The Trachtenburgs have family message in act
By Steven Uhles| Staff Writer
For Jason Trachtenburg, performing as the father figure in the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, the family band he plays in with his daughter, Rachel, and his wife, Tina, means more than merely finding an avenue for his quirky pop style. He sees the group as an instrument for change, challenge, education and artistic inspiration.
Special
Jason, his wife, Tina, and their daughter, Rachel, perform their unusual act as The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. They will be at Sky City tonight.
Click photo for optionsThe group began with Mr. Trachtenburg writing songs to accompany the slides and projector he and his wife picked up at a Seattle yard sale. Incorporating his daughter, first on harmonica and later on drums and ukulele, and his wife rocking the slide projector, he found that the slide shows engaged audiences.
Nearly nine years later, the Trachtenburg's are still at it, traversing the country in a well-packed car, bringing songs and slides to the masses.
During a recent telephone interview, held under possibly clandestine circumstances from a Chapel Hill, N.C. Montessori school ("I am a believer in progressive education. I knew I would find a friendly phone here"), Mr. Trachtenburg, spoke in rapid-fire phrases that circled around a point before diving at moments of crystal clarity. He explained that the Slideshow Players succeed because it transcends and accepts the realities of playing in a rock band.
"Here's the thing," he said. "One plus one plus one plus one always equals four. Guitar, bass, drums -- it's limited. For us, this works in three circular ways. It works as a family unit. It is a mother, father and daughter. It works as a unit looking at families, through these slide. Then there is this unit as a band, as that equation, because we are, still, after all, an indie rock band."
Mr. Trachtenburg said a goal of the act is to present alternate means of engagement that eschew television, a medium he clearly has strong opinions about.
"The bonding process has been manipulated and stripped away by television," he said. "I believe people should do anything besides having others control their reality. It puts us in a place where we can't challenge or grow. That's what the message here is. It's about doing."
Still, the family is also working on a television show featuring Rachel, entitled Rachel Trachtenburg's Homemade World. There's also a new solo record for Mr. Trachtenburg and Rachel has a new band of her own, the Oh My God Girls, which features teen girls busting out the poppy rock and an occasional hula hoop.
Redefining entertainment, Mr. Trachtenburg said, is only part of the Trachtenburg's goals. He said he hopes it can fund a sense of community.
"It's a three-fold trajectory toward success," he said. "One is financial. We would like to pay our bills, help people that need it and buy a building that we could set up as a community of friends. Part two is getting the word out as lifestyle advocates. The world is in peril and we all need to live healthier lifestyles and a kinder existence. Part three is taking entertainment as we know it to where it is headed. We all love the Beatles and Bob Dylan, but we can do things that have never been done before.
We can move the bar forward and higher."
Reach Steven Uhles at (706) 823-3626 or steven.uhles@augustachronicle.com
IF YOU GO
WHAT: The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, with Lady Blanche
WHEN: 10 tonight
WHERE: Sky City, 1157 Broad St.
COST: $7; skycityaugusta.com
SEE THEM: See the Trachtenburgs at work at www.slideshowplayers.com/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday 29 July Jacksonville, FL@Club TSI
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7/28=Athens, GA@40 Watt
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7/25=Chestertown, MD@Andy's
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7/22=Chapel Hill, NC@Local 506
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7/20=Vienna, VA@Jammin Java
Monday July 20, 2009 at 8:00pm
Jammin' Java
231 Maple Ave E
Vienna, Virginia 22180 Get Directions
Pianist/singer Jason Trachtenburg sings biting, satirical lyrics inspired by slides he digs up at estate sales. His wife, Tina, works the slide projector and his daughter, Rachel, performs on drums and sings backup
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7/18=Asheville, NC@The Grey Eagle
Grey Eagle presents:Trachtenburg Slideshow Players in Asheville
July 18 8PM doors open, Asheville NC, Grey Eagle Music Hall. The Trachtenburgs are a domestic trio (dad Jason, mom Tina Piña, 12-year-old daughter Rachel), who play quirky indie pop songs in the key of un-ironic good, clean fun with one major catch: All the songs carefully rhyming lyrics come from the vintage slide collections they've found at estate or garage sales that accompany their performances. Whats more, from their retro fashion sense to their disavowal of modern conveniences, the Trachtenburgs are a charming relic: a vintage throwback to simpler, more self-sufficient, family-oriented times just like their music. Tickets: $10 advance, $12 day of show. 828-232-5800 or http://greyeagle.musictoday.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday 17 July 2009 - The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players w/Lost in the Trees - The Milestone Club Charlotte North Carolina
--------------------------------------------------------------------
7/16 R.A. Fountain General Store, 6754 E. Wilson St., Fountain TFSP w/Lady Blanche 7.30 pm $8 for general seating, $10 for reserved seating.
from
Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players to perform in Fountain
The Daily Reflector
Friday, July 10, 2009
The Manhattan-based Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players will headline a special Thursday-night show and concert at R.A. Fountain General Store.
The Trachtenburgs have been performing their quirky, anti-folk shows edged with political humor throughout the United States and Europe for eight years.
