Here’s MOJO Magazine’s James McNair’s 4-star review…

Long straight-jacketed by bankruptcy and record company sub-clauses, Ayrshire’s Sinatras emerge butterfly-like on their own label with a filler-less cracker. Strident opener Welcome Back aside, it pitches up somewhere between Aztec Camera’s Stray and Prefab Sprout’s Andromeda Heights. Band linchpin Frank Reader, brother of Eddi, is especially affecting on the heartbreak of caring divorce (witness A Coda, sung with all the melting class of a young Art Garfunkel), while Trouble Sleeping manages to tackle child murder in the band’s hometown with sensitivity, its harmonica solo delicately elegiac. With Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake guesting on the equally touching Got Carried Away, and exemplary jangler Freetime proving that hope really does spring eternal, Weightlifting gives and gives. Tender, wise, compassionate and magnanimous, it’s a special, special record for anyone who has ever hurt. James McNair

MOJO Magazine Issue 133 December 2004

The Trashcan Sinatras are Scotland’s great lost band. In the early mid-’90s they released three albums on Go! Discs. Cake, I’ve Seen Everything and A Happy Pocket are sparkling collections of the ‘jangly’ pop that loads of Jock bands try to do, but hardly any manage with the melodic grace, instrumental imagination and lyrical rigour of this Ayrshire five-piece. They never cared much for the comparison but a good marker was early Aztec Camera, especially in the lilting athleticism of Frank (brother of Eddi) Reader’s vocals.

Then stuff – label hassles, the taxman, booze – got in the way, and the Trashcans drifted off. Now, buoyed by healthy internet enthusiasm and a significant cult following in America and Japan, they’re back. True to form, Weightlifting is a work of unshowy genius. Recorded in Glasgow and Connecticut, the production elegantly layers guitars and orchestrates dreamy soundscapes. All The Dark Horses, for instance, is folksy gem worthy of pastoral ’60s troubadours. What Women Do To Men is a sigh of a song, its textures as existentially stirring as the lyrical subject matter.

Sticking with the heavy stuff, Trouble Sleeping is an unsettlingly gorgeous number, the keyboards and guitars exquisitely arranged, about a child murder in the band’s home town. More chipper are It’s A Miracle (lovely strings) and the opening Welcome Back (charging riffs), instant pop belters both. Finally, the closing title track is a drifting, quietly motivating, positive lament (if such a thing can exist). It’s a hand round the shoulders, a word of encouragement, a little lift from a mate. Craig McLean

This edition of the magazine came with a free sampler CD which included the track Weightlifting. More info on the CD can be found in this earlier post.

The Word Issue 21 November 2004

Written by Matthew Berlyant… SCOTLAND’S TRASH CAN SINATRAS WON’T EVER BE ACCUSED of flooding the market: it took them five years to release the excellent In The Music, their first new studio album since 2004′s Weightlifting (my favourite album that year). While that may seem like a lot, this is actually a considerably shorter period than the eight years between 1996′s A Happy Pocket and Weightlifting! And it’s only their fifth in two decades.

Sitting with guitarist JOHN DOUGLAS before their two sets at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia to discuss the album and the band’s recent history, Douglas notes that, “We were on the road for a year-and-a-half; then we went back to Glasgow and lived life. A couple of guys [singer FRANK READER and guitarist PAUL LIVINGSTON] are living in Los Angeles now, and they’re married and happy there, while myself and [drummer/brother] STEPHEN are still in Glasgow.”

Douglas insists that after songs piled up and they decided to record a new album, they “didn’t really want to go through any of the techniques of recording that we’ve used before.” He says that the songwriting on In The Music was a bit more “groovy-savvy” and that the material written for it wouldn’t have been appropriate if given the arrangements of their earlier records. As well, the band didn’t have a label, but were helped out by producer ANDY CHASE (who mixed Weightlifting) of IVY and BROOKVILLE. The band recorded the bulk of In The Music in Chase’s studio in New York while the producer found an apartment for them on the Upper West Side. The band also pulled a major coup in getting ’70s star CARLY SIMON to provide backing vocals on “Should I Pray.”

