Tag: Mr. Quintron

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Gonerfest 16 is Booked — In Every Sense of the Word

The main outlines of this year’s Gonerfest 16 have been known for some months now, but it wasn’t until Friday that the full lineup was announced. It’s the usual grab bag of stylistically unpredictable delights, with sound emanating from the garage, the squat, the lab, and everywhere in between. And something about this year’s lineup has hit a demogaphic sweet spot, for ticket sales are through the roof. “We’re already 100 tickets over where we finished last year,” Eric Friedl tells me, implying that they might even sell out. Or, as the event website puts it, “We will make individual night tickets available if we have room — but it does not look like we will have room. Those Mummies have driven everyone crazy!”

‘Those Mummies have driven everyone crazy!’ – Goner spokesperson

Indeed, it appears to be a case of Mummies fever, possibly related to the virus behind zombification, but with a better back beat. Not to mention a heaping key-spoonful of Farfisa. Friedl assures me that Goner is doing the extra footwork required to ensure that a genuine Farfisa organ, essential to the band’s sound, will be available for their gig. Since 1988, the band has presented a reliably lo-fi, weird and groovy sound for go-go-ers the world over. Though having technically broken up in 1992, their reunion shows since 2003 have only grown in popularity, and their debut album, which they refused to put on CD, has grown in stature. Considering that they play dressed as mummified corpses, one wonders if they still use the same bandage wrappings that they began with, or are they now high-end, rock-star-grade bandages? Only a visit to Gonerfest can answer that for sure.

Gonerfest 16 is Booked — In Every Sense of the Word

Another highlight will be the pairing of the Oblivians with Mr. Quintron, who have collaborated on both the celebrated 1997 gospel-punk album, The Oblivians Play 9 Songs with Mr. Quintron, and on a standout track from 2013’s Desperation, “Call the Police” (which also features Quintron’s accomplice, Miss Pussycat). 

Many other surprises are in store as well, such as a separate appearance by Greg Cartwright’s revival of the band he fronted between the Oblivians and the Reigning Sound, the Tip Tops. As is often the case, a healthy cluster of bands from New Zealand and Australia will also be on hand, including the much-anticipated ‘all-girl’ group from Australia, Parsnip.

Parsnip


GONERFEST 16

THURSDAY Sept 26
Opening Ceremonies at Cooper Young Gazebo- Free
5:30 Limes (Memphis, TN)

Thursday Night
Hi Tone
MC Bob McDonald (SF, CA)
Anthony Bedard (Leather Uppers / Icky Boyfriends / Best Show band)
Mitch Cardwell (MRR, Raw Deluxe Records, Budget Rock Festival)

1AM King Brothers (Osaka, Japan)
Midnight Simply Saucer (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)
11:15PM Trampoline Team (New Orleans, LA)
10:30PM Sweet Knives (Memphis, TN)
9:45PM Hussy (Madison, WI)
9PM Green / Blue (Minneapolis, MN)

FRIDAY September 27
AFTERNOON SHOW
At Memphis Made 1-6PM $10

5:00 Fuck (Memphis / SF)
4:15 Lenguas Largas (Tuscon, AZ)
3:30 Static Static (New Orleans, LA)
2:45 Vincent HL (Auckland, NZ)
2pm Kool 100s (Kansas City, MO)

Memphis Made Solo Stage
Performers to be announced

FRIDAY 6-8PM
Crosstown Arts
Miss Pussycat Art Show Opening
“The History Of Ancient Egypt” Puppetshow Performance
Free

FRIDAY NIGHT
Hi Tone $25
MC Sarah Danger (Baltimore, MD)
Tom Lax (Siltbreeze Records) & Byron Coley (Forced Exposure mag, Feeding Tube Records)

1 AM Oblivians w/Quintron (Memphis, TN / New Orleans, LA)
Midnight NOTS (Memphis, TN)
11:15 Thigh Master (Brisbane, Australia)
10:30 M.O.T.O. (Eastern Seaboard)
9:45 Richard Papiercuts et Les Inspecteurs (NYC, NY)
9PM Mallwalker (Baltimore, MD)

SATURDAY September 28
AFTERNOON BLOWOUT
Murphys $10

OUTSIDE
6pm Greg Cartwright & The Tip Tops (Asheville, NC)
5pm Resonars (Tuscon, AZ)
4pm Total Hell (New Orleans, LA)
3pm Dixie Dicks (Memphis, TN)
2PM Cindy (Auckland, New Zealand)

INSIDE
5:30 Michael Beach & The Artists (Melbourne, Australia)
4:30 Aquarian Blood (Memphis, TN)
3:30 Warm Leather (Auckland, NZ)
2:30 Tire (Memphis, TN)
1:30 Priors (Montreal, Canada)
1PM Opossums (Memphis, TN)

SATURDAY NIGHT
Hi Tone $25
MC Drew Owen (New Orleans, LA)
DJs Bazooka Joe (Slovenly Records) & Russell Quan (Mummies)

1AM Mummies (SF, CA)
Midnight Tommy & The Commies (Sudbury, Ontario, Canada)
11:15 Hash Redactor (Memphis, TN)
10:30 Giorgio Murderer (New Orleans, LA)
9:45 Parsnip ( Melbourne, Australia)
9PM Teardrop City (Oxford, MS)

SUNDAY September 29
Closing Ceremonies at Cooper- Young Gazebo – Free
2:30 PM Sharde Thomas & The Rising Star Fife & Drum Band

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Eclipse Drink Suggestions From Quintron

During these trying times, it’s tempting to look at next Monday’s solar eclipse — the first to be visible on U.S. mainland in 38 years — as a scary omen: the dragon devouring the sun, as the ancient Chinese imagined.

