Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players

The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players describe themselves as an "indie-vaudeville conceptual art-rock pop band", from the United States. Originally from Seattle, Washington, they are now based in New York, New York. The band's members are the Trachtenburg family father, Jason Trachtenburg, who plays guitar and piano and sings; the mother, Tina Piña, who runs the slide projector and is a backup singer; and the daughter, Rachel, who plays the drums and sings. Born on December 10, 1993, Rachel was only six years old when she began performing publicly.

Their trademark is the slideshow itself: slides collected from "estate sales, garage sales, thrift stores, etc." are constantly shown in order to "turn the lives of annonymous [sic] strangers into pop-rock musical expos[é]s 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' competitors' "using network television to take advantage of efficiency" (Wendy's, Sambo's and Long John Silver's).

Tina designs the clothing worn by the group and created the famous Rachel dolls, which are based on her daughter. All three Trachtenburgs are vegetarians and members of the 4th Street Food Co-op. As of 2006, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are part of the USA Network's "Characters Welcome" campaign. Tina is writing a book about a day in the life of Rachel.

Jason Trachtenburg is also a solo artist. In 2000, he released his debut album, Revolutions per Minute, on Orange Recordings. His second album, Together, was released in 2006.

They have recorded on Bar None Records, Cass Records, Sarathan Records, and Tired and Lonesome Records. They also performed at the first Gel conference in 2003. A video for one song has appeared on Jack's Big Music Show on Noggin.

The Trachtenburgs made a brief appearance in Moby's music video for "New York New York". The video was directed by Reverend Jen, a friend of both Moby and the Trachtenburgs. The family were seen seated next to Reverend Jen and her dog, Reverend Jen, Jr, in an open-air restaurant, playing Rock, Paper, Scissors.

	"Eggs" (2001) 30 second sample of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players' song "Eggs" from their debut album, Vintage Slide Collections From Seattle, Vol. 1.
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As of December 2006, a group of New York University film students are shooting a feature-length documentary following the Trachtenburgs on their most recent tour.

Rachel Trachtenburg formed her own band in 2009 called Supercute! (formerly called The Oh My God Girls).

Beginning

Jason first met Tina at a Greenwich Village open-mic in New York City around 1989. They soon moved to Seattle, Washington, where their daughter, Rachel, was born in 1993. The family ran a dog-walking business called The Dog Squad by day while Jason was an open-mic performer by night. However, his music act was failing to find audiences.

While dog-walking with Rachel, Tina found an old slide projector and a box of slides at an estate sale from a family trip in Japan during the year of 1959. When Tina suggested to Jason that he use the slides in his music, Jason then wrote a song to accompany the slides. The song was titled "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; 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 along with $500 as their prize. They continued their act and later moved to New York City.

Discography

Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players

• Vintage Slide Collections From Seattle, Vol 1(2001)
• Adventures In Middle America, Vol 2 (2004)/ (2006)

Jason Trachtenburg

• Revolutions Per Minute (2000)
• Together (2006)
• Jason Trachtenburg: File Under Pop Male Vocal (2009)
• Contributed a recording of "Doctor Worm" to Hello Radio, a They Might Be Giants tribute album

DVD releases

• The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway (2006)

Unreleased songs

• "World's Best Friend" (Performed at Lamb's Theatre in 2006 on The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off & On Broadway with The WoWz.
• "You're The One Who's Made For Me and I Was Made For You" (released on the band's MySpace.)
• "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)

External links and references

• Trachtenburg family website
• Jason Trachtenburg website
• Official record label website
• Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players at MySpace
• Filter Magazine article Filter Magazine (2006)
• Steve Stav, The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow: Players Emerge From the Underground; The Tablet (Seattle), Vol. 1, Issue 6, April 2001.
• Jason Trachtenburg Interview for Revolt Music Magazine