Family band slides toward success

"It was like night and day," he says of what happened after he gave up his own songs for those based on other people's slides. "We did a couple of shows in coffeehouses and open-mike nights, then started doing shows in small rock clubs . . . and all of a sudden there were lines out the door."

The Trachtenburg Family, which plays its first Boston-area date at the Middle East Downstairs on Sunday, includes Jason on piano and guitar, Tina on the slide projector, and 9-year-old daughter Rachel on the drums. They started their caper in Seattle a few years ago, hence the title of their recent debut CD, "Vintage Slide Collections From Seattle, Vol. 1." They're now based in New York City, says Trachtenburg, who feels strongly that his family has hit on an entertainment coup no matter how eccentric some of their work may be.

His family recently performed on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," and he's got MTV interested in a new video for the song "Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959." That was the first track made from the Seattle slides, and it opens the new CD. It's a satirical tune with lyrics that serve as captions to slides of Mount Fuji ("going to see the mountains"), a man leaning over dogs ("raising cocker spaniels is rewarding"), two older women on a bridge ("better get over it because the ladies are waiting"), and anonymous railroad tracks ("you better get back, people are arriving").

None of this makes a whole lot of literal sense, but it does have a disarming charm. And the music accompanying it has been termed "indie vaudeville," because it mixes the bent indie rock of They Might Be Giants with cabaret-style piano layerings, gently warped vocal harmonies, and some flat-out rocking guitar. Six songs on the new CD also form a mini rock opera based on slides taken from a McDonald's corporate marketing meeting in 1977. The songs have riotous titles, such as "Let's Not Have the Same Weight in 1978 -- Let's Have More," "Why Did We Decide to Take This Decision to You?," and "Together as a System We Are Unbeatable."

"What else are you going to do with McDonald's corporate slides?" says Trachtenburg, laughing. "And if they want to sue us, the publicity would be phenomenal. If they sued us, I'd countersue them for crimes against humanity and destroying the dietary nature of the world."

Seriously, what if someone does take offense at the music accompanying some of the slide presentations? "We did buy all the slides, though we didn't get any releases signed," says Trachtenburg. "But we're doing this under the auspices of satire, which gives you more freedom."

The Trachtenburg Family, which just finished a West Coast tour opening for Guster, does have a few guidelines about what kind of slides they look for at estate sales, yard sales, and the like.

"We need interesting people doing interesting things from the '50s, '60s, and '70s," he says. "We're not looking for vacation shots of the Eiffel Tower or China. . . . And it's very important that they be older slides because they don't make colors like that anymore. There were deeper colors back then."

The bottom line on this group is that the music can still be fun even if every slide might not hold interest. "We're a conceptual art rock/pop band, but we'll always be a pop band," says Trachtenburg. "And I feel we can be a really good pop band."

Caught in the clubs:

Boris McCutcheon at Toad: This Holliston native made one of the great local indie records of the year, "When We Were Big." He backed it up with a superb outing at Toad, where he rocked at times like an outlaw Townes Van Zandt, at others like a jaunty John Hiatt or a latter-day protege of Bob Dylan and the Band. The song "Hurt" was a stunner, showing McCutcheon's deep emotional range, but he also let up and threw in a crowd-pleasing cover of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" as the night hit its climax. And guitarist Austin Nevins added glimmering fills throughout.

J-Live at the Middle East Downstairs: "I love hip-hop!" chanted MC J-Live, as his contagious, dance-hall-influenced style grabbed the Middle East crowd and wouldn't let go. The rapper scored high in the showmanship category, but he also should be commended for his candid verse attacks on complacency and his biting sense of humor, as when he rapped about Fidel Castro: "Castro had a little problem with his cash flow." Has anyone rhymed Castro with cash flow before? In J-Live's creative mind, anything seems possible.

Weekending: Tonight: Missing Joe at Bill's Bar, Quick Fix and Reverse at T.T. the Bear's, Sam Kininger (a Gamelan-produced show; good to see them active again) at the Middle East, Yard Vibes (reggae) at the Western Front, and bluesman Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson at the Bull Run in Shirley. . . . Tomorrow: Sleepy LaBeef's long-awaited rockabilly return to Johnny D's, the Prodigals at the Paradise, and Marie's Children at the Attic in Newton to benefit the homeless.