Lisa Germano
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- Bio: Magic Neighbor is the eighth album from singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Germano. The album was recorded by Jamie Camdiloro at his home in Los Angeles, produced by Germano. Magic Neighbor is ... (more)
- Bio: Magic Neighbor is the eighth album from singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Germano. The album was recorded by Jamie Camdiloro at his home in Los Angeles, produced by Germano. Magic Neighbor is her third release on Young God Records.
Germano didn't approach the recording with the intent of "making a record;" she just needed to address these songs and decide whether they'd be meaningful to anyone besides her. Lacking the means of recording at home she began working with Camdiloro where they'd left off with in the maybe world tracking voice and piano. Besides new songs, Lisa revisited older compositions that'd never been rendered properly, including some that were among the first she'd ever written. She re-worked some lyrics, added more instrumentation, and then brought in Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing) on acoustic bass and Greg Leisz on pedal steel. None of the arrangements were worked out beforehand; all the playing was improvised in the studio
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The final results are impossibly poignant and often heartbreakingly beautiful. Her production has a powerful, imaginative effect - seductive and truly magical. No one sounds like her. You get the feeling you're walking through her dreams as you listen. The intensity of feeling in her singing is a little frightening sometimes - it's like she's singing very close to your ear, leading you through her ultra emotional world. Magic neighbor was written about Germano's neighbor who put her two cats to sleep because. she wanted a new kitchen. But it's a positive record about trying to be happy with all the sad shit in the world, dealing with your own fights and being the mighty one who rises above it and contributes something of worth.
Lisa Germano began releasing her music in the 90's, first on Capitol Records, and then through the legendary 4AD imprint. Notable among them were the fantastic Geek, The Girl, and Excerpts From A Love Circus. These records created a very special "antique," lost carnival atmosphere - extremely personal, simultaneously self-effacing and confrontational missives of emotional damage and impossible love. Right from the start, she received considerable critical acclaim in publications ranging from the most esoteric fanzines to the likes of Spin, Rolling Stone, etc. Lisa became the gold standard for individualistic songstresses and just about every original new female voice that appears winds up compared to her.
With the demise of 4AD, Lisa moved to a new label and unleashed the absolutely beautiful and wrenching audio journey Lullaby For Liquid Pig, featuring woozy paeans to alcohol, fantasy landscapes and out-of-focus dreams. Unfortunately this record company shut its doors just weeks after the album came out and it went out-of-print until its 2007 re-release as a deluxe 2 CD set. In 2005, Lisa found a safe haven at Young God Records and released the utterly stunning In The Maybe World.
Her side projects/collaborations continue to keep her busy in between her own releases: Seven Worlds Collide is a double CD (benefitting Oxfam) helmed by Crowded House's Neil Finn and also featuring Jeff Tweedy, Johnny Marr, Radiohead's Phil Selway and KT Dunstall among others; the group Pucifer led by Maynard Keenan (Tool); recording and touring with "infinite guitarist" Michael Brook; the album OP8 (with Giant Sand and Calexico) in which she is the featured singer; diverse side-person stints with David Bowie, Neil Finn, John Mellencamp, Simple Minds, Iggy Pop, and Sheryl Crow to name a few.
"As an artist/performer, in my opinion, she's right up there with the cadre of strong, emotionally raw challenging and original women singers such as PJ Harvey, Maryanne Faithful, Cat Power and Bjork, and it's about time Lisa had her due." - Michael Gira/Young God Records (less)
