Wooing
Daydream Time Machine 7-inch single
scum stats: doesn’t appear to be limited, but I’ve been wrong before
Lead singer/guitarist of Wooing, Rachel Trachtenburg, was the 9-year-old drummer in the Trachtenburg Family Slide Show Players a lifetime ago.
I first became aware of TFSP in early 2003 when I caught their performance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. The song “Look at Me” cut straight through to my heart, equal parts quirky, sincere and clever.
The band’s MO was to take slides found at garage sales and thrift stores and use the images from those slides to compose songs to tell invented stories about what they depict. All while projecting those slides in concert.
It felt like one of the most beautiful, purely American things I had ever encountered.
I saw the band perform later that year at SXSW and struck up a convo with Jason, the song-writer and piano player (and Rachel’s father) about the possibility of putting out a record on my newly-started label Cass Records.
He seemed somewhat bothered at the moment. I felt I was out-of-my-league, that he was just being polite. The band came through Detroit later that year and when folks were LAUGHING at the band I felt offended.
This was something sweet and charming and innocent and the crowd seemed to only be viewing it as a comedy routine. I was mad.
(FYI, mom Tina Pina handled the projection duties and played no instruments)
Anyway, I put on the hard sell, told the band the two songs I wanted to put out (“Look at Me” and “Don’t You Know What I Mean”), told them the studio to record at (NY Head) and even gave them the directive to NOT record the song with a piano (eck) but to use Jason’s trusty tour Casio, as that was part of what had drawn me to the band.
My offensive actually took hold. Jason agreed to do the record. At the ripe age of twenty this was my first-ever “win” in regards to convincing a band to do a record that really had no reason to want to do one with me. I actually hadn’t put out any records on my own yet at that point, but I didn’t tell him that!
Rachel had one request, and that was to have the record pressed on pink vinyl. I happily obliged.
Fifteen years later, having worked on over 600 releases, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players single and the fuck-all number of copies it sold is still one of my prouder moments in the record business.
TFPS would later play in Detroit in 2004 and Rachel and Meg White would realize they have the same birthday, I would give the band some slides found in the attic at Jack White’s newly-purchased house (where the Stripes would record “Get Behind Me Satan”) and I gave them a bolt of fabric (possibly wall-paper) as the band was actively collecting material from fans to use to make their own stage apparel.
They stayed at my mom’s house that trip. Years later they would stay at the local Hare Krishna temple in Detroit because they’d found out they could eat free vegetarian meals there. To me, that was some HARDCORE, in-depth touring knowledge. I could never ride that hard.
Wooing sounds nothing like TFSP. That’s fine by me. Rachel is an adult now, does part time modeling and generally seems to be on top of her shit.
It’s refreshing to see someone who’s been in “the biz” from such an early age to have a solid head on their shoulders. Gives me hope.
“Tear World” reminds me of “To Keep Me” by that dog. That’s a good thing. Quiet/loud dynamics with 90’s era fuzz flourishes.
“In Colour” rides on airy atmospherics before giving way to lush soundscapes of guitar-led pyrotechnics. It sizzles.
“Two Can Keep a Secret” is sweet and twangy before EXPLOSIVE guitar stabs splatter across the horizon.
This shit is good. You should like it. Even Rachel’s note with the single is perfect
“Hey Ben!!
I hope life is going great (drawing of a flower)
enjoy the 7” :)
oxox Rachel”
If you’re just crazy enough, you should check out the Trachtenburg Family single. I still think it holds up all these years after. There’s copies on Discogs cheap, I’ve still got ‘em at www.cassrecords.com too if my daughters haven’t used ‘em all for frisbees yet. Or if you’ve made it this far down and can post a semi-coherent, insightful comment, I’ll probably just send one to you.
