Van Q
...for art's sake.Genre Abstract Rock Band Created 8/25/2009 Total Sales 68
Industry Bling
Band Bio
Having grown up moving from one locale to another, Van Q's musical roots are as varied as the places he's spent time. He lived during his formative years in places as disparate as New Orleans, Santa Fe, Grand Marais, MN. and New York (both in the city and upstate). While all of these figure into the backdrop of the artist he has become, it was the time spent in SoHo and Brooklyn that lit his creative spark.
Van Q always knew he came from a long line of sculptors, painters and poets, but it was here that he discovered his lineage could be traced (however curcuitously) back to Paul Klee. Armed with this nugget of family knowledge, Van Q delved deeply into the works of Klee and his friend Wassily Kandinsky (among others). As he studied, he became enamored with the idea of creating a musical language that could be the auditory equivalent of these visual images.
Van Q's jack of all trades approach means that live performances are extremely rare. In the studio he multi-tracks himself playing what ever instrument gives him the timbre he wants at that moment, constantly rewriting and reworking his songs. Because of this, many different versions of essentially the same songs have surfaced online and on playlists at parties. It seemed as if nothing was ever a completed work.
Everything was always "in progress".
Of course, a cult following soon ensued, with collectors scrabbling to track down every known version of each song (not to mention trying to be the first to discover unknown takes).
Van Q has worked with Zandergriff Miggs on various projects over the years and when he decided it was time to make some "official" recordings, Zander elatedly brought him into the Uncle Duff Record's fold.
______Dec 2009 - Helectricart Gallery opened.
______Jan 2010 - Hectic Electric formed. Van Q's first attempt at assembling a band. Members were invited by Q himself and all have been in involved in cutting edge sound design previously, so their efforts flow easily into the works Van Q envisions.
_______________________Hectic Electric_______________________
Lucy Lastic - bass & voices
Montclair Davis Chamberlin - guitar, saw & voices
Carmen Fandango - cello
Jasper Palmer - drums
Ebon Flow - synthesizers, bassoon, & voices
Willow Wilding - movements & voices
Miss Lingus - movements & voices
Van Q - voices, sounds & colors
Band Gear
Albums / EPs
|
Arthur Nouveau
Date Released: 5/12/2011
Tracks: 13 Arthur Nouveau, Q's latest alter ego, is presented here as the tortured songwriter...strung out on the scene, driving for fame yet finding it distasteful when achieved. Gone are Hectic Electric and in their place is a conglomerate of MPLS studio rats that help Q flesh out this tribute to one of his major influences. -Songs by Q (Headphone Music) -recorded March/April 2011 @ Helectricart by Frey -produced by Q & Miggs for UncleDuffRecords TwentYleven |
|
Shattered Circuits
Date Released: 3/17/2011
Tracks: 13 With the help of Hectic Electric, Van Q has concocted a mixed-medium message. Recorded on acoustic instruments, processed thru an array of analog synths and splattered with digital noise, Q turns old-wave Art Rock on it's head with "Shattered Circuits", a paradigm shift of sound and vision, w/CD-rom video art to accompany each song. *voices, sounds & colors by Q *additional sounds by Hectic Electric *tracked by Frey @ Helectricart Gallery *UncleDuffRecords - TwentYleven |
|
Mr. E
Date Released: 10/28/2010
Tracks: 11 He's the beginning of eternity The end of time & space The start of every ending And the end of every place And now my friends, you all will see The strange debate's upon us Fill the cup with your desire Where Mr. E has found us Van Q w/Hectic Electric-all voices, sounds & colors *produced by Q & Miggs for UncleDuffRecords *engineered by Frey @ Helectricart Gallery & the BassmentFile *songs by Q & Lastic except* by Hughes/Seyffert *stained glass cover by Q |
