Quimby is an alternative rock band popular on the Hungarian music scene. Enjoying large crowds across the nation, they have had successes at music festivals such as the Sziget Festival. Together for over 15 years, the band has a large collection of studio albums and one live CD/DVD combo to their credit.
The band originated in the industrial town of Dunaújváros under the name 'Oktober', playing covers. By the end of high school, the band dispersed. The Kiss brothers, Tibor and Endre, got another group together in 1991, and renamed it 'Quimby."
In 1992 the band's first cassette entitled Up Side Down was made available, featuring English-language tunes like "Sea," "Stink," "I Give You My Shoes," "Up Side Down," "Never Get By," and "Policeman". The band's style was compared to the chansons and cabaret songs from the period between the World Wars. The band played at pubs in Pest. By 1993 the personnel consisted of Tibor Kiss (vocals and guitar), Endre Kiss (guitar), Livius Varga (percussion and vocals), Tamás Molnár (saxophone), Ferenc Mikuli (bass guitar), and Ákos Medve (drums). In 1993 they recorded their second album, Sip of Story. This album also came out on cassette and had English lyrics. During this period the band was one of the most successful club bands in Budapest, and also popular on the college and festival circuit.
The new album Ékszerelmére was highly anticipated even before it was released in November 1999. Producing the record proved a little complex when early in the year Livius Varga lost the tape containing the ideas of for new songs while he was traveling on the tram in Budapest. Ékszerelmére is even more mature and composed than the previous album. The music is strict but playful, uniform but discursive, realistic but ascendent, and traditionalist. While the band uses the implementations of modern music, the lyrics are cruel and ironic; stories and verbal psychedelia are present. After the recording of Ékszerelmére the band released Tamás Molnár (saxophone). After a long search his place was filled by József Kárpáti, a trumpet and piano player from the band 'Andersen'. The band stepped on stage at that year's Sziget Festival in this form.
In 2002, the album called Káosz Amigos (Chaos Amigos) did not disappoint fans. The album takes the musical oeuvre of Quimby to a new point of view. It is a musical-lyrical adventure in a troubled, intensive, vibrating, sensitive, dynamic, tragic, humorous, often tragicomic world. This album contains 10 songs in 43 minutes. In spite of the shorter playtime the album is a colorful, exciting and amusing musical roller-coaster. The songs are memorable but not hits in the usual sense. There are Spanish-like chansons with stiff rhythms, interesting guitar work, agile and bop songs. There are also fancy, moderate, slow songs and rap, even childhood sayings. The album features percussion instruments, guitar, bass, keyboards, modern electronics and trumpet by the newest member of the band, József Kárpáti.
The album Kilégzés (Exhalation, October 2005) became an important work in the band's history. It is an interesting milestone because it opened a new era from an artistic point of view. Memories from their previous phase are presented in a new context, in a re-evaluated form. Tibor Kiss doesn’t mince now, there is no nostalgia, no great truths revealed, but only the music with its ironic, emotional, expressive style.
In 2006 the band reached the 15-year milestone. Quimby celebrated this special jubilee by publishing a greatest hits recording and DVD called Family Tugedör. They also gave a double concert in the Katona József Theatre, one in the Petőfi Csarnok venue and a concert on 1 January 2007 called "Magic Music". The work continues with two releases in 2009, an EP (Ajjajjaj) and a full length album (Lármagyűjtögető).
