Seth Quankmeyer Faergolzia was born March 4,
1975 in Utica, NY, and fostered by a musical family, began singing and
experimenting with instruments shortly thereafter. Beginning with the
cello, Seth quickly made his way to the upright bass, the bass guitar, and
finally landed on the acoustic six-string.
Seth got an early start as a peformer. At 15, he joined his first band, playing bass for local Syracuse punk rockers, Dark Circle. Then at 16, he began playing bass for a "weird" metal band, Nocturnal Fear. From 17-18, he performed in an alternative rock band, Goat.
In 1993, Seth and Brent "Strictly Beats" Cole, a high school friend, formed Cleaveland Funk Tribe, an acoustic band composed of guitar, trombone, cello, clarinet and drums which performed a sort of "oddly shaped" music. In 1995, the band released their first recording, Stompalomp and had their first public performance at CBGB's. Shortly after recording their second, unreleased album, Seth went on to pursue his talents as a solo artist.
Seth put out his first two LPs, Welcome to the Family and We Are All Related, under the name Rufus, and soon after, in 1996, gave birth to Dufus, debuting with their seminal work, Our First Born, a full-length release featuring a bizarre orchestration of toy piano, banjo, bass, acoustic guitar and four vocalists. In 1997, Seth partnered with Graham Dion to collaborate on Ee-Lai-Font, Dufus' second release. The following year, Dufus released Th!s Revolution, which the respected underground 'zine Ink19 likened to "tasting the fruit off the vine after a lifetime of grape soda." The band began playing out heavily, at venues such as The Knitting Factory, The Wetlands, Sidwalk Café, Arlene's Grocery and other spots around NYC. In that time, Seth also released his solo album, Brand Purpose Syndrome, on which he was joined by John Ludington, of The Barefoot Gravediggers, whom Seth considers his greatest musical influence.
In 1998, Seth embarked on an exploration of musical theatre, combining his unusual music with equally strange performance art into the rock opera Fun Wearing Underwear, which staged nearly two-dozen performances at Surf Reality on New York's Lower East Side, as well as Dumba, SUNY Purchase, Bard College, and Sidewalk Café. Recordings of this material later appeared on the live album Funderwear.
During the second month of Fun Wearing
Underwear's performance, Seth began creating his Celibacy Pants, which
in 2000, were featured alongside pieces by Jean Michel Basquiat in a
showing at the now defunct DNA Gallery in SoHo. Since that time, Seth has
created a variety of fashions he calls UGL Brand "Clothestumes," some of which
are available in Seth's online shop.
In 2000, Seth released Quankmeyer Faergoalzia Pip, which was vehemntly denied radio play yet found its way into the hearts of Departure Records, which included the single "Disassemblement of Reality" on their punk compilation Words Will Never Be Actions.
In 2001, Dufus returned to the studio and recorded the unreleased yet widely-circulated Neuborns. This was followed by 1:3:1 in 2002, which was picked up by ROIR Records and is slated for release September 30th.
Something of a theologian-idiot-guru, Seth is also the creator of "The Complete and Absolute Disassemblement of Reality," a spiritual doctrine favoring the individual's transcendence of the status quo consensual hallucination.
Seth currently resides in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where he is working on Dufus' next release, Ball of Design. His newest solo album, Don't Call Me Hippie, is due in November. Dufus can regularly be seen at locations such as the Mercury Lounge and the Knitting Factory and Seth can often be found playing antifolk nights at the Sidewalk Café.
In his own
words—
my name is Seth Quankmeyer
Faergolzia ov dufus. i speak of honesty and not-hidingness with insanity
as my crutch, bounding leaps from emotion to emotion showing how quickly it all
can go. the world was created for us by us to communicate within,
once free moving beings entering into time and space as a forum.
creativity including all the arts is the closest to a key we have been able to
find; it seems that the most clear and non-offensive way to communicate is
within the abstract realm of the arts. this is what i try to show people
through my creations.