They’re back, sort of.
Following five sell-out shows this Spring (four in New York City and one in Philadelphia) the Trash Can Sinatras began work on what hopefully will emerge as their fourth album, titled, for now, Weightlifting. What remains to be seen is when the record will come out, under what circumstances, and, in a bigger sense, what the future holds for this Scottish group that enjoys a fervently devoted cult following around the world, even if commercial success has remained somewhat elusive.
It wasn’t always so the for Trash Cans. Rising in the wake of the then-recently departed Smiths, the young quintet scored a big-money deal with GO!DISCS in the late eighties and, for the next several years, benefited from the patronage of the label’s deep-pocketed owner ANDY McDONALD and the attentions of its international fan base. Their long-playing debut, 1990’s bright, zingy, poetic Cake, marked what, to date, has been the group’s commercial zenith: it sold about 100,000 copies (mostly in the U.S.), received solid airplay via college and "commercial alternative" radio and MTV’s 120 Minutes, and was supported by extensive international touring. I’ve Seen Everything followed in 1993 and A Happy Pocket in ’96. Although both were critical favorites and displayed significant developments in the band’s already high songwriting standards, neither sold as well as the debut. Thanks to the corporate disolution of Go!Discs, A Happy Pocket wasn’t even released in the U.S., traditionally TCS’s biggest market. With the exception of the low-key, mail order-only release of On A B-Road, a 21-track collection of TCS B-sides, and Chewing A Brick, a 2-CD, 39-track set of live material from the U.K. and Japan, both coordinated by Boston-based JOE DIMARIA, who runs the band’s Web site (www.trashcansinatras.com), the last three or four years have been relatively quiet ones for the Trash Cans. In fact, they haven’t even all been in the same place, with singer FRANK READER splitting between the band’s Kilmarnock base (about 20 miles west of Glasgow) and San Diego, where his girlfriend SARAH lives.
So, how about it Frank, any permanent relocation plans on the horizon? "I don't know if I could settle in the USA, but I know I can't fly back and forth forever," Reader says. "Sarah and I have been going out for about five years and I think that's the maximum one is allowed to dither in anything that's not a career in music. So, it's really got to be one or the other: Southern California, with the nice heat, or Scotland with the nice light. Which one of the senses would you choose to forgo pleasure in?"
So what do you all day in San Diego – write songs, hang out? "I don't get any work done when I'm in San Diego. So I feel like a straight-forwardly unemployed layabout, as opposed to being 'between albums,’" Reader says. "It's really depressing to have spent three months away from the band and to come back to Scotland fit and healthy with a tan, but with no songs to contribute, while John [DOUGLAS] and Paul [LIVINGSTON] in that time have chalked up about a thousand cigarettes and a million pints of beer between them, look like corpses-in-waiting, but at least have a couple of songs to prove they're not total wasters. All they can look forward to from me when I get back to Scotland this time is a droning recantation of The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich and a recipe for Pa Nang Thai food. Perhaps I was being unconsciously infiltrated by all that scuzzy ska/skate music, which seems to be the only thing San Diegans listen to that isn't hardcore gay house music. Then, when I do squeeze a song out, John and Paul will be quite distressed at my insistence that they play their guitars "like Blink, dude!"
So, agreed, the mid-90s haven’t seen the Trash Cans’ calendar exactly overflowing with commitments. But, somehow, things started happening again last year: 1999 saw the re-release of Cake (with six early B-sides tacked on) by Polydor Japan; a two-week Japanese tour followed by Sony Japan’s one-off release of the four-track Snow single; and an Irish RTE radio session and live dates in Dublin. Spring 2000 marked another flurry of TCS activity: the aforementioned live dates in the northeast of the U.S., which Reader called "a nice experience; a slight return, I suppose." Another key event this Spring: the Trash Cans decamping in Hartford, Connecticut’s Studio .45 to begin work on Weightlifting with producer MIKE DEMING, who has manned the board for, among others, THE PERNICE BROTHERS, THE LILYS and BEACHWOOD SPARKS. The Trash Cans spent most of April and May and part of June recording with the gregarious Deming, who told The Big Takeover he hoped to make a TCS record that will stand in contrast to the band’s previous work, at least sonically. "Their songs have always been great, but I think the early stuff was overproduced in a lot of ways. The vocals sounded like they were down the hall." he said: "I want to make an intimate record. When Frank’s singing, I want his voice right there on the speaker cone. I want you to think he’s in the room with you."
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Deming’s recording plans notwithstanding, Weightlifting seems likely to present another kind of contrast, albeit a pleasant one, to the Trash Cans’ earlier recorded output. Rough mixes of the album’s ten songs indicate it may just be the band’s most soulful platter yet, and its most psychedelic, too. The nearest reference point in the TCS back catalogue would be the I’ve Seen Everything album, but in a melancholic, What’s Going On-era Marvin Gaye Sings Pet Sounds sort of way. The comparison is not as odd as it may sound. A couple days spent with the Trash Cans at Studio .45 reveals their current listening tastes to include a healthy selection of early 70s soul (and folk), but the organic, layered sounds going down on tape still retain some essence of the jangly, orchestral sibilance that has characterized earlier TCS efforts.
Reader says his musical taste has remained fairly steady over the years. "I'm really dedicated to a narrow collection of records, like Slides by RICHARD HARRIS, or JONI MITCHELL’s Blue, that I never tire of, but I also like DORY PREVIN and HARPER’S BIZARRE...melody and prettiness, good singers, interesting words, you know the score," he says. "When the band first got together we all loved THE BEATLES, BACHARACH AND DAVID (never forget David), THE SMITHS, and singers like DUSTY SPRINGFIELD and JOHNNY ROTTEN. But it's mostly the spirit of the records we admire, rather than wanting to duplicate the sound."
Speaking of spirit, the songs on the new album are wonderful, but they tend to be kind of… well… slow. "Aye, that’s true. They are kind of mellow… and slow-ish, but we like that," Reader says. When told that in live performance this Spring the new material’s relaxed pace was partly obscured by the intensity of its delivery, Reader is mock relieved, and jokes, "Oh, that’s brilliant. That’s what we’ll tell everyone: Don’t worry folks, these songs aren’t slow, they’re intense.]" And there may be some redressing of the balance going on, too: "We’re thinking about recording a few new things back in Scotland that are a bit more energetic. We’ll see how it goes," he says.
Seeing how it goes, it’s become kind of a Trash Cans mantra; the band seems to exist in a kind of permanent dream state: "We’ve never been very well organized, which has sometimes worked in our favor and sometimes worked against us," guitarist John Douglas says: "We’ve just kind of kept at it. These gigs [in Spring 2000] show us that it’s been worth it." Trash Can Sinatras fans are certain to agree with this assessment. The band’s shows in NYC drew fans from points as far afield as Japan, the U.K. and the West Coast. If all goes as planned, they’ll soon have a fourth Trash Cans album to sit alongside well-played copies of Cake, I’ve Seen Everything and A Happy Pocket. Keep your fingers crossed.
Originally appeared in the Big Takeover.
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