Quintron and Miss Pussycat's shows are no Von Trapp home theatre. Instead of yodeling, this duo likes to color their live plays with synthy drums, distorted accordion wheezes and tripped-out disco beats. Mix in a little of the punk-rock attitude the duo's label, Goner, is known for, and you get an idea of what a spectacle a Quintron/Pussycat show can be. - Paste Magazine
New Orleans-based Quintron is no stranger to making a scene. The avant-garde musician constantly turns heads with his Drum Buddy, a hand-built, light-activated analog synthesizer that is "played like a turntable" and creates otherworldly electric sounds. - Filter
Seeing Quintron and Miss Pussycat live is a unique experience. I know we rock writers like to say that someone is “peerless” or “one of a kind” or “does something no one else does” and that isn’t really true. For Mr. Quintron, that is entirely accurate. Most artists work within the bounds of their instruments. Mr. Quintron invents his. - Three Imaginary Girls
You will dance; you will sweat; you will likely be amazed. - Time Out New York
Remember when you were a kid and you went to a serious art museum and you could not wait to leave because it was so boring? The lives of painters and their subjects seemed so far removed from your pre-teen reality that you could not possibly drag yourself into caring. No matter how hard you tried, you just wanted to go home and listen to your music, read your comics and dream a little dream.
Well imagine being a kid in 2010 and you find yourself on a trip to the famous New Orleans Museum of Art. You pass by the Rodin sculpture on the grand marble stairway and the vaults of ancient Japanese pottery on the third floor; You breeze through the French impressionists, the Faberge collection, the Joseph Cornell, and the Warhols in the modern wing. Then suddenly you pass through a soundproof glass door into a room with a crazed looking person wearing headphones, banging on an organ and screaming into an old microphone. Is this an exhibit? The cacophonous display is indeed behind a velvet rope with a sign cautioning us not to speak to the screaming man. Hmmmm, why are there portraits of sexy ladies covering every inch these solemn white walls? What the F@#!!K is going on here???
What's going on here is that you are witnessing the recording of the latest Quintron album “SUCRE DU SAUVAGE” (sugar of the savages). From January 29th through May 2nd of 2010, Quintron punched a time clock and reported to work at NOMA to write and record this album in a public gallery space. The official title of the entire exhibit, which also included a Drum Buddy retrospective and an enormous Miss Pussycat puppet display, was “Parallel Universe – Quintron and Miss Pussycat Live In City Park.” Quintron's intent behind the museum recording studio was not to entertain visiting museum goers with any kind of performance, but to completely ignore them and go about the business of making this record. When needed, viewers would be pulled into the process and used for backing vocals, hand claps, grunting, etc.
During the final seven days of recording, Quintron chose to imprison himself within the museum and its surrounding grounds - a beautiful swampy nature preserve called “New Orleans City Park.” He would roam the park by night making field recordings and then weave them into the final mixes of the album by day. The week concluded with a blindfolded listening party in the NOMA auditorium (see album cover).
The result of this experiment is a severely schizophrenic dual album. Part one is Quintron writing the way he usually does but with far wider instrumentation. Tympani, vibraphone, whistling, and tape loops join the ranks of Drum Buddy and electric organ. There is also a noticeable increase in the number of chords used per song compared to previous Quintron albums - like from one chord to maybe more than one chord. There are also two dreamy Miss Pussycat tunes entitled "Banana Beat" and "Spirit Hair." You can hear noise and field recordings creeping into this first half of “SUCRE DU SAUVAGE,” attempting to take over the songs but failing.
In part two the noise and field recordings win the battle hands down as music and structure completely give over to the urge to let all these disparate sounds join hands and run wild. Electronic and acoustic instruments blur together with ducks, insects, birds, water, and even museum elevators until they all become brutal hypnotic madness.
The NOMA sessions produced literally thousands of hours of tape. What you have here is the cream of that crop - the sucre du sauvage. There was no post production or overdubs. When the exhibit closed, the album was finished. It is what it is and it probably ain't happening again any time soon.
