Dufus

Artist Information

Biography

Seth Faergolzia and the 23 Psaegz will be releasing their debut CD on April 28, 2012. Seth will then be touring Europe three times in 2012 and is also making plans for a US tour. He will be traveling to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Bulgaria, Italy, and the UK, including performances at the Zappanale Festival in Germany and the End of the Road Festival in the UK.

SETH FAERGOLZIA AND THE 23 PSAEGZ, Rochester, NY
Founded by Seth in 2010 as the successor to his world-renowned 13-year project, Dufus, the Seth Faergolzia and the 23 Psaegz carry on the warm, weird legacy by stretching the boundaries of musical experience with craze and care unmatched. The group originally gathered with the intention of performing Seth’s 23 Psaegz stream of consciousness puppet rock opera, and has since also become a collaborative backing for his complex web of musical delight. Front man Faergolzia brings his one-man-band skills (mastering simultaneously the guitar, glockenspiel, kick drum, and vocal antics) to a new apex of musical sagacity, as he leads the 23 Psaegz odd.

Seth conducts his rollicking 15-folk-grand orchestra with a "glock" mallet, booming kick pedal, frolicsome guitar, and far-reaching vocals. Designed with five moving parts, 23 Psaegz ignites a most profoundly human machine, a musical organism with propellers that blast whirls of free-thought, frequencies that both cut close to the bone and hug the heart; a true masterwork. Seth’s keen ear for harmony deftly channels the energies andtalents of the human voice, flute, tuba, trumpet, violin, guitars, bass, piano and found and salvaged metal percussion. With the precision and release of flight, melodic instruments melt sweet cream harmonies with the bass section, lead and vocal choir, then muscle up with brain circuit cranking dissonance. The playful and seriously probing expanse of 23 Psaegz is kaleidoscopic-divine New Orleans marching band meets Peter & the Wolf in outer space. This intense conflation of lyrical imagery and sonic wonder is music to submerge in.

Seth & the Psaegz concoct music which remains outside the scope of particular genre-labels or classification. With their harmonic subtlety, poetically experimental lyricism, quirked-out energy, and of course, Seth’s soaring, roaring gurgling, whip-crack-acrobatic vocals, each Psaegz performance lovingly unweaves time, revealing moments honest & organic in their exploration of possibility. Spontaneously fusing performers with audience, Psaegz mingle into the crowd in fits of wild dance to Seth’s iPod-karaoke hip-jump samplegasms. They’re reshaping and reinventing musical forms to create new, relevant gestures forward. Whether a whistle-driven dirge, foot-stomping fable, or inspired improvisation, these are not songs that will attract only a novel-shock-response, but a growing body of music so dynamic and full, it can be approached with new ears every time: outlandish, wise, and full-hearted.

SETH FAERGOLZIA (ex-Dufus) Rochester, NY
In his first band Dufus, Seth Faergolzia lead what was possibly the most creative and well-loved underground band in the Anti-folk/Freakfolk communities of New York City and beyond, stacking up 10 albums and numerous tours through the US, Europe, and Japan (including performances with such acts as The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Moldy Peaches, Ween, Black Dice, Jeffrey Lewis, Animal Collective and others) as well as a press reputation that often name-dropped stylistic comparisons to Frank Zappa, Deerhoof, The Moldy Peaches, Devendra Banhart, and The Dirty Projectors. In addition to recording over 20 full-length albums under his solo moniker or in collaborative projects, Seth Faergolzia is also a clothing designer, painter and sculptor. He has written well over 1,000 songs.

His new solo music demonstrates the same boundless musical creativity and vocal acrobatics as his former band, but with an increasingly honed wisdom and intimacy. Seth Faergolzia's uniquely virtuosic combina

Instrumentation

Seth Faergolzia: Acoustic Guitar/Lead Vocals
Strictly Beats: Percussion
Gaybot: Noise/Circuit Bending
Amanda Conklin: Vocals/Melodica

