Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 10:22:34 EDT From: CreigJ@AOL.COM Subject: Lisa Germano - Slip Slidin' Away Lisa Germano - Slide - CAD 8014 1. Way Below the Radio 2. No Color Here 3. Tomorrowing 4. Electrified 5. Slide 6. If I Think of Love 7. Crash 8. Wood Floors 9. Turning into Betty 10. Guillotine 11. Reptile Produced by Tchad Blake I remember seeing Lisa live on the Love Circus tour at the very intimate Birchmere in Alexandria, VA after a slightly-less-intimate performance by Melissa Ferrick. After Lisa performed "Cowboy", she said, "Here's a song I wrote about the same guy a couple of years later. This is called 'Guillotine'." Seeing her perform live really helped me to warm up to Excerpts, which I had trouble with prior to that. Slide I don't find as difficult as I did Excerpts; I like it a lot already. If Geek the Girl had the less morose atmosphere of Excerpts, you'd have Slide. Plus we're treated to some Tchad Blake noises here and there which is great. Release date? Maybe September, like Excerpts was... CJ Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1998 18:45:54 EDT From: CreigJ@AOL.COM Subject: Re: Lisa G.-Slip Slidin' Away/If I Think of Love >Wait. You're saying Geek the Girl was *less* morose than Excerpts? >-Karen No, I said that Excerpts has the less morose atmosphere. Much less. Much, much less. Slide seems to have the intimacy of Geek the Girl while maintaining a more upbeat (and I DO mean all of this relatively speaking) feeling. >How does this version of If I Think of Love compare to the one on the OP8 >album? I think that song is exquisite. My favorite on that CD, and one of >my all-time fave Germano songs. Ummmm, the new version is slightly shorter, with more up-front vocals. The drums sound a bit less "alive" here. Not better, not worse. A unique perspective. All good. CJ Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 12:05:32 -0800 From: patrick barnes Subject: Lisa Germano review There was a nice review (with a big photo) of the Lisa Germano show at The Knitting Factory in Monday's New York Times. Among the commentary: from [Pop Review] LOVE SONGS TO CODDLED NEUROSES By Ann Powers NYT 7/13/98 'Singing as if to herself, playing rudimentary chords on the piano or electric giutar, Ms. Germano pulled at a tangle of mixed emotions. "All my mistakes, woven in a rug, black, blue and dusty," she sang from her fifth album, "Shine" (4AD), to be released this month. 'Is there a beauty there?" This question has been raised by artists before, especially within the female modernist tradition that started with Virginia Woolf and extends to writers like Carole Maso and songwriters like Jane Siberry. What Ms. Germano brings to this genre is a Midwestern plain-spokenness and a musical sense that isn't as amateurish as it sounds. In this solo performance, Ms. Germano mostly stayed at the piano, where her playing recalled the sounds of childhood, nursery rhymes and ice cream trucks. Juxtaposing music that invokes innocence with lyrics that reveal self-hatred and doubt, Ms. Germano's songs revealed just how confortable familial assumptions can be, even when they drag downward. 'He knows my love runs deeper than my feelings." she sang in one of her many examinations of dysfunctional relationships. Such love, the song suggested, is more a bad habit than a true emotion. "Shine" suggests that Ms. Germano is ready to move on to the risky ambiguities of hope. Although she answered the question in "No Colors Here" with a resounding "no", and "Guillotine" chronicled the shock of emotional loss ^× "After you're gone, where are my arms?" she sang ^× other songs tentatively explored fulfillment. Her fans laughed at "Wood Floors," a suspicious glance at domestic contentment, as if they were having as much trouble believing Ms. Germano's new mood as she was. The songs on "Shine" are more convincing when fleshed out on record; Tchad Blake's delicate production adds much that wasn't clear from this sometimes monotonous show. But for all her skepticism about the promise of happiness, Ms. Germano's tiny steps in that direction offered her compelling new psychologies to deconstruct.' Date: Sun, 19 Jul 1998 18:37:50 -0400 From: "H.P./M.G." Subject: Lisa Germano from Billboard Online from www.billboard.com: LISA GERMANO BRIGHTENS ON SLIDE: Lisa Germano's albums delve deep into her psyche -- usually unveiling a darkness brightened only by the beauty of her music. But her new 4AD album, "Slide," mines fresh emotional terrain. "It's about sliding in and out of different places in your head," says Germano of the disc, which is due July 21 in the U.S., with international releases to follow. "Like when you know there are better places to be, but you're so used to feeling bad all the time. But it's just a habit, and you're finally starting to realize you can get out of it -- but you slide back and forth." Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 19:29:42 PDT From: Zarqa Javed Subject: Sliding and Swaying So I finally got a hold of LG's Slide, Seattle music joints I frequent not being too hip to stocking the brand spankist of new releases. The soundtrack to my dreams is all I can say (rather melodramatically). Hasn't quite carved the niche in my psyche that Excerpts did last year (or was it the year before that) only because Excerpts was a soundtrack to some sorrowful times around Dec. Jan. Feb (march?) of that year and SLide comes at as time when one is happier and has plenty to do with ones arms (sic "where are my arms, now that you're gone) Thanks to whoever posted that review of said album and performance from NY Times..pretty much summed up what I wrote in my own unsolicited review of LG's performance at the Knitting Factory last year (minus the personal drama of course) THis woman is beautiful and I can imagine my love for her oeuvre only growing stronger as the years progress. Imagine doing one of those ridiculous MTV FANatic interviews with her just to tell her I love her and to ask stupidly if she herself is as sad as her words suggest and why. FInally a release from this label that I can revel in and call my own. Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1998 15:33:09 -0400 From: Jeff Keibel Subject: American Dreaming LISA GERMANO : Slide CAD78014CD number is listed; bar (5263780142), matrix (CAD8014) Out in the US since July 21st, this won't be issued in the UK until October 20th with PolyGram Canada issuing it on September 22nd. The art direction from Paul McMenamin is truly beautiful. In a year of odd catalog numbers, the CAD78014CD with the added "7" seems like it could be a mistake. Why put a number on just one release and not the others??