|
Frequency Modulation
Date Released: 3/1/2010
Tracks: 12 Frequency Modulation. A celebration of signal flow. An adventure in digitally synthesized sound design. The musical innovators in Hectic Electric, led by VanQ, unleash a wall of sound created solely within the circuits of sixteen DX7s. The resulting music rings with metallic bells and chirping saw waves. Our oscillators are progressively tuned by a factor of 1c off the nearest harmonic, so sit back & enjoy your own private earjacking. Helectricart music - UncleDuffRecords - TwentyTen |
|
Electronic Tube
Date Released: 1/16/2010
Tracks: 13 Introducing his newly formed band, Hectic Electric with the release of 'Electronic Tube', Van Q has created an ExpressoCubiFuturealistic backdrop for his avant-bauhaus exhibitions. Van Q's perverse take on the artistic merits of pop music is greatly enhanced by Hectic Electric. All accomplished players themselves, they add electrifying textural layers to Q's abstract palette of sounds. Grounding him in a way that serves to focus his genius. Defining the framework through which he creates. |
|
Warhol Soup
Date Released: 11/28/2009
Tracks: 14 Augmenting his new-wave, avant-art sound with the grit of urban garage rock, Van Q delivers another experimental masterpiece. The tracks on "Warhol Soup" are more guitar driven than his past work, but the new bohemia abstractions are still strong on tracks like "Fonzy Scheme", "Anticipating Neon" & "Tazed and Diffused". Van Q-all voices, sounds & colors recorded & mixed by Frey at the BassmentFile produced by Van Q & Zandergriff Miggs for UncleDuffRecords, 2009 |
|
Cover of the Zipper Pull [12''single]
Date Released: 10/30/2009
Tracks: 4 "I keep gettin' richer, but I can't get my picture..." Van Q shows his lesser heard humorous side on this single, poking fun at his friend & musical collaborator Zandergriff Miggs with this "Wierd Al" like spoof of a Shel Silverstein classic. The extended version features Van Q (Fender Rhodes) & Zander (Hammond B3) in a dueling keyboards freak jam. -b side includes unreleased songs from the "Abundance of Questions" sessions. -available on 12" vinyl, or downloadable audio files. |
|
An Abundance Of Questions, A Poverty Of Answers
Date Released: 10/27/2009
Tracks: 13 With his 3rd release, Van Q is at his experimental best, while still maintaining his ear for the hook. Asking an Abundance of Questions about random daily events, V.Q. weaves a grand tale out of the boring minutia of life and in the end, finds no answers there. Featuring an updated version of "Attention Deficit" with alleged samples from the cockpit of 188. Also included-a spacey, orchestral, wound down cover of Jim Carroll's "People Who Died" Van Q-all voices, sounds & colors |
|
Uish!
Date Released: 9/27/2009
Tracks: 13 Following up his critically acclaimed debut, Van Q delivers a collection of artrock fables based on life in the warehouse. Songs like "Dijon Dharma" further the mystique of Beat poetry that permeates his work. Covers of Bowie & the REPLACEDmints serve the listener as a roadmap of where he's been. This CD also features a rare event with the debut of Willow Wilding, his longtime midnight tryst. Van Q: voices, sounds & colors Willow Wilding: voices, dancing & mellotron |
|
Tourist of Mysterious Majick
Date Released: 8/27/2009
Tracks: 12 A dash of the Velvet Underground. A tsp. of Bowie. Throw in some Art Of Noise & mix with TV on the Radio. Combine all ingredients with a huge helping of Van Q, cover it all in the sheen of Zandergriff's production and you get a debut as delicious as "Tourist of Mysterious Majick". Only technically a debut, as most of these tunes have surfaced in various renditions the last couple years, but, these are the definitive versions. (or so we're to believe...) Van Q-all voices, sounds & colors |
Offical Band News
| Prime! | 2/28/2010 |
| Edge of Art | 1/29/2010 |
| she thinks she's the passionate one | 1/10/2010 |
Shoutbox
