? He just so happened to jam in the Murder Junkies with G.G. Allin. He was completely chill to record with, but none of us except Randy had recorded and none of us knew what to do except him. Jesus. If only I knew then what I know.......blah blah. (Funny sidenote- our friend and roomate Liz was the one who dated G.G. and found him dead. Well I guess it's not funny.......) Long story short the recording sucked due to unbelievable mixing boo boos and let's just leave it that. We Toured. We did our best and kicked ass as best we could on the way. We played with Cows, Killdozer and Today is the Day. We had a great time and were involved in a great scene. No regrets. Noone spared! -- Kate Vigil (Rutkowski- former bassist of Downer)
--Oh my... Yes Kate. T'was ole Matt that typed that first description. And poo to you, because we DID suck, in the best most punk rock, "plug-in-and-play" and have blast kind of way. Of course I am fuzzy on the origins of the band (note reference to 40 oz of crappy beer to my lips) because that whole time is sorta fuzzy. But yes... I agree... We DID kick ass and had a great time and I think folks with a sense of humor, and similar tastes liked what we were doing. Speaking of humor... here is one of my favorite memories: At a benefit show for Food Not Bombs, while we were playing I (that is Matt, the lead "singer") passed out a few dozen sandiwches that I pre-made. I used some of that fake bologna stuff that I hijacked from the large natural food coop where I worked. Anywho... I passed these morsels out to those gathered in the basement of whatever house we were playing in (I believe it was a Pierce Street house) and waited for them to start eating and gagging on what they believed was real meat... hehehehe.... I thought it was hilarious. Not too many other folks did though. Oh well.
Ha! I knew that it was you- plus you signed your name at the end...........duh. I was right-ripped when I posted what I did. Still, to my recollection my post was pretty accurate. I really don't recall the whole sandwich incident. HMMMMM. I believe you! Sounds like something that would've happened. Anyhow, those were the days!!!!!!! I do recall the Halloween show in '96 at the Earl House when you jumped high in the basement at the beginning of our set and your knee hit your nose hard enough to make it bleed! you even put your bloody handprint on the ceiling! Owwwie. I have the video tape of that. Not pleasant one bit. What a night. I actually have quite a bit of old Downer recordings from the studio. Noone wants to hear about that though. I will say this......even those without our sense-o-humor liked what we did. I really believe that we were ahead of our time in a sense. I am not being delusional either. Sure, there was a lack of experience. There was chaotic and messy method to our song-writing. But to me, it was because we were trying to NOT sound like everyone else doing heavy shit at the time. Ever hear of a band called Harvey Milk? They were around at the same time as us and had a similar style. They had been playing longer than us and had gotten quite a bit "further" than Downer (Relapse put them out AFTER they had broken up). However, they definitely had the same idea that we had. It is cool to know that we weren't that far off the mark. I really do miss that free-stylin' shit that we did. I hope that ya'll are happy and rockin' at whatever you're doing now! Peace- Kate syzslak666@excite.com
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Matt.... I'm sorry, as this edit isn't really about Downer (except that I did see you one time at Points East Pub, or whatever it was called at the time, for one of your first gigs), but I was just listening to "Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death" and I thought of you, Googled your name, and here I am. This is Joe Hoffman. Remember me you fucking weirdo? I hope you do, because if not I'm going to have to revert to a similar mental state I was in when we first met in college at UWM when I was a Cure-head and go sit in a corner and be introspective.
I'll keep it short so as to not throw off this page too much (and any admin here - please feel free to remove this if I'm throwing a wrench in the works), but I hope all is well with you. As any mid-thirtysomething guy would, I've been thinking about more youthful times once and a while, and you and Sam Tracy and some others keep coming to mind. From a limited search, it looks like Sam is living in Baltimore? And you're in MA?
That's it really. If you want to get in touch, I'm at joedonh@gmail.com. Remember the night when we both drank way too much tequila at Sam's place and later on you tripped me as I was running across Oakland Ave. and we had each other by the throats then kissed and made up? Good times.
Okay, if that guy can comment, than I can too, because I am personally thanked in the liner notes of their 7 inch. This is Smitty/Eric the Dancer, saying that when I was 15, Downer was the greatest band in the world, simply because they played a lot of basement shows, were fun to dance to because I knew them, and rocked everytime. Who cares if they sucked?
That's funny...I never thought my crappy guitar playing would still be discussed 14 years later. Yes, downer truly walked the line of rocking or sucking...especially the night we opened at The Unicorn and I forgot the notes to Hester (which I think we wrote the night before) because I was so nervous/drunk. I remember just sort of faking my way through the song and you know, I don't think anyone could tell the difference... I've promised the old Fender Telle to my son when he's old enough/strong enough to lift it. Maybe he'll start downerII... Thanks Eric the Dance for the comment...it's cool to know some one out there remembers us, other than the people who were in the band! Mari N.
