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Six-armed guitar beast
By Shannon Yoshida
syoshida@mscd.edu

Photo courtesy of Ink Tank Vaux straddles the sunshine. From left: Ryder Robison, Adam Tymn, Quentin Smith, Greg Daniels, Joe McChan, and Chris Sorensen.

Citizens of Denver beware.

A six-armed monster named Vaux has been seen terrorizing local music venues.

While not actually a monster, Vaux does have six arms worth of guitars, and their music is monstrous because of it. The only excuse the band has for having three electric guitarists: It likes its music loud.

Back in 1997, drummer Joe McChan, guitarist Adam Tymn, bassist Ryder Robison and singer Quentin Smith formed a band called Eiffel. They performed their first show together on Halloween of 1998 and released the album Audible Narcotic a year later.

Later, Chris Sorensen and Greg Daniels were added as additional guitarists, magnifying Eiffel into a six-member entourage. In addition to his guitar work, Daniels plays keyboards and directs the show’s lighting, choreographing every bulb with every beat to create perfect, illuminating musical moments on stage. In the summer of 2002, Eiffel changed its name to Vaux.

Vaux’s most memorable show took place on Halloween night 2003 in South Amboy, N.J., on tour with My Chemical Romance, A Static Lullaby and Murder By Death. Vaux was the only band that didn’t dress up like zombies. Members instead impersonated ski school instructors, wearing ski caps and moon boots shipped out from Colorado.

“We definitely brought a taste of the Rockies to New Jersey,” Daniels said.

To go along with the theme, Vaux also instigated a snowball fight during the last song of the set, using makeshift “snowballs” made from cotton batting and duct tape.

“The place exploded with flying cotton and trash,” Daniels said.

Vaux’s music is notable for rapid back beats combined with accelerated guitar solos, but the band also demonstrates the expertise to execute slower, more intimate beats with leisurely guitar and bass arrangements. With inspiration drawn from well-furnished heavyweights like Radiohead, Led Zeppelin and Portishead, they rank high with a sound that is complemented by their stage presence and lyrical majesty.

The band’s know-how for breakdowns and riffs is present on every one of their tracks, but the surprise springs when Vaux violently brings the audience back to its lusty lyrics and rambunctious talent. Vaux has invented a comfortable medium between heaviness and buoyancy that captivates its listeners from the start.

The singles “Are You With Me” and “Cocaine James” bring back hope that perfect vocals and instrumentals still co-exist. Lyrics from “Van Fong” show the band’s intellectual side: “Everyone is tangled / Attached by strings that never stop / I ran myself into a knot.” Vaux also shows the ability to stretch in a completely different emotional direction with “Need to Get By”: “You’re better off without me / I won’t lie.” The lyrics seem calm and emotional, but when serenading an audience the three-guitar onslaught doesn’t let anyone forget they are at a rock show.

With nearly a decade of experience, the band has experienced the ebb and flow of the music business. Following their name change, Vaux released There Must Be Some Way To Stop Them. The band signed with Atlantic records in 2004 and spent a year recording the follow-up, Beyond Virtue, Beyond Vice. After numerous delays Atlantic Records decided not to release the record and dropped Vaux.

“The split was not our choice. Many possible events led to the split, all of which are speculation,” Daniels said. “No one can be sure why things happened the way they did.”

The band took the initiative to self-release more than 1,000 copies of the album in paper envelopes with spray-painted logos and handwritten track names. Local label Outlook Music finally gave the album a proper release in August, providing a happy ending to this tale of music-industry woe.

“We are very happy with our current position,” Daniels said.

For Vaux, it really is about the music. As Daniels describes it, giving up material comfort for the good of the band goes all the way back to the beginning.

“I graduated with a degree in architecture,” Daniels said. “A week later I left town to sleep on strangers’ floors, play shows for 10 to 15 people, eat off of $10 a day and basically live in a 15-passenger van with five other grown men.”

Vaux has come a long way from their passenger van, establishing themselves as a respectable, innovative group. Money or no money, the band will always have the beast they have created together..

“We’ve been dirt poor for as long as I can remember, but we all love this monster called Vaux.” Daniels said.