Filed under: Press | Tags: Concert, Daily Record, Gig, Magazine, Press, Trashcan Sinatras
Excellent review from the Daily Record’s Paul English for the Trashcans gig at Glasgow’s Oran Mor on Thursday 12 November 2009.
4 out of 5 ain’t bad – although I’m not sure how Frank will feel about the Hank Marvin comparison.
20 November 2009 Scottish Daily Record
Filed under: Press | Tags: Concert, Gig, Glasgow Herald, Magazine, Music, Press, Trashcan Sinatras
The Glasgow Herald’s Stuart Morrison gives a five-star review of the Trashcans’ recent Oran Mor gig on Thursday 12 Novemebr 2009.
Here’s the review in full…
Candidates for the Kevin McDermott award for bands who should be a lot bigger than they are, Trashcan Sinatras arrived onstage at Oran Mor with a new album to show off and on this evidence, a very bright future indeed.
The album, In The Music, is a beautiful thing and got a good airing here. I Wish You’d Met Her opened proceedings and set the tone for the evening, loping along, as it did, in typically laid-back fashion. And whilst they can be almost too laid back for their own good sometimes, In The Music is their fifth studio album in nineteen years, there is something indefinably right about them. Certainly, they sit neatly in the softer end of the indie market, alongside the likes of Travis and Belle and Sebastian, but underpinning their songs is, not only superb musicianship, but also beautiful arrangements. You can hear that the lengthy gaps between releases have not been wasted.
Of course, they were playing to the converted. The West End was out in force and Oran Mor was packed with people who knew all the songs and had, clearly, loved this band from the start. And whilst the new album dominated the set, the back catalogue yielded the likes of I’ve Seen Everything and the lovely Weightlifting.
The stand out, for me, though, was their tribute to the late Syd Barrett, Oranges and Apples. It’s a wonderfully lazy, psychedelic tribute to Pink Floyd’s founder and in one song, summed up everything the Trashcans do so well.
16 November 2009 Glasgow Herald
Filed under: Press | Tags: Interview, Magazine, Press, Rockin' On Magazine, Trashcan Sinatras
…and I don’t mean the translation.
Here’s a historical interview – with Frank – from way back in 1993 that appeared in Japanese music magazine ‘Rockin’ On’, just after the release of second album ‘I’ve Seen Everything.’
Translated as follows:
Trashcan Sinatras – With a good voice, good songs and a good music pedigree, the Trashcan Sinatras have hit Japan.
“It’s all just because we love music”
Since they released their 1st album, their music has always been close to perfection. The latest album “I’ve Seen Everything” shows what great artists they are and it has turned out to be a master piece. The performance that they put on at Japan concert this time wasn’t the performance you would ever have imagined judging from the latest album. They jumped up and down, and ran around like lunatics. They threw a PARTY on stage.
This is Frank Reader, the vocal. His sister is the ex-vocal of FAIRGROUND ATTRACTION. He is a polite, innocent kind of man who you could never imagine doing the things he does on stage.
Q: I went to see your gig last night and it was a quite a different image from what I thought it would be from your new album.
A: We can edit a lot of parts bit-by-bit in the studio, but there are always sound limitations or equipment limitations on the stage and we can’t play exactly like on the CD, so we just go with the flow on the stage.
Q: I have noticed that there were 3 years blank since your 1st album, CAKE. Isn’t that a long time between albums for a new band following up their debut album?
A: We had been trying a lot of different things. We went to London for some recording, we collaborated with Steve Lillywhite and we re-made the demos over and over again.
Q: And what made you think that you were not achieving the sound you wanted?
A: I think we were trying to do something that was not us, something unnatural to us. We couldn’t fit in naturally in London because it’s totally different. I think with Ray (the producer) we have a good friendship and we could express ourselves naturally.
Q: So we can enjoy the real Trashcan Sinatras more from the new album then the previous one?
A: I think so. We like all the songs on CAKE, but each song went in a different direction from the basic ideas we had at first and they didn’t come out exactly how we wanted, so this time we tried to set a base and follow it like a day starts with sunrise and ends with sunset. Even if we are living day-to-day, there is always something different. There is no such thing as a perfect day, so we wanted to make a better day in our album.
Q: I couldn’t find a lyric sheet attached to this album. I think it is easier for listeners to understand your ideas if the lyrics are written down. Why did you choose not to attach them?
A: It’s difficult to explain, but we wanted to express good feelings; like watching rain falling through the window, without thinking about anything, just feeling relaxed….so we chose not to attach it. I think that made even Scottish people like us confused. We are actually surprised to see people, even those whose language we can’t understand, having such a strong interest in what made us write these lyrics.
Q: By the way, I`ve realized that you wrote a lot of dark and sad songs. Don’t you feel depressed when you are singing those kinds of songs?
A: No, not really. We are happy if the listeners can feel the same way, that means we are sharing same ideas. And not all the songs are dark and sad, some of them have humor. If someone listens to our CD and feels sad we can’t do anything about it really anyway, (ha ha).
Q: You write such wonderful songs but only limited fans listen to them. Don’t you want more people to get to know you?
A: To be honest,I don’t know why people are obsessed with success. I want to live on things I like to do. I know that just by doing that won’t be a commercial success, but we can’t suddenly change what we think. We are proud of ourselves being able to write good songs and we want to keep it that way. We are happy so long as there are people who like our music and we can communicate with them through our music. If we can make enough money to pay our rent while doing that, then we are happy.
Q: But that sounds usually lax for a professional musician…
A: Of course we want our fans to enjoy our CDs or concerts as much as possible, but we don’t feel comfortable trying to push ourselves on them too hard. We want people to know that’s what we are doing, and we would go and play wherever if we can be of help.
Q: Finally, what makes you play music?
A: First of all, we like music. Second, we don’t want to work from 9 in the morning till 5 in the evening. I have done it before but it was a complete nightmare. We want to avoid doing that at any cost!
1993 Rockin’ On Magazine (Japan)
Well, seven actually.
Here, Avril Cadden from the Sunday Mail talks to John Douglas about the new album, future projects and life in general.
I have one question…what is Stephen doing in the picture?
8 November 2009 Sunday Mail
Filed under: 2008-2010 In The Music | Tags: CD, Hard-to-Find, Music, Promo, Trashcan Sinatras
Released on Monday 9 November, here’s the promo CD of ‘People’ – the second single from 5th album ‘In The Music’.
When ITM was released, ‘People’ appeared to be much maligned and wasn’t the most popular among you Trashcan fans (if you read the official forum you’ll know where I’m coming from) – but I think it’s a belter.
If you haven’t heard it and your mibbee doon in the dumps, then you could do worse than getting yourself over to YouTube and watchin’ the video, shot by none other than Mr John Douglas himself.
It’ll put a smile on yer face.
Why so serious…?
9 Nov 2009 Lo-Five Records L05009
Five Hungry Joes - A pictorial archive of the Trashcan Sinatras. Legendary Scottish Band 