Line #30 Music/LisaGermano


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Lisa_Germano_8546.jpg]]
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3	Lisa Ruth Germano (born June 27, 1958) is a DreamPop musician and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, violin, piano, drum machines, occasional bass) from [[DownOnTheFarm Indiana]].
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5	She got her start in the industry as a prolific session musician, first joining Music/JohnMellencamp's band in 1987 and proceeding to work with other artists like Music/SimpleMinds, Music/DavidBowie, Yann Tiersen, Neil Finn, Music/SherylCrow, [[Music/TheStooges Iggy]] [[Music/IggyPop Pop]], Music/{{Jewel}} and Music/{{Eels}}.
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7	Starting with 1991, she has put out solo work that is innovative and extraordinary. Her music is DreamPop[=/=]BaroquePop (specifically, the minimally-arranged melancholic Music/ThisMortalCoil brand of dream pop) infused with {{alternative\|Rock}} darkness and some folk rock elements. Her songwriting is melancholy yet kooky at times.
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9	However, you have likely not heard it because of Lisa's long string of bad luck with labels and the industry. Her first album, ''On the Way Down From the Moon Palace'', was issued on her own label and therefore didn't win a wide audience but did convince Creator/CapitolRecords to take a chance. However, just before the release of ''Happiness'', a reorganisation at Capitol axed the jobs of the executives who supported her and killed promotion. Lisa gained back the rights and moved to famous dream pop label Creator/FourADRecords. There, she remixed some of the tracks with 4AD's in-house producer John Fryer and put out two more well-received albums. However, 4AD's distribution deal with Creator/WarnerBrosRecords expired in 1998, meaning less resources to promote ''Slide''. That same year, Lisa was hired as backing vocalist for Music/TheSmashingPumpkins' upcoming tour, then fired on the day it was about to begin, and while touring by herself to promote ''Slide'' 4AD notified her that she'd be dropped from the label. She quit the music biz for 4 years, then returned only to have another critically-acclaimed album be released on a short-lived label and finally finding a more-or-less permanent home on Young God Records (signed personally by [[Music/{{Swans}} Michael Gira]] because he was a fan of her music).
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11	!!Discography:
12	* ''On the Way Down From the Moon Palace'' (1991)
13	* ''Happiness'' (1993 on Capitol originally, was re-released with a different sequencing and new songs in 1994 on 4AD)
14	** ''Inconsiderate Bitch'' (1994, EP comprised of alternate mixes of some songs from ''Happiness'' made by John Fryer)
15	* ''Geek the Girl'' (1994)
16	* ''Excerpts From a Love Circus'' (1996)
17	* ''Slide'' (1998)
18	* ''Concentrated'' (2002; her version of a GreatestHits album)
19	* ''Rare, Unusual or Just Bad Songs'' (2002; compilation of rarities)
20	* ''lullaby for liquid pig'' (2003)
21	* ''In the Maybe World'' (2006)
22	* ''Magic Neighbor'' (2009)
23	* ''No Elephants'' (2013)
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25	!!Lisa provides the following tropes:
26	* ClusterFBomb - "... Of Love and Colors" is possibly the creepiest example of this trope. Additionally, we have "Red Thread" from ''In the Maybe World''.
27	* ConceptAlbum - ''Geek the Girl'', which is about a girl who wants to be sexual and cool, but she remains unpopular and gets taken advantage of. She decides to give up, but then hopes that her life will turn out for the better. [[http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/on_second_thought/lisa-germano-geek-the-girl.htm Here's an elaborate explanation on the story.]]
28	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment - The title of "Sexy Little Girl Princess".
29	** The first two lines of "Crash" are ''If you say ''You could say I feel this way/'Cause it's the way I feel''.
30	* DullSurprise - She tends to use unemotional, flat-sounding vocals for LyricalDissonance or to complement the music.
31	* EarlyBirdCameo - Her earliest appearance was as the fiddle player in John Cougar Mellencamp's "Paper in Fire" video.
32	* FromBadToWorse - Her past label trouble. Seems [[EarnYourHappyEnding she's finally found a permanent label]] on Young God.
33	* KindheartedCatLover - Three songs on ''Excerpts from a Love Circus'' ("A Beautiful Schizophrenic", "Victoria's Secret" and "Messages from Sophia") end with interludes involving Lisa and her cats.
34	* LastNoteNightmare – "… A Psychopath" is an inversion. It's an incredibly creepy song about a StalkerWithACrush from the stalkee's point of view, with a real 911 call playing in the background. Until the last 30 seconds or so, when it breaks into a sampled cheerful-sounding instrumental (specifically an Italian folk song) that wouldn't sound out of place at a circus.
35	* LyricalDissonance - People who like ''Geek the Girl''[='=]s whispery vocals and ethereal dream pop are in for a surprise when they pay attention to the more disturbing, FridgeHorror lyrics ("Cry Wolf", "Trouble" and "Cancer of Everything", for example).
36	** And, again, "Red Thread".
37	* MoodWhiplash - "... Of Love and Colors" whiplashes between [[CrapsackWorld rambling about "fucked-up people"]] over an ominous musical backing and a more optimistic-sounding piano melody with lyrics imagining [[WorldHalfFull a better world]].
38	* ObsessionSong – "… A Psychopath" is a ''very'' aggressive ObsessionSong sung from [[InvertedTrope the perspective of the stalkee]].
39	* OvershadowedByAwesome - Compare how many tropes refer to ''Geek the Girl'' and how many to other albums.
40	* PerishingAltRockVoice - A rather childish, whispery one at that.
41	* RecordProducer - She either is involved with production or self-produces her albums (''On the Way Down'', everything from ''Liquid Pig'' onwards). Other people she's worked with include: Malcolm Burn (for ''Happiness'' and ''Geek the Girl''), Tchad Blake (''Slide''), Bill Bottrell (''Excerpts From a Love Circus'').
42	* {{Sampling}} - That recurring circus melody that appears as an interlude in ''Geek the Girl'', according to the liner notes, was taken from an "Italian folk tune called Frascilita".
43	* StalkerWithACrush - "... A Psychopath" is probably the most unsettling example of this trope in musical form.

Context Music / LisaGermano