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The silence is enveloping, much like the drum kit that dwarfs 12-year-old Rachel Trachtenburg. Someone just asked Jason, the Trachtenburg Family patriarch, about a secret daughter. As far as heckles go, it's Herculean. Asking a family about a clandestine child is a little like asking a pirate about buried treasure.
"I heard there's another daughter," the punter pontificates. "But she's not talented, so you don't let her play in the band." Jason Trachtenburg -- father of Rachel, writer of songs, and provider of guitar, keys, and vocals -- pauses, taking a second to compose himself. A cursory glance is thrown at Tina, wife of Jason, mother of Rachel, and supplier of the background slide projections that act not only as an eye-pleasing prop to the Trachtenburg show but also as a pre-cursor to their songs -- providing lyrical fodder for their primitive-sounding pop jangle.
A beat.
Are we to learn a hidden truth about the Trachtenburg Family Slide Show Players, the New York-by-way-of-Seattle band whose nucleus is in fact the nuclear family?
Another beat.
Jason chuckles and explains that no, it's not true, and was in fact a rumor they started at the Edinburgh Festival. As hoaxes go, it's Kaufman-esque in its execution. And, just like the maverick comedian wasn't your typical joke teller, the Trachtenburgs aren't your typical rock band. They formed fortuitously six years ago when Tina found a set of slides entitled "Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959" at an estate sale and Jason set them to song. The family, obviously, begat the band, but since synching up the slide projector six years ago, the Trachtenburg's have exploded in their own microcosm. They've already appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, scored MTV UK promos, and released a DVD that captures their unique brand of familial rock and roll.
Corn Mo
In a parallel universe of Las Vegas lounges, tonight's support act, Corn Mo, is also exploding. He's part crooner, part comedian, all performer. Clad in a white suit with long straight hair that tickles his shoulders, he looks like Philip Seymour Hoffman playing '70s glam rocker Roy Wood of Wizard. Corn Mo (real name John Cunningham) is Brooklyn based, but calls Denton, Texas, home. That may explain why he is also a part-time member of fellow Texan group the Polyphonic Spree. But, whereas they use a chorus of voices, Corn Mo cuts a lonely figure onstage. He's both a one-man band and a one-shtick pony, but we forgive him, because it's a good shtick. Alternating between accordion and piano, he's part Tenacious D, part Jonathan Richman, and part Meat Loaf. A weird combination? Yes, but it works.
His opening song veers from classical to glam to gypsy and back again. Accompanied by an accordion, Corn Mo rhymes "Vatican", "American", and "Toni Braxton" with Seuss-ian ease. Later, he sings soulfully about moonbeams and lollipops, before adding, "I want to bang you." As the set continues, the songs become secondary to his segues, which are full of rambling narratives and non-sequiturs that speak of time travel and astral projection, Benjamin Franklin and Atlantic City slot machines. He finishes with a rocking, karaoke-style cover of a traditional Bah Mitzvah song before walking off, leaving the stage bare and the audience bewildered.
When the time comes, the Trachtenburg Family Slide Show Players make their way to the stage from the back of the room where they've been milling with the crowd and shilling their own merchandise. A self-described "indie-vaudeville conceptual art-rock pop band" they also, as Jason points out early on, "make a mockery of the family vacation." It's like they've taken the government's "No Child Left Behind" policy as literally as possible: their child, Rachel, is an integral part, and some would say star, of the band. A competent drummer, she also provides backing vocals for her father's songs, which roll along with such giddy glee that it's far from surprising when they mention one will soon be used on a Nickelodeon show.
The Trachtenburg Family Slide Show Players
The Trachtenburgs' show is not all saccharine, though, as their tunes deal with such disparate topics as beautiful dandelions, birthday parties, and public executions. An allusion to the efficacious friendliness of two females featured in a slide show is also made.
Tonight they are joined by honorary fourth and fifth members -- Emma the dog (who only lasts three songs before being led away for what I can only imagine was some sort of boorish behavior) and Alec Cumming, who joins the band on bass for several tunes. Musically, the Trachtenburgs mine an indie-pop field pot-holed previously by bands like Papas Fritas and early Of Montreal. Starting off with their theme song, the band sling through a set that at times sounds like Sesame Street covering The Velvet Underground. Jason stammers his way through endearing introductions to each song, explaining that "The World's Best Friend" takes us from the cradle to the grave in 3 minutes and 23 seconds and that the slides used in "Cultural Moments in Fine Art" are from the 1980s -- an age they rarely allude to visually.
As far as family bands go, the Trachtenburgs are not exactly singular (the Partridges preceded them by a few decades), but they're the best encapsulation of what a family should be in today's world of Osbourne-orientated rock and roll reality-show spin-offs. Musically, the Trachtenburg family sound a little ramshackle, not unlike a log cabin - they're held together tenuously, but remain warm and welcoming all the same. And, much like Corn Mo before them, they too are one-shtick ponies, but it's a good shtick… and we forgive them.
The only lull in the evening, aside from the aforementioned impromptu Q&A session, is a new song called "The Couch Culture" that sounds under-rehearsed and a little forced. It is a first live airing, so some slack can be cut. Maybe they're not perfect, but really, whose family is?
— 1 September 2006