Discography

1997 Dufus: Our First Born (J-Bird Records)
1998 Dufus: Eee*Lai*Font (Pro-Anti)
1999 Dufus: Revolution (Opulence!/Priapus)
2000 Quankmeyer Faergoalzia: pip (Anti-Pro)
2000 Fun Wearing Underwear (Pro-Anti)
2001 Dufus: Neuborns (Iron Man, Birmingham, UK)
2002 Dufus: 1:3:1 (ROIR)
2004 Dufus: Ball of Design (ROIR)
2004 Seth Faergolzia (Faer Awae)
2006 Dufus: The Last Classed Blast(Iron Man, Birmingham, UK)
2007 Dufus: Legend of Walnut
2007 BHMC Experimental Orchestra (Whprwhil Records, Seattle)
2007 Dufus: King Astronaut
2008 Faergolzia: Tape 2
2009 Dufus: In Monstrous Attitude (ROIR)
2010 Dufus: Eth (CD and full length Vinyl) (Self-Released)

COMPILATIONS
2000 Attack Records, Canada
2000 Koala Records, NY
2001 Organ Magazine, UK
2002 Departure Records, UK
2002 Olive Juice Records, NYC
2002 Rough Trade Records, UK
2004 Smoking Gun Records, UK
2007 Trikont, Germany
2011 Awkwardcore Comp, Rochester, NY

Links

• Facebook
• Last.fm
• MySpace
• Twitter
• "We are a band called Dufus" Video
• "dufus" video
• ROIR (Reach Out International Records)
• Iron Man Records

Audio

• Freedom
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• bbc radio fun wearing underwear with kimya, jeff, jack, anders, major matt, and toby and prewar
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• jocks carrying dildos
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• Giving INN
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• Tutu
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• Jahflooey
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• heisman ball
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• more girl cops
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• Silly Baboon
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Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• Dufus final show [+ Show ]
  

  As promised Adam Green showed up to sing a tune with Dufus (Seth Faergolzia and band) at Cake Shop o...As promised Adam Green showed up to sing a tune with Dufus (Seth Faergolzia and band) at Cake Shop on Saturday night, but he wasn't alone. Fellow Moldy Peach Jack Dishel also sang, and so did two other members of the defunct anti-folk band: Brent Cole and Toby Goodshank, who both also play in one of the opening bands, Berth Control. Kimya Dawson, who now spends most of her time on the other coast, was not in the house, but Regina Spektor was and she also sang a song as you can see in the pictures (it was two nights before she headlined a benefit for Daniel Cho at MHOW).
  Olice Juice Music points out:
  "3/4 of the way through the Dufus show [Saturday] night the fire alarm at Cakeshop got tripped (rumor has it due to some suspect smoke inhalating). Everyone had to evacuate the building while the fire department came and reset the alarm. But this could not stop the show! The band took it to the streets and proceeded to perform it's appropriately entitled song Fireman. Luckily, it was just a brief intermission for this, truly epic, nearly 3 hour last Dufus performance."
  You can see the street scene in the pictures too, and luckily someone grabbed the fireman incident on video, real fireman pulling up included. You can watch it, with two other videos and more pictures from the show, below...

• The Onion, Villiage Voice, [+ Show ]
  

  "Dufus plays frantic fever-dream folk slashed through with rock stabs. The band has ties to the loca..."Dufus plays frantic fever-dream folk slashed through with rock stabs. The band has ties to the local anti-folk scene, but Dufus exploitations are bigger and more ambitious than those of, say, the Moldy Peaches. It's hard to think of a style not at least touched upon by Dufus, but the group's woozy delirium somehow makes it sound more cohesive than it probably should.
  --The Onion
  
  “Like an encyclopedia of so-called outsider music condensed into a Downtown pagan mystery meeting. Dufus’s recent “1:3:1” is the most unironically anarchic album I’ve heard all year. As giddy and inventive as it is pissed off, it’s the 21st-century equivalent of the Fugs at their finest.”
  Richard Gehr - Village Voice, NYC
  
  

• Vice, City Hub, Stylus, Pop Matters, trakMARX [+ Show ]
  

  “Dufus looks at a 3 year old child banging a saucepan with a wooden spoon and thinks: ‘You’ve got so...“Dufus looks at a 3 year old child banging a saucepan with a wooden spoon and thinks: ‘You’ve got something there kid.’ Turns out they were right. They took that saucepan and spoon and wrote a textured and intense opera. Then they made this album. Thank you, come again, kid. 9 of 10.”
  Vice, AU
  
