trashcan sinatras update

alive and well in glasgow: trashcan sinatras ready 4th release

yeah, yeah, yeah magazine

by pat pierson
spring 2003 (issue #21)

Now that tracking down mysterious pop bands is a whole lot easier with Yahoo's net search (Yeah3 actually tracked down Australia's '80s jangle popsters Ups & Downs), the task of finding out what's going on with Scotland's other greatest band, The Trash Can Sinatras was relatively easy: www.trashcansinatras.com Poof! So a message was sent to lead singer/lyricist Frank Reader, and we played email tag and through such travails came this witty summation from the singer himself of what's going on in TCS land as they're finishing up their fourth studio LP.

Frank Reader: "The recordings are giving me mixed signals. One day they come on to me all seductive, ask me if I fancy staying in tonight, just the two of us cuddled up on the settee with a bottle of wine. you know, like the old days before the rot set in; the next day we're having another flaming row. they're calling me a loser, accusing me of taking them for granted and of giving other songs the ear, and I'm regretting allowing them to move in with me so soon after kicking that last lot out. It's a high-maintenance relationship. We were hoping to be done recording by now, especially as considering how much preparation had been done beforehand, but I don't know...things seem to happen to people when they get involved with us. First, the studio co-owner develops a twist in the colon, leaving our engineer to run the whole place himself. (His catch phrase: 'Two seconds, fellas, just got to....[insert menial task here]). And that slowed things down enough before the string arranger's marriage collapsed halfway through his arranging of 'What Women Do To Men,' sending him off the rails and wagon. But we have edged towards the end. I think we had an idea in our heads going into the studio that we wanted to marry our 'west coast of Scotland mother wit' to 'a west coast of the USA ideal,' but without any of the bleating, fake pop that that idea might suggest. Mostly (as you all know), a watery concept such as this relates only to the sonics of an album. the songs themselves are as elusive as ever, so we're grateful for their being whatever they are and try not to be disappointed that they're not something else, and it serves only to give you some direction come mixdown time. But for us, we had spent a couple of years writing and recording slow, beatless songs without gaining any great relief from our burden of genius. So, once again, just as the boho trends started catching up, we ditched alt-emo-country-crying for sunshine, lollipops, winning regret and the taking of a little mickey. The album will be called Weightlifting, and I hope you like it when you hear it."

Originally appeared in Yeah Yeah Yeah Magazine.