Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players - 'Vintage Slide Collections From Seattle, Volume 1' (Tired & Lonesome)
4/5
By: Toby L
Every year's got one. It dawns on journalists more appetisingly than a payola-dollop of Columbia's finest, and provides stories so easily that the unoriginal column-inches virtually fill themselves.
Yes, we're talking about The Cult (not the band; sorry, Astbury - got excited, didn't you?). But that odd breed of artist which comes along and sabotages attention from the perhaps truly-warranted by being, quite frankly, bloody odd. Genius move.
Whether they're any good or not, Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are going to be popular (if only fleetingly). They're real relatives that write upbeat tales based upon old, skanky slides that they find from US car-boot sales; they invent musical scenarios from random strangers' old photo-albums, in short. No; voyeurism and eavesdropping have never sounded so sweet.
The trio comprises father and pianist/vocalist/Rick Moranis look-alike Jason; mother Tina Pina, who orchestrates the ensemble's fashion-wardrobe, and plots the slideshows from which they seize their lyrical subject-matter for each of their uber-eccentric 'indie-vaudeville conceptual art-rock pop' anthems; and cutesy-wootsy, prodigal daughter, Rachel, who - despite being aged 10 - drums like a bad-ass, singing simultaneously.
It's good fun, all told. To discriminate against the sentiment of their operation would merely highlight the listener's own lack of heart. This oozes in knowing, cheeky panache - as witty as it is actually melodic. The random topics - 'Opnad Contribution Study Committee Report, June 1977' - often prove baffling, but that's all part of it; even when it does hit pay-dirt - the opening 'Mountain Trip To Japan, 1959' - you can hardly say it's conventional, all chipper, chirpy electronic keys and oompah-oompah rhythm-parts.
When helplessly camp - 'European Boys' - it's somehow sordid, but still innocent ('European boys... Looking for sausage... European girls... rarely wear pants'). 'Eggs', meanwhile, is sloppy, bad rock 'n' roll, but hilarious, while - in the same vein - 'Why Did We Decide To Take This Decision To You' is quite epic (despite lasting a whole 55 seconds). Best of all is the closer, and no doubt live-set finale, 'Believing In You', an opus in which the family thank us for our time in listening. Aww.
Proof affirmative that gimmicks work in not just pop, but the indie-elite too - The Slideshow Players are delightfully obscure and adorable in equal, bizarre measure.
Artists in this article: Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players
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