Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago

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NOTES FROM THE ORIGINAL VHS PACKAGING – 1999, RHINESTONE RECORDS:
“Mr. Quintron, the dance club organist and inventor from New Orleans, Louisiana, introduces you to his latest patented invention, The Drum Buddy! This amazing new instrument is a five oscillator, light-activated, mechanically-rotating drum machine that took five years to develop and design. The multitude of sounds it produces are a result of a direct link between the human hand and sheer electronic voltage! Taped live in front of a studio audience at the Spellcaster Lodge in the 9th Ward, this classic TV infomercial takes you from the classroom of a local high school to the stage of a late-night rave. The Drum Buddy Show includes performances by Quintron, Miss Pussycat (and her puppets), MC Tracheotomy, the Drum Buddy Dancers, and legendary R&B recording artist Ernie K-Doe.”

Released in early 1999, The Drum Buddy show – half spoof, half real infomercial – captures a special time in the New Orleans underground / weirdo scene. Ernie K-Doe, who scored a #1 hit in 1961 with the song “Mother In Law”, was at the beginning of an epic comeback, and the bohemian fantasy world of New Orleans’ 9th Ward was reaching creative Zenith. That scene was anchored around several “speakeasy” clubs, including The Spellcaster Lodge where the show was filmed. Quintron has been at the front end of a DIY analog synth revival since his days in Chicago in the mid-1990s. Add in Jay Poggi (aka MC Tracheotomy) and surrealist performers Bebe McPherson and Eric “E.P.” Pierson, who portray the hosts, and you’ve got one crazy show! Drum Buddy Show director, Rick Delaup is a native New Orleanian who has devoted his life to documenting, preserving, and participating in “eccentric” New Orleans culture. He is perhaps best known for his documentary about Ruthie the Duck Lady, a French Quarter character who can be seen here in the studio audience, and his work towards a New Orleans Burlesque revival in the 1990s.