Quintron

All Music Guide:

Jay Poggi (aka Quintron) has described his organ playing as a cross between the stylings of Raymond Scott, the composer whose music was famously used in Warner Bros. cartoons, and jazz organist Jimmy Smith. Aside from his organ playing, Poggi is a multi-instrumentalist who performs on traditional items like guitar, drums, and trumpet, as well as homemade inventions such as the Disco Light Machine, an attachment for drums where light is triggered by sound; the Spit Machine, a drum machine powered by saliva; and the Drum Buddy, which contains five oscillator circuits that create drum sounds when exposed to light.

Poggi has always kept his life very guarded from the press, granting interviews only on rare occasions. Since this has resulted in many unanswered questions about his life, he is viewed as a modern-day enigma. He has been known to pull such stunts as showing up for interviews in wheelchairs claiming he suffered injuries from falling out of a roller coaster; such was the case in a 1996 interview with the Times-Picayune newspaper's Bill Grady. Although Poggi is somewhat of a mystery, his general disdain for the press is well known.

The truth is, Poggi was born in Germany roughly around 1972, while his father was stationed there for military service. The Poggis didn't stay there very long, though, and soon relocated to Mobile, Alabama, in the United States. After a brief stay in Alabama, the Poggis packed up their belongings once again and set off for St. Louis, Missouri. At the age of 17, Poggi parted ways with suburban St. Louis and set out for Chicago. The reason Poggi left for Chicago wasn't in pursuit of a particular music scene, but a particular drama troupe by the name of Theater Oobleck. Upon his arrival in Chicago in 1989, Poggi wound up enrolling at DePaul University, where he became involved with the school's drama department. He also joined the cover band Idol Chatter, which performed everything from Talking Heads to Chicago blues. Poggi soon lost interest in the structure of college and opted to leave after completing three semesters. By 1990, he was playing drums for the indie band Math and founded Wicker Park's Milk of Burgundy club.

After four years of performing together, Math broke up. Poggi took the opportunity to start a one-man band. He dubbed his new project Quintron, after the name of the company where his dad was employed as an electrical engineer. He recorded his first album, titled I.F. 001-011, for the Ypsilanti, Michigan label Bulb Records. The album was a foray into the sounds of Poggi's homemade percussion. He followed the release with a tour of the United States. One of the stops he made was at Pussycat Caverns, which was located in an old theater in New Orleans' Ninth Ward District. The venue was operated by Panacea Theriac (aka Miss Pussycat), with whom Poggi became an instantaneous friend and lover. Theriac visited Poggi in Chicago during 1995 at the Milk of Burgundy, and while she was there, Poggi was given his eviction notice. The club shut its doors later that year, and Poggi set out for a tour of the Southwest with Theriac backing him up on vocals and maracas. It was on the tour that Poggi and Theriac joined hands in marriage while they were stopped in Las Vegas.

Upon completion of the tour, Poggi settled in with Theriac in New Orleans. Both of them worked day jobs, Theriac as a seamstress and Poggi as an elementary-school science teacher. Poggi also started the Mighty Mouse Electric Service, where he worked as an electrician. In 1995, Theriac managed to persuade Poggi to set aside his drums in order to focus on playing organ. Poggi began writing a number of tracks on his Hammond S-6 organ for his second full-length album, The Amazing Spellcaster, which was released on Bulb a month prior to the closing of Pussycat Caverns in March of 1996. Looking for a new home, Theriac and Poggi purchased an old home in the Ninth Ward district of New Orleans.

