Jeff Dowder
From Hendriepedia
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Bio
Jeff Dowder sounds like the stereotypical Southern California spaced out dude. During the last show, Phil said Jeff Dowder was largely the same character he used for the computer "Intelligence" in the movie Team America. The character and voice were very simular to the character Sundown from Phil's Miami days.
Pre 2000 Bio
Jeff Dowder plays drums with the band Darkhorse. Darkhorse usually plays at Mr. Pu's. Jeff sparks the owl for religious purposes.
Jeff Dowder, of Temple City, CA, is a student at UCLA (he also has a PhD in "mechanical physics" and works at Cal Tech) and the drummer for the band, Darkhorse. He believes he is one of the best drummers in the business. The band cut a CD called Darkhorse which Phil premiered one evening in its entirety. Jeff's favorite song is "Bitchin".
Unfortunately the band was killed on April 27, 1998, when the equipment van they were travelling in went off a cliff at Big Sur. According to Jeff, the van went off the span bridge just south of Little Sur Beach at Julia Pfeiffer Beach . This ended Jeff's chance to play at Woodstock. Among the dead were "tremendous lead guitarist" Buzzer Findley, drummer Cat Watkins (whose death prompted Jeff to move from "percussion" to "taking over on drums"), second drummer Butter Bradley ("The Doobie Brothers had two drummers, but Darkhorse was the only band to go on stage with three drummers"), bass player Bobby Thornton (a former student of bass pioneer Jaco Pastorius), and keyboard player Finland Johnson. Out of respect for the deceased members of Darkhorse, Jeff decided to change the name of the band to "The Darkhorse". He wrote a song called "When Things Get Bad, They Get Bad" in honor of his dead band mates. Jeff also once performed a solo version of "Judgment at Sunrise" from the unreleased (and unfinished (due to the band's tragic death)) Darkhorse CD of the same name. The CD also contained the song "Bleedin' for the Nineties". Now Jeff is going to open Dowder's Drum Dungeon, a school for drummers, where he demonstrates poly-rhythmic jazz techniques found in the music of saxophone legend John Coltrane.
Lyrics to "When Things Get Bad, They Get Bad":
When things bad, they really got bad. Late last night, 'bout a quarter to ten, The band went off a cliff, That's how it's been. Oh yeah, Alright. Yeah, yeah, yeah!
When things get bad, they really get bad, When things get bad, they really get bad.
(drum solo)
When things get bad, they get real bad. The band went off a cliff and that's the end.
Lyrics to "Judgment at Sunrise":
Judgment at Sunrise. I'm there Judgment at sunrise, Don't be scared Everyone's goin' to the beach, For judgment at Sunrise.
Jeff recently came up with a great idea to clone Jesus using the Shroud of Turin. Discussion on air ran the gamut including whether it would be right to allow a young Jesus to "spark the owl!"
Jeff is a great wrestling fan and former professional wrestler named "Saddle Tramp" who wrestled in the SWA, Southwestern Wrestling Association. Jeff spoke with Phil after Owen Hart of the WWF was killed in Kansas City. Dowder refused to believe that Hart had actually died. He said it was just another stunt or theatrics of the WWf. Wrestlers hit their heads on turnbuckles all the time and they are specially padded. So Hart could not have been killed hitting the turnbuckle even if he fell into it from 50 feet.
Jeff is also a great roller coaster fan and belongs to a group called Coaster Mania. This group with over 5000 members looks for great coaster rides all over the world.
Jeff Dowder and his band Darkhorse is suing Napster.com. He thinks their being in solidarity with Metallica will allow them to open for the band. Jeff wrote a song to convey his feelings about Napster, and played part of it “Napster is Crapster”. Napster has put Darkhorse’s Wipeout drumming clinic (which is normally on their CD’s) on their website. A caller asked Jeff to do a paradiddle (he didn’t know what it meant); Jeff remarked later ”a paradiddle sounded like some gay ass stuff to me … last paradiddle I was involved in, she woke up smiling”, and then “the last time I was involved with paradiddles, they were slapping against my forehead”. Jeff is classic Phil Hendrie!
More Recently
Recently, Jeff has taken to calling from outdoor locations, often with campfire sounds in the background. Sometimes, he regales listeners with the exploits and insights of his close friend Toby Beau. For example, Toby was the inspiration for Jeff's theory about how rabbits catch on fire.
