Slowdown Virginia was an

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band from

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

. Formed in 1993, the band recorded and released one

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

, ''Dead Space'', on Lumberjack Records in 1994, the predecessor to today's

Saddle Creek Records Saddle Creek Records is an American record label based in Omaha, Nebraska. Started as a college class project on entrepreneurship, the label was founded by Mike Mogis and Justin Oberst in 1993 (as Lumberjack Records). Mogis soon turned over his ...

. After playing an influential role in inspiring the later formation of other Omaha bands like Bright Eyes,

The Faint The Faint is an American indie rock band. Formed in Omaha, Nebraska, the band consists of Todd Fink, Graham Ulicny, Dapose and Clark Baechle. The Faint was originally known as Norman Bailer and included Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes (band), Brig ...

, and

Desaparecidos An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a State (polity), state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the i ...

with their energetic live shows and recordings, Slowdown Virginia broke up in the spring of 1995. A month after breaking up, Kasher, Maginn, and

Pedersen Pedersen () is a Danish and Norwegian patronymic surname, literally meaning "son of Peder". It is the fifth most common surname in Denmark, shared by about 3.4% of the population, and the sixth most common in Norway. It is of similar origin as the ...

regrouped with a new

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

to form

Cursive Cursive (also known as joined-up writing) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionality and m ...

. Omaha's mixed entertainment venue

Slowdown A slowdown ( UK: go-slow) is an industrial action in which employees perform their duties but seek to reduce productivity or efficiency in their performance of these duties. A slowdown may be used as either a prelude or an alternative to a stri ...

is named in honor of the band.

Biography

The March Hares and formation as Slowdown Virginia (1990–93)

Slowdown Virginia evolved from a five-piece

cover band A cover band (or covers band) is a band that plays songs recorded by someone else, sometimes mimicking the original as accurately as possible, and sometimes re-interpreting or changing the original. These remade songs are known as cover songs. N ...

called The March Hares, composed of

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

friends Jim Robino,

Tim Kasher Timothy J. Kasher (born August 19, 1974) is an American musician from Omaha, Nebraska, and is the frontman of indie rock groups Cursive and the Good Life, both of which are on the Omaha-based record label Saddle Creek Records. Music Slowdow ...

Matt Maginn Matt Maginn is a musician from Omaha, Nebraska. He plays bass guitar in the indie-rock band Cursive and is a frequent contributor on a number of Bright Eyes records. He was also a founding member of Slowdown Virginia. He also helps run Team Lo ...

, Steven Pedersen, and Casey Caniglia. Pedersen replaced original

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

Matt Oberst. The band formed around 1990 while the five attended Creighton Prep in

. The March Hares played local shows, mainly performing covers of

The Cure The Cure are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Crawley in 1976 by Robert Smith (musician), Robert Smith (vocals, guitar) and Lol Tolhurst (drums). The band's current line-up comprises Smith, Perry Bamonte (guitar and keyboards), Reev ...

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the fir ...

The Pixies The Pixies are an American alternative rock band from Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1986 by Black Francis (vocals, rhythm guitar, songwriter), Joey Santiago (lead guitar), Kim Deal (bass, vocals) and David Lovering (drums). The Pi ...

, and other

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

bands. Eventually the band began writing a few of their own songs. Robino left the band in 1993, and Kasher took over on

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

and the group continued as a four-piece. The band renamed itself Slowdown Virginia — likely after Kasher's dog at the time, named

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

— and started to focus on writing and recording original music.

Active years and ''Dead Space'' (1993–95)

With a sound described as a "heartland Pavement" or

emo Emo () is a genre of rock music characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and from the Washington, D.C., hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. The bands ...

in the style of

Rites of Spring Rites of Spring was an American punk rock band from Washington, D.C., formed in late 1983. Along with Embrace and Beefeater, they were one of the mainstay acts of the 1985 Revolution Summer movement Andersen, Mark; Jenkins, Mark ( Soft Skul ...

Minor Threat Minor Threat was an American hardcore punk band, formed in 1980 in Washington, D.C., by vocalist Ian MacKaye and drummer Jeff Nelson. MacKaye and Nelson had played in several other bands together, and recruited bassist Brian Baker and guita ...

