the trashcan sinatras

the metro

by pw
july 5, 2001

Let's be honest: a few notable exceptions aside, can anyone think of a single decent Scottish band from the 1980's? Del Amitri? Get to Falkirk. Hue and Cry? You're 'avin' a laugh, aintcha? No, the decade soul forgot was a barren time for Scottish rock, a drought which would thankfully be irrigated with a flush of fine Scots popsters cropping up at the dawn of the 1990s. One such band was Irvine's Trash Can Sinatras, who released their debut LP Cake in 1990 and went on to become one of the country's most celebrated bands. Melodic, harmonious but with a frazzled edge that added weight to their ostensibly light mainframe, they sounded like The Velvet Underground hijacking the Jimmy Webb songbook.

'We were always more out there than people maybe thought,' muses singer Frank Reader. 'We seem to have a reputation for being very melodic, and though there were always melodies there, we had more of an edge.' Following 1996's ambitious A Happy Pocket album, the band mysteriously disappeared. A Japan-only single from 1999 was all that was heard from them until they returned last year with a sell-out tour of the American East Coast.

Unwilling to discuss the sundry monetary and personal problems that precipitated their initial dissolution ('I'd rather just forget all about it, to be honest'), Reader is candid when discussing the band's return. 'I'm sure some people will think our new stuff is crap compared to the old songs. I thought that at first too. But they're pretty good. No, they are.' We believe you, sir.

Originally appeared in the Glasgow Metro.