Five Hungry Joes – A pictorial archive of the Trashcan Sinatras. Legendary Scottish Band

In Steve Lamacq’s world they may well have drifted into the land of obscurity, but back in 1990 he wrote about big things to come for the Trashcan Sinatras.

Here’s what he had to say in his NME article from March 1990…

“Rock bands try and clobber you over the head with their image. Like Texas and Deacon Blue come in, ‘f___ing hell, it’s us, we’re like this, BUY US YOU STUPID BASTARDS!’ And people do. And you think, oh no, it’s happened again…”

“And yet there are bands who just meander along without shoving themselves down your throat. They just do their own thing and you kind of stumble upon it.”

You’ll have done well if you’ve stumbled across the TRASH CAN SINATRAS so far, seeing as their debut single, called (funnily enough) ‘Obscurity Knocks’ has been widely ignored by DJs in favour of bright new hopefuls like Yell and Cliff Richard.

To fill you in: the Trash Cans are a shy, subtle five-piece ‘pop’ group from Irvine, Scotland. They’ve just played some selected dates with They Might Be Giants and the single ‘Obscurity Knocks’ is out on Go! Discs.

Like in the FA Cup draws, the first person you heard from was guitarist John Douglas; the away team is drawn by other guitarist Paul Livingston.

“As a first single,” says John, “we thought it was a funny title, like tempting fate. It’s going to come true the way things are going.”

With more than a hint of self-depreciation, the Trash Can Sinatras are the first Scots band for a while to hark back (albeit unintentionally) to the charm and refreshing brightness of the Postcard era which brought you Orange Juice and Aztec Camera, almost a decade ago.

The Trash Cans wouldn’t have been out of place alongside fledgling Edwyns and Roddys, but with their singular, sad guitar strumming style they more importantly have a role to play now.

“Postcard just went away,” confirms John. “Before that, there was always a kind of muso scene in Glasgow which liked the American soul thing and then there was the wee punk guys who thought, ‘f___ this, let’s arse about’.

“But then there was the backlash to it and it faded out – Postcard was almost ignored in Scotland apart from the people involved in it: everyone else went back to soul music or (grimace) heavy metal.”

Having attracted the interest of the majors since birth, the Trash Cans slyly signed with Go! Discs, warning at the time that it’d take them a while to sort themselves out recording wise.

It did. They did the single, then they did it again. And then they did it once more, delaying it from last summer until now.

‘Obscurity Knocks’ is a camera snap-shot of the Trash Cans’ talents, starting off with a sprightly acoustic intro and leading through a series of reflective verses into a stumpy chorus.

In the same way that they like XTC, a very English pop group, there’s a definite Scottish flavour to the Trash Cans, a funny, natural bunch.

Straight in at number 8…

3 March 1990 NME Magazine Follow @fivehungryjoes