The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players were an American indie-rock/art pop family band. It consisted of main vocalist Jason Trachtenburg, his wife Tina, and their only child, Rachel.

Overview

The band's members consisted of father, Jason Trachtenburg, who played

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

and

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

and sang; mother, Tina Piña, who ran the

slide projector A slide projector is an opto-mechanical device for showing photographic slides. 35 mm slide projectors, direct descendants of the larger-format magic lantern, first came into widespread use during the 1950s as a form of occasional hom ...

and was a backup vocalist; and daughter,

Rachel Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aun ...

, who played the drums and sang backup. Born on December 10, 1993, Rachel was only six years old when she began performing publicly. Their trademark was the slideshow itself: slides collected from "

estate sale An estate sale or estate liquidation is a sale or auction to dispose of a substantial portion of the materials owned by a person who is recently deceased or who must dispose of their personal property to facilitate a move. Reasons for an estate ...

garage sale A garage sale (also known as a yard sale, tag sale, moving sale and by many other namesSome rarely used names include "attic sale," "basement sale," "rummage sale," "thrift sale," "patio sale," "lawn sale," and "jumble sale".) is an informal ...

s, thrift stores, etc." were constantly shown in order to "turn the lives of annonymous strangers into pop-rock musical expos � based on the contents of these slide collections". The band sings about things that occurred in the places shown in the slides, such as public execution (''Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959'') and

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

' competitors (Wendy's, Sambo's and Long John Silver's) "using network television to take advantage of efficiency".

History

Jason first met Tina at a

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

open-mic in New York City around 1989. They soon moved to

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...

, where their daughter, Rachel, was born in 1993. The family ran a

dog-walking Dog walking is the act of a person walking with a dog, typically from the dog's residence and then returning. Leashes are commonly used for this. Both owners and pets receive many benefits, including exercise and companionship. Description ...

business called The Dog Squad by day while Jason was an open-mic performer by night. However, his music act, The Terriers, failed to find audiences. While dog-walking with Rachel, Tina found an old slide projector and a box of slides at an

from a 1959 family trip to Japan. When Tina suggested that Jason use the slides in his music, he wrote a song to accompany the slides, "Mountain Trip To Japan, 1959". The song was later released on the debut album ''Vintage Slide Collections From Seattle, Vol 1''. Eventually, the Trachtenburgs formed together, with Jason playing keyboards and guitar and providing vocals, Tina operating the slide projector and Rachel playing harmonica (later playing drums). The trio performed their act at a local talent show and won first place and a $500 prize. They continued their act and later moved to New York City. The Trachtenburgs disbanded in 2008 after Rachel formed her own girl band, Supercute! in 2009, and Jason formed his band,

The Pendulum Swings ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, also in 2009. Tina continues her artistic endeavors in the parks of Manhattan, where she is known as the performance artist

Mother Pigeon Tina Trachtenburg ( née Piña ), known by her stage name Mother Pigeon is a street performance artist in New York City. In a typical show, she arranges an art installation of hand made soft sculptures representing pigeons and other urban wildl ...

.New York Post video "A New York gem: this woman is "mother" to hundreds of pigeons" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPhHU863P14

Discography

;Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players *''Vintage Slide Collections from Seattle, Vol I'' (2001) *''Adventures in Middle America, Vol. 2'' (2004) *''Lost and Found'' (2011) ;Kate Nash – "Kiss That Grrrl" CD single (UK) (2741841) *1. "Kiss That Grrrl" – Kate Nash, 3:44 *2. "Kiss That Grrrl" – performed by The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, 4:42

DVD releases

;Self-released untitled 4-track DVD * "Middle America" live music video * "Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959" music video * "Look at Me" – live on the Conan O'Brien show, 3 January 2003 * Sundance Channel documentary ;''The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway'' (2006)

Unreleased songs

*"World's Best Friend" – performed at

Lamb's Theatre Lamb's Theatre was an Off-Broadway theater located at 130 West 44th Street, Manhattan, New York City inside the Manhattan Church of the Nazarene, near Times Square in New York City. It seated approximately 350 and specialized in musical productio ...

in 2006 on ''The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway'' with The WoWz *"Charcoal Gray" – a song commissioned for a private party *"Let's Go On Tour With Kate" – released on the band's website; music video featuring Kate Nash

References

{{Authority control Anti-folk groups American art rock groups Family musical groups Indie rock musical groups from New York (state) Indie rock musical groups from Washington (state) Musical groups established in 2000 Musical groups disestablished in 2011 Musical groups from New York City American musical trios Outsider musicians Performance art in New York City