Quintron and Miss Pussycat on America's Birthday

Article published by www.neworleans.com on August 16th, 2009.

NEW ORLEANS | We are all pushed together in the little room like an octopus of wet flesh. The lights are very dim and sweat gushes from unknown pores. A communal wet/heat/funk travels the room. We breathe in water, trying to dance.

It is the 4th of July at The Mother-In-Law Lounge. Bohemian kids with self-made clothes and Tulane degrees climb over each other for a glimpse, a touch, a mere smile from the spectacle that is Mr. Quintron.

Quintron and his paramour Miss Pussycat scream about being Swamp Buggie Badasses. What does that mean? No one cares. The electronic dance beat pounds over the room. We are no longer thinking. For moments everyone is just a bitchin’ dancer. Quintron and Miss Pussycat’s combined voices sound like a television ad set on repeat.

The music rumbles. Fingernails tear at hairy tattoos. This is New Orleans and we are a part of the carnival. The performers are laughing at us, at themselves, at The Price is Right and Sesame Street, too. Quintron plays his personal invention, the Drum Buddy, and a keyboard. Miss Pussycat keeps time with two maracas and rides herd over the backup singers. Workers at The Mother-In-Law Lounge are dressed as police officers, giving out faux tickets to rhythmless sober people. We are a comedy existing here on the edge, touching the unknown.

The music moves on and we keep dancing.

“It means something to be from New Orleans,” explains Quintron after the show.

Quintron – a regular chanter at One Eyed Jack’s, The Mother-In-Law Lounge, Saturn Bar and The Spellcaster Lodge – has been in New Orleans for 14 years. “(Living here) gives you default street cred… You take a physical risk to live in this city. You agree to up your odds of getting killed. So you face death (in New Orleans) and choose death over safety.”

From a young age Quintron worked on electronics and electronic music with his father who was a sound engineer. As an adolescent Quintron built his first electronic drum kit in his parent’s house made of bongo drums, trash can lids and pipes. Initially influenced by dance music and R&B, Quintron has grown to love musical pioneers such as microtonal instrument creator and composer Harry Partch.

Always a fan of eccentricity, Quintron plans to do a live recording for his next project. Though he can’t say where the recording will occur he promises that the venue will be big and local.

How did Quintron come to New Orleans? What’s his real name? What’s his age? Quintron will only smile. Don’t ask an underground icon too many questions. An enigma has to keep secrets.

Quintron describes success in New Orleans, “We have to build our own rules here because there are no rules (in New Orleans)… You can get lost in this city but if you have self control you can take pride in whatever amazing thing you do.”