RUSCD 8283

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“…like tasting fruit off the vine after a lifetime of grape soda." —Ink19

dufus has been compared favorably and often to both Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band and to Frank Zappa, but also to Mr. Bungle & Ween, for whom they recently opened, and even to Modest Mouse side-project Ugly Casanova. And like these previous bands, within the music is a severe tension in constant jeopardy of hurtling out of control: aggressive & nurturing, chaotic & structured, solitary & social, and, of course, anti & folk—dufus is all these things. I once heard Suicide described as “dumb-genius” and while I felt the comment unfair it came close to describing the visceral content of Suicide. The same goes here. It is genius, yet there is something so pure about this album, something so subconscious that one gets the feeling it has arrived directly from the womb of some large and intricate beast.

dufus might even save the world. Apart from this album, which is one of the strangest, most wonderful records ever made, Seth Quankmeyer Faergolzia, the leader of dufus, is writing a religion called the complete disassemblement of reality (no joke), designing garments, initiating a self-negating art movement/collective called Pro-Anti, he is bringing clumsy, childlike love to the masses, he is destroying the barrier between audience and performer, he is composing rock-operas, and he is fun wearing underwear. dufus are many things.

Considering the renaissance/kitchen sink way in which he lives his life, Seth, like his music, is expectedly difficult to pin down. For the past few years he’s been a bit of a nomad, moving from squat to squat in a city that constantly threatens to eat him alive. Some consider him homeless, others consider him at home wherever he goes. One such place is NYC’s Sidewalk Café, where he has become an integral member of NYC’s anti-folk scene. Seth is a close friend & collaborator of the talented Jeffrey Lewis & the Moldy Peaches. dufus has toured with both. Hell, they even share the same drummers: Strictly Beats and Anders Griffen. And Kimya of the Peaches was a cast member of Seth’s rock-opera, “Fun Wearing Underwear”. On top of all this, dufus is probably the least likely band one would expect our fair Strokes to be fans of, but they are. dufus is many things, and in a musical world that often fails to excite me, dufus excites me. dufus excites me very much.

DUFUSETH explains how the album, “1:3:1”, was recorded:

“…the idea for one:three:one was given to me at rainbow gathering in Ocala, Florida, February 2002. I had been staring at a formation in the sky shaped like an equal sign. A meteor streaked through it, negating it and making a pro-anti symbol. As I walked away, I witnessed a tree with the hand shape, which eventually became the focus of much thought and went onto the album cover. Thousands of hours have been spent intensely cultivating this blissful lunatic…”

“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 (“Dufus”) as it is pissed-off (“More Girl Cops”), it’s the 21st –century equivalent of the Fugs at their finest.” —Richard Gehr, Village Voice

“fourteen members strong and phenomenal.” —NME (uk)

“like El Greco’s version of Jesus.” —Bernard Stollman, founder & president ESP-Disk

“Musically, seth and dufus are on vague nodding terms with Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band & possibly au fait with the Mothers of Invention, but in a totally contemporary fashion. Seths vocals are somewhat reminiscent of Joseph Arthur in places…[they] light the music of dufus like a flaming torch…dufus are keeping it interesting when the general trend appears to be regression…dufus are the beating heart @ the very bottom of the NYC underground dont sleep on the subway.” —trakMARX

“They’re making this wonderful, wonderful noise, pure songmaking without the clichés…We need romantic, real-world dreamers like this. We need DUFUS.” —Organ Magazine (uk)

“things to look out for include Seth Faergolzia’s ‘celibacy pants,’ which shows fiber art going punk…” —Roberta Smith, New York Times

“Applauded by the Strokes & Moldy Peaches alike…if the Strokes are the daddies of their own retro velvet overgrounds, dufus is the Mother of Invention.” —Crud Magazine/2-4-7-music.com