By Marc Allan
The Indianapolis Star | October 25, 1994
Lisa Germano’s record label sent copies of her new CD, Geek the Girl, to 25 reviewers. The mailing received 24 positive responses and one negative. The negative one came from some guy in Indianapolis.
Now that I’ve given the disc several more listens, however, I’m starting to appreciate its songs and subtleties. Yet it’s still a discomfiting experience to listen to someone you like personally singing about date rape (Cry Wolf), being stalked (… A Psychopath) and generally living a dismal life.
“A lot of times,” says Germano, the former violinist in John Mellencamp’s band, “people don’t like girls to make you feel uneasy. Like Nine Inch Nails—my stuff is milquetoast compared to his when it comes the scare factor. But people are saying my stuff is scary, and that makes them real uncomfortable. With this guy (Trent Reznor), that’s making him famous.”
Geek the Girl (4AD Records), which arrives in stores today, is unlikely to make Germano famous. As she says: “I don’t think it’s a commercial record at all. I think it’s a piece of work, and I think it works as a piece of work.”
Germano acknowledges that the record is filled with despair, but she says the overriding message is that real people have to their change their lives when things are going wrong.
“I am a really sad person,” she says. “I cry a lot. But a lot of the sadness comes from people wasting their lives, because I did it for so long after I joined John’s band. That’s what I write about: I don’t have to stay stuck. We can all feel really sad. Maybe you’ll feel sad enough to change. Because usually have to be hit over the head before you realize, ‘I’ve got to get out of this.’ Like John having a heart attack. It’s like, ‘OK, no more playing around. I actually have to quit smoking now and I have to change. I can’t be so angry.”
Probably the best song is “Cancer of Everything,” which features Germano morphing her voice from adult to child and back. The character in the song craves attention, so much so that she’d rather be sick than help herself.
Germano will be playing that song and others during her first U.S. tour. The 3 1/2-week tour will take her from Atlanta (Nov. 1) to West Hollywood (Nov. 23). She’s at the Patio in Indianapolis on Nov. 10.
Germano says that after the tour she’ll either start recording her next disc or tour with the Indigo Girls. In January, she begins a two-month acoustic tour of Europe.
As for the next disc, it’s tentatively (and ironically) called Fun, Fun for Everyone.
“They’re more poppy songs, but they’re about lying,” she says. “It’s a total record about lying and being lied to. I’m really having fun arranging them right now.”
Featured Image: Lisa Germano (Photo: Andrew Catlin)
