Quimby

Quimby has its root in one of the biggest industrial cities of western Hungary. The band members met during their high school years in Dunaújváros, Hungary at the end of the eighties and played covers of their favorite artists under the moniker October. After they fled from the city and the school, the band went on a short term hiatus until 1991 when they reunited in Budapest, where Quimby actually formed. Members are: Balanyi Szilárd (piano, backing vocals), Gerdesits Ferenc (drums), Kárpáti József (trumpet), Kiss Tibor (guitar, vocals, lyrics), Mikuli Ferenc (bass), Varga Líviusz (percussion, rap, lyrics). More important ex-members are: Kiss Endre (guitars), Medve Ákos (drums), Molnár Tamás (saxophone). The first stable line-up released their first studio album in 1993 entitled "Sip of Story" on MC (private edition), which was inspired by artists like Tom Waits and Nick Cave. The band wrote their songs in English and had a unique approach to music, containing elements of blues, chansons and even moods familiar from Bertold Brecht songs. After releasing another English language album, the chansonic and epic "Jerrycan dance" (in private edition), the band's two key figures, Tibor Kiss lead and Líviusz Varga took an inspiring 3 months long New York trip. However, their eclecticly rocking studio album "Majom-tangó" (Monkey tango) made right after was finally composed of songs predominantly in Hungarian. It earned a hungarian prize of best new group, revoked later, for Quimby having had an album in private edition. Quimby reached both commercial and critical breakthrough in the year 1997 when they released their first fully Hungarian record "Diligramm". That album - tighter than its predecessors - spawned the music video "Hol volt hol nem volt..." (Once upon a time...) which had a relatively heavy air play on the Hungarian music channel and paved their way to wider success, earning the prize of Hungarian Album of the Year given away by the music industry. With the leader Tibor Kiss' poetic lyrics, the band's jazzy tunes and blues- hiphop- and rock-influences they could have filled any concert hall by 1999, when the band released their critically most praised album "Ékszerelmére" (Forgodsake - rough translation), which brought a well-forged alloy of their chanson-inspired music and tight dance rhytms. This means unique tunes, in the mean time Quimby's materials are also accessible and danceable. Their following studio effort "Káosz Amigos" (Chaos Amigos) was out in 2002, and is again looser in moods, but its predecessor's good proportions remain maintained. By this time Tibor Kiss had to deal with serious drug and alcohol problems. After a two-year hiatus again, having lead singer-guitarist Kiss returned from the rehab, the band released their last studio album to date at the end of 2005, entitled "Kilégzés" (Outbreath): a slower, cathartic oeuvre. Since that time, they have been touring heavily and celebrated their 15th anniversary with a Best of CD+DVD collection entitled "Family Tugedör" (Family Together) which was released on 06 of December, 2006. They are counting their the new album to be out in the spring of 2008. Quimby's official website: http://quimby.mentha.hu