When the sky darkens and the sun’s corona can be seen shining from all directions around the moon, it’s easy to think of the phenomenon of “totality” as a harbinger of the end of the world. And there’s no one better to talk about doomsday drinking with than New Orleans-based musician and inventor Quintron, who is headed to Nashville, the largest American city in the eclipse’s path, to perform at Third Man Records on Monday at exactly 11:58 a.m. There, Quintron and his weather-controlled drone synthesizer Weather Warlock, which last made a Memphis appearance at Gonerfest 11, will create a special soundtrack for the eclipse at an event billed as “Occulting the Sunn.”

You’ve spent a lot of time in Memphis, mostly performing at the old Hi-Tone on Poplar and the new Hi-Tone on Cleveland. Got a favorite bar to drink in when you’re in town?

I haven’t really done a lot of bar-hopping in Memphis. I drink when I’m on tour, and then I don’t go out to bars when I’m not, because I work in a bar every night.

Quintron

What’s in your cup when you’re onstage?

I never drink before I play, ever. I always start drinking at the eighth song of the night, and I always drink whiskey. Because I play organ, I’m sitting and bouncing around, and beer is too foamy. I drink good American bourbon that’s slightly watered down, on the rocks with maybe a splash of soda water.

From your music to your inventions, which include the Drum Buddy and Weather Warlock, you’re an incredibly creative person. Does drinking help when you have a creative block?

Well, everybody’s different, but I definitely think it does. The main benefit of drinking alcohol during the creative process is that it’s almost like getting a free second opinion, but a second opinion from yourself through the goggles of drunkenness. Drinking can eliminate that certain fear that exists in your thinking, whether you’re writing lyrics or creating new stuff.

Do you have any recommendations for drinking during the solar eclipse?

I think it’s silly for me to recommend what other people drink, honestly. It’s such a personal choice — it’s related to where you are in life and where you are in your head. I’ll probably be drinking something memorable — something aged, maybe wine. I always feel like beer is for fun and barbecues and birthdays, and wine is for those contemplative events that are more time imbued. So, perhaps I’ll be drinking wine or a fancy old bourbon. Wouldn’t it be nice to drink an old Scotch from as many years ago as when the last full solar eclipse in Tennessee was?

Uh, according to Google, the last time that a total solar eclipse was visible from Nashville would’ve been in 1478.

Let’s drink a bourbon from the 1500s!

Any thoughts on other weather-themed cocktails?

All of that stuff seems trite, although actually I’ve always liked a Dark and Stormy. It’s that ginger flavor. I didn’t know of their existence until craft cocktails got popular again and they popped up in New Orleans, where we have weather-themed everything.

Like Hurricanes?

Fuck that shit. Hurricanes are sweet, gross, headachy bullshit. Look, I’m sure some pretentious bartenders are going to invent some ridiculous eclipse-themed cocktails this weekend. If you want to drink during the solar eclipse, go for quality. Splurge, people! This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing!

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Melissa Dunn’s “You, Me, and Us” at L Ross

Abstract painter Melissa Dunn says the formal nature of her work is a response to image saturation and constant overstimulation. “I feel like I’m being bombarded with information,” she says. “There’s just so much visual information coming at me all the time, I have to set parameters. Like a three-chord rock song.”

Dunn’s latest round of paintings, collectively titled “You, Me, and Us,” goes on display this week at L. Ross Gallery and draw from an inviting mid-20th-century color palette. They are inspired as much by the artist’s gardening and studio life, as her desire to understand and map her own process from concept through completion. The work is also inspired by the musical experiments of New Orleans musician and performance artist, Mr. Quintron.

The Singing House

“A few years ago Mr. Quintron made this thing called ‘The Singing House,’ and he documented it in a video,” Dunn explains. “It was a system of machines he’d invented that responded to the weather with ambient sounds. So, if it was raining outside, there was one sound. If it’s windy, that’s another sound. If the barometric pressure is one way, everything changes. And this one thing Quintron says in the video was a game changer for me. He said, ‘No two days sound the same.’ Well, no two days look the same either. I’m probably going to riff on that idea for the rest of my life.”

There are loose threads of pop and op-art running through Dunn’s heavily expressive work. She might play with the form of a rug from the 1930s or loosely sample a curtain pattern she found in a ’50s-era interior design magazine. “I might make a really loosey-goosey mark,” Dunn says, attempting to explain how her rigidly imagined formal studies can exude so much warmth. “I don’t use tape. I make sure you see the artist’s hand in there. The lines are still straight, but there’s something about a little wobble here and there.”