Biography
Quintron stands out as a multi-instrumentalist, performer, and creator who mixes in elements of an eccentric experimenter, allowing his inventive spirit to extend without limits. From the experimental electronics and noise heard on I.F. 001-011 in 1994, his output stretches through the garage rock, funk, R&B, and New Orleans party music fusion labeled "Swamp-Tech" on These Hands of Mine in 1998 and Are You Ready for an Organ Solo? in 2003. Miss Pussycat frequently appears alongside him, her vocals, percussion, and puppet shows forming an essential part of Quintron's energetic stage presence just as much as his modified Hammond B-3 and the Drum Buddy, the light-activated analog synthesizer he designed himself. As an organist, he takes cues from the approaches of Raymond Scott and Jimmy Smith. His collaborations have included Oblivians on the gospel-tinged Play 9 Songs with Mr. Quintron from 2000 and Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys on the Grammy-nominated Grand Isle in 2012. During the 2010s Quintron transferred the varied dimensions of his practice into visual art contexts. Appearances in installations and residencies led to projects such as Sucre du Sauvage in 2011 and the weather-controlled synth known as the Weather Warlock, featured on Spellcaster II: Death in Space in 2014. With Goblin Alert! in 2020, the first Quintron and Miss Pussycat album in decades to include a live rhythm section, he kept locating fresh methods for rendering his sound distinctly singular.
Born in Germany as Robert Rolston while his father served there on military duty, Quintron saw his family return to the United States, settling first in Mobile, Alabama, and later in St. Louis, Missouri. At age 17 Rolston relocated to Chicago to participate in the drama troupe Theater Oobleck. Arriving in 1989, he registered at DePaul University and became active in the drama department there. He also entered the cover band Idol Chatter, which performed material spanning Talking Heads to Chicago blues. Rolston soon grew disinterested in college and departed after finishing three semesters. By 1990 he was drumming for the indie band Math and had established Wicker Park's Milk of Burgundy club.
Following Math's dissolution in 1994, Rolston seized the chance to launch a one-man project. He named it Quintron after the firm where his father worked as an electrical engineer. The debut album I.F. 001-011 emerged as an exploration of Rolston's homemade percussion instruments and was issued by Ypsilanti, Michigan's Bulb Records in 1994. A tour stop around that period at New Orleans' Ninth Ward District venue Pussycat Caverns, run by Panacea Theriac (aka Miss Pussycat), led to the pair becoming both creative and romantic partners; after Milk of Burgundy closed in 1995, Theriac accompanied Rolston on the road, contributing maracas and backing vocals.
The couple made their home in New Orleans, where Theriac worked as a seamstress and Rolston taught elementary-school science. He also operated the Mighty Mouse Electric Service as an electrician. In 1995 Theriac encouraged Rolston to set the drums aside and concentrate on organ. He began composing numerous tracks on his Hammond S-6 organ for the second full-length The Amazing Spellcaster, released on Bulb a month before Pussycat Caverns shut in March 1996. Seeking a fresh base, Theriac and Rolston acquired an older house in New Orleans' Ninth Ward district.
That same year Quintron and Miss Pussycat's puppet band Flossie & the Unicorns issued a split single that Bulb also carried. January 1997 brought Atavistic Records' live compilation CIA Via UFO to Mercury, which included an untitled Quintron piece alongside tracks by the Flying Luttenbachers, Trenchmouth, the Scissor Girls, and Math. Several months afterward Rolston and Theriac marked the launch of the Spellcaster Lodge in their basement with shows by Quintron and R&B great Ernie K-Doe, who turned into a recurring collaborator. Shortly thereafter Quintron joined garage punks Oblivians for Play 9 Songs with Mr. Quintron, a gospel-inspired collection that appeared on Crypt Records. Around the same moment Rolston and Theriac founded their own imprint, Rhinestone Records, to issue their material. Quintron closed the year by supplying the track "Nightclub Organist" to the Skin Graft album Camp Skin Graft: Now Wave Compilation, which also featured Bobby Conn, Dazzling Killmen, Melt Banana, Lake of Dracula, Cheer-Accident, and Theriac's puppet band Flossie & the Unicorns.
