Customer Reviews

The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players: Off and on Broadway

5 star:		(5)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Trachtenburg Family is a unique one. Two parents, and their 12-year old daughter, in a band, and play slide on their projector from pics they have found at garage sales, and then make songs based on the slides. Unreal. I've been reading about them and then got this DVD which in good insight into the band and the music. Highly recommended, and i can't wait to see them live!

The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are a great family band that is really different but really fun. If you are even looking at this review, then you probably know what I'm talking about. Rachel is becoming the star of the group as she is a teenager and cute. Really that seems to be the criteria now-a-days. But she still can play drums and has great timing. This DVD sort of spells out what the Family Players are all about and it defines their art in music. It is a very special collection and if you are looking for something from them that will fill your appetite for their zany brand of good clean fun humor in music, while still having a social message, then this is for you.

Though I was familiar with TFSP, I didn't buy the disc until I saw it was nominated for best music DVD of the year by the Plug Awards, which is an indie award ceremony based in NY. This is the most unusual music DVD I think I have ever bought! DVD is definitely the medium for this band, since their narrative slideshow is integral to thier concept. Most music DVDs I own, I tend to watch once or twice, but often listen to without picture, since the video just don't hold my attention after that. This disc is sort of like a pop train wreck about to happen, and I can't look away.

My highest recomendation. (whatever that means)

I've been waiting for this for years! I have seen them live and I have listened to their CDs. I must admit they are a visual band so the CDs don't do them justice. That is why I was so excited to hear they released this DVD. It's fun. It's quirky. It's a must have for any indie-vaudeville fan.

I saw the Trachtenburgs in Baltimore recently and was stunned by their musicality. It is music that feels like the Beatles but has a Monty Python tint to it. The slide show that is part of the experience is funny. At times it is hard to decipher what it the slides mean in conjunction with the music, but overall it is a unique and satisfying experience hearing and watching this talented family. Rachel, the daughter, was a charm, complete with an expression of bordom as she drummed out some amazing songs. I really don't know much about the DVD, other than it has the music and the slideshows so it kind of captures the live experience. If you get a chance to see them, do so, otherwise, buy the DVD if you are interested in good music and funny slides.

i saw this family peform this weekend at 45 bleeker in nyc. please try and imagine 13 yr old rachel play a ukele badly while singing john bonham songs to the 4 yr olds sitting in the front row as ma-trachtenberg acted out the songs on a felt story board attached to a suitcase. i won't mention jason and his cast of friends that didn't really have a clue. the 4 yr olds really liked it but anyone over 5yrs old was so over it all!!! and if tina and jason didn't get it ... rachel is BORED with you all. she's your gimmick and she grown tired of you!!!

I picked this up on the strength of seeing them perform "Look At Me" on Conan O'Brien years ago. They must have been really on that night because in this collection they're sloppy, not clever and waaaay too impressed with themselves. The hipster doofus factor is high, both in how others describe them and how they see themselves.

The father is an unwashed Rick Moranis/Robert Crumb hybrid, and if their daughter wasn't precocious, cute and stylishly bored they'd still be walking dogs and being act #7 at beatnik clubs.

Their political songs are the worst because Rick-Crumb finds so much horrible, incriminating (and of course artfully ironic) evidence in simple corporate slide show presentations he simply smirks and sing-songs the words on the screen.

It seems little effort was put into writing more than one or two awkward melodies, and then beating them into the ground. I write this as a fan of The Shaggs. Their whole act is look at us, dig our concept, love our thrift store fashions and envy our Bohemian lifestyle.

This was a big letdown. I wanted and expected to like this. The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players were great on Conan but besides that they're a pretentious, lazy mess. The DVD was filmed well and offers a lot of songs for the buck, but wow, this sucks.