The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players

The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players in Maximum Ink in October 2003

The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are one of the oddest, yet enjoyable musical units to come down the pike in a long time. Jonathon Richman’s early work, like “Ice Cream Man,” “Hey There Little Insect” and “Rockin’ Rockin’ Leprechauns” is about the only music you can compare to the TFSP. 

Formed a couple of years ago in Seattle by Jason [guitar, piano and singer], his wife Tina [projector] and seven year old daughter, Rachel on drums after Tina found and bought some old slide photos at a yard sale. The box was marked “Mountain Trip to Japan 1959 and that was what was on the film, someone’s color slide photos of a trip to Japan in 1959. Jason , who was a mild mannered struggling singer/songwriter in a city filled with aggressive and thriving singer/songwriters, put his talent to work and wrote songs around the slideshow and The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players were born. 

Their songwriting technique has not failed them yet. “We found these slides with eggs on them, so we thought well obviously this song is going to be called “Eggs,” said Jason.

Taking off like a cat with his ass on fire, getting press from National Public Radio to Newsweek, the TFSP packed up and moved from Seattle to Manhattan. Receiving attention from a fawning press and adoring audiences across the country, their career has made it so that Jason no longer has to walk dogs for a living and they can put Rachel in a private school for performing children.

“If you can alter the perceptions of people’s reality in the United States of America for 3 minutes and 18 seconds that’s a start,” said Jason.

The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players perform on November 1 at Luther’s Blues in Madison, November 7 at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis and at Todd Wehr Hall on November 8 in Milwaukee.

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