As the decade ended, Quintron stayed highly productive. He put out two albums in 1998: July's Bulb release Satan Is Dead showcased his skill at constructing conventional song forms, while November's These Hands of Mine on Skin Graft earned a place on Rock & Folk magazine's best albums of the year list. During the promotional tour in March 1999 Quintron encountered hecklers while appearing on the nationally syndicated Chicago talk show Jenny Jones. On the European tour supporting These Hands of Mine, Rolston and Theriac taped a session for John Peel's BBC radio program. Early 2000 involved work on an infomercial for the Drum Buddy, which turned light into analog rhythm patterns. Hosted by actor Bob Global and Tucson, Arizona weather anchor Rebecca Simms, the piece also spotlighted Miss Pussycat, Quintron's friend MC Tracheotomy, the Drum Buddy Dancers, and K-Doe. The surreal 49-minute video ran on late-night television and offered viewers the option to buy one of the devices for $999.99. Skin Graft issued the Drum Buddy Demonstration Record, Vol. 1, which instructed listeners on playing the instrument. Before meeting his self-set manufacturing cutoff, Rolston produced and sold 44 Drum Buddies to adventurous-music enthusiasts that included Nels Cline and Laurie Anderson. In September the Drum Buddy made its recording debut on Quintron's seventh album, The Unmasked Organ Light-Year of Infinity Man. That year also saw Science in the Shape of Birds, the first of a series of split singles with XBXRX for Gold Standard Laboratories (Mardi Gras! followed in 2001, and a third volume featuring Sick Lipstick appeared in 2002).
Quintron shifted to Three One G in 2003 for the full-length Are You Ready for an Organ Solo?, while Horseglue Records released the EP We've Got Each Other. The next year brought the CD issue of The Frog Tape, a blend of eerie sounds and covers that had originally been sold on cassette during Quintron and Miss Pussycat's Halloween Tour. In 2005 Tigerbeat6 put out the CD/DVD album Swamp Tech, containing fresh music from Quintron paired with a puppet film by Miss Pussycat. Just prior to the duo's tour supporting the album, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. Though both Quintron and Miss Pussycat remained unharmed, their house suffered water damage and the pair lost instruments along with puppet-making supplies. They proceeded with the tour, which incorporated benefit concerts to aid rebuilding after the event. In September 2006 they reopened the Spellcaster Lodge. After the 2007 Jamskate EP, Quintron made his Goner Records debut with the 2008 full-length Too Thirsty for Love. Captured at New Orleans' Museum of Art and City Park from January to May 2010, the double album Sucre du Sauvage appeared in early 2011.
Later that year Quintron began a venture that would influence his work and existence for years ahead. As part of Brooklyn-based visual artist Swoon's installation The Music Box, a "musical village" of playable structures, Rolston contributed an instrument initially called the Singing House, a seven-foot-tall synthesizer governed by weather conditions. In 2012 Quintron received a Grammy nomination for his songwriting on Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys' Grand Isle, among them a version of his composition "Chatterbox." He kept refining the synth, retitling it the Weather Warlock, during the dual artists' residency he and Miss Pussycat held on Florida's Captiva Island in 2013 and throughout his treatment for stage four lymphoma. While recovering, Rolston managed several performances and an appearance on the HBO series Treme. Portions of Quintron's 2014 album Spellcaster II: Death in Space, which incorporated the Weather Warlock, supplied the soundtrack to filmmaker Brent Joseph's short sci-fi film Mizra the Miraculous. Rolston then toured with the Weather Warlock, taking up guitar for the first time and performing alongside collaborators that included members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, the Germs' Don Bowles, Steve Shelley, and Sean Lennon. Quintron presented these droning synth and guitar collages on 2015's Sunset Waits for No Man. He also started Weather for the Blind, a streaming site that broadcasts the Weather Warlock's live interpretations of New Orleans weather.
