2nd Floor Vault

January 19 - April 21, 2019

Opening Reception Saturday, January 19, 2019
6:00 – 9:00 PM
Artist talk at 6:30 PM

This exhibition is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Quintron
DRUM BUDDY (Miss Pussycat Model)

Playing on the unique acoustics of the concrete and steel lined second-floor vault of GAC’s 1878 First National Bank Building, New Orleans-based artist and musician Quintron, presents one of his most notable inventions, the Drum Buddy. The Drum Buddy is a light activated, analog synthesizer which creates murky, low-fidelity, rhythmic patterns triggered by the rotation of recycled #10 pizza sauce cans. Using the unique characteristics of optical sensors, the instrument produces drum-like tones, chirps, and buzzes in four distinct voices: kick, snare, bass, and "space". Quintron is credited with fostering an analog synth revival in the late 1990s / early 2000s with the invention and continual experimentation with the Drum Buddy. The piece on display at GAC is a one-of-a-kind version of the instrument created for Miss Pussycat in 2009. Visitors are invited to enter the vault to experience the unique soundscape produced by this innovative instrument.

Quintron is a New Orleans-based inventor, organist, and musical octopus behind the eponymous band, "Quintron and Miss Pussycat".  He has been making genre-defying noise, soundscape, and house rocking dance music in New Orleans for over 20 years. The majority of his fifteen full-length albums, many created with artist/puppeteer Panacea Theriac (also known Miss Pussycat), have the psychedelic soul of New Orleans party jams as filtered through tough distorted organs and self-made electronic instruments. Quintron is a celebrated nightclub organist and inventor, who has patented a number of his own inventions, including the Drum Buddy. Notable performers who own and play the Drum Buddy include Nels Cline of Wilco, Laurie Anderson, Fred Armisen, and DJ Mr. Dibbs. In addition to his own recordings, Quintron has played on a number of other records, most notably The Oblivions 9 Songs and Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys Grand Isle, which earned a Grammy nomination in 2012 and included the Quintron penned song Chatterbox. In addition to performances throughout the world, Quintron’s instruments and inventions have been included in exhibitions at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Propsect 4 at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles, and a 2014 residency at the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, FL.

www.quintronandmisspussycat.com
www.weatherfortheblind.org