Time Capsule: Lisa Germano, Geek the Girl
Between the anthems of the mid-’90s, Germano’s third album traced a quieter, more unsettling education in fear, compliance, and aftermath.
January 3, 2026
96 views
16 minute read
Tearing Down the Fence Between Lisa Germano and ‘Happiness’
With 1993’s Happiness, Capitol Records tried to sit Lisa Germano on a fence between Americana and alternative. With 1994’s Happiness, 4AD Records dismantled the fence.
February 20, 2023
485 views
11 minute read
Hymns to Uncool or Reconsidering Lisa Germano’s ‘Geek the Girl’
A bold investigation of a woman’s journey through self-A bold investigation of a woman’s journey through self-acceptance, Lisa Germano’s unsettling opus Geek the Girl fell through the cracks of the alternative mainstream in 1994.acceptance, Lisa Germano’s unsettling opus Geek the Girl fell through the cracks of the alternative mainstream in 1994.
July 21, 2021
747 views
9 minute read
Lisa Germano’s “A Psychopath” is an Arrangement of Real-Life Horror
Lisa Germano, in general, doesn’t make music I’d call “scary.” It’s often dark, and she has a particular knack for capturing an eerie atmosphere, but her 1994 album Geek the Girl, from which “A Psychopath” comes, is a diverse array of indie rock in the vein of other 4AD alumni.
October 15, 2019
552 views
4 minute read
Lisa Germano’s ‘Happiness’ Broke Out of the John Mellencamp Roots Rut
If the Capitol debut of Lisa Germano – serving at that point as the violinist for John Mellencamp – found you perhaps longing for something along the lines of her old boss’s Lonesome Jubilee, sorry. Not even hardly.
November 30, 2018
443 views
2 minute read
Lisa Germano: Apathy and the Devil
I think of Germano’s work as in a line with the novels of Jean Rhys or the sculptures of Louise Bourgeois: minutely crafted, beautiful but never fragile, familiar and then unexpectedly sharp.
May 22, 2013
546 views
6 minute read
Elephant Talk: Lisa Germano
Singer, multi-instrumentalist and Michael Gira fave Lisa Germano conjures up a seductive blend of painful beauty and wounded sentiments on ninth album "No Elephants".
April 11, 2013
42 views
4 minute read
Lisa Germano: Interview
Lisa Torem chats to cult artist Lisa Germano about her album, 'No Elephants,' and working with Calexico, Johnny Marr, Michael Gira and the Smashing Pumpkins
March 24, 2013
36 views
16 minute read
Lisa Germano: No Elephants
There has always been a kind of ornate misery to Lisa Germano’s music. She is best known for her ’90s albums for dream-pop label 4AD, which had a rare combination of intricate beauty and unflinching challenge, a music box of nightmares.
March 7, 2013
47 views
4 minute read
Remembering How to Feel
An accomplished singer-multi-instrumentalist first spotlighted as a member of John Mellencamp's touring band in the late '80s and early '90s, Lisa Germano has recorded and toured with a diverse legion of rock and pop stars including Eels, David Bowie, Crowded House, Philip Selway (Radiohead) and Giant Sand.
February 28, 2013
432 views
3 minute read
Album Review: Lisa Germano – No Elephants
It’s been almost 20 years since Lisa Germano released her hazy dream-pop opus Geek the Girl back in 1994.
February 20, 2013
47 views
3 minute read
Lisa Germano: No Elephants
No Elephants is Lisa Germano's ninth record, and her fourth since declaring that she was quitting the music business forever in 1998. The somewhat restricted palette explored here might scan as "pretty", but the lyrics are classic Germano: jarring, rough-hewn, and anguished.
February 13, 2013
35 views
4 minute read
Lisa Germano: No Elephants
Lisa Germano’s spare fragility, her whispery confidentiality, would come off as too precious if she didn’t pay such great attention to the craftsmanship of her writing.
February 9, 2013
36 views
1 minute read
Lisa Germano: No Elephants
In No Elephants, Germano uses a good deal of animal imagery, returning again and again to the idea of an imbalance between humans and the natural world.
February 5, 2013
35 views
3 minute read
Lisa Germano at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market
Within the first few minutes of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lisa Germano leading me through the Hollywood Farmers' Market, it's crystal clear that she truly loves spending time here.
December 5, 2012
340 views
10 minute read
Words in Edgeways with Lisa Germano
Entering her third decade as a recording artist, Lisa Germano remains as individualistic and untouched by the fickle hand of trend as ever.
January 26, 2010
329 views
7 minute read