Lisa Germano

I am incredibly proud and pleased to release the music of Lisa Germano on Young God Records. I have been a fan of Lisa's music for years. Her songs are impossibly poignant and often heartbreakingly beautiful. She's a great lyricist and singer but also an extremely talented multi-instrumentalist. She plays violin, piano/keyboards and guitar with equal authority, as well as producing her own records with great imaginative effect - the result is 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. It's a place I very much enjoy visiting, and I hope you will too.

Lisa began releasing her music in the 90's, first on Capitol Records, and then several more albums through 4AD. Perhaps most 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. She received a fair amount of acclaim at the time in publications ranging from independent-oriented fanzines and magazines and on to Spin, Rolling Stone, etc. In 2003 Lisa released the absolutely beautiful and wrenching audio journey Lullaby For Liquid Pig, featuring woozy paeans to alcohol, fantasy landscapes and out-of-focus dreams. Her side projects/collaborations include the album OP8 (with Giant Sand and Calexico) in which she is the featured singer, and diverse hired side-person stints with David Bowie, Neil Finn, John Mellencamp, Simple Minds, Iggy Pop, Sheryl Crow and others. 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. in the maybe world features some of Lisa’s best songs to date. Typically, her (self) production and arrangements are inventive and completely unique, the words cut right to the core and her voice carries you gently off into a world where the distinctions between beauty, loss, love and pain tend to blur. The songs are immediately gratifying and sensual, but are also ultimately complicated and reward repeated listening. I hope you enjoy the music ! - Michael Gira/Young God Records 2006 

lisa germano (incomplete) Discography: 

On the Way Down From the Moon Palace (1991) 

Happiness (1993) 

Geek the Girl (1994) 

Excerpts From a Love Circus (1996) 

Slide (1998) 

OP8 - Slush, with Calexico and Giant Sand (date?) 

Lullaby for Liquid Pig (2003) 

In The Maybe World (Young God) (2006) 

Lullaby For Liquid Pig Re-issue 2xCD (Young God) (2007)

Magic neighbor (Young God) (2009)

A few Lisa reviews: 

“…Lisa Germano is the undisputed queen of sadcore. For more than 20 years, she’s made an extensive and impressive career with her clandestine vision of troubled emotions, lurid storytelling, and isolation. As a much sought-after session player, she’s been contracted from a veritable who’s who of rock ’n’ roll giants. But it’s always been her solo releases that have allowed Germano’s talents as a singer/multi-instrumentalist to come forth and shine. Her music is sad, beautiful, and intimate—odes to abuse, neglect, addiction, and feline companions have all factored into Germano’s hushed and yearning world. Hurtful sentiments and reflections rule the landscape of her subconscious…” - KNOXVILLE VOICE 

Lullaby for Liquid Pig review Oct 07: 

“ The exquisite singer songwriter Lisa Germano often walks that miraculously fine line between breathtaking terror and intoxicating beauty. Chilling seductive and sorrowful but dressed up like a lovely lullaby to mask the tragic core. Lost and found and lost again along the way to oblivion. Magically there are these glimmers of hope that shine though, and the melodies are so instantly beguiling that you’re swept off your feet, but no matter how scary it gets she’s holding your hand. That compassion like a lifeline between life and infinite darkness. Lisa is accompanied by a dream cast of supporters including Johnny Marr, Craig Ross (who also mixed), and Neil Finn on Optigan, among others for a dreamy orchestral facility. This was originally released in 2003, and has since gone out of print and was rescued by the noble heroics of Young God Records as a double disc triple gatefold sleeve. The second disc features eleven previously unreleased home recordings and live recordings from Lisbon and Largo. This includes songs and suites of her songs from this album, and songs from previous albums and elsewhere. What’s most impressive is how fully her magic is intact with just her voice and piano. An essential release made even more marvelous. “ - George Parsons/Dream Magazine 

In The Maybe Word review July/August 2005: 

“ If you're headed towards a desert island and can only take one bitter, depressed, broken hearted multi-instrumentalist, take Lisa Germano. She's a first rate musician who switches between guitar, piano, keyboards, and violin, playing them all with a sharp, brooding intensity. As a writer, there's no one else like her when it comes to crafting barbed, brittle songs of yearning, loneliness and betrayal. Germano is an acquired taste: Even on a good day, she's pretty pissed, and those good days don't come along very often. In the past, she's sunk too deep into self loathing and her albums have been difficult listens. But now, at 48 years old, she's somehow cut a deal with herself. The words still wound, but never fatally, and for all her pain, the melodies have never sounded prettier or her voice more vulnerable. Whether she's wishing she could disappear ("all along I want to go into oblivion") or singing both sides of a lover's quarrel (" Go to hell/Fuck you/I love you/I love you, too") the songs on In The Maybe World have a deadpan, droning resilience, with little more than piano, string bass and an occasional cameo from Johnny Marr playing a handful of notes as softly as possible. It's a painful thing of beauty, and the smartest, sharpest writing of her career.” - By Kenny Berkowitz/ Magnet Magazine