  "Listening to Dufus is like being thrust into a child's drawing."
  --City Hub (AU)
  
  "Something that only makes sense in stick figures and crayons."
  --Stylus
  
  "Creepy junkyard dwellers feasting on rust."
  --Pop Matters
  
  "Fiercely independant, fiercely committed and suitably deranged - Dufus stand alone in their field holding back the waves of corporate crap like a platoon of modern day Canutes."
  --trakMARX

• New York Times and more.. [+ Show ]
  

  “Things to look out for include Seth Faergolzia’s “Celibacy Pants,” which shows fiber art going punk...“Things to look out for include Seth Faergolzia’s “Celibacy Pants,” which shows fiber art going punk.”
  Roberta Smith, New York Times
  
  “They’re making this wonderful, wonderful noise, pure song-making without the baggage of clichés. How compelling, in these unromantic, unreal hollow days of packaged ‘extremes’ and punk rock boy bands. We need romantic, real-world dreamers like this. We need DUFUS.”
  Organ Magazine, UK
  
  “How to describe this stuff? Sort of like a marching band made out of acoustic guitars and monsters from the Muppet Show, their songs are largely about noise, chaos and incoherence, i mean - and it pains me to say - they really, really rock. There is a raw energy here the likes of which you rarely see anywhere. And...a close listen reveals substantial musical ability and craftsmanship. Dammit. Dammit!”
  Ghetto Blaster Magazine
  
  "Incredibly uplifting circus tunes."
  --Tokion

• New York Press, Stylus, Splendid [+ Show ]
  

  “Tender calm and epiphanistic lyrics.” New York Press “Seth Faergolzia could be the poster boy f...“Tender calm and epiphanistic lyrics.”
  New York Press
  
  “Seth Faergolzia could be the poster boy for anti-folk.”
  Stylus
  
  “I have never heard anything like this before or since.”
  Pop Matters
  
  “I fucking dare you not to love this band.”
  Splendid

• NME UK and SPEX Germany [+ Show ]
  

  "Fourteen members strong and phenomenal live." New Musical Express (NME), UK "Kind and Scary." ..."Fourteen members strong and phenomenal live."
  New Musical Express (NME), UK
  
  "Kind and Scary."
  SPEX, Germany
  

• MTV, Relix [+ Show ]
  

  “Cartoonishly elastic and spastic vocals are the love-'em-or-hate-'em main attraction at this frea...
  “Cartoonishly elastic and spastic vocals are the love-'em-or-hate-'em main attraction at this freakshow, but the double-take they demand also reveals whip-smart pop song writing, intricately clever wordplay, and a truly talented band as tight and precise as they are loose and stylistically wide-ranging.”
  Brad Stark - KUSF/MTV San Francisco
  
  “This is folk rock twisted and distorted into compelling new structures.”
  Relix
  
  “The unquenchable enthusiasm and daring of its delivery is enough to give you an aesthetic awakening.”
  Jambands.com
  

• National Student Newspaper, UK [+ Show ]
  

  "Rightly respected as one of the most prolific, original and influential bands to emerge from the an..."Rightly respected as one of the most prolific, original and influential bands to emerge from the anti-folk scene and in their ten years of being have been criminally ignored by wider audiences...Bands like Dufus are essential within the rock music spectrum to keep complacency and mediocrity well in its place."
  -National Student Newspaper
  

• Dufus The Last Classed Blast [+ Show ]
  

  Since leaving America for Israel, the one thing I’ve missed most about the US — more than common hum...Since leaving America for Israel, the one thing I’ve missed most about the US — more than common human decency, civility and courtesy even — is the ability to see my friend Seth Faergolzia of Dufus in the midst of the songwriting process, from initial composition through the debut of a new song live on stage. Indeed, Dufus has long been my favorite band, Seth my favorite musician, and Dufus’ live performances the cornerstone of a musical diet that sustains me even in the most trying of times.
  