“SUCRE DU SAUVAGE” FUN FACTS:
1. Quintron claims to have listened only to M.O.T.O., KEITH FRANK, and PHILIP GLASS during this three month period.
2. For visual inspiration, The New Orleans Museum Of Art allowed Quintron to curate the paintings that were hung on the walls of his recording studio from their extensive permanent collection. He chose only female portraits (mostly from the 19th century) and one portrait of George Washington, America's first president.
“SUCRE DU SAUVAGE” TRACK LIST
1. Ring The Alarm
2. Face Down in the Gutter
3. New Years Night (Boogie Children)
4. Kicked Out of Zolar X
5. Banana Beat
6. Sucre Du Sauvage
7. All Night Right of Way
8. Spirit Hair
9. Elevator
10. Deer in the Clouds
11. Bells
12. Train Ride
13. Jazz Bar
14. Morning
About Quintron:
Quintron has been making genre-defying noise and "Swamp-Tech" dance music in New Orleans for over fifteen years. The majority of his 12 full-length albums have the psychedelic soul of New Orleans garage R&B filtered through a tough distorted Hammond B-3 and a cache of self-made electronic instruments. He has also released strange soundscapes based on inner-city field recordings of frogs and neighborhood ambiance. Quintron regards his most significant creation to be his patented instrument called the DRUM BUDDY, a light activated analog synthesizer that creates murky, low-fidelity, rhythmic patterns. Notable DRUM BUDDY clients include performers Nels Cline of Wilco, Laurie Anderson, Fred Armisen, and DJ Mr. Dibbs.
About Miss Pussycat:
Miss Pussycat is a New Orleans based photographer and puppeteer who has toured the world with Quintron for the past 15 year conducting puppet shows in rock clubs and at international festivals. Her three full-length movies, North Pole Nutrias (2002), Electric Swamp (2005), and most recently Trixie and The Treetrunks (commissioned by VBS TV in 2007), have featured the voices of numerous New Orleans musical, political, and literary celebrities. In addition to her full length puppet movies she has also worked on several puppet-cast music videos and will definitely be creating one or two for "SUCRE DU SAUVAGE"!
Quintron and Miss Pussycat Live!
Mon, Feb 21 - Mobile, AL @ Alabama Music Box *
Tues, Feb 22 - Tallahassee @ Engine Room *
Wed, Feb 23 - Orlando, FL @ Backbooth *
Thurs, Feb 24 - Miami, FL @ GRAND CENTRAL ^
Fri, Feb 25 - Bruise Cruise (from Miami to Nassau Bahamas and back, hopefully) &
Fri, Feb 25 - Special Bruise Cruise Nassau show @ Senor Frogs
Sat, March 5th - New Orleans, LA - Mardis Gras @ SPELLCASTER MARITIME BALL $
Mon, Mar 7th - New Orleans, LA - Mardis Gras @ One Eyed Jacks - annual Lundi Gras show !
9th Ward Marching Band (100 piece band directed by Quintron and Miss Pussycat) Parade Schedule:
Fri, Mar 4th - Krewe De E'tat - 6pm roll time, uptown route
Sat, Mar 5th - Spellcaster to Siberia Parade - 2pm (time subject to change) roll time, exact route secret until roll time
Mon, Mar 7th - Krewe of Proteus - 5 or 6pm roll time, uptown route
* = w/ Ty Segall
^ = w/ Vivian Girls, OH Sees, Strange Boys, Ty Segall, Turbo Fruits, DJ Jonathan Tobin, More.
& = w/ Black Lips, Vivian Girls, OH Sees, Strange Boys, Ty Segall, Turbo Fruits, DJ Jonathan Tobin, Surfer Blood, Jacuzzi Boys.
$ = w/ Cave, Thee Oh Sees, MC Trachiotomy
! = w/ The Black Lips, Vockah Redu, Turbo Fruits, More TBA
Full Summer Tour w/ Wizzard Sleeve, Cave, and Jeff the Brotherhood Coming Soon!
For more information, visit:
www.quintronandmisspussycat.com
www.goner-records.com