, the band started by recording a five-song cassette demo as cheaply as they could to have something to hand out or sell at live shows. To do so they ended up traveling from

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

to Otho, Iowa, recording at a chicken coop converted into a studio called Junior's Motel. The band continued to travel to record demos at Junior's Motel throughout 1993, mixing the tapes themselves back in Omaha. The band began playing regular shows around Omaha, building a fanbase through live performances and the cassette demos. Knowing that the band was recording

demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * Plural for Demo (computer programming ...

and had interest from

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

s, friend of the band's and fellow Omaha musician

Ted Stevens Theodore Fulton Stevens Sr. (November 18, 1923 – August 9, 2010) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States Senate, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1968 to 2009. He was the longest-serving Republican Party (United St ...

convinced the band to record and put out an LP on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

with a local label, Lumberjack Records, as its third release after

Conor Oberst Conor Mullen Oberst (born February 15, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter best known for his work in Bright Eyes (band), Bright Eyes. He has also played in several other bands, including Desaparecidos (band), Desaparecidos, the Faint (previou ...

's ''

Water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

'' on cassette and a release from Steven's own band, Polecat, on

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

. With the agreement, Stevens set out with the help of Conor and Justin Oberst to raise the $1,500 it would cost for 500

CDs CDS, CDs, Cds, etc. may refer to: Finance * Canadian Depository for Securities, Canadian post-trade financial services company * Certificate of deposit (CDs) * Counterfeit Deterrence System, developed by the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence ...

. The resulting album, ''

Dead Space ''Dead Space'' is a science fiction horror franchise created and directed by Glen Schofield. ''Dead Space'' was developed by Visceral Games and published and owned by Electronic Arts. The franchise's chronology is not presented in a linear format ...

'', was released locally in 1994 and has never been reissued.

Breakup and later influence (1995–present)

Despite recording enough material for a second album, Slowdown Virginia broke up in the spring of 1995. The band played their final show at the Cultural Center in

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The city covers and had a population of 291,082 as of the 2020 census. It is the state's List of cities in Nebraska, second-most populous city a ...

in April of that year. Caniglia had decided to quit making music, and Kasher intended to leave for the University of Kansas. Only a month later, however, Clint Schnase from Pedersen's other band, Smashmouth, joined Kasher, Pedersen, and Maginn to form

. Kasher and the other band members intended to take music and the new band much more seriously, something they felt they didn't do with Slowdown Virginia, "decid ngwith Cursive we would write the best we could, believe in it, and if everyone ended up hating it – well, we would deal with it." Pedersen would depart Cursive in 1998 to later be replaced by Ted Stevens. Slowdown Virginia had a lasting influence on the music of Omaha, specifically the success and enthusiasm around the live shows and releasing ''Dead Space'' locally in inspiring bands that would become the nucleus of Saddle Creek Records. Conor Oberst of

Commander Venus Commander Venus was an American emo band from Omaha, Nebraska. Fronted by Conor Oberst and Tim Kasher, the band also included Todd Fink and Matt Bowen of The Faint, Ben Armstrong of Head of Femur and Robb Nansel, executive producer of the i ...

, Bright Eyes and Desaparecidos specifically cites Slowdown Virginia as an influence for going on to make music;

Todd Fink Todd Fink (; born March 3, 1974 in Omaha, Nebraska) is the lead singer of the band The Faint. He attended Omaha's Westside High School. Career Fink was also one of four members of the band Commander Venus, which was started by Conor Oberst i ...

and

Clark Baechle Clark Alan Baechle (born April 21, 1981) is an American founding member of the Omaha-based electronic rock band The Faint, along with his brother, Todd Fink. Although he is primarily known for playing drums, he also sings backing vocals and is ...

from

express similar inspiration. The influence of the band's music and live shows played a role in decision to name Saddle Creek's mixed-entertainment complex in Omaha's Near North Side

in their honor. The venue opened in 2007, and in 2010 Slowdown Virginia reunited at the venue without Kasher to play one show with Polecat.

Band members

: guitar, vocals *

: bass, vocals * Steve Pedersen: guitar * Casey Caniglia: drums * Jim Robino: lead vocals (The March Hares)

Discography

* ''Dead Space'' (1994; Lumberjack Records LBJ-03)

References

External links

Slowdown (venue)
official website
Saddle Creek Records
official website. {{Authority control Indie rock musical groups from Nebraska Musical groups from Omaha, Nebraska Saddle Creek Records artists