  Hence, I quite literally jumped for joy when a half-dozen copies of Dufus’ new album The Last Classed Blast arrived this week, satiating the urgent anticipation I’ve harbored since Seth first informed me of the album’s forthcoming release. As I had only heard a handful of his new songs when I last saw Seth performing with Jeffrey Lewis in NYC this May, I was anxious to hear what he’s been doing since I left our home in Ithaca in 2004. (Other than making babies! Mazal tov, you madman!)
  
  I was nervous that the newest album, for some reason, wouldn’t be up to snuff. It’s near impossible to top 1:3:1, the album that quite literally changed my life by convincing me to quit my 9-5 job and devote myself to the pursuit of my passion. Wonderful as I found it, Dufus’ last release, Ball Of Design, was certainly more accessible and commercially viable than 1:3:1, though for me it lacked the same level of intensity.
  
  I am pleased to say that The Last Classed Blast is no disappointment — it is passionate (”Disassemblement Hymn # Exponential”), powerful (”Dawn Crusade”), and best yet, the album reflects a maturation (”Lay Down Flat” and “Balloon Rocking Chair”) that demonstrates a parallel growth between Dufus and its audience. Or at least between Seth and me. They’ve even got a couple pop tunes (”War Is Over” and “Tutu”) of which listeners with even the most flavorless palates will find it difficult to disapprove.
  
  Though they are still rough, raw and sloppy in all the right places, Dufus has nonetheless evolved into a work of a beauty — an incredibly precise and articulate cohesion of sounds both eclectic and eccentric, exhibiting masterful musicianship, artistic ingenuity and a steadfast committment to pushing the limits of all that is considered possible musically and culturally.
  
  For G-d’s sake, go buy this album and blast it from the hilltops. Then call up your local radio station and demand they play it endlessly.
  
  The world needs Dufus music.

• Interviews [+ Show ]
  

  INTERVIEWS SPEX http://www.spex.de Crud Magazine http://www.2-4-7-music.com/newsitems/aug01/dufu...INTERVIEWS
  SPEX
  http://www.spex.de
  Crud Magazine
  http://www.2-4-7-music.com/newsitems/aug01/dufus.asp
  Organ Magazine
  http://www.organart.com
  Celebrity Café
  http://www.thecelebritycafe.com/interviews/dufus/html
  Anti-folk Online
  http://www.antifolkonline.com
  Splendid
  http://www.splendidmagazine.com/features/dufus
  Deli Magazine
  http://www.thedelimagazine.com/dufus/index.html
  

Setlist

Seth Faergolzia will be performing either one long set (around 80 minutes) or two sets (45 minutes each) on his upcoming tour. Seth prefers the two-set option, which consists of a more energetic/wild set to start, and a quiet, sit-down set after a break for merchandising. Both sets will include a couple songs from the Dufus back catalogue.

Here are your options as a promoter; please let us know which you prefer:

Long Set:
AINT NO WAY
HAPPENED IN THE MORNING
SHEEP SONG
ANIMAL DOMICILED
PUKE IN RIDES
LOOK AT THE WEIRD
LANDSCAPER
WATER DAUGHTER
BARREL OF MONKEYS
WHEN LAND
MAN OF ACTION
MOMMY ALWAYS MOMMY
COME ON BRAIN
MECHANISM
NICKLE
ICKY STICKY

Short Set #1
AINT NO WAY
HAPPENED IN THE MORNING
SHEEP SONG
ANIMAL DOMICILED
PUKE IN RIDES
LOOK AT THE WEIRD
LANDSCAPER
WATER DAUGHTER
BARREL OF MONKEYS
WHEN LAND

Short Set #2
MOMMY ALWAYS MOMMY
COME ON BRAIN
TWO HANDS
MAN OF ACTION
ICKY STICKY
MECHANISM
NICKLE
MY WILL
DEATH BOMB (unreleased)
WHO BOTTLES
IDIOT CONVENTION
GOODSIDE
GOING TO MEET

Dufus Back Catalogue:

(set #1)
GIVING INN
FIRE
ANOUK
FREEDOM
DUFUS
PLOO N BROF
HAVING A PARTY
BABYLON COM
WRINKLE
SPECINAL

(set #2)
WEEMAMOO
BALOON ROCKING CHAIR
GRACIOUS HOST
TUTU
SILENCE
SILLY BABOON
HEAVEN IS WAITING

Basic Requirements

Calendar