New Releases 8/1-8/7

Hardly anything new out this week. The record industry must be on summer break....anyway, here are a couple of gems that slipped through the cracks this week. Monsieur Gainsbourg - The Originals (Verve Forecast) Companion release to the Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited tribute album from earlier this year that featured Franz Ferdinand, Cat Power, Michael Stipe, Jarvis Cocker, etc. Even if you missed that one, this still makes for as good as Serge greatest hits collection as there is out there. Check this one out, everybody needs at least one Serge album in their collection. Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players - Off and on Broadway (Sarathan Records) [DVD] Watched this last night and loved it. If you're not familiar with the band, the Trachtenburgs consist of "dad" on vocals/keys, the 12-year old daughter on drums and "mom" working the visuals via a slide projector. As an added bonus, they sometimes even cook veggie cuisine on stage and feed lucky members of the audience. It's all kitschy as hell, but it's almost impossible not to fall in love with this band after watching this DVD. Overall, it's really more of a rock doc than live DVD, though there are numerous live performances in their entirety featured in the main film, and even more in the extras section. Check out the madness for yourself live and in-person next month (9/19) at Double Door.