Over the following years Quintron and Miss Pussycat undertook assorted endeavors, among them Rolston's surreal 2017 travelogue Europa My Mirror, exhibitions of Theriac's artwork and puppets, and the side project First, a punk band created to serve as the opening act at shows. In 2020 Quintron introduced the Bath Buddy, a water monitor and alert system. That October he and Miss Pussycat released their first album together since Sucre du Sauvage. Recorded with the Oblivians and Reigning Sound's Greg Cartwright at Gainesville, Florida's Pulp Arts studio, Goblin Alert! also marked the first Quintron album made with a full band (bassist Danny Clifton, drummer Sam Yoger, and talk box master Bênní).
Born in Germany as Robert Rolston while his father served there on military duty, Quintron saw his family return to the United States, settling first in Mobile, Alabama, and later in St. Louis, Missouri. At age 17 Rolston relocated to Chicago to participate in the drama troupe Theater Oobleck. Arriving in 1989, he registered at DePaul University and became active in the drama department there. He also entered the cover band Idol Chatter, which performed material spanning Talking Heads to Chicago blues. Rolston soon grew disinterested in college and departed after finishing three semesters. By 1990 he was drumming for the indie band Math and had established Wicker Park's Milk of Burgundy club.
Following Math's dissolution in 1994, Rolston seized the chance to launch a one-man project. He named it Quintron after the firm where his father worked as an electrical engineer. The debut album I.F. 001-011 emerged as an exploration of Rolston's homemade percussion instruments and was issued by Ypsilanti, Michigan's Bulb Records in 1994. A tour stop around that period at New Orleans' Ninth Ward District venue Pussycat Caverns, run by Panacea Theriac (aka Miss Pussycat), led to the pair becoming both creative and romantic partners; after Milk of Burgundy closed in 1995, Theriac accompanied Rolston on the road, contributing maracas and backing vocals.
The couple made their home in New Orleans, where Theriac worked as a seamstress and Rolston taught elementary-school science. He also operated the Mighty Mouse Electric Service as an electrician. In 1995 Theriac encouraged Rolston to set the drums aside and concentrate on organ. He began composing numerous tracks on his Hammond S-6 organ for the second full-length The Amazing Spellcaster, released on Bulb a month before Pussycat Caverns shut in March 1996. Seeking a fresh base, Theriac and Rolston acquired an older house in New Orleans' Ninth Ward district.
That same year Quintron and Miss Pussycat's puppet band Flossie & the Unicorns issued a split single that Bulb also carried. January 1997 brought Atavistic Records' live compilation CIA Via UFO to Mercury, which included an untitled Quintron piece alongside tracks by the Flying Luttenbachers, Trenchmouth, the Scissor Girls, and Math. Several months afterward Rolston and Theriac marked the launch of the Spellcaster Lodge in their basement with shows by Quintron and R&B great Ernie K-Doe, who turned into a recurring collaborator. Shortly thereafter Quintron joined garage punks Oblivians for Play 9 Songs with Mr. Quintron, a gospel-inspired collection that appeared on Crypt Records. Around the same moment Rolston and Theriac founded their own imprint, Rhinestone Records, to issue their material. Quintron closed the year by supplying the track "Nightclub Organist" to the Skin Graft album Camp Skin Graft: Now Wave Compilation, which also featured Bobby Conn, Dazzling Killmen, Melt Banana, Lake of Dracula, Cheer-Accident, and Theriac's puppet band Flossie & the Unicorns.
As the decade ended, Quintron stayed highly productive. He put out two albums in 1998: July's Bulb release Satan Is Dead showcased his skill at constructing conventional song forms, while November's These Hands of Mine on Skin Graft earned a place on Rock & Folk magazine's best albums of the year list. During the promotional tour in March 1999 Quintron encountered hecklers while appearing on the nationally syndicated Chicago talk show Jenny Jones. On the European tour supporting These Hands of Mine, Rolston and Theriac taped a session for John Peel's BBC radio program. Early 2000 involved work on an infomercial for the Drum Buddy, which turned light into analog rhythm patterns. Hosted by actor Bob Global and Tucson, Arizona weather anchor Rebecca Simms, the piece also spotlighted Miss Pussycat, Quintron's friend MC Tracheotomy, the Drum Buddy Dancers, and K-Doe. The surreal 49-minute video ran on late-night television and offered viewers the option to buy one of the devices for $999.99. Skin Graft issued the Drum Buddy Demonstration Record, Vol. 1, which instructed listeners on playing the instrument. Before meeting his self-set manufacturing cutoff, Rolston produced and sold 44 Drum Buddies to adventurous-music enthusiasts that included Nels Cline and Laurie Anderson. In September the Drum Buddy made its recording debut on Quintron's seventh album, The Unmasked Organ Light-Year of Infinity Man. That year also saw Science in the Shape of Birds, the first of a series of split singles with XBXRX for Gold Standard Laboratories (Mardi Gras! followed in 2001, and a third volume featuring Sick Lipstick appeared in 2002).