Introduced through Chase in Nantucket, Simon got to know the members casually and came down to the studio one day. After the band sent her demos of “Should I Pray” and the title track, Douglas revealed that “she was very complimentary towards ‘Should I Pray.’ She said it was the best song she’d heard in 10 years!” Meanwhile, the band released “Oranges and Apples,” a song inspired by the late PINK FLOYD founder/visonary SYD BARRETT and recorded at the same sessions, as a stand-alone digital single in late 2008, to time it with a festival that benefitted the Barrett trust.

Although still unavailable in the U.S., the band decided to sell a deluxe edition of the new album as a pre-order through their website. They also recorded all the shows on their recent U.S. tour and sold them on USB sticks available 15-20 minutes after the shows ended. Douglas explains, “Things like that come about because you’re in a situation where you have to think on your feet and trying to keep your quality control.” As of this writing, the band were talking to several U.S. labels hoping to release In The Music here. Let’s hope negotiations prove successful [Amen! - ed.], with another tour resulting.

For who knows when they’ll make another LP?

2009 The Big Takeover Issue 65

The song – widely known for its appearance in Steve Martin’s film ‘The Jerk’ – is a wee bit longer than the original composition and features Frank duetting with his sister Richael.

Some copies – like this one – came in a wee metal tin. Other artists included on the tape include The La’s, Orbital, Meat Puppets and a personal ‘favourite’, Bananarama.

Nice.

1991 Go! Discs / London Records / FFRR Records / Polygram SAC383 (US) Follow @fivehungryjoes

‘Connemara’ is sung by Eddi Reader and was inspired by John’s recent discovery of details of his Connemara Grandfather, John Keane and family, all of whom were singers, musicians, fisherman and tale tellers (the boy’s from good stock don’t you think?). The song tells the funny story of his great Uncle Colm Keane’s first meeting with Seamus Ennis in the 1940′s when Seamus was collecting songs in Connemara for Alan Lomax, one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century. The two men became great friends with Colm being the source for over 200 songs.

It’s another great song and another great album. Hopalong and buy it here. It won’t disappoint.

2011 Alan Kelly / Black Box Music BBM006

Guest vocalists on the album include Kris Drever and Eddi Reader, where the latter sings like a bird on John Douglas’ tribute to Robert Burns, ‘I Hung My Harp Upon the Willows’ – which as you know appeared on the Trashcans’ last LP, ‘In The Music’.

It’s a very different version of the song and has a countryish feel with piano accordion, double bass (John plays geetar by the way), and Eddi’s singing is, as ever, truly engaging.

It’s a belter!

2009 Black Box Music BBM004

The Trashcans made over 75 appearances in 2005, touring in Scotland, England, Ireland, North America and Japan.

Here’s a promo poster for the early part of the UK tour – and very nice it is too.

Ticket stub from the Glasgow show…

January 2005

This Polygram Records compilation was number two in a series of programmes aired in 1991/2, and included various artists from several labels under the Polygram umbrella including Go! Discs, Fontana, London and FFRR. Therefore we have the usual suspects like The La’s, The High, James and the Trashcans – represented here by, ‘Even The Odd’, from debut album Cake.

Very trendy!

Roughly translated as: ‘The first record on vinyl was the EP “Obscurity Knocks” in February 90, which was for several weeks in the independent charts of England. Pointed out as one of the best guitar bands of the year. This music and the album to debut “Cake”.’

A wee footnote: This LP was given a mention in Finn Hartley’s book. ‘Who’s He? an A-Z of The Trash Can Sinatras’

1991 Polygram Records Brazil 845 864-1

There were around 100 made and sent out to various radio stations. The band’s tour manager, Ben Marts and sound guy Sean got together and ‘remastered’ some of the tracks, trimmed some of the songs and changed some levels to fit it all on the disc. To be honest, I can’t tell the difference.

The artwork was put together by Shane Locke, although by his own admission – not to his usual high standards.

A copy of this CD made it onto eBay and was sold for just over $200 – obviously bought by a TCS die-hard – and caused a fair amount of discussion on the band’s forum.

That’s about it really. All the best for now…

2011 BoTSpro-1

Dead easy? No really. It was pretty difficult, especially if you were on my side of the Atlantic. Needless to say, the winners came from the other side of the water.

In the end there were three joint winners – Randy Schreck, who sent me this picture, was one of them – who were given the opportunity to participate in their own Skype chat with the band and win some autographed items.

The picture is an early promo from the Cake era and includes, from left to right: John, George, Paul, Stephen and Frank. It is also autographed by band members past and present.

Magic!

1990-91 Cake era