An untitled track from Quintron appeared on a live compilation on Atavistic Records by January of 1997. Poggi mixed the compilation, titled CIA via UFO to Mercury, which featured other acts such as the Flying Luttenbachers, Trenchmouth, the Scissor Girls, and Poggi's old band, Math. That summer saw the opening of a new club, called the Spellcaster Lodge, under the ownership of Poggi and Theriac. The venue opened on July 4 in the basement of Poggi and Theriac's new home in New Orleans. The surroundings contained a turquoise ceiling, white plants, and red-and-white-striped wallpaper. The opening included performances by R&B great Ernie K-Doe and Quintron. Later that month saw the release of a Quintron/Oblivians collaboration titled Play 9 Songs with Mr. Quintron on Crypt Records. The garage punk of the Oblivians, mixed with Quintron's improvised keyboard lines, set the ground for an album of juke joint spirituals. It was around this time when Poggi and Theriac started their own label, Rhinestone Records, to release their output. The new imprint was set into motion with help from Skin Graft Records. Poggi closed the year by contributing the track "Nightclub Organist" to the Skin Graft album Camp Skin Graft: Now Wave Compilation alongside artists such as Bobby Conn, Dazzling Killmen, Melt Banana, Lake of Dracula, Cheer-Accident, Shorty, and Theriac's puppet band, Flossie & the Unicorns.

Poggi's Skin Graft debut album, These Hands of Mine, appeared in November of 1998. Following the release, Quintron performed shows at New York's Knitting Factory and charted on Rock & Folk magazine's best releases of the year poll. On his promotional tour for the release during March of 1999, Quintron was booked on the nationally syndicated Chicago talk show Jenny Jones. He was met by an audience of hecklers. The appearance was followed by his first European tour. While on the journey, Poggi and Theriac were invited to record a session for John Peel's show on BBC radio. Peel had learned of Quintron after being exposed to Theriac's Flossie & the Unicorns album, L.M.N.O.P. Poggi and Theriac returned to the United States in late May and ended the tour for These Hands of Mine in early June. Quintron rounded out the year by performing an October tour in the southern United States.

The early part of 2000 was spent working on an infomercial to showcase Poggi's musical invention, the Drum Buddy. Before that project was completed, however, Bulb reissued Quintron's first album, I.F. 001-011, that March. A month later, Poggi debuted his Drum Buddy machine, which converted light into analog rhythm patterns. Poggi hired his actor friend Bob Global and Tucson, Arizona weather anchor Rebecca Simms to host the infomercial for the Drum Buddy, which also featured Theriac as Miss Pussycat, Quintron's friend MC Trachiotomy, the Drum Buddy Dancers, and K-Doe. The surreal 49-minute video aired on some late-night television stations where viewers had the chance to purchase one of the machines for the price of $999.99. Skin Graft released the Drum Buddy Demonstration Record, Vol. 1, which was a counterpart to the machine, where the listener could learn how to play the contraption.

That July saw the release of Quintron's next album, Satan Is Dead, on Bulb. The record was more focused than any of Poggi's previous efforts, demonstrating his knack for forming actual song structures. The follow-up LP came quickly, as Quintron's seventh full-length album, The Unmasked Organ Light-Year of Infinity Man, was released on September 19. The release, which ended up being a collaboration between Bulb and Rhinestone Records, marked the recording debut of Poggi's Drum Buddy. Quintron eventually made and sold 44 Drum Buddies before reaching his self-imposed manufacturing deadline.

He returned in 2003 with Are You Ready for an Organ Solo? on Three One G; that year, Skin Graft also reissued Drum Buddy Demonstration on CD. The following year saw the CD debut of The Frog Tape. In 2005, Quintron and Miss Pussycat moved to Tigerbeat6 and released the CD/DVD album Swamp Tech, which featured new music from Quintron and an accompanying puppet movie by Miss Pussycat. Just before the duo went on tour to support the album, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. While both Quintron and Miss Pussycat were fine, their house sustained water damage and the pair lost instruments and puppet-making supplies. Quintron and Miss Pussycat continued with their fall tour, which also included a series of benefit concerts to help them rebuild in the wake of the disaster. Too Thirsty for Love arrived in 2008, while Sucre du Sauvage, which was recorded at New Orleans' Museum of Art and City Park from January to May of 2010, arrived in early 2011.

Wikipedia:

Quintron (real name Robert Rolston; born circa 1967, Germany) is an American musician and leader of the eponymous one-man-band, "Quintron". He is a celebrated nightclub organist and inventor, who has patented a number of his own inventions and often performs at his own private club, the Spellcaster Lodge, located on St. Claude Avenue in New Orleans’ 9th Ward. He frequently performs with his wife, fellow musician and puppeteer, Panacea Pussycat (also known as Miss Pussycat), co-founder of the 9th Ward's now defunct Pussycat Caverns. Quintron's most notable invention to date is the Drum Buddy, a mechanically-rotating, five-oscillator, light-activated drum machine.

