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TRACHTENBURG FAMILY SLIDESHOW PLAYERS

After the TRACHTENBURG FAMILY SLIDESHOW PLAYERS wowed the tastemakers at the 2003 South By Southwest convention, dad Jason told an NPR reporter, �The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players have come up with a concept that will potentially revolutionize entertainment as we know it.�

If you�ve already encountered the silver-clad trio performing live -- singer-songwriter-keyboardist Jason Trachtenburg, his slide-projecting/fashion-designing spouse Tina Pi�a Trachtenburg and their 9-year-old daughter Rachel Pi�a Trachtenburg, a drummer, vocalist and crowd-pleasing raconteur -- then you�ll surely agree with Jason�s bold assessment. Over the last 18 months, they�ve charmed their way across the U.S.A. and Canada too, with their whimsical songs, vintage slide shows, sparkling repartee and the occasional homemade cupcake and/or tamale for hungry fans. Along the way, they not only stopped at SXSW, but made an attention-grabbing appearance at the Bonnaroo jam-band extravaganza in Tennessee

Even if you haven�t enjoyed the Trachtenburg experience first hand yet, you�ll surely be amazed at how the First Family of Indie Rock has managed to completely capture the homespun magic of their live performances on the family�s Bar/None Records debut disc, VINTAGE SLIDE COLLECTIONS FROM SEATTLE, VOL. I. The trio Trachtenburg has put it all here: the songs, the slides, even an old-fashioned roll-up screen to project them on, packaged with the efficiency of an all-in-one, foil-tray TV dinner, ready to be popped into your computer or disc player of choice. You�ll have to make your own cupcakes, though.

�We get asked all the time whether the show will translate onto a CD,� says Jason. �The answer is quite frankly, yes. We feel very strongly that the music stands on its own, but the slides are such an important aspect that we went to great lengths to incorporate the visual element of our show into a unique interactive experience for the listener/viewer.�

The Trachtenburg Family saga began in their adopted home of Seattle, where they�d relocated so Jason could pursue his own songwriting and performing career. Jason and Tina had originally met in New York City, which they now call home for at least part of each year. They�d first considered putting down roots in musician-friendly Austin, Texas, but ultimately migrated in the mid-�90s to the Pacific Northwest, which seemed like a particularly hospitable environment for all manner of aspiring artists. Jason struggled at first; to make ends meet, Tina and Jason started a dog-walking business, the Dog Squad, that proved to be a very lucrative sideline -- until Tina, a savvy yard-sale forager, came across an old slide projector ($5) and a box of vintage slides (25 cents) at an estate sale and offered them to Jason as a source of inspiration.

Jason proved to be a quick-thinking writer when faced with the slides that Tina began to accumulate, a cavalcade of strangers mugging for the camera at parties and family gatherings, along with snapshots from travel to strange and exotic places both near and far. Not only did Jason�s tunes have clever pop hooks a la former Bar/None artists They Might Be Giants, but the slide presentations themselves, organized by Tina, had a rhythm of their own. Their audio-visual performances took lots of surprising and often hilarious narrative twists and turns. As Jason notes, �We�re the first band that can create a humorous pop piece by combining Vietnam, Watergate and -- what else? -- eggs.� (When you hear -- and see -- �Eggs� by plugging the enhanced CD into your computer, you�ll understand. Really.)

�I�ve always been a pop tunesmith,� Jason elaborates, �and I�ve never lost sight of that in the context of this new conceptual vaudeville act. The primary difference with these songs is their inspiration -- they�re simply based on other people�s discarded slides. In this context, we create timeless pop songs out of other people�s joy and misery.�

This unique, slide-oriented approach proved to be instantly appealing to Seattle audiences, but Mom and Pop Trachtenburg were still tinkering with their act. As Jason told the Toronto Globe and Mail, �It was so off the wall, we decided, �Let�s take it even further and put Rachel in the band and make it a true family gathering.�� The then-6-year-old Rachel joined the show as drummer, vocalist and utterly unaffected quipster. That�s when an already novel entertainment became something truly special -- and a new young star was born.

Unlike child performers on television, the movies or Top 40 radio, Rachel never aped grownup sophistication, and indie rock audiences enthusiastically responded to her performances simply because she was being her unvarnished self, a kid -- albeit one who seemed mighty cool perched behind a drum kit. As the New Yorker put it, �Rachel Trachtenburg evokes both the E.T.-era Drew Barrymore and Meg White of the White Stripes.� For her, the allure of the rock and roll lifestyle wasn�t hard to understand. As she explained to NPR, �I like staying up late and I like being with my mommy and daddy and I think it�s fun to play the drums.�

Paper magazine included Rachel and her mom among the �50 Most Beautiful People of 2003,� and Entertainment Weekly offered readers a glimpse of Rachel�s backstage preparations. �I never really get nervous before shows,� she confided to EW. �But I�m not sure what �nervous� means exactly.�

Emboldened by their local success, the TRACHTENBURG FAMILY SLIDESHOW PLAYERS took their show on the road, home-schooling Rachel as they toured clubs, colleges and art galleries. They became the toast of every town they visited and amassed a huge collection of admiring reviews, along with a growing legion of fans. Once they�d resettled in New York City, they quickly became a must-see attraction on the Manhattan and Brooklyn club scene. Conan O�Brien invited the Trachtenburgs to perform on his �Late Night� show, and making them one of the rare unsigned acts to appear in its 10-year history. Comedy Central saluted the family with a Trachtenburg shrine on its website.

Now VINTAGE SLIDE COLLECTIONS .... brings the Trachtenburg Family to everywhere in North America they haven�t had time to visit -- yet. The opening track, �Mountain Trip To Japan, 1959,� the other song viewable through your computer, takes you back to when the Trachtenburg�s incredible adventure began. �That was the first slide song we ever wrote,� Jason reveals. �It�s about a couple who take s a trip to Japan and we learn through these slides that the couple has strange obsessions with death, as they take pictures of themselves in graveyards, at hangings and, in the fourth verse, actual public executions.�

Jason obviously sees a lot in the slides Tina�s found, more perhaps than their original owners ever knew was there. The centerpiece of the album is an audacious six-song �rock opera� based on slides they�d unearthed from a fast-food company�s corporate marketing meeting in the pre-Power Point days of 1977. As this epic proves, sometimes truth can be way more surreal than fiction. Says Jason, the song cycle �reflects what we imagine must be going on behind so many closed doors in today�s corporate environment.�

A little bit of that fast-food corporate-speak quite aptly describes the TRACHTENBURG FAMILY SLIDESHOW PLAYERS themselves on this remarkable debut disc: �Together As A System We Are Unbeatable.� Bar/None Records welcomes Jason, Tina and Rachel into its roster of iconoclastic artists. They�ve become a part of our family; you�ll want to welcome them into yours now too.

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www.slideshowplayers.com