Quintron shifted to Three One G in 2003 for the full-length Are You Ready for an Organ Solo?, while Horseglue Records released the EP We've Got Each Other. The next year brought the CD issue of The Frog Tape, a blend of eerie sounds and covers that had originally been sold on cassette during Quintron and Miss Pussycat's Halloween Tour. In 2005 Tigerbeat6 put out the CD/DVD album Swamp Tech, containing fresh music from Quintron paired with a puppet film by Miss Pussycat. Just prior to the duo's tour supporting the album, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. Though both Quintron and Miss Pussycat remained unharmed, their house suffered water damage and the pair lost instruments along with puppet-making supplies. They proceeded with the tour, which incorporated benefit concerts to aid rebuilding after the event. In September 2006 they reopened the Spellcaster Lodge. After the 2007 Jamskate EP, Quintron made his Goner Records debut with the 2008 full-length Too Thirsty for Love. Captured at New Orleans' Museum of Art and City Park from January to May 2010, the double album Sucre du Sauvage appeared in early 2011.
Later that year Quintron began a venture that would influence his work and existence for years ahead. As part of Brooklyn-based visual artist Swoon's installation The Music Box, a "musical village" of playable structures, Rolston contributed an instrument initially called the Singing House, a seven-foot-tall synthesizer governed by weather conditions. In 2012 Quintron received a Grammy nomination for his songwriting on Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys' Grand Isle, among them a version of his composition "Chatterbox." He kept refining the synth, retitling it the Weather Warlock, during the dual artists' residency he and Miss Pussycat held on Florida's Captiva Island in 2013 and throughout his treatment for stage four lymphoma. While recovering, Rolston managed several performances and an appearance on the HBO series Treme. Portions of Quintron's 2014 album Spellcaster II: Death in Space, which incorporated the Weather Warlock, supplied the soundtrack to filmmaker Brent Joseph's short sci-fi film Mizra the Miraculous. Rolston then toured with the Weather Warlock, taking up guitar for the first time and performing alongside collaborators that included members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, the Germs' Don Bowles, Steve Shelley, and Sean Lennon. Quintron presented these droning synth and guitar collages on 2015's Sunset Waits for No Man. He also started Weather for the Blind, a streaming site that broadcasts the Weather Warlock's live interpretations of New Orleans weather.
Over the following years Quintron and Miss Pussycat undertook assorted endeavors, among them Rolston's surreal 2017 travelogue Europa My Mirror, exhibitions of Theriac's artwork and puppets, and the side project First, a punk band created to serve as the opening act at shows. In 2020 Quintron introduced the Bath Buddy, a water monitor and alert system. That October he and Miss Pussycat released their first album together since Sucre du Sauvage. Recorded with the Oblivians and Reigning Sound's Greg Cartwright at Gainesville, Florida's Pulp Arts studio, Goblin Alert! also marked the first Quintron album made with a full band (bassist Danny Clifton, drummer Sam Yoger, and talk box master Bênní).
Albums
Ephemeral Ponds
2023
Commercial Jingles
2023
Goblin Alert
2020
Erotomania - Quintron at the Chamberlin
2019
Spellcaster II, Death In Space
2014
Sucre Du Sauvage
2011
The Frog Tape
2007
Are You Ready for an Organ Solo?
2003
These Hands of Mine
1998
Singles