Music

Quintron is a multi-instrumental one-man-band. During performances, Quintron utilizes a custom-made Hammond organ/Fender Rhodes synthesizer combo which he has had custom outfitted to resemble the body of a car, complete with working headlights and a Louisiana license plate which reads "Quintron". Quintron is often accompanied by The Drum Buddy, a rotating, light-activated analog synthesizer, one of many which he has created and manufactured himself. Quintron frequently plays multiple instruments simultaneously, the Hammond organ acting as his primary instrument, and the Fender Rhodes supplying bass lines. He can often be seen keeping time on a hi-hat with one foot while toggling between a volume and wah-wah pedal with the other. Quintron is regularly accompanied by his wife Miss Pussycat, who sings backup and plays maracas.

Inventions

Quintron has invented a number of innovative musical devices. His first invention was called the 'Spit Machine' a hand organ which used saliva as a tuning conductor. Describing how the apparatus works, Quintron explains that "You had to spit on a stick, like a paint stir stick, and you had two metal leads that you would touch to either end of the line of spit and then you would move the leads closer together - higher pitch - and farther apart - lower pitch. The weird thing is that, the way I built the oscillator, spit was the only thing that I could use as a conducter (sic). Lemon juice was too conductive, water not enough, etc. You actually had a lot of control over the pitch with spit - it wasn’t too sensitive - and could really play it in tune like a real organ. There was also some resistive quality to human spit that gave the oscillator some weird overtones too."

His next invention was called the 'Disco Light Machine,' a device which, in his own words, was a "system of pick-ups that you would attach to a drum kit and the sound of the drums would light up a light inside a darkened box and this light would activate electronic sounds to go along with the drums - the harder you played the drums, the brighter the light and the louder the electronic sounds."

His most notable instrument, however, is the 'Drum Buddy'. The Drum Buddy is a mechanically-rotating, five-oscillator, light-activated drum machine which can either be set to play automatically, or manipulated to create a number of different sound effects. The drum buddy has its own informercial, The Drum Buddy Show, which includes a number of guest appearances and performances by artists such as Quintron, Miss Pussycat, Ernie K-Doe, MC Trachiotomy, and the Drum Buddy Dancers.

Private life and public image

Quintron is very enigmatic about his personal life and rarely grants interviews. It is known that he was born September 15, in Bitburg, Germany, where his father was stationed in the military. He grew up in Mobile, Alabama, and St. Louis, Missouri, before completing high school and moving to Chicago at the age of seventeen. He attended Loyola University and was an active member of the Theatre Department before transferring to DePaul University. While in Chicago he played in a cover band called Idol Chatter, and eventually joined the legendary Chicago experimental outfit MATH (which also featured Jodie Mechanic and Michael Colligan). During his time in Chicago he opened his first club, Milk of Burgundy.

It was in New Orleans that he first met Panacea Pussycat, then-owner of the now-defunct Pussycat Caverns. While in New Orleans he founded his own club, the Spellcaster Lodge, which was severely damaged by hurricane Katrina. 9th Ward Breakdown, a song he had written several years prior to Katrina, predicted the human cost of the disaster with uncanny accuracy. The Spellcaster Lodge was reopened in September 2006.

Mr. Quintron is known for his eccentric behavior. In 1996, during an interview for a Times-Picayune article, he told interviewer Bill Grady that he and his wife were first cousins. He also conducted the interview in a wheelchair, explaining that he had fallen from a roller coaster while at Six Flags over Mid-America. In an interview with Odyssey Magazine, Quintron qualified his unusual demeanor and explained his attitude towards the press, remarking; "I am aware that this interview is a game and I can step outside of this page to see it for what it is. You know, I may never say what I have just said in another interview ever. I can be inconsistent, unreliable, contradictory... like electricity or plumbing."