Filed under: Related | Tags: CD, Import, Rhino Records, The Brit Box, Trashcan Sinatras
‘The Brit Box’ is a 4-CD retrospective look at the UK Indie, Shoegaze and Brit-Pop scene spanning the last 15 years or so – and it’s a belter.
It gathers key recordings from 78 UK artists and while many of these artists enjoyed superstar status in Britain, only a handful of them bothered the American charts.
Seminal artists like The Smiths, Jesus & Mary Chain, The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Primal Scream all make an appearance as do the Trashcan Sinatras. Their debut single ‘Obscurity Knocks’ is track 17 on the first CD, sandwiched in-between the Inspiral Carpets and former Go! Discs label mates, The La’s.
There’s no expense spared on the packaging too. A wee switch on the back turns on some funky lights inside which shine through the lid (mine don’t – new batteries please), which is a nice touch and there’s an 80-page booklet in the box giving a track-by-track rundown with some words from the artists themselves.
Clearly a labour of love years in the making, ‘The Brit Box’ follows such previous collections as ‘Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era’ and ‘Left Of The Dial: Dispatches From The ’80s Underground’ in the proud Rhino tradition of dicing up pop music’s past four CDs at a time.
The Brits are alright indeed…
2007 Rhino Entertainment Company R2 159804 (US)
Filed under: Related | Tags: CD, Hard-to-Find, Import, James Kirk, Music, Orange Juice, Postcard Records, Trashcan Sinatras
Here’s a copy of James Kirk’s debut album, ‘You Can Make It If You Boogie’.
Kirk, was a founder member of Orange Juice who alongside Edwyn Collins, created some classics of Scottish indie. It was James who wrote the great ‘Felicity’ as well as ‘Wan Light’, two of the high points from debut Orange Juice album, ‘You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever’, in 1982.
Kirk left the band shortly after this and his musical output became pretty sporadic, so it came as a great surprise to many when his debut was released. It’s an impressive effort for old and new fans alike. Produced by Mick Slaven at Glasgow’s Riverside Studios, the album features a host of guest musicians including Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake, Aztec Camera’s Campbell Owens (one-time temporary Trashcan bass player), Skip Reid (one-time fill-in Trashcan drummer), Del Amitri’s Justin Currie and Trashcan, Frank Reader.
Frank contributes backing vocals to “Get On Board”, a bright, orchestral sounding track and also the aforementioned ‘Felicity’, which is more relaxed than the original and includes a new bridge with the title line prominently featured.
The songs are excellent, and while he is obviously not trying to retread the past, the spirit of those songs and the personality behind them shines on every one…a classic in my mind, and I highly recommend it.
2003 Marina Records MA57 (Germany)
Filed under: 2008-2010 In The Music | Tags: CD, Emlyn Firth, Import, Music, Trashcan Sinatras
Finally – after some typical Trashcan teething troubles – the fifth studio album ‘In The Music’ was released at the end of April 2010 in North America and Canada through the band’s UK record label Lo-Five Records, with digital distribution available through Ingrooves (it should be available at every digital download site you can think of) and physical distribution via Fontana (part of Universal Music Group).
ITM, in my opinion, is their best to date and on the US release there’s the added bonus of eight tracks. These were recorded on November 23 and 25, 2009 at Brel in Glasgow. ‘Send For Henny’ featuring Eddi Reader is worth the shipping cost alone. These songs should also feature in a proposed release later in 2010 entitled ‘Brel’ – a kind of brother or sister (you choose) to ‘Fez’.
The artwork and packaging – designed by the mighty Emlyn Firth – is magic (negative type et al) and comes in a digipak sleeve with a little cutout pocket to hold the lyric booklet – nice!
27 April 2010 Lo-Five Records LO5006 (US)
Filed under: 1990-1991 Cake | Tags: Hard-to-Find, Import, Music, Trashcan Sinatras, Vinyl
Here’s the 7″ vinyl of debut single ‘Obscurity Knocks’ – all the way from the outback.
Identical front and back cover to the regular UK release with the exception of the London Records logo, whilst the centre labels are altogether, entirely different.
1990 Go! Records Ltd/Go! Discs 876 074-7 (Australia)
Filed under: 2008-2010 In The Music | Tags: CD, Hard-to-Find, Import, Music, Rose Records, Trashcan Sinatras
– “…I is a lover, you is a tiger…we could have such a good time…”
The new Trashcans e.p. ‘Town Foxes’ is a collaboration with long-time friends and touring partners in Japan, Sunny Day Service.
They joined forces recently for this 2 track Japanese only e.p. on Rose Records. The A-side is the Trashcans recorded demo verison of the song whilst the B-side is a Japanese version “Yume iro no machide”, sung by Keiichi Sokabe over the TCS backing track.
Limited to 500 copies it was made available at the recent Japanese shows on 1-4 March 2010.
There are no photo credits on the sleeve.
March 2010 Rose Records ROSE104 (Japan)
Five Hungry Joes - A pictorial archive of the Trashcan Sinatras. Legendary Scottish Band 