Jason Trachtenburg

As the guitarist of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Jason Trachtenburg swaps singing duties with his teenage daughter (and drummer), Rachel, while his wife, Tina, operates a slide projector, casting old images of other families’ birthday parties and vacations to time with the music. Trachtenburg is equally quirky and innovative as a solo artist — his 2000 debut album, Revolutions Per Minute (Orange Recordings), put political musings akin to post-Beatles Lennon on a bed of soft beats and warm, folk guitars but stayed light and strange enough to avoid any sort of street preachin’ vibe (so instead of Rosie O’Donnell-ish rants, we get a protest song about a cell phone tower called “No Antennas in Ravenna”). Trachtenburg’s currently on tour in support of his latest solo effort (last year’s Together), and although he’s still addressing the “hard” issues, he’s also making us laugh with new tunes like “I Feel that Your Love Is Penetrating My Love” and “East Village Rocker with a Missed Connection.”