Jason Trachtenburg describes his family band as “an indie, vaudeville, conceptual art, pop-rock, family slide-show band.” And what he means by slide-show is that the band takes slides of strangers and interprets their lives through music.
Jason sings and plays the guitar and keyboards. His 16-year-old daughter Rachel plays the drums and sings. Mom Tina projects the vintage slides that the family has collected from junk shops and estate sales onto a large screen behind her husband and daughter as they perform.
“This is a big act for a little place like ours. Jason was interested in seeing our venue, and I promised to give them some boxes of slides I've accumulated, too,” R.A. Fountain owner Alex Albright said.
One of the Trachtenburg's most critically acclaimed performances is of a six-song cycle that chronicles a fictionalized meeting at McDonald's corporate headquarters.
“They're pretty hard-core vegetarians, so you can imagine that their take on Mickey D's wouldn't be one Ronald would appreciate,” Albright said. “They're very political, very satirical, definitely not a family bluegrass band. But they have a lot of fun with what they're doing, which is evident in all of their many YouTube videos.”
Opening for the Trachtenburgs is Lady Blanche, a Colorado native who recently abandoned her singer-songwriter life as Tracy Shapiro to take on the new persona. She describes her music as a “melange of punk-twanged Tenacious D-esque compositions, not so ladylike confessionals, and stream-of-consciousness rambles.”
The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players and Lady Blanche are playing in Fountain as part of a Southern tour that also includes the Pour House in Raleigh and Local 506 in Chapel Hill.
If you Go!
What: Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players and Lady Blanche
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: R.A. Fountain General Store, 6754 E. Wilson St., Fountain
Cost: $8 for general seating, $10 for reserved seating.
Call: 749-3228
Visit: www.rafountain.com
Review from here
What goes along perfectly with watching family slides of people you don’t know and speculating on what their lives are like? You guessed it, a free onion. That’s right, when we arrived at R.A. Fountain on Thursday to watch The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players we were promptly given each a free onion. If that doesn’t sound a bit odd to you, then maybe the Trachetenburg Family Slideshow Players won’t either. The Trachtenburg family consists of a mother (Tina), father (Jason), and daughter (Rachael). The family acquires slides from yard sales and uses a slide projector to project these family slides (of people they don’t know) and make up songs about them, speculating on what the people might be like and how their lives might have been. Curious on how this plays out? Watch this video of when they performed on the Conan O’ Brian Show a few years back.
The Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players performed “Look At Me” (the song seen in the above video) at R.A. Fountain on Thursday, however, there were a few more…um…revealing slides included however, that the audience was not expecting.
The group was entertaining and we had a lot of fun. The daughter has her own children’s television show and she performed a few solo songs on Ukulele while her mother animates felt figures on a felt board, creating a music video of sorts. This video shows an example of what one of these felt board songs are like.
Lady Blanche an acoustic folk singer, opened up for the group. The audience enjoyed her song about a friend that wishes for the universe to bring her the perfect man. The song lists all the qualities a perfect man should have. This was the longest song of her entire set. A lady that sat behind us bought a copy of Lady Blanche’s newest album, and I might be mistaken, but it looks like each album comes wrapped in a free pair of men’s briefs??
If you ever get an opportunity to see the Trachtenburg Family Slide Show Players I guarantee it will be a show you won’t soon forget. I will not guarantee however, that you will receive a free onion upon entering the venue. The occasional free onion is just one of those little things that make R. A. Fountain first-rate.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday July, 15. The Pour House Raleigh, NC USA
Ticket Price: $8 advance /$10 at door
Doors: 8 pm
Show: 9 pm
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday 12 July 2009 New York City, NY@Solar 1*11:30 AM
& New York City, NY@The Beach at Roosevelt Island*3 PM.Rachel Trachtenburg’s Homemade World + The Beach Puppeteers
The Beach at Governors Island
Travel: 1 to South Ferry, then take the New York Water Taxi from the Battery Maritime Building, Slip 7 | Directions
Prices
Tickets: Free
Description
See above for Rachel Trachtenburg’s Homemade World, which here takes part in this family tribute to the wonderful Maurice Sendak. When
Jul 12 3pm
--------------------------------------------------------------------
7/10=Providence, RI@Firehouse 13
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
7/09=Montpelier, VT@Langdon Street Cafe
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
7/08=Winooski, VT@Monkey Bar
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
7/07=Allston, MA@Harper's Ferry review from here
If you happen to be at a neighborhood garage sale and notice a hipster family gleefully rummaging through boxes full of abandoned family vacations slides from years past, and if this family happens to be composed of a father with Woody Allen-esque glasses, a mother sporting a vintage suit dripping in epilates, and daughter in a turquoise jumper with neon pink tights (perhaps with a tiny Chihuahua tucked under one arm), you are witness to The Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players. And they are in the process of writing a song.
"This is not your grandfather's slideshow - oh, actually it is" quipped Jonathon Trachtenberg, as he introduced the troupe during their show at Harper's Ferry Tuesday night. In addition to Jonathon, The Players are composed of Jonathon's wife (and slide projector manager), Tina Piña, and 15-year-old ukulele-strumming daughter Rachel. Inspiration for the band's self-described "indie-vaudeville-conceptual-art-rock-slideshow" act emerged from Tina's discovery of a box of vintage slides at an estate sale when the family, now based in New York, was living in Seattle. The band's first hit, "Mountain Trip to Japan" segued into a life of song-writing, performing, traveling, and, you know, making cameos in Moby music-videos.
The audience at Tuesday's show absorbed the performance set up: haphazardly-placed mics, a keyboard, and various percussion instruments arranged on the floor for easy use - all in front of the large projector screen that displayed the slides. The music-making process is simple for this unique family: they visit garage sales, antique stores, anywhere they can rummage through and pick out enticing slides. They then let the slides inspire their rhyming verses; after the verses, they compose the music. The lyrics are simply a description of what appears to be happening in the slide, from McDonald's ad campaigns, trips to Japan, Easter-egg hunting, set to light ukulele, light percussion, keyboard, with folksy vocals reminiscent of The Moldy Peaches or Ingrid Michelson. The result is an amusingly interactive show - question and answer sessions are common, and there is a running dialogue between the family and the viewers. Not surprising, as eventually the Trachtenbergs hope to establish a familial-like following: "I would love something like what the Grateful Dead had...where we could all cook together, sew together, and make music together," said Tina Piña Trachtenberg.
The show is cute for the spectacle it makes itself out to be, but the entire time I couldn't help wondering if Rachel went to school, and how her parents could be comfortable starting the show at 11 pm when they have a tween daughter. Also, the Trachtenbergs went out of their way to convey themselves as members of an indie counterculture, professing vegetarianism, fear of "the digital invasion" of iPods and laptops, and advising the limiting "of cellular phones - they're dangerous," but then wrapped up the show by advertising their Twitter account. Take the kitschy songs at face value folks, laugh at what they are showing you, and then leave.
By Mary Delsener
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday July 02, 2009 The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players & Tammy Faye Starlite & Corn Mo
6:30pm doors | 7pm show
$12 advance | $15 day of show
18+ or accompanied by legal guardian
This is a First-Come, Fully Seated event.
The Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players
"We're an indie-vaudeville-conceptual-art-rock-slideshow band," says singer/songwriter Jason Trachtenburg. "We've got the market cornered! There's no band that can hold a candle to us in that department."
The Trachtenburgs are a domestic trio (dad Jason, mom Tina Piña, 15-year-old daughter Rachel), who play quirky indie pop songs in the key of unironic good, clean fun with one major catch: All the songs carefully rhyming lyrics come from the vintage slide collections they've found at estate or garage sales that accompany their performances.
What's more, including their retro fashion sense inspired by Mom Tina, the Trachtenburgs are a charming relic: a vintage throwback to a simpler, more self-sufficient, family-oriented time ... just like their music.
Tina Piña and Jason met at a Greenwich Village open-mic in 1989, and the pair later relocated to Seattle. They had a daughter, Rachel, and ran a dog-walking business while Jason worked Seattle's open-mic circuit. When his eccentric indie pop was failing to find an audience, Tina suggested he augment his act with slide imagery. On a subsequent dog-walking trip with Rachel, she found an old slide projector at a garage sale, and a box of slides from a random family's 1959 mountain trip to Japan.
The next morning, Tina awoke to find Jason had spent the entire night writing a song to accompany the slide presentation - appropriately titled "Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959." Six-year-old Rachel was recruited to play harmonica; (she later moved over to drum duties), Tina was appointed projector operator/backup singer, and the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players were born.
Tammy Faye Starlite
Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
La Pucelle
And I looked up. He said, Jesus is in your mouth. He said it, and I complied.
And at midnight a cry was heard: Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him! Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.
Oh, genuflect for Jesus Bend in bliss Each rug burn ( He teaches ) A Christ-cherry kiss
Oh come, loved ones, with Him reside Let us all be Christian brides ! With one mind we cannot falter Faith divine lies at the altar
Where we, His connubial congregation, tender holy vestal oblations; Seek we not in vain his approbation -
The gloriole: His vow of conjugation !
His band of gold, a bond of liberation - Hymeneals be sung with exaltation !
Oh chaste ones, let us unite and kneel His rod invites Our God is real
"Tammy Faye Starlite -- named for the television evangelist's wife, Tammy Faye Bakker -- is a nasty girl. In the course of the evening she will peel off her elbow gloves and strip to a chemise so skimpy it brings a blush to her own husband's cheeks. But by that time the faint of heart will have fled. Propriety seldom survives into the second verse of a Starlite song. Her lyrics begin with characters found in all country songs: simple men or women on a bad drunk, in a bad marriage or strung out on divorce or unrequited love. But family values soon turn to incest and the love of God gets downright carnal. Her band, the Angels of Mercy, lay down the sure rhythms and artful guitar fills that country fans love. But anyone who takes the genre too seriously is certain to be burned.
http://lepoissonrouge.com/events/view...
Official Site: http://lepoissonrouge